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Nora did not go so far as to tsk-tsk, but she clearly disapproved of Ellery’s attitude. Well, that was fine for Nora. She hadn’t been the target of one of Sue’s smear campaigns.

Ellery continued into his office, settled behind his desk, turned on the desktop to check his email, quickly scrolling through the usual pleas for money and promises of male enhancement and mystery inheritances—been there, done that, thankyouverymuch—in search of the occasional query from a genuine customer looking for a genuine book.

No one seemed to be in need of a book hunter, however. Or even a bookseller.

Which was why he worried about how the Crow’s Nest would fare during those long off-season months. Which was one reason why he was still considering Ronny’s proposal.

His cell phone rang.

It took him a moment to recognize Felix’s cell phone number.

“Hey! How’s it going? How are things at Brown?” Felix had started college in Providence the previous month.

“It’s great,” Felix said, and he sounded genuinely happy and more relaxed than he had in a long time. “It’s nice starting fresh where no one knows anything about you.”

No one but Libby, presumably, but Ellery didn’t ask. Libby and Felix’s relationship was none of his business.

“I feel you,” he said, and Felix chuckled, although the traumatic events he wanted to put behind him were very different from Ellery’s.

Ellery listened for a couple of minutes to Felix rattle on about his courses and his professors—he was majoring in Theater Arts and Performance Studies—and about how much he loved Providence. It sounded like everything was going very well, so that was good news.

He put in the occasionalThat’s great!when required, and eventually he managed to break in. “Hey, so do you remember when I asked you about Cap Murphy giving you a diving bag he thought I’d left on theFishful Thinking?”

“Uh, yeah. Sure.” Felix sounded cautious.

“I found the bag in the back of the storage cabinet.”

“Oh. Okay. So that’s good, right?”

“Yes. It’s just you thought you’d left the bag out on the shelves.”

There was silence on the other end of the line, and then Felix said doubtfully, “Is something missing from the bag?”

“No. Well, I have no idea, really. I just…” Ellery began to feel foolish, but it was about establishing provenance, right? “Do you think you could have put it in the cupboard instead of leaving it out?”

“I must have. I don’t remember doing anything with it, to be honest. I was crazy-busy and trying to get out of there to meet Libby. I probably had second thoughts about leaving the bag where anyone could find it.”

That made sense. Ellery remembered being twenty.

“Did anything happen to make you uneasy that evening? Was anyone hanging around?”

Felix’s tone brightened. “You know what? Yeah. Ned Shandy’s uncle was circling the place like a vulture.”

“Tackle? Is that who you mean?”

“Yeah. The one who did jail time for manslaughter. I thought he was there for me.”

“Foryou?”

“Because Ned and I had that blow up over Libby.” Felix gave a short laugh. “I thought Tackle was going to put his two cents in, but by the time I locked up, he was gone.”

“I see,” Ellery said thoughtfully. He was pretty sure he did.

Felix waited a moment or two before asking, “Was that it? Because I should get going. We’ve got our dress rehearsal forThe Birthday Partythis afternoon.”

Ellery was unclear if Felix was referring to the play by Pinter or another social event. Anyway, he had what he needed. “Okay. Well, break a leg. Unless you’re really going to a party, in which case, don’t break any legs.”

Felix chuckled, said, “Say hi to everybody,” and hung up.