Unfinished Sympathy by Andy Conway

Author:Andy Conway [Conway, Andy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: urban fantasy series, gaslamp, time travel science fiction, fantasy historical, teen & young adult time travel, fiction historical, alternative history
Publisher: Wallbank
Published: 2019-08-18T22:00:00+00:00

— 30 —

GUSTAV STARED AT THE New York night, though there was nothing to see through the net curtains. He tapped a drumbeat on his thigh and hummed to himself. Lost to the world.

Mitch went to the side table and poured two glasses of amber from a decanter. Brandy. Gustav came out of his reverie and stared at the glass in his hand, as if he’d never seen one before, then took a sip and seemed to remember it all. A grimace of despair.

“What are we to do?”

“We wait. They will send instructions, they said. We wait and see what they say.”

“If they harm my Almschi...” He let out a sob and masked it with a slug of brandy.

“We’ll get her back, Gustav, I promise. But for the moment let’s wait and see what they demand.”

Silence fell between them and Gustav began to tap and hum again. Mitch drained his brandy and examined the kidnap note.

Kidnapt.

Surely not the same pen as the blackmail letter. He eased out of his armchair and fetched it from the drum table in the middle room, placing the two side by side. The handwriting wasn’t the same. The education was different, that was clear. The kidnap note was scribbled by someone barely literate, whereas the blackmail letter was in neat cursive; formal.

He dug out the card for Marshall’s from his pocket. The name Selig Silverstein written on it.

The S was similar to those on the blackmail letter. The same curl to round off, but the style was slightly different — a harsher slant to the letters, and the L hung lower. It was similar, but you wouldn’t bet your life on it being the same person.

Alma’s life.

The kidnap note was neither. If two different people had written the blackmail letter and Selig Silverstein’s name, then it was clear that neither of them could have written the kidnap note. Not unless they’d switched to their left hand and written it upside down and blindfold.

The letters swarmed and blurred as if they were insects taking flight from the pages. He squinted and looked across to find Gustav was dozing, slumped to one side in the armchair, his mouth slack, as if he’d died right there and then. Only the steady rise and fall of his chest made it clear he was alive.

Mitch rose and crept through to the bedroom. Two beds, the sheets of both rumpled. Had Alma been sleeping when they came for her? He thought of her being taken in her nightgown and felt a pang of concern.

No, they wouldn’t have taken her through the lobby like that. Clarence would have noticed and mentioned it too. Alma would have been dressed for the evening, sitting alone in the middle room, her husband sulking and hiding behind his precious work in his study. She had been distraught over the incident with the Buddy Bolden recording and had probably kept quiet all evening. Then a knock at the door and they would have taken her without her husband even noticing.

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