The Geographer's Library

The Geographer’ s Library
a confidential informant in Boston, agents apprehended Josef Khlopikov, an
employee of a well-known courier firm that had responsibility for safely
transporting the contents of the exhibit from the private air terminal at Logan
to the Wickenden Fine Arts Museum. Agents followed Khlopikov from his
Dorchester apartment to the terminal, where he was observed opening crate
number twenty-seven, removing package number ninety-one, and secreting it
in the pocket of his overalls. Immediately thereafter, agents Williams, Szalai,
and Tadaki apprehended the suspect and took him to the federal detention
facility in Springfield, Mass.’
“Now, this is where it gets interesting. It appears Khlopikov tried to cop a
plea. Any guesses what he said?” Gomes looked at me, and I shrugged. He
looked at Jadid, who made a circular little “get on with it” motion with his hand.
“Patience is a virtue, you know. Mr. Khlopikov said he was carrying out
the theft on the orders of one Jaan Pühapäev, professor of history and East
European studies at Wickenden University. Mr. Khlopikov said the professor
promised him one million dollars in bearer bonds. Mr. Khlopikov said that
the professor told him that these rubies possessed some sort of magical
power, but that only he knew how to use them. Convenient. Sounds like bullshit,
naturally, to us right-thinking educated gentlemen, but notes here say
Khlopikov was terrified. Said he only gave it up when they threatened to
deport not just him but both his parents, his sister, and his nieces too.
“Anyway, Williams and Szalai visited Professor Pühapäev at his place of
residence in Lincoln, Connecticut, where, naturally, the absentminded professor
professed total ignorance of any traveling exhibition of Iranian jewels,
any Josef Khlopikov, and any plot to steal any rubies. Washington told him to
be prepared to come down to the Bureau in Boston for questioning. Three
days later the Bureau office gets a letter from a lawyer claiming that Pühapäev
is the innocent victim of a setup, that the Russian mafia organized the theft
and picked Pühapäev as a patsy. My client is an immigrant, the letter says, a
professor, unworldly, without family or close friends, consequently making
him an easy mark for these sophisticated criminals—”
“This attorney,” I interrupted. “Was he named Vernum Sickle?”
“Yeah, Sickie Sickle all right,” Gomes answered. “You want my opinion,
if Sickle’s defending someone, it means two things: he’s guilty and he’s
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