“I’m fine. Everything is fine.”
“What about Michael and the girls?”
“They’re okay, too.” I was surprised he asked about Mike. I figured he’d already know. “Can we go in your office?”
“Sure.”
I followed him in, but instead of sitting down, I walked to the hourglass collection on his bookshelf. I traced my fingertips along the edges of the shelves, again noting the absence of dust. “Are you going to tell me about these?”
“What do you mean?” A weak attempt at evasion.
“What’s with the collections?” He wasn’t going to dodge me this time, and from the defeat on his face, he knew it.
“You’re going to find it simple and silly.”
“Try me.”
“There’s a legend. About an object called the Infinityglass.”
I tensed, working to control my reaction. “The Infinityglass?”
“The Infinityglass is mythical, or most people think so.” He leaned back in his chair, folding his hands across his chest. “There was no evidence to suggest otherwise. Your mother used to tease me about it, her logical husband caught up in a race to find something that didn’t exist.”
“You think it’s real.”
“I became obsessed with it. It caused some issues between your mother and me. Part of the reason I never told you about the Infinityglass was because she forbade it.”
My mom wasn’t the type to forbid anything. “Teague seemed to be pretty obsessed with it herself.”
“How did you … you found her.” He stood so quickly his black leather chair rolled away from him and bounced violently against the back wall. “I gave you permission to go to Memphis to look for paperwork. Not to go on a scavenger hunt through my past.”
“We weren’t looking for your past, we were looking for Jack’s. Teague just happened to be the center point.”
“Did you talk to her? Tell her who you were?”
“No. Lily and I eavesdropped on her from inside a closet. Chronos has set up shop in Memphis. Inside the Pyramid. Gerald Turner came to see her while we were there.” I thought of his silly brown fedora, the turtle ashtray on his desk. All the people who were mourning him.
“Gerald Turner?” Dad asked. Terror and relief.
I nodded.
“He was found dead in his office yesterday,” Dad said slowly, as if his lips were out of commission.
“Guess who found him.”
His anger didn’t shape itself the way mine did. It came fast and hot. “Do you realize what kind of situation you put yourself in? What could have happened to you, to any of you? None of this is a joke. Not to Teague, not to Jack, not to me. Not to whoever killed Dr. Turner.”
“I didn’t know what I was walking into because you don’t trust me enough to tell me the truth. Don’t you think it’s time? I want to know exactly what the Infinityglass is, what it does, and why Teague is looking for it.”
He turned his back to me, rubbing his temples. I waited him out. “The short version is that its intended purpose was to channel time-related abilities from person to person, but it didn’t work out that way. Instead, it was a one-way conductor. Whoever possesses the Infinityglass can use it to steal the ability of anyone he or she touches.”
Magic, like something from Lily’s book of fairy tales.
“Most of the rumors and stories about it are ancient, unchanging. But lately, there are plenty of new rumors.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What type of rumors?”
“Reports of its having surfaced again. People suggesting that they know where it is and telling someone. Then those people end up dead.” His expression was grim but resigned.