"Gotcha. I'll look as quickly as I can." I went through the side stairs exit, up to the next floor, and caught the elevator to the seventeenth floor. Time was not on my side. I didn't know how fast the Chicago cops would be. I figured I had a few minutes, but not many more than that.

I found the room and used the keycard to get in. I pulled a handkerchief from my pocket and used it to open the door. I turned on the lights the same way. I figured just to be safe I shouldn't leave any fingerprints. I looked around. This was definitely where she was staying. A large suitcase still full of Izzy's stuff sat over by the window. Like me, Izzy was not one to make use of hotel room drawers. I went over to the suitcase and carefully pawed through it. Nothing of interest. Next, I checked the closet. There I found a thin leather briefcase full of papers—mostly notes on legal-size paper that she had probably made. There really wasn't much else to look through, so I grabbed the briefcase and was about to leave when I thought of the safe.

It was closed. She had something in it. But how could I open it? I didn't know her well enough to come up with any passwords, so I tried some simple ones: 1,2,3,4; the year in which I assumed she was born, as well as a couple near that, just in case; the numeric value for Izzy; and a few more. Nothing worked.

My phone pinged. It was Sabrina. The police were on their way up. Time to leave. Just for kicks, I tried one more code: 1933, the date of the art heist. The safe opened!

I looked inside. There was some money, which I ignored. There was also a thin book—an old log book of some sort. On the cover was a name: Ray Worth. The log of the last man to see my grandfather alive!

Chapter 10

I closed the safe and got out of there quickly. I found the stairs and went down one flight and caught the elevator on the 16th floor. If I had been waiting for the elevator on the 17th and the door opened revealing a car full of cops, I probably would have peed my pants.

I met Sabrina in the lobby, trying to conceal my excitement. We retreated to a remote corner, where I told her what I had found. As anxious as we both were to go through everything, we knew we had to wait. After they did their search, the police would be calling us up to the room, and I wanted to ditch the briefcase before then. I gave the log book to Sabrina, who put it in her purse, then I took the briefcase out and locked it in the trunk of the car. Then we waited.

An hour later, the lead detective sent for us and we made our way to the room. In the elevator I found myself a little nervous. Suppose they looked at security tapes and saw me go in. I mentioned it to Sabrina.