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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

“Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,” Tess insisted. “We don’t know everything about the Morningstarrs.”

“That’s my point,” said Theo. By his expression, however, Tess knew he believed she was onto something.

“Let’s do some searches on Ada and see if there’s any mention of her being in New York City.”

They spent a couple of hours searching both the web and Grandpa Ben’s notebooks, but didn’t find any evidence that Ada Lovelace had ever come to New York City or any indication that there was correspondence with the Morningstarrs. Theo wanted to risk a call to the Cipherist Society to ask them, but Tess didn’t.

“Remember what happened the last time?” she said.

“Okay, but—”

“I don’t want to ask for help unless we absolutely have to,” Tess said. “I don’t want anyone else hurt or . . .” She trailed off.

“We get it,” Jaime said, giving her shoulder a friendly bump. “We don’t want anyone else to get hurt, either. But if Ada Lovelace never came to New York City and never wrote to Theodore or Theresa, or if she did and we can’t find the evidence, then where are we going to look for the next clue?”

They surveyed the piles of notebooks and reams of notes they’d taken in silence for a moment. Then Theo said, “Well, there are a lot of Ada Lovelace’s writings where she discussed the potential of Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine.”

“A computer?” Jaime asked.

“Yeah, early one,” Theo said. “He was developing the Analytical Engine around the same time that the Morningstarrs were building their machines, though the Morningstarrs’ work was much more advanced. But maybe he came to New York? Maybe he wrote the Morningstarrs?”

They spent another hour combing the notebooks and the web for Charles Babbage and his various engines in New York City. They found out that Babbage had made some discoveries in cryptography, breaking something called the Vigenère cipher, that he was a sought-after dinner guest because he was such a good storyteller—it even said he’d met Ada Lovelace at one of his own parties.

“I can’t find anything that says he came to New York City, though,” said Theo.

Jaime, who had been scrolling through his phone, suddenly looked up. “Maybe Ada or Charles never came to New York City, but some of their letters did.”

“What letters?” said Tess. “Where are they?”

“My favorite place. Well, my favorite place besides the comic-book store.”

“Your grandmother’s kitchen?”

“Okay, my third favorite place.”

“Where?”

“Where all the best mysteries are. The New York Public Library.”

CHAPTER SIX

Theo