The Zaanics Deceit (Cate Lyr #1)

by Nina Post

  “Yes, sir,” Peter said, heartened.

  Noah guided Lyr toward the street as the old man kept talking. “Viperous, insolent hags. Are their xeric hearts genetic, and from whose side, mine or Marit’s? Curse that side!” Lyr turned his head toward Noah and leaned in. “You, Brobdingnagian philosopher. I don’t like your clothes.”

  “I’ve been out in a storm, sir,” Noah said, thinking Lyr could give it but not take it, but damn impressed he could still pronounce Brobdingnagian, given the circumstances.

  “That’s no excuse,” Lyr said with authority. “You’re a big fellow. What’s your height?”

  “Six four,” Noah replied.

  “So was Abraham Lincoln,” Lyr pointed out. “You should do something else with your clothes.”

  “Yes, sir.” Noah smiled.

  “Buy tall, not big.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Have your tailor let out some of the fabric in your pants and jackets if you need extra length. If you tell me whom you use, I’ll talk to him.”

  “I don’t have a tailor, Mr. Lyr, but I appreciate the offer.”

  “What? A fellow of your size, no tailor?” Lyr made clucking noises with his tongue.

  They finally reached Benjamin’s house, and Lyr’s energy flagged even more. Benjamin took on a weary expression when he saw who was at his door. “Apparently I’ve opened a bed and breakfast without realizing it.”

  “You look familiar,” Lyr said, squinting.

  “I used to be your attorney,” Benjamin said dryly.

  Benjamin raised a brow but stepped back to let them in. He took Noah aside before he shut and locked the door. “Noah, what’s your agenda here?”

  “Agenda?”

  “What’s your plan?”

  “I don’t really have a plan,” Noah said, “except for finding Mr. Lyr a bed to sleep in. Where’s Cate? Her car isn’t in your driveway.”

  “I don’t know where she is,” Benjamin said.

  Noah took stock of Benjamin’s attire, a long button-front cardigan over wool pants, and a gray-striped tie. “I really like the Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady look you’re pulling off, Mr. Nightjar.”

  “Thank you,” Benjamin said, with a twist to his mouth. “And call me Benjamin.”

  Peter joined them. “Can he stay for the night?”

  Benjamin nodded, flashing a closed-mouth smile. “Put him in the guest room at the end of the hall, on the left.”

  Noah and Peter supported Lyr — mostly naked and completely asleep — between the two of them, each buttressing an arm.

  “Stop in the bathroom,” Noah said. “I want to see if I can get some of this mud off him.”

  They maneuvered Lyr into a guest bathroom along the way and Noah asked Peter to hold Lyr upright. Noah dampened a washcloth and rubbed it on several spots of caked-on mud and dirt and grass, mostly on Lyr’s lower legs, but also on his chest and arms, and some on his neck and face. Noah wrung out the cloth and hung it over a towel rod. Then he hooked Lyr’s right arm over his shoulders and moved out and down the hall, where they found the bedroom.

  “Ready?” Noah said, pulling down the sheets. Peter nodded, and they lifted Lyr onto the bed then adjusted the sheet over him.

  Whatever else happened, Noah hoped Lyr would be safe. Regardless of his own feelings for the man, Cate wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to him.

  Gregory Severn pulled up in Benjamin’s driveway. Benjamin groaned at the security camera image and reluctantly tore himself away from the Brandenburg Concerto #1 in F and his late dinner of Eggs Benedict.

  “Hello, Gregory.” Benjamin gestured at him to come in. He wasn’t going to let his dinner just sit, not with those perfectly poached eggs and that beautiful, unbroken hollandaise. “I hope you don’t mind, but I just made this gorgeous thing and I’m going to eat it.” Benjamin sat back in his chair and placed the white cloth napkin on his lap. “Are you looking for Mr. Lyr?”

  “I’m concerned.” Gregory took a seat on the longer side of the table and pressed into his forehead and temple.

  “Aren’t we all,” Benjamin said, pouring him a glass from the bottle of chilled sparkling water. “Are you hungry? I would be happy to let you have this other one.” He pointed to the second muffin.

