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Chapters (47)
  1. Cover
  2. DEDICATION
  3. MAP
  4. EPIGRAPH
  5. New York City
  6. New York City
  7. CHAPTER ONE
  8. CHAPTER TWO
  9. CHAPTER THREE
  10. CHAPTER FOUR
  11. CHAPTER FIVE
  12. CHAPTER SIX
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. CHAPTER TWELVE
  19. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  20. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  22. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  24. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  25. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  42. Sunrise in Gotham Senior Living Center
  43. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  44. BACK ADS
  45. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  46. BOOKS BY LAURA RUBY
  47. ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

Though the children weren’t interesting in and of themselves, Duke had discovered that they did have rather intriguing relatives. Two of them were the offspring of a New York City detective and the grandchildren of one Benjamin Adler, and the third child was the son of an engineer and the grandson of the former manager of 354 W. 73rd Street. Duke imagined that that police detective knew quite a bit about the Old York Cipher, maybe her father had even given her a clue or two before he lost his mind to dementia. And Duke imagined that the former building manager knew quite a bit about the building she’d managed for half her life. Including its secrets. Well, if it had had any secrets—which Duke wasn’t sure it did, but his client was sure—and his client was the one paying. Who was Duke Goodson to argue with a man willing to pay through the nose for a little information? So information Duke’s client would get. No matter what Duke Goodson had to do to get it.

He might start small, or rather, big: with that cat. Can’t have an oversized feline like that just wandering around the city, free as you please. Eating Stoop’s lab-grown monster was one thing, but people could surely be harmed by such an unnatural creature. That really would be too bad. (Well, depending on the person.) Besides, Duke had some ideas for that cat.

“Candi!” Duke shouted.

His gorgeous blond assistant appeared in the doorway. Like all his girls, she was a former cheerleader, all red lipstick and lean muscle. “Yes, sir?”

“I might have a job for you later.”

“Anything you need, sir.”

“Right now, I need my nap. Hold my calls for twenty minutes,” Duke told her, tossing her the cell phone.

She caught it with one hand, slipped it into the pocket of her red dress. “Certainly, sir. Shall I close the door?”

“Yes, thank you, Candi.”

Once the door was closed, Duke Goodson leaned back in his chair, put his feet back up on the desk, and tipped his new hat so that the brim shaded his eyes against the fluorescent lights. As he did right before every nap, he let his mind roam over the accomplishments of the day. The hat, the blundering minions squared away in Siberia, his delicious plans for some pesky, squirming children and their various pets and relatives. The delight on Darnell’s face when Duke cleaned up this whole silly situation, the bonus added to Duke’s Swiss bank account.

Duke’s last thought before he fell asleep: What the reporters never put in their profiles about him, what they never figured out, was his real specialty, his true talent, the motto he lived by.

In order to fix things, you first had to break them.

CHAPTER FIVE

Tess