Page 84 of No Escape

Winston pulled some more books from the shelves, dropping them down. There were chimes for each one, but nothing else happened. “I just got rid of Francis Ford Coppola, Homer, and Tomie dePaola,” he called out. “I don’t see any more suspect books. Everything else seems legit.”

“You must have missed something,” Vittoria insisted. “Start over.”

Winston shook out his arms and started back at the far side of the shelf. After a moment, he stopped. “Was Archimedes Italian? I thought he lived in Sicily. Doesn’t that count as Italy?”

“You’re mistaken,” Father Armando yelled from across the room. “Archimedes is Greek.”

Shrugging, Winston pulled out the book, and another chime sounded. Suddenly, the sign that identified the “Italian Masters” section swung up, revealing a secret niche underneath.

“Look! We did it,” Vittoria shouted, pointing to the niche. “Winston, can you see what’s in there?”

“Gio, can you move the ladder over?” Winston asked.

I unlocked the ladder, pushing it until Winston could reach the hole beneath the sign. He stuck his hand in the niche and pulled out a light-blue weight and a rolled-up piece of paper. “Another weight,” he called out. “We’re making progress.”

“Great. Come back down carefully.” I spotted him until he climbed off and handed me the weight.

“Another number-four weight.” I walked it over to the scale table and set it next to the scale.

Winston unrolled the paper and read aloud, “What’s greater than God? / More evil than Satan. / The poor have it, the rich need it, / And if you eat it you will die.”

I sighed. “Riddles. I hate riddles. I can never figure them out. And now they want me to figure out a riddle in English?”

“I’m good with riddles,” Clarissa offered, standing next to her husband while reading the riddle. “Let me have a go.”

“Could it be a play on the letters?” Alessa asked. “Sometimes if you take the first letter of every sentence, it forms a word.” She stared at the words, trying to make sense of the letters.

“Maybe, but I think the key to solving riddles is to focus on one part and use that to find something in common with the rest,” Stefan said.

“What do the poor have that the rich need?” Father Armando mused aloud.

“I personally think the not-eating part must be the important clue in the riddle,” Winston declared. “What things should you not eat? Chemicals, metal, poisonous plants? What do you think, Clarissa?” When she didn’t respond, he repeated himself. “Are you listening, honey?”

She glanced up from the riddle. “I heard you. Nothing is all I can think of.”

Winston looked at her in surprise. “Well, that shocks me. You never give up that easily. Riddles are your thing.”

She patted him on the cheek. “My dearest husband, I’ve already given my answer. The answer to the riddle isnothing. Nothing is greater than God, if you eat nothing you will die, etc.”

For a moment, everyone stared at her before it started to sink in. “She’s right,” I finally said. “Clarissa figured out the riddle. Nothing is the answer.”

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Gio

Stefan glanced at me, puzzled. “The clue is nothing? How does that help us, Gio?”

I tried to think what that might signify but came up with…nothing. “Stefan, go check in the card catalog and see if there’s a book in the library that starts with the wordnothingor has the wordnothingin it.”

“Or a synonym for nothing,” Clarissa suggested. “Wordplays are big in riddles. So, check for words likenil,zilch,zero,zip, ornaught.”

“That’s too many words,” Vittoria complained. “Stefan will be looking in the card catalog forever.”

Something Clarissa said tugged at my memory. Zilch? No, zero. Where had I just seen something mention a zero?

“Wait a minute,” I said, snapping my fingers. “There’s a Japanese airplane in the World War II collection called the Mitsubishi Zero. It’s a long shot, but worth a closer look. I’ll need a ladder to reach it.”

I hurried over to the ladder Winston had just used and pushed it toward the airplane display. Once I got it where I wanted it, I climbed up and carefully lifted the Mitsubishi Zero from the display, handing it down to Winston. “Be careful,” I warned him. “It’s heavy.”

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