The Magic Hour

Chapter 26: Helping the Case Move Forward

THE NORA GRAY case. He felt an eon away from it. Time was more fluid up in Canyon City, Nathan decided as he drove the short distance into town the next morning. Slow-moving. That had to be it.

    The streets had been well cleared. Who did that, he wondered. He parked near the sheriff’s office and as he got out of the car Harry came out with a large man in handcuffs, his deputy behind him.

    “Hey, sorry to rush off. Watch the office till I get back, would you?” he said when he caught sight of Nathan. “Ken here felt the need to lay into his wife when she didn’t mash the potatoes just the way he liked them and his eldest had the nerve to try and stop him when he saw his mother get hit. It’s the third time, isn’t it, Ken, and three times is the winner in my book, prize of a man that you are. Taking him over to the courthouse in Jackson,” Harry added, “get him remanded and see if we can put him away awhile, though it depends on which judge shows up. Should be back in four, five hours.”

    The man was dressed in a raincoat, suit and tie, and looked like one of the commuters Nathan used to try to avoid in the city. He looked at Harry with a smile of disdain. The deputy got into the back seat with him and Harry took the driver’s side.

    “Got to love it, huh?” he said to Nathan, who had come up to the window. “Works in the city and spends weekends with his family up here. Aren’t they the lucky ones! Well, maybe they are now. Even if he gets off, the way white-collar folks tend to do, he knows my attitude. Keep your fingers crossed the judge does right by the wife and kids.”

    “What about Nora Gray?” Nathan asked.

    “I was checking in on that first thing this morning when this came up,” Harry said, thumbing the back seat. “We still need to find Paul French, purveyor of stolen art with a liking for that blue glass Dee told us about. It’s all I can see we’ve got to go on.”

    Nathan watched the car as it plowed through the snow effortlessly. Maybe he should be thinking about getting a four-wheel drive for himself, he thought, if he planned to stay in Canyon City for any length of time.

    “That’s a big if,” he said under his breath. But was it? He wasn’t so sure anymore. A fragment of a dream came back to him. I don’t want to go back to the old life. Or to the memories of it. He had spoken those words. Were they true? Was his subconscious letting him know something he hadn’t faced till then? Could he let go of the past so easily?

    He sighed and went up the steps and into the office and shut the door behind him, locking it out of his customary city paranoia and wondering if Harry ever did. He walked through past the wood stove and the jail cells and out the back door to the path that led to Harry’s house and the sun porch. Someone had shoveled it clear, as well. Mounds of snow lay on either side almost to his waist.

    Once settled in front of the computer, he opened a browser. Harry was right. They had nothing to work with except French’s interest in carnival glass. It was highly unlikely the man would try to sell the stolen paintings anytime soon. They were too hot. It occurred to him that there might be auctions for the glass the way there were for some collectibles. Maybe those were the kind of places Paul French haunted. A long shot whether he’d come up with anything, but there wasn’t any other lead he could think of.

    After an hour of research he knew enough about carnival glass to start collecting it himself, Nathan decided. There were so many varieties, including something called an elaborate Persian Medallion, one called Honeycomb and Clover, another called Iris. He learned that the first pieces of carnival glass had been made in Williamstown, West Virginia in 1907 by a man named Frank Leslie Fenton. Fenton had called it Iridill, creating it in response to the iridescence and brilliance of Tiffany glass. Every color was used, from amethyst to blue and green, from marigold to white. He was pretty sure that Dee’s sugar bowls had the Butterfly and Berry pattern, though he’d have to check it out.