Read Sleight of Hand: A Novel of Suspense (Dana Cutler) for Free Online

back and slammed it forward, hoping that the clang of metal on metal would penetrate the thick oak door and the din created by the storm. She waited a minute, then used the knocker twice more. She was about to try again when she heard a voice yell, “I’m coming, I’m coming.” A minute later, the door creaked open and Dana found herself facing an elderly, balding man with liver-spotted skin. He was stooped with age and clad in a white shirt, a blue polka-dot bow tie, a brown tweed jacket with leather patches on the elbows, and loose-fitting green slacks that did not match his jacket. The pants were held up by suspenders.
    “No solicitors,” Otto Pickering said brusquely.
    “I’m not selling anything, Professor.”
    “Then why are you here?”
    Dana held out her card. “I’ve come on behalf of a client.”
    Pickering eyed the card suspiciously.
    “I would have called,” Dana said, “but your number is unlisted, and I couldn’t find an e-mail address. This is a matter of some urgency, so I didn’t have the luxury of writing.”
    “You still haven’t told me what you want, young lady.”
    “I’m here because of the scepter that Sultan Mehmet II gave to Gennadius.”
    Surprise registered on Pickering’s face for a moment. Then he regained his composure.
    “Can we step inside, please?” Dana said. “I’m drowning out here.”
    The professor hesitated, and Dana hoped that he wouldn’t slam the door in her face. Then Pickering turned his back on Dana and walked down a long hall. She rushed inside and followed him.
    The interior of the house was paneled in dark wood, dimly lit, and drafty. The carpets were threadbare, and a dank odor pervaded everything. Dana wouldn’t have been surprised to find mold and mushrooms growing on the walls. Pickering led Dana into a large, high-ceilinged room with French windows that gave her a view of the dense forest when lightning flashed. Faded sofas, chipped and scarred coffee and end tables, and sagging armchairs stood on a large Persian carpet. Only a few of the pieces of furniture matched.
    A fire roared in a high stone fireplace and provided welcome warmth. A moose head was mounted over the fireplace and Dana had the eerie feeling that it was staring at her. A black bear and a mountain lion eyed her threateningly from two other walls.
    A massive desk illuminated by a gooseneck lamp stood in one corner of the large room. Papers were spread across the blotter and books were stacked next to a laptop, one of the few modern contraptions Dana had seen since entering the house. Pickering sat behind the desk and Dana sat in a straight-back chair across from him. Its seat was not cushioned and it was hard and uncomfortable.
    “What is all this about a scepter?” Pickering asked cagily. Dana noticed that his liver-spotted fingers fluttered nervously and he avoided looking at her directly.
    “You do know about the gold, jewel-encrusted scepter Sultan Mehmet II gave to Gennadius after the fall of Constantinople when Gennadius agreed to be the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church?”
    “Young lady, I have degrees in history from Harvard and Oxford and my Ph.D. thesis was on the Ottoman Empire, so you may assume that I am aware of everything there is to know about the reign of the sultans.”
    “Yes, well, Antoine Girard, my client’s grandfather, found the scepter in the early 1920s in the Khan-el-Khalili. The scepter was kept in a safe in a mansion in New York, but it was stolen in a burglary. Recently, my client learned that the scepter was to be auctioned off by a bankrupt Turkish businessman, but the scepter was withdrawn from the auction. My client believes that you appraised and authenticated the scepter. She needs to know who commissioned the appraisal.”
    Pickering looked upset. He shook his head back and forth.
    “Any such work I may have done would be confidential.”
    “You’re not a lawyer, a doctor, or a priest, so you don’t have any legal right to keep client