The Good Thieves by Katherine Rundell

Author:Katherine Rundell
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781408854907
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-08-02T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The next day the raid on the Lost and Found boxes of New York City began.

‘We need to move fast,’ said Vita. She told them, as briefly as she could, about the papers; about the fresh jolt of urgency running through their plan.

‘But what is he actually doing?’ said Arkady.

‘I think he cons people – threatens them, cheats them, I don’t know – into selling old buildings – beautiful ones, in beautiful places – very cheap. Places it would be illegal to knock down, because they’re protected. And then gives orders for them to be burned down, so he can build something new.’

‘So did your grandpa sell his house?’ said Silk.

‘No, no, no! But it’s the same thing: Sorrotore’s going to set it on fire. And there’s no time.’ The panic rose in her, and she forced it back down, away from her heart. ‘Let’s split up. We’ll meet back here tonight.’

They walked and ran, between them, almost the length and breadth of New York. Silk, who knew the city best, split it into sections on Vita’s map. She did not glance at Vita’s foot, but gave her the places nearest to Carnegie Hall.

Silk uncovered one small adult’s grey jacket in Chumley’s speakeasy in Greenwich Village, which almost fitted Arkady, and Vita found an ankle-length blue velvet dress at the terrifyingly marble-and-gold Waldorf Hotel. The dress was hideous and too tight, but it radiated sweetness and nursery rhymes. It also came down to the floor, hiding her left calf and ankle. Samuel found an entire suit of boy’s clothes, in a thick brown material, recovered from the Algonquin Hotel.

He looked victorious, and angry. ‘They wouldn’t give it to me at first, so I told them I was a houseboy for the family. Then they handed it over without blinking.’

Arkady looked at his friend: at his fury, and the hurt in his eyes. ‘Chyort,’ he said. ‘I hope you spat on them.’

Samuel tried to smile. ‘That wouldn’t have helped much,’ he said.

Finally, just as Silk was beginning to despair, it occurred to her to ask at the Lyceum Theatre if anyone had left behind a coat in the cloakroom in the last month. She was rewarded with a white hooded cloak trimmed with swan feathers, which reached almost to the ground. It was a little greying at the sleeve and neck, and the swan feathers were possibly a bit much, but it was undeniably smart.

‘Let’s meet somewhere posh!’ Vita had said. ‘As a test! If people don’t stare, we’ll know we look right.’

‘The Plaza Hotel. It’s just on the edge of Central Park – it’s the smartest place in New York,’ Silk said. She was using Vita’s penknife to trim back the swan feathers from her cuffs. ‘The old women who go there for tea can guess how rich you are by the way you sneeze. If nobody stares at us there, nobody ever will.’

Samuel hesitated. Then: ‘People will still stare,’ he said.

‘What do you mean?’ said Vita.

‘People will still stare.

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