The Cartographers(52)

Their gazes both drifted back to the Sanborn map.

She was about to ask where the secret was on it, but all of a sudden, Eve looked as though she was about to cry. “I’m sorry,” she laughed, embarrassed. “I should be comforting you.”

“It’s really all right,” Nell smiled.

“It’s so good to see you again—even under such sad circumstances. I’m just a little overwhelmed. I wasn’t expecting . . .” Eve wiped her eyes and searched for something to distract her from the moment, so she wouldn’t begin weeping again. “I’ll be right back, I need to get a transport envelope and some padding.”

As she went to the other side of the exhibit where a few storage cabinets had been set up, Nell took her last chance to study the map as much as she could. Her eyes roamed over every line and label. She examined the streets, then the buildings, checking each one carefully before finally finding herself in the NYPL all over again, this time on the page instead of the world. She went hall by hall, noting each window and wall, until at last she ended up in the room she knew best.

Excerpt, Sanborn Insurance Map from Manhattan





Suddenly, there it was.

The secret.

There was a false room in the Map Division.

It was tiny and unobtrusive, no bigger than a closet. She hadn’t noticed before, when trying to take in the entire city block the map covered as a whole and not knowing what to look for, but it was clear now. During the production of this seventh edition, some draftsman had inserted a little nonexistent space right in her old stomping grounds.

It definitely wasn’t there in real life, Nell knew. Where the false room had been hidden on the page was a smooth wall in the main reading room.

Why would her father want a map of the building where he worked, where he was murdered, with an intentional error on it in the very same office?

She didn’t know yet—but then an idea came to her.

Was this the connection between the two maps?

Everything else was similar about them. They were both old, both out of print, and very rare, despite their seeming lack of value. The gas station map was just bigger, covering nearly the entire state of New York and its neighbors—so its secret would have to be bigger.

Like a whole building, or a street.

Or maybe, an entire town.

A phantom settlement, like Eve had said.

“I’m sure you’re very busy,” a voice startled her, and Nell looked up to see Eve reentering the booth, packing materials in hand. “But would you like to get lunch, or a coffee? It’s been so long, there’s so much I want to ask you. Where you went to school, where you’re working now . . .”

Nell tried to turn her grimace into a polite smile as she imagined telling Eve about the Junk Box Incident and Classic.

“That would be wonderful—” she began.

But before she could finish her sentence, a face she had not expected to see appeared in the background, far over Eve’s shoulder.

What was Lieutenant Cabe doing at the fair?

Did he know about the Sanborn map, somehow?

She didn’t know—but she didn’t have time to find out. He clearly was following some clue, and if he saw her here after she’d ducked his call, if he wasn’t already suspicious of her, he would be.

And she did not have time to explain her way out of it.

“And I wish I could, but I have to go,” she said, scrambling to pull off Swann’s lanyard.

“Oh,” Eve replied, surprised at the sudden turn. In the distance, Nell watched Lieutenant Cabe do a slow turn, searching the crowd. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“No, it’s not you,” Nell said. She tried to see which way Lieutenant Cabe was breaking without being too obvious, so she could dash in the other direction. “Maybe some other time? I don’t have a card, but I can look you up on Penn State’s website.”

Eve nodded, still bewildered. “Of course. Are you sure everything’s okay, though?”

Lieutenant Cabe’s eyes passed over Nell—and then jerked back to the massive exhibit, darting between its visitors.

She had to get out of here before he could confirm he’d seen her.

“Everything’s fine. I just have to go.” She was already halfway out of the booth. A cluster of scholars cut the lieutenant off for a moment, obscuring his line of sight, and she saw her chance. “Thank you so much for your help, Eve.”



Nell struggled to keep the phone pressed to her ear as she dodged her way out of the Armory and onto the sidewalk of Park Avenue. A couple of taxis were waiting at the curb, and she dove for the first one even though she couldn’t afford it. A cab ride would be a faster getaway from Lieutenant Cabe than walking all the way to the subway.

“Swann!” she said when he finally came on the line. “I may have figured it out!”

“Figured what out?” Swann asked, surprised.

The taxi set off toward Chinatown as Nell struggled with her seat belt. “The Cartographers,” she said. “It’s not an old story after all. They’re real collectors—but you won’t believe who founded the group.”

Midtown rolled by out the window as she relayed everything Eve had said about her parents and their friends, copyright traps, and the Sanborn map.