The Edge of Doom by Amanda Cross

Author:Amanda Cross [Cross, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Usenet, Mystery, C429, Kat, Exratorrents
ISBN: 0345452364
Publisher: Ballantine
Published: 2002-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

What should I do but tend

Upon the hours and terms of your desire?

I have no precious time at all to spend

Nor services to do, till you require.

The next day, Friday, Kate and Reed, spelling each other, were able to be home so that Jay was never alone in the apartment. Neither of them, if asked, could have explained their powerful disinclination to leave Jay in the apartment unattended, but, explicable or not, they acknowledged their apprehensions and were guided by them.

Clara would not come to clean until the following Tuesday. Something, anything, had to be done about Jay before then. It was, indeed, true that Clara did not enter the maid’s room; it was impossible to clean, and the agreement that it would be ignored during her weekly visit was well-established. Nonetheless, Kate and Reed did not intend to leave her alone in the apartment with a strange man of whose presence she was ignorant.

At the same time, neither of them felt an immediate need to continue their conversation with him, or to listen to his recounting of his life. Kate pointed out to Reed that Desdemona had loved Othello “for the dangers [he] had passed, and he loved her that she did pity them.”

“I feel somewhat the same,” Kate said, “although he is my father. Do you find that odd, or distressing?”

“No. But I do think it interferes with an altogether objective view of the situation before us,” Reed said.

“Meaning?”

“Meaning I need to think, that’s all. And having thought, if what I think is even remotely productive, I need to act. It may turn out that I need to hear more of Jay’s adventures before I can act. At the moment, I need to put my feet up and cogitate.”

“Well,” Kate said, after a pause, “I had thought of going to Boston. Perhaps I could fly up early tomorrow, and be back that night, or early the following morning. Would that suit your needs and enhance your cogitations? You would have to take Banny for all her walks.”

“Why Boston?”

“It’s a long time since I’ve seen Selma Rodney. And she is an art historian; might not art historians, or at any rate assistant curators, know something about art theft? It’s a subject that has taken a remarkable hold on my imagination.”

“Surely there are art historians and curators in New York.”

“No doubt. But Selma is an old student and an old friend. And somehow by consulting her in Boston I shan’t feel that she’s likely to want immediately to pursue further inquiries into my sudden new interest in the subject of art thieves.”

“Yes, I see. And you want to demonstrate that you trust me with this situation, at least for twenty-four hours, and you wish to grant me my need to think alone and uninterruptedly.”

“Let’s just say it’s a journey that seems nicely to serve us both. You will remember, however, that Jay needs to eat, at least occasionally. You might want to check on him from time to time in any case; there is always the danger of his succumbing to claustrophobia and despair.

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