  “No, thank you. I couldn’t eat.”

  “Well, you are missing out, Gregory.” Benjamin sliced across the center of the egg and cut off a small portion, closing his eyes briefly in pleasure when he ate it.

  Gregory hunched over the glass. “His daughters are nearly killing him. He’s becoming increasingly isolated and hostile.”

  Benjamin gave him a sharp look. “Aaron Lyr is a self-centered manipulator who expects to reap more than he’s sown.”

  Gregory added, “As most neglectful fathers do.”

  “Dum taxat ad tempus,” Benjamin said, raising his glass of white wine to drink. “That’s precisely what Gaelen and Romane did — they rendered him homage for the occasion, with the immunity or profit to be purchased by it.”

  “And there’s Cate,” Benjamin said.

  Gregory sighed. “We all questioned his judgment then.”

  “I certainly did.” Benjamin paused to take a bite. “And I was there. I also saw him tonight, and he seemed to be going mad.”

  “Well, I’m almost mad myself. I did the same damn thing.” Gregory’s mouth thinned. “There was no son in the world more dear to his father, but look what he did — he just threw it away like it meant nothing.”

  Benjamin raised a brow. “You may be making assumptions you shouldn’t be making, Gregory.”

  “What assumption is that?”

  “That Noah threw it away. Have you asked him for his account of the matter, or did you just take Jude at his word?”

  Gregory considered this. “I haven’t spoken with him.” He made a soft ‘stop’ motion with his hand. “No, wait. That’s not exactly true. I saw Noah the night of the Lyr ceremony, but I’m ashamed to tell you I didn’t listen to a word he said. I just yelled at him.” He let out a long breath and rubbed his hands over his face. “We haven’t talked much since then.”

  “Why?”

  “Why?” Gregory shook his head. “It’s upsetting, what Noah did. And he’s kept away. Refuses to speak to me.”

  “And we’re back to the start of this circle,” Benjamin said. “Have you tried to talk to him?”

  “No, but — ”

  Benjamin stopped him with a hand. “You need to ask him if what Jude said was true. Hasn’t it occurred to you that your oldest son is envious of his brother? That he lied?”

  Gregory blinked. “My God.” He sat as still as a mime for another minute, then slowly stood up and walked toward the door. “Thank you for — ” he waved a hand and glanced halfway over his shoulder. “Good night,” he added, in an absent-minded voice.

  After Gregory left, Benjamin sighed with relief, because he was finally alone and because he wasn’t a father. He started his nightly tasks — setting the coffee, checking his email, turning off the lights.

  Another car pulled into his driveway.

  “For the love of Karita Mattila, what is going on?”

  He walked to the door and opened it to a tired-looking Cate.

  Jason Boreas and Jude Severn met at Jude’s office in the Lyr Logistics building. Jason went right for the bar cart. “We’re all set, then?” he asked.

  Jude sprawled in a chair, a glass of whisky in his hand, and stared out at the city. “The board meeting’s tomorrow.”

  Jason stirred the drink with a glass rod. “I’ll announce that we learned about the sale of trade secrets through an anonymous tip submitted under our internal whistleblower policy. It will be our profound regret that our whistleblower discovered that Gregory Severn was paid for these secrets.”

  Jude was silent.

  “Good job on this, Jude.” Jason walked over to Jude and patted his shoulder. “It’ll pay off for you, big time. I know you’ve been frustrated at your lack
of forward progress in the company. This will launch you right up there.”

  Jude sighed and sipped his drink. It would be nice to make his father realize he could rise on his own. Realize he deserved recognition. Deserved more.

  “What’s the process?” Jude asked when Jason went over to the window, his voice surly.

  “After we make the board aware of it, there’ll be an investigation — which is total garbage but we’ll go through the motions. Then your father will be forced to resign.” Jason got a call and turned his back to Jude to talk.

  Jude thought about family loyalty. How his father chose Noah, the new baby from the new wife, to learn the VZ Yesuþoh. How he wasn’t even considered, even though he came first. How he felt he’d failed in some way he didn’t even understand.

