The first of the four names on the list was:
Thomas Wheeler.
A name unknown to the literary world, he frequently appeared in the margins of old publications, often as a ghost editor at Interos.
Ella searched newspaper archives and found a single photograph of Thomas at a 2003 symposium: a bald man with round-rimmed glasses and pale skin, as if the light could not penetrate his skin. He resembled the margins of unpublished books.
She found his address in old records at the publishing house and visited him that evening in a southern London neighborhood.
An elderly woman opened the door and stared at her for a long time.
"Thomas? No... He died two years ago. I'm his sister. Who are you?"
Ella held up her old police badge and spoke gently about a cultural investigation into Leonard Graves. Upon hearing the name, the old woman's face contracted, as if she'd heard a name that had taken her from another time.
She said,
"Thomas loved him... in a complicated way. He once told me that Leonard saved him... and then destroyed him."
She entered and sat in a room filled with unorganized books. On the shelf was a photo of Thomas in his youth, and beside him was a man... who looked familiar.
It was Leonard.
I asked her, "Any of his papers left?"
She took out a small, dusty folder, which looked as if no one had opened it in a long time.
Inside the folder, Ella found a note with a single line in Thomas's handwriting:
"I was presented, then he was presented... on a clay platter."
In a small envelope next to her was an old, torn piece of paper, apparently from a closed-door meeting at the publishing house Interos, dated 2001.
It bore five signatures and a cryptic phrase:
"We agree to publish... without citing the original source."
Silence.
Five? As in the list.
But what literary work was published without credit for its source?
And was Leonard the source? Was a manuscript stolen? An idea? Or was he a witness to the theft?
Before she left, the sister asked her:
"Do you think Thomas's death was...unnatural?"
Ella hesitated, then replied:
"I think someone was trying to rewrite an old chapter...but this time, in red ink."
Ella left the house, a voice in her heart saying:
"Someone is rearranging the stage...but this time, they want the entire audience to hear. The crime isn't over...it's just beginning again."
11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEqLutjwqch
