“Claudia, what’s wrong?” Maguire asked. He leapt to his feet and fell in behind me as I wound my way through the bar, the rest of our group following suit.
“Something very important and very powerful just got stolen and we need to find it before it disappears, because that could be very bad for a lot of people. Eric, how long do we have?”
“I leave in two days to start my big tour.”
“Great, so we have two days to find and return the heart to you, as well as figuring out if the thief has any idea what they were stealing. Have you told anyone what it is?”
“No. I try not to even think about it when I'm around other people.”
“Has anyone who isn’t in the know been showing particular interest in it?”
“Not directly, but I have noticed some familiar faces that could be following me. They’re pretty nondescript and I've been careful, but I guess not careful enough.”
We exited the alley and hit a throng of people and I sighed. Whoever stole the case did an excellent job of disappearing without a trace, which meant they were most likely professional.
“Maybe next time don’t go leaving your case unattended,” Maguire said in what had to be the most politely snarky tone I ever heard him use.
“In his defense, the likelihood of this happening is normally pretty low,” I explained. “The number of people who know about the heart is currently in the single digits and this just became a pattern.”
“A pattern?” Eric echoed.
“Yes, a pattern. It seems someone is going after the holidays, among other things. I’m going to need you to come back to the safehouse with me so we can start figuring out our next steps. If the rest of you wish to join, I would appreciate it but it is not required or expected.”
“I’m in,” Sara said, and I felt a small wave of relief. She was a good friend to the Jacks, though she chose not to join for personal reasons.
In a private conversation, she admitted that the life of a Jack sounded a little too chaotic for her. She needed some amount of order and she very likely wouldn’t find that with us, which I understood. She was a whiz for detecting and following patterns, though, and I had a feeling that would come in use.
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“We are too,” Tanya said, gesturing towards Lenny. “We may not be able to see it through, but we want to help.”
“Wonderful. Maguire can show you back to the safehouse. I will be there soon. I just want to give another look around where the theft happened. Maybe the thief left something behind.”
To my annoyance, but not my surprise, the thief left nothing behind. Even so, I made sure all of Eric’s other belongings were carefully packed up and then took them back to the safehouse with me. At the very least I could make sure the rest of his equipment wouldn’t get stolen, and there was always a chance someone else would catch something I missed.
By the time we got back to the safehouse, it was late and everyone ended up nodding off not long after we settled in. I was the first to wake after the impromptu nap session, and I decided to get started on coffee and breakfast. We would need fuel to get us through the day and I found the cooking helped me think.
Eric joined me shortly after and I got the distinct impression he hadn’t slept much, if at all.
“It’s going to be okay,” I said, handing him a mug of coffee.
“I just can’t believe I was so careless. I should have known better than to leave it unattended…”
“You made a mistake. It happens. You are far from the first Cupid to lose the heart. The timing isn’t great, but it happened in front of the best witnesses you could ever ask for.”
“And what if we don’t find it in time?”
“We will find it,” I repeated firmly. “We will. I promise you that. You have the Nerdlettes, you have me, and you have Maguire. I know you just met him, but trust me when I tell you, he is one of the cleverest recruits I have ever had the pleasure of working with.”
Maguire froze just outside of the door to the kitchen as he heard me say this, either caught off guard by my words or the fact that I had company in the kitchen. I pretended I didn’t see him, returning my attention to the food.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to hear more about the heart,” Maguire said as he sat down next to Eric. “I can intuit some things, but I’d like to hear it from you. What is it? How did it come to be yours? What does it represent?”
“It’s been in my family for generations, passing along through the different branches until my uncle gave it to me on my fourteenth birthday. That's when I decided I wanted to be a musician. He told me the story when he gave it to me of how it was created to symbolize love and hope and the connection that people share when they let each other in. We help fan the flames of those connections through the art that we make and the best time to do that is in February. Every year I do a big charity concert that is usually televised, and its like I refresh all of the care and love people have for each other.”
“So, did Valentine's Day exist before the heart did or did its existence lead to the holiday?”
“Closer to the second one, but from what I understand the Heart was created to capitalize on a regular occurrence,” I said. “We have some books on it in the library, but they won’t be much help in finding where it's gone. For that, we are going to need to dig into the modern black market and see what information we can get on the thief.”
“I think I can help with that,” Lenny said, stepping into the kitchen. “I know some people who deal in things under the table…not full black market, but they might be able to point us in the right direction.”
“And you trust this person?” I asked.
“Enough to ask for help, though maybe we should leave some details out.”
“Very well. Make the call, see what you can learn, and we will start looking over what we gathered last night. The owner should have emailed me their security footage by now. Hopefully, we will have a face to go with our thief.”