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'You looking for the piano, Mr Deverenko?'

An elderly an, was shuffling down the hall towards them

David raised a wordless eyebrohile Clare tried to hide her still manacled wrist in the side-folds of her slinky silk dress

'That's the piano-roorin 'Where we store the Steinway But we haven't brought it down yet It's still on the platform'

'You mean the room is empty?'

'Yep'

'But it's locked'

'Rules I gotta key here' He produced it and they all looked at it in silence The old man's rheumy eyes twinkled when theydown the piano till after your last concert to an empty room'

'I guess there isn't,' said David, and watched him unlock it and re-pocket the key

'Thanks We'll be sure to leave everything the e find it,' David told him, and the old man chuckled

'Ain't anything there to , sir, miss…'

Clare's cheeks were hot as David slid back the wide door and pulled her into the darkness of a less rooht The room was bare, save for a heap of dustsheets untidily folded on the bare polished floor

'You knohat he thought…'

'He thought that ere sneaking away to o at last and she rubbed her lightly throbbing wrist 'Was he so far wrong?'

'I…yes!' Clare put an uneasy few steps between the him warily She didn't know him in this reckless mood