Chapters (73)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Prologue
- Part IAnnie
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Part IIHarry
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Part IIIAnnie
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Part IVHarry
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Part VAnnie
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Also by Linwood Barclay
- About the Publisher
He had always lived in his shop, regardless of which city he’d set up in. Threw down a mattress in the back to curl up on when he needed to recharge, but the truth was he didn’t sleep much. Did some of his best work at night, in fact. He liked to be busy. Since arriving in Lucknow, he’d worked pretty much around the clock.
Although, if he was honest with himself, it was all starting to wear on him. More and more these days, his thoughts turned to the idea of retirement. If someone were to become privy to Nabler’s secrets they might have guessed him to be ageless, immortal even, but such was not the case. Everyone ran out of gas eventually. One of these days—not too soon, but again, time was all somewhat relative to Edwin—he would turn his attention to a successor, someone he could mentor, but he hadn’t reached that point quite yet.
He was in the back of the shop, where customers did not wander unless invited, working diligently on making the magic happen. If someone entered the front of the store, the door-mounted bell would alert him. With the exception of the visit by Wendell Comstock, it had been a slow morning, and Edwin didn’t want to spend the day twiddling his thumbs by the cash register. He was not worried. Pretty soon he’d have all the business he could handle. He always did.
And, while Mr. Comstock had not made a purchase, Edwin knew the hook had been set, that he would be back, if not today then maybe tomorrow. The tingle had been particularly strong with that collection of trains Comstock had been examining. That had often been an issue for Edwin Nabler, maintaining consistent quality. Not everything he sold had the same potency. Oh, all his products looked the same. The paint jobs, the lettering on the sides of the various cars, the authentic logos of the various North American railroads, were all executed perfectly. The train wheels turned freely, the track sections went together snugly. But it was the indefinable resonance of the trains that most demanded Edwin’s attention.
There was a lot that went into it, and that was why Edwin was in the back of the shop today, looking at what he had accomplished to date and what was left to be done.