The Twelfth Card (Lincoln Rhyme 6)

Now, my dearest, I must say goodnight to you and prepare a lesson for my students tomorrow.

Sweet dreams to you and our children, my darling. I live for your return.

Your faithful Charles

Croton on the Hudson,

March 2, 1875

Rhyme said, "It sounds like Douglass and the others forgave him for the robbery. Or decided to believe that he didn't do it."

Sachs asked, "What was that law he was talking about?"

"The Civil Rights Act of 1875," Geneva said. "It prohibited racial discrimination by hotels, restaurants, trains, theaters--any public place." The girl shook her head. "It didn't last, though. The Supreme Court struck it down in the 1880s as unconstitutional. There wasn't a single piece of federal civil rights legislation enacted after that for over fifty years."

Sachs mused, "I wonder if Charles lived long enough to hear it was struck down. He wouldn't've liked that."

Shrugging, Geneva replied, "I don't think it would've mattered. He'd think of it as just a temporary setback."

"The hope pushing out the pain," Rhyme said.

"That's word," Geneva said. Then she looked at her battered Swatch. "I've got to get back to work. That Wesley Goades . . . I've gotta say, the man is wack. He never smiles, never looks at you . . . . And, come on, you can trim a beard sometimes, you know."

*

Lying in bed that night, the room dark, Rhyme and Sachs were watching the moon, a crescent so thin that, by rights, it should have been cold white but through some malady of atmosphere was as golden as the sun.

Sometimes, at moments like this, they talked, sometimes not. Tonight they were silent.

There was a slight movement on the ledge outside the window--from the peregrine falcons that nested there. A male and female and two fledglings. Occasionally a visitor to Rhyme's would look at the nest and ask if they had names.

"We have a deal," he'd mutter. "They don't name me. I don't name them. It works."

A falcon's head rose and looked sideways, cutting through their view of the moon. The bird's movement and profile suggested, for some reason, wisdom. Danger, too--adult peregrines have no natural predators and attack their prey from above at speeds up to 170 miles an hour. But now the bird hunkered down benignly and went still. The creatures were diurnal and slept at night.

"Thinking?" Sachs asked.

"Let's go hear some music tomorrow. There's a matinee, or whatever you call an afternoon concert, at Lincoln Center."

"Who's playing?"

"The Beatles, I think. Or Elton John and Maria Callas doing duets. I don't care. I really just want to embarrass people by wheeling toward them . . . . My point is that it doesn't matter who's playing. I want to get out. That doesn't happen very often, you know."

"I know." Sachs leaned up and kissed him. "Sure, let's."

He twisted his head and touched his lips to her hair. She settled down against him. Rhyme closed his fingers around her hand and squeezed hard.

She squeezed back.

"You know what we could do?" Sachs asked, a hint of conspiracy in her voice. "Let's sneak in some wine and lunch. Pate and cheese. French bread."

"You can buy food there. I remember that. But the scotch is terrible. And it costs a fortune. What we could do is--"

"Rhyme!" Sachs sat straight up in bed, gasping.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"What did you just do?"