“You can crack a safe?” Lyra asked, impressed.
He glanced at the imposing steel safe in the corner and shrugged. “It looks like a standard combination lock. Shouldn’t be a problem.”
Lyra set the briefcase down with a small sigh of relief. “So many things for me to learn.”
“I wouldn’t put safecracking at the top of your list of priorities.”
“Why not?”
“It’s illegal, for one thing.”
“Details.”
She opened the first drawer of the cabinet and started flipping quickly through the file folders. Most were clearly labeled with names.
“Client files,” she announced. “Names. Dates. Services purchased and how much was spent on products.”
Simon looked up from a desk drawer. “Is there a file for Granville or Angela Merryweather?”
“Good question.” Lyra swept the flashlight beam across the neatly labeled tabs. “No.”
“Is there a file on you?”
“That,” she said, “is also an interesting question. Yes, here I am.” She plucked the folder out of the drawer and flipped it open. “Looks like the others. My name, the services I received, and the products I bought. There is also a note that I requested Miss Frampton for my facial. It’s underlined.”
“Anything else?”
“Such as the fact that I was scheduled to be steamed to death? Nope.”
“Locking you in the steam chamber was a last-minute impulse on someone’s part. There wasn’t time to come up with a smart plan.” Simon paused. “Huh.”
Lyra glanced at him and saw that he was using his flashlight to study the desk calendar. “Find something interesting?”
“Maybe. There’s a note here about ordering supplies for tea.”
“Madam Guppy brews her own special teas for clients. I was given some to drink shortly before I went into the steam chamber. I didn’t like it, so I tossed most of it into a potted plant. There was another pitcher of the stuff in the chamber, but I didn’t drink any.”
“Who gave you the tea?”
There was a sharp edge to the question.
“Miss Frampton, the facial treatment lady. Why?”
“A few months back I had a case involving a chemist who was obsessed with ancient herbals. He was dealing his own homemade tonics to a select clientele. They all died what appeared to be natural deaths.”
Shock lanced through Lyra. “Good grief, are you talking about the murderer the press called the Mad Chemist? The fake doctor who claimed to have found a cure for diseases of the lungs? McSomething?”
“McGruder. I was able to convince him to hire me to find a particularly rare edition ofCulpeper’s Complete Herbal. I learned a lot when I did the research for that case.”
“The press said the FBI cracked that case.”
“The Bureau asked Luther to handle it. He always gives the credit to the local police or the FBI. The last thing he wants is publicity for Failure Analysis.”
“He gave the McGruder case to you?”
“We worked it together.” Simon tapped the desk calendar. “Like I said, I learned a lot. At least two of the ingredients on this list are strong enough to knock you out. There are also some very interesting plants and mushrooms, the kind that can produce visions, if you know how to use them.”
“The tea,” Lyra whispered. “I was drugged before I went into the steam chamber.”