  Even when he finally got one over on Noah, getting him out of the picture for good, his critical father’s condescension eroded any feeling of satisfaction he had. And after thinking of little else since Noah was chosen, Jude reached the conclusion that there was no such thing as family, and it was every man for himself in this world.

  Jason put the phone away and faced Jude again. “Work.” He sank into the seat across from Jude. “Your brother, he doesn’t know about any of this?”

  “No.”

  “How do you think he’ll take it?”

  “I don’t care,” Jude answered.

  “He lives here in the city?”

  Jude raised his chin in a nod.

  “What’s he do again?”

  “He’s kind of a translator. Works for a big company that has an office here. Look, I don’t want to talk about him.”

  Jason gave him a conciliatory frown and put up his hands. “Sure. No problem.” Well,” he said, pushing off the chair, “I’m meeting someone.” He stood in front of Jude, arms at his side. “It’s going to go just fine. Just make sure your father is at that meeting. And then I have a few ideas in mind, myself.”

  Chapter 8

  Peter went home after midnight, close to tears from exhaustion and the stress of his night in the storm with his employer, mumbling something about going to a 24-hour medical clinic.

  Cate looked in on her father, staying for a minute, then closing the door to let him sleep.

  “Cate, can you and Noah stay for a half an hour?” Benjamin asked. “We need to discuss the plan I mentioned.” He returned with a carafe and a large plate of olives, cheese, and cured meats, which he placed in the center of the table. “Antipasti.”

  “You just happened to have this ready?” Cate asked.

  Benjamin took a seat at the table across from them. “Cate, are you comfortable with including Noah in this discussion?”

  “Of course.”

  “Good, because you’ll need to work together. Noah, I don’t know how much you know about this — ”

  “Almost nothing.”

  “— But Gaelen requested the books.”

  “Because, clearly, the world is at its imminent end,” Noah said.

  “That’s arguable, but she forced my hand,” Benjamin said.

  Cate thought if anyone could force Benjamin’s hand, like that was possible, it’d be Gaelen.

  “I told her that I could only give her the first book, and that she would have to wait on the other two. She requested a courier, but I insisted on delivering the book myself.” Benjamin winced and shuddered. “It was a horrible feeling, giving that beautiful object to Gaelen. Positively Faustian. That’s where Cate comes in.” He flashed an unsettled smile. “I met Gaelen at a cafe by the Lyr offices, but I knew she wasn’t working that day.”

  “Did she want to meet there, or did you?” Cate asked.

  “She did.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m getting to it. After I handed over the book I delivered a brief lecture about its proper treatment.”

  From his expression, it was clear to Cate that Benjamin’s ‘brief lecture’ was approximately one-tenth of what he wanted.

  “She lost patience, we parted ways, but I had her followed.”

  “Gaelen’s sharp, and she isn’t naive,” Cate pointed out. “She would have expected you’d have her followed.”

  Benjamin nodded. “That’s what I thought, too, and that’s why I had four people watching her. She made a few stops in places where she could easily disappear — a department store, a flagship clothing store, a Whole Foods. Finally, evidently confident that anyone watching would have dropped off after realizing they underestimated a master of evasive technique, she entered the old Swanee Preserves building.”

  “I read something in the Business Journal about those being converted to lofts,” Noah said.

  “Yes,” Benjamin said. “It’s an upscale, six-story loft building, with only two units per floor.” He shrugged. “Pricey, though a little downmarket for Gaelen Lyr.”

  “You don’t know that she’s keeping the materials there,” Cate said. “Maybe she was just visiting a friend.”

  “No, she owns the unit,” Benjamin said. “I recognize the LLC. She has to be keeping the language materials there.”

  Cate raised a brow and sat back. “Go on.”

  “The building doesn’t have strong security. It’s not a high-rise. There are no doormen or front desk staff — just one door to the main lobby that deadlocks behind each resident.”

  “But someone could hold the door open,” Cate said. “The Achilles heel of electronic key control systems.”

