Chapter 12
The security guard closed in fast. Jack and Cable and Quinn could not escape. Jack closed his phone and put it in his pocket, looking daggers at Max the whole time.
“I’m so sorry,” said Max again.
The security guard was a tall, thin African American man. His hair was graying and there was an authority in his bearing that prevented even Quinn from attempting to make a break for it. He stopped in front of Jack, who had stood up.
“Are you the ones who were asking about Tony Souvlakis?” he asked.
Jack nodded.
“Will you come with me please?” said the guard. It was not a question.
The guard turned to Max and said. “Thank you Mr. Glover. I assume I will be able to find you in your office if I need you?”
“Yes sir,” said Max. The guard looked straight at him until his uncertainly about what to do next melted. Max did not meet Jack’s gaze as he retreated.
“This way,” said the guard, gesturing towards the gate that blocked the steps leading downstairs. The gate required a key-card to open. The guard waved his ID badge in front of the lock and the light blinked green. He held the gate open as the boys walked ahead of him down the steps. The gate clicked shut behind them.
The staircase turned back underneath itself after only a dozen steps. At that point the whoosh and murmur of the grand hall disappeared above them and they entered a silence disturbed only by their footsteps. At the bottom landing, a narrow hallway extended in both directions.
“This way,” said the guard, leading them to the nearest room off the hallway. It was a non-descript office, with florescent lights, dented file cabinet, two desks, four chairs and no windows. Once inside, the guard closed the door behind them. Cable noticed that there were no security cameras down here, neither in the hallway nor the office.
“Sit down, please,” said the guard.
The boys did as they were told. The guard remained standing as he looked them up and down. In the silence of this examination, Jack made his own observations. The guard reminded Jack of the actor Morgan Freeman. Though his skin was dark, he had something like freckles on his face. His arms hung at his side and Jack noticed that he had unusually large hands and that they hung from his uniform shirt in a way that made the shirt seem too small for him. He wore a wedding ring on his left hand. His shirt had his name on embroidered on it, ‘O. Black.’
When he spoke, it only reinforced the similarity with Morgan Freeman. His voice carried the same stacatto.
“Last month the restoration of the Gem exhibit starts moving backwards and there is talk of missing stones,” he said. “About that same time, Tony Souvlakis stops coming to work. Yesterday an intern who coincidentally arrived here at about that same time asks me if I’ve heard of Tony Souvlakis. Now today someone uses this ID card—“ he held up the Souvlakis ID, the one that Cable left in the gem exhibit when he fled, “—to get through security upstairs.”
The guard paused and looked at the boys one at a time. He spoke directly to Cable, “You, if I’m not mistaken, were that someone.” Cable blanched, and the guard nodded, his statement satisfactorily confirmed.
“Then the record on the security cameras gets harder to follow,” continued the guard, “because of some something – I don’t yet know what to call it – in the security lounge. I am content to let that part of the chronology remain vague, however, because here you are sitting here in front of me right now.”
The guard paused and took a deep breath. Once again, he examined each of the boys with an experienced eye. He rubbed his chin with a large hand. Then he took a deep breath and when he exhaled, he seemed less substantial than he had been. His shoulders stooped slightly. He took a step or two into the room so that he was no longer blocking the door, and he sat on the nearest desk. Then, before returning his gaze to the boys, he shifted uncomfortably. He reached around to his back pocket and pulled out a folded book of crossword puzzles. He tossed it on the desk and straightened up to face the boys again. Cable noticed that it was the same brand of crossword puzzle book that they’d found at Souvlakis house.
“I can explain—“ began Cable.
The guard held up a hand to silence him.
“I see a lot of things here,” continued the guard. “I do not find that explanations make them easier for me to understand. I will tell you, however, that I am not yet sure that I understand some of the things I am telling you right now.”
Cable wanted to speak up again, but he thought he’d better wait for an invitation to do so.
Quinn did not. “Are we under arrest?” he blurted out.
The guard turned his gaze to Quinn, whose tie suddenly felt very tight.
“Should you be?” asked the guard.
Once again, Cable fought back the urge to launch into his theory and his story. Quinn too, kept his mouth shut. The guard did nothing to truncate the silence. He took a deep breath in though his nose as if he were savoring the smell of the tense quiet.
“You were wearing that tie earlier,” said the guard to Jack, pointing to the tie around Quinn’s neck. The guard let his hand return to his chin, where he stroked his narrow jaw in the classic gesture of a man in deep thought. Then the he shook his head and lowered his hand. He presented his open palm to Cable, in a wordless invitation to speak.
Cable opened his mouth, but nothing came out. His mind raced, though. Had they, in fact, done something wrong? Trespassing, maybe? But the guard already knew that. Cable’s mind had sketched out so many possible theories about what was going on, not just at that moment but during the whole timeline of the imagined jewel heist, that it was hard for him to know where or how to begin an explanation. His presence there, and that of his brothers, seemed so far fetched as to be scarcely believable. They were looking after their uncle’s bookstore? How did that connect to this peculiar and vacant basement office? Perhaps this was one of those occasions when a carefully vague lie might serve them better than an effort to convey the truth. But that was Jack’s department. Why wasn’t Jack saying anything?
“This might not make any sense at first,” Cable finally said.
The guard nodded, “I would expect not.”
“You probably hear this a lot,” said Cable, “but maybe there’s been a misunderstanding?”
The guard nodded again and looked down at his hands. When Cable didn’t continue his explanation on cue, the guard looked over at him without raising his head. The whites of his eyes flashed. When the guard still didn’t say anything, Cable took a deep breath and blurted out, “let me start again. My name is Cable Bonney and these are my brothers Jack and Quinn. We actually don’t know anything about what’s going on here, or not nearly as much as you might think… considering… you know, what you saw on the security camera. Or, we didn’t at the start of the day. Or maybe we still don’t. What I’m trying to say is, all we know is that he seems to have disappeared. He didn’t pay his rent and he lost his house. No one here knows where he is, except maybe you. And evidently someone stole some gems or maybe he did, which by the way had nothing to do with Max Glover.”
Cable’s explanation elicited a broad smile from the guard.
“And you assume that because I’m wearing this uniform that you should tell me the truth,” said the guard.
Cable only returned his gaze, but without responding.
“You know him,” said Jack. “Don’t you.”
The guard turned to face Jack. He crossed his arms. “You’re Jack?”
Jack nodded.
“I’ve worked here for 25 years. I would hope that I do,” said the guard.
“And you’re his friend,” continued Jack.
Cable said, “Jack?”
“We don’t know where he is,” said Jack, “we’d never heard of him until yesterday.”
“So why are you trying to find him?” asked the guard, “What are you doing here?”
“I’m not sure we can answer that,” said Jack.
“Well,” said the guard, straightening up again, but still perched on the edge of the desk. “The only question I still have is what do you think is going to happen now?”
“I have no idea,” said Quinn, “Really. No fracking idea.”
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