Indiana fingered the phone in his pocket.

He was unaccustomed to its weight, but Nikki had given it to him tonight so that he could use it to photograph evidence.

If he found any.

From what he could see from the entryway of Mr. Travers’s suite, it was unlikely that he would be able to find anything, and certainly he would not be able to photograph it if he did.

Indiana had been given to believe that wealthy people had homes with many rooms. But the Crow’s Nest on the top floor of Maxwell’s seemed to be one massive room, taking up nearly the whole floor. The kitchen and dining table as well as a vast living room were all visible from the foyer where he waited to be greeted.

And beyond it all, a gorgeous view over the shimmering lake was laid bare by floor to ceiling glass that spanned the entire space, wrapping around corners so that the Crow’s Nest felt almost as if it were floating.

“Sit, Ed, sit,” Mr. Travers said, gesturing to the round table by the fireplace, surrounded by leather chairs.

“Indiana,” Mr. Travers said, offering Indy his hand.

“Hello, Mr. Travers,” Indy said.

Mr. Travers squeezed his hand very hard when he shook so Indy squeezed hard back.

He let go immediately when Travers winced.

“Good grip there, son,” Travers said, shaking his head.

“You too, sir,” Indy assured him.

“Have a seat,” Travers said. “I’ll have the girl make you a drink. Hey, babe.”

A busty young woman in a very small dress appeared with a tray.

“Fix up Indy here with whatever he’d like to drink,” he told her.

“What’re you having?” she asked, looking him up and down appreciatively.

“Um, a Cuba Libre,” Kitt said, recalling a drink order from one of the movies he’d seen.

“A what?” the woman asked, sounding less impressed.

“Ha,” said Travers. “Tell the bartender rum and Coke.”

Indiana was a little disappointed. He had always wanted to try a Cuba Libre.

“Go on, sit down,” Travers urged him. “She’ll bring it right to you.”

“Thank you,” Indy said.

“Be sure and sit by me,” Travers said. “I want you on the lookout, just like before, capeesh?”

“God bless you,” Indiana said politely. “Yes, I’d be glad to sit beside you.”

Travers chuckled.

“You’re a riot, kid. My chair’s the big one. Sit on either side of it.”

“Wait,” yelled the tiny old man from last night. “You didn’t take his phone.”

“Oh yeah, right,” Travers said sounding vaguely annoyed. “Stick your phone in the bowl.”

Indiana looked at the large wooden bowl near the front door. It was full of phones.

He slid Nikki’s out of his pocket regretfully. He would be able to memorize any evidence he saw, of course, but she might not believe him.

He made sure to caress the thing with his gaze before placing it in the bowl so that he would know its imperfections and be able to identify it from its brethren.

Another player arrived and Indy went over to the table as he had been instructed. The view of the lake was so beautiful it almost didn’t seem real. But Indiana took the seat to the right of the biggest chair, putting his back to the glass.

It was better for his plan anyway. If he wanted to sneak out of the living space and try to find another room where he could have any hope of securing evidence, he would need to be able to keep an eye on everyone.

As Travers greeted his guests, Indy made a mental note of each person in the room.

There were two people who appeared to be on staff. One was the server he had met already. She went back and forth between the kitchen and the living room with drinks on a tray.

The other was a cook, who seemed to be endlessly pulling trays out of the oven and stirring something in a pot on the stove.

Including Indiana, there were five players. He already knew Mr. Travers, of course, and he had met Ed and the small older man from this morning.

The final arrival was a man with a neatly trimmed silver beard. He was chatting with the server, looking her up and down as if he were trying to figure out how much air she would displace in a vacuumizer tunnel. He must have been the replacement for the disgraced Flanders.

Indiana was just wondering if it was in any way significant that a mustached man had been replaced by a bearded one, when Travers headed over to the table.

“What, are you all afraid?” Travers trumpeted. He laughed and seated himself next to Indiana. “Where’s your drink? Hey, Michaela, where’s his drink?”

The server looked up gratefully, gave a little wave and left the man with the silver beard to head to the kitchen.

“Charming girl,” said the man as he headed over to the table.

“Sure, Rex, sure,” Travers said. “Keep it in your pants. Rex, this is Indiana. Indiana, Rex.”

“A pleasure,” Rex said in a bored way, offering Indiana his hand.

“Good to meet you, sir,” Indiana said, shaking the man’s hand.

By then Ed and the wiry little man from the morning had arrived.

“Ed,” Rex said, nodding to him. “Alan,” he said with a nod at the smaller man.

“You all know the rules,” Travers said. “Buy-in is a grand.”

Indiana swallowed hard. He knew how much money that was. And he did not have a thousand dollars.

“Don’t worry, boy,” Travers said. “I’ve got you covered, just this once. A scholarship.”

Ed and Rex exchanged a significant look.

But Travers only chuckled.

“I’ve got a paternal side, what can I say? And I always take care of the people who take care of me.”

He gave Indiana a meaningful look, although Indy wasn’t exactly sure what the meaning was supposed to be.

“Thank you,” Indiana said quietly.

The game began.

The pace was slow and the players were bullshitting a lot about women and cars.

Michaela came in and out regularly with drinks.

It didn’t take Indy long to memorize the cards and pick up on the players’ tells. But he didn’t use any of the info to put himself at a notable advantage.

Instead, he played just well enough that he could stay in the game without availing himself of a second favor from Travers.

While one part of his mind recorded the players’ behaviors, the rest of him focused on the conversation.

These guys had obviously been playing together for a long time. They fell into an easy talk. By staying quiet, Indy hoped he would begin to blend into the background enough for them to feel comfortable talking business.

He was able to work things so that Travers won big in the first couple of hands.

Travers was laughing and smiling and asking Michaela to bring him another Scotch on the rocks after his second winning hand.

When he won the third, Rex threw down his cards.

“Damn it, Travers,” he said.

Travers cackled and pulled the pile of bills toward himself. “Doesn’t matter, you got it all from me anyway, right?”

Rex cracked a smile.

“Thanks for the tip on DeBeers,” he said.

“My pleasure,” Travers winked.

“What tip on DeBeers?” Alan whined.

“Easy, Alan,” Ed said quietly. “Little pitchers…”

“What the hell, Sam?” Alan continued.

“It was no biggie,” Travers said dismissively.

“But—” Alan protested.

“Enough,” Travers said firmly. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” he continued with a smile.

Alan shut his mouth and sat down again.

Indiana wondered what DeBeers might be. At least it gave him some clue about what to look for. It seemed that Travers didn’t want to talk about trading in front of him. Though maybe he would feel more comfortable as the summer wore on.

Or maybe Travers would never invite him here again.

The cook took the pot of whatever he had been stirring off the stove and Michaela joined him in the kitchen as he ladled tiny portions into a tray of small ramekins.

Now was Indy’s chance.

When Travers began to deal again, Indiana put a hand to his sleeve.

“I’ll sit this one out,” he said. “Where’s your bathroom?”

“Too many Cuba Libres, eh, son?” Travers chuckled. Down the hall, on the right.”

Indy hadn’t drunk any Cuba Libres, only the one rum and Coke, which he didn’t finish because the taste made him suspicious, but he saw no need to argue. He got up and headed in the direction Travers had pointed.

He could hear the sounds of the ladle hitting the side of the pan in the kitchen, and the quiet talk of the men at the card table.

So far as he could tell, there was no one else in the apartment.

Indiana headed in the direction of the bathroom.

Just past the door on the right that Travers had described, stood a set of double doors on the opposite side of the hall.

Indiana turned and looked back the way he’d come.

No one in sight.

He crept up to the double doors and turned one handle very gently.

The door opened with merciful silence, and he found himself inside a huge bedroom. A wall of windows opened onto the same lakeside view as the living room.

He pulled the door shut behind him and looked around.

A roll-top desk and leather office chair sat in one corner.

Indiana went immediately to the desk, but it was locked, of course.

He looked around for the obvious place to hide the key, and saw the little black book - the one Kitt had retrieved for Travers at the restaurant - sitting on the bedside table.

Wondering if the book might contain a clue to the whereabouts of the key, he picked it up.

The first page was just a strange list of abbreviations and numbers. Indy wondered what they might mean.

He thumbed through and randomly came to a page with words.

May - DeBeers stock to split - via Charles H. Board mtg 3/5

DeBeers… It must have been what Rex was talking about.

He scanned the rest of the page and flipped to the next one, scanned it, and moved on to the one after that.

The sound of footsteps didn’t reach his ears until it was too late.

He had thought it was a good thing that the door opened silently. But now someone was right behind him in this massive room.

Quickly, he slipped the book back onto the table and turned, bracing himself for Travers to punch him in the face.

But it wasn’t Travers.

Michaela stood before him instead. Her drink tray was gone. And her green eyes were twinkling.

“Hey, big guy,” she said.

“I-uh, I was looking for the bathroom,” Indiana stammered.

“Well, you found something better,” she murmured and ran a hand up his chest.

“What did I find?” he asked, mystified, and hoping she didn’t mean the book with all the numbers in it. She didn’t look angry, so perhaps she wasn’t loyal to her employer.

She didn’t answer. Instead, she removed her hand from his chest and moved it slowly to her own, and began to unbutton her blouse from the top.

Oh.

Indiana was flattered that this woman wished to mate with him, but he had already selected Nikki as his mate, whether she would have him or not.

“Michaela,” a voice said from the hallway.

“Damn it,” she muttered.

“Coming,” she called back.

“We’ll finish this later,” she whispered.

She slipped out the door before he could say another word.

He waited five seconds and then followed, grateful that no one was in the hallway.

When he got back to the living room, the players were taking a break.

“You get lost back there, boy?” Travers chuckled.

Indiana laughed too.

Michaela looked up at him from where she was pouring drinks in the kitchen, grinned and winked.

He had hoped to get back into the room and read more of the little book. But there was no way he was going to get anything more tonight with Travers noting his absence and the server clearly expecting to mate with him if he got cut off from the herd again.

Of course he would remember all he had seen already.

He only hoped it would be enough.