The Lions of Fifth Avenue

Sadie attends a memorial gathering at Lonnie’s house. Perusing old photographs, she remembers, at eight years old, discovering her father, dead in the bathroom. Lonnie recalls Pearl’s final moments—seemingly lucid—in which she recalls leaving the library residence “because of the burning book” (80), an eerie echo of her last words to Sadie: “Don’t burn it. Whatever you do, don’t burn it” (68).

Sadie spends her Saturday searching the Lyons’s files for anything she might include in the exhibition. She finds Jack’s old calendar, and its last entry contains three words: “stepladder, rope, note” (83). She wonders if her grandfather died by suicide. The circumstances of Jack’s death and the family’s leaving the library are still unknown.

On Monday, Sadie visits Mr. Babenko in the “Binding and Processing” room. She tells him of the missing diary and asks for advice. He argues that “the people closest to the Berg Collection [are] the prime suspects” (87), including herself.

Laura, blocked from escape by the burly husband, identifies herself as a student reporter, which only infuriates the man more. When he threatens to “toss this one out the window” (88), a tall, commanding woman appears in the doorway. The room immediately defers to her authority. She dismisses everyone but herself, the mother, and Laura. She urges Laura to write about what she’s seen because no one else will. The woman, Dr. Amelia Potter, is part of a city-funded, infant care initiative. She coaches new mothers on the most effective post-natal practices. The program has been hugely successful, but the press has ignored the story.

As she and Amelia walk to the train together, Laura realizes they were classmates from her undergraduate days at Vassar. Amelia invites her to the “Heterodoxy Club,” a luncheon “for women who aren’t afraid to speak their minds” (93). She returns to Columbia, writes the article, and her advisor, Dr. Wakeman, promises to run it on the front page.

On Christmas Eve, Jack and Laura visit her parents, Laura determined to ask them for tuition money. Her father is reluctant, arguing that she should stay home and raise the children. She explains the importance of her work, but he denies her request. As they leave, Laura’s mother furtively passes her engagement ring to her, instructing her to sell it for the tuition money.

Back at the library, Jack and Laura meet Dr. Anderson and Edwin Gaillard. Anderson reports another book theft: Edgar Allan Poe’s Tamerlane. Two days later, Jack and Laura inspect the “cages,” the locked areas where rare books are kept, but there is no sign of tampering.

Laura heads to Greenwich Village to meet the Heterodoxy Club—in whom she sees potential for her graduate thesis—but all conversations are considered “off the record” (108). Topics include contraception, free love, and a woman’s right to vote. She reasons that since her thesis won’t be published, she is not violating any rules, and after several hours of lively debate, “the thesis was practically writing itself in her head” (112).

After the meeting, Laura accompanies Amelia back to her apartment where she regales Laura with her on-the-job exploits (delivering a baby while fending off an assault from their drunken father). She meets Jessie, Amelia’s lover; Laura is taken aback but also intrigued by Amelia’s bohemian lifestyle. As she discusses her own life, she finds she is not as satisfied as she had thought.

At the library, Sadie meets Nick Adriano, a security consultant hired to assist in the investigation of stolen books. He asks when she saw the diary last, and she wonders what Claude may have said to Nick during his interview. At a cocktail party for donors, Dr. Hooper approaches