Ghost of a Chance

He collected the folders and took them up to Edmond at his desk. Something about Martha Gibbons was bothering him but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

“Do you have land sale records here?” he asked Edmond.

The old man shook his head and Alex noticed that he was sweating.

“Sale records would be in the assessor’s office of whatever county the land was located in,” he explained, panting as if he were out of breath.

“You okay, Edmond? Alex asked.

“Nope,” Edmond said with a mischievous grin that revealed a dimple in his cheek. “Doc gave me the long face. Leukemia, he said. Gave me six months.”

Alex’s mouth dropped open. Leukemia explained a lot, especially the weight loss, the shakes, and the sweating.

“I—” he began but Edmond waved him off.

“That was five years ago,” he said with a chuckle. “I suppose it’ll get me eventually, but not today.”

“Well, stay healthy, my friend,” Alex said.

Edmond thanked him, and Alex headed upstairs as the security guards began to sweep through the building before it closed. He felt like he should have said something more to Edmond, but what was there to say? The man had outlived his doctor’s dire prediction by years; nothing Alex could add would change that reality. He did resolve to be more like Edmond, though. After all, his days were just as numbered. It would do him good not to think about it and just live his life.

A row of phone booths lined the wall by the front entrance to the building and Alex stopped to check in with Leslie. He still had some time before Jessica would be in, so he wanted to make sure he didn’t have anything else on his plate.

“Hey, boss,” Leslie said once they were connected. She sounded even more chipper than before if that was possible.

“What’s the good word?” he asked.

“Randall is coming in to town on Saturday and taking me dancing,” she said.

Alex laughed at that.

“Of course he is,” he said.

“He just called me,” she went on, ignoring Alex’s dig.

“Well call him back for me, will you? I want him to look up a property owner named Martha Gibbons.” He gave her the parcel number and she wrote it down.

“Do you need this tonight?”

Alex thought about that.

“No,” he said. “Tomorrow is soon enough. I just need to know if there’s anything unusual about her land.”

Leslie promised that she would, and Alex was about to hang up.

“Hey,” she said, trying to catch him.

“Yeah?”

“I talked with Hannah this afternoon, just checking up on her. She’s doing fine, by the way.”

“I never doubted you,” Alex said.

“She said that when Alex worked for the Coledale mine that the safety engineer broke his leg and was laid up for six months.”

Alarms went off in Alex’s head.

“Who did his job while he was laid up?”

“Hannah didn’t know, but I was thinking—”

“What if it was Leroy?” Alex finished her thought. “That would explain everything. Thanks, doll, you did great.”

“Remember that when it’s time for my Christmas bonus,” she teased.

Alex promised to remember and hung up.

“Lobby’s closing, Mister,” a flat-faced security guard said, waiting politely for him to finish.

Alex absently thanked the man and made his way outside. If Leroy had done the safety engineer’s job then he would know how to shore up a tunnel. That explained everything, the stolen tools and construction equipment, Leroy’s kidnapping, even why the finding rune couldn’t link to him. Wherever Leroy was, he was likely underground.

That had to be it.

“But how are they going to use those big drill bits?” Alex checked himself. “Sanderson was right, they’d need a big, noisy engine.”

He thought about it as he walked down the bock toward the crawler station. The target had to be a bank; no one else had anything valuable enough to make such a big job worthwhile. But all the banks were in the Middle and Inner rings, far too quiet for the noise of tunneling.

The crawler station was empty when Alex reached it. He must have just missed one. Trying to shake his mental gears loose, he walked down to a news stand and bought a copy of the Times. He and Iggy hadn’t had dinner together in a few days, so he was certain the old fox would want to discuss the news tonight.

As Alex handed a dime to the man at the stand, he caught sight of the screaming headline on the afternoon edition of The Midnight Sun.

Runewright Detective Cracks City Wide Theft Ring, Ghost Still at Large.

Alex scooped up the paper and began reading the story.

“Hey, Mac,” the newsman said. “This ain’t a library.”

“Sorry,” Alex said, dropping a nickel on the man’s counter.

According to the story, famous runewright detective, Alex Lockerby had been observed by reporters leading police on a wild trip through the city. At the end of the journey, he’d revealed a stash of stolen trucks hidden in an abandoned west side factory.