  Benjamin nodded. “One of the four people I had following Gaelen slipped inside the building after another resident. She looks like a lawyer, partly because she is one.”

  Cate grinned. “Wait, you had one of your lawyer friends doing your dirty work? She must really owe you for something.”

  “She worked for one of the top firms in San Francisco, but thought their investigator had more fun, so she quit the firm. Now she’s a licensed PI and a private practitioner … in criminal defense.” Benjamin shot her a pointed look.

  “Don’t lose her number,” Cate said, with a twitch of her mouth. “But it’s funny how you’re practically begging me to do what you think I should stop doing. ‘Just do this one thing for me, Cate,’ she said, imitating Benjamin, “and then you can stop.”

  “Is that what you think?” Benjamin said, putting his elbows on the table and leaning toward her. “That it’s for me? It’s for everyone, and it’s killing me that I gave her the first book. As the steward, she, more than anyone, should make sure the books and Lyr poem are protected. It’s a scared duty. That’s not overstating it.”

  “Gaelen hates the language,” Cate said quietly. “She resents the hell out of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if she wanted to put a stop to the whole thing.”

  “After she uses it to get whatever she can out of it,” Benjamin added.

  After a half-minute of silence, Noah cleared his throat. “So what did your PI do after she got in?”

  “Before entering the building,” Benjamin said, “she waited outside until a light turned on in a previously dark unit. Then after she got into the lobby, she tried the door, Gaelen’s door, and …” Benjamin raised his palms.

  “The door was open?” Noah said.

  “My PI told me it was getting very Red Shoe Diaries in the bedroom. It hadn’t been long, so her theory was that someone, probably a lover, was waiting for Gaelen in the loft, and distracted her from locking up. I realize that’s not likely to happen again, with the door being unlocked,” Benjamin said. “But any good lock picker could get past that door.”

  “Did your PI note the lock brand?” Cate asked.

  Benjamin separated two items from the folder in front of him and slid them over to Cate. She put them on the table between her and Noah. The first item was a sheet neatly ripped from a reporter’s notepad with the brand of both locks written in a feminine script. The second was a color photo of the locks from both sides of the door.

  “Did she find the book?” Cate asked, giving the note and photo back to Benjami
n.

  “She searched thoroughly everywhere outside the bedroom, which was the only room with soft walls. The rest of the space is wide open. My PI found a large bookcase that looked like a custom job. It held a small number of books, and the ones that were there didn’t fit Gaelen one bit.”

  “Were they fiction? She hates fiction,” Cate said.

  “More on that later. The bookcase was a door. It opened into a small room, like a closet or a storage space. The only thing in the hidden room was a safe.” Benjamin handed her a photo.

  Cate held it up for a close look, then showed Noah. The safe was enormous.

  “She would almost certainly be keeping the first Zaanics book in the safe,” Benjamin said. “Though Gaelen may not be aware of the value of the poem and her training materials, so she may be keeping those anywhere in the loft.”

  “No, she probably just doesn’t care,” Cate said. “Did your PI get out without any problem?”

  “When she went into the hallway, a man opened the door she had just closed. It was possible he heard a noise from the false door, but then he would need very acute hearing.”

  “Jude,” Noah said.

  Cate and Benjamin looked at him with surprise.

  “I’m sure of it.”

  “Well, when he opened the front door, my PI was only halfway down the hall. She came up with a story about how she recently moved in and was still transferring things to her unit.”

  “That worked?” Cate asked, stabbing a piece of cheese with a toothpick.

  “He said it wasn’t a problem and he was just curious about a noise he heard,” Benjamin said. “Then he went back inside.”

  Noah let out a long breath. “I couldn’t do that. Your PI must have ovaries of solid brass.”

  Cate reached into her pocket and took out one of the notebooks Noah had put in the box from the stationary store. She flipped open the top and started a list. Benjamin smirked a little.

  She shot him a look. “What?”

  “I can’t help but notice that your notebook is overtly adorable.”

  “Next time we plan a robbery, I’ll make sure to use my Russian writers of the nineteenth century notebook. So, what are we going to do with the book once I have it?” Cate asked.