86

The gallery was called the Art Ark. There were no lights on in the store, but there was a light in the window on the second floor. Vincent pounded hard on the door. After a while a woman’s voice, coming from behind the drawn curtain on the door, said, “We’re closed.”

“We’re the police,” Vincent said. “We need to talk to you.”

The curtain pulled to the side a few inches. “You don’t work for Sheriff Toomey,” the woman said. “I’m going to call him.”

“We’re with the Philadelphia PD, ma’am,” Byrne said, stepping between Vincent and the door. They were about a second or two away from Vincent knocking the door down, along with what sounded like an elderly woman behind it. Byrne held up his badge. A flashlight shone through the glass. A few seconds later, lights came on inside the store.

“THEY WERE HERE this afternoon,” Nadine Palmer said. In her sixties, she wore a red terry cloth robe and Birkenstocks. She had offered them both coffee, which they declined. The TV was on in the corner of the store, another showing of It’s a Wonderful Life.

“They had a picture of a farmhouse,” Nadine said. “Said they were looking for it. My nephew Ben took them up there.”

“Is this the house?” Byrne asked, showing her the picture.

“That’s the one.”

“Is your nephew here now?”

“No. It’s New Year’s Eve, young man. He’s with his friends.”

“Can you tell us how to get there?” Vincent asked. He was pacing, tapping his fingers on the counter, all but vibrating.

The woman looked at them both a little skeptically. “Lots of interest in that old farmhouse of late. Is there something going on I should know about?”

“Ma’am, it’s extremely important we get up to that house right now,” Byrne said.

The woman took another few seconds, just for country effect. Then she pulled out a sketchpad and uncapped a pen.

While she drew the map, Byrne glanced at the television in the corner. The movie had been interrupted by a news bulletin on WFMZ, Channel 69. When Byrne saw the subject of the report his heart sank. It was about a murdered woman. A murdered woman who’d just been found on the bank of the Schuylkill River.

“Could you turn that up, please?” Byrne asked.

Nadine turned up the volume.

“—the young woman has been identified as Sa’mantha Fanning of Philadelphia. She had been the subject of an intensive search by local and federal authorities. Her body was found on the eastern bank of the Schuylkill River, near Leesport. More details as we have them.”

Byrne knew they were not far from the crime scene, but there was nothing they could do from here. They were way out of their jurisdiction. He called Ike Buchanan at home. Ike would contact the district attorney of Berks County.

Byrne took the map from Nadine Palmer. “We appreciate this. Thank you very much.”

“Hope it helps,” Nadine said.

Vincent was already out the door. As Byrne turned to leave, a rack of postcards caught his eye, postcards depicting displays of fairy-tale characters—life-size exhibits with what looked like real people in costumes.

Thumbelina. The Little Mermaid. The Princess and the Pea.

“What are these?” Byrne asked.

“Those are vintage postcards,” Nadine said.

“This was a real place?”

“Oh, sure. It used to be a sort of theme park. Kinda big in the 1940s and 1950s. Pennsylvania had a lot of them in those days.”

“Is it still open?”

“No, sorry to say. In fact, they’re tearing it down in a few weeks. It hasn’t been open in years. I thought you knew about it.”

“What do you mean?”

“The farmhouse you’re looking for?”

“What about it?”

“StoryBook River is about a quarter mile away. It’s been in the Damgaard family for years.”

The name slammed into his brain. Byrne ran out of the store, jumped into the car.

As Vincent sped off, Byrne took out the computer printout Tony Park had compiled, the list of patients from the county mental-health clinic. In seconds, he found what he was looking for.

One of Lisette Simon’s patients was a man named Marius Damgaard.

Detective Kevin Byrne understood. It was all part of the same evil, an evil that had begun on a bright spring day in April 1995. A day when two little girls had wandered into the forest.

And now Jessica Balzano and Nicci Malone were caught in the fable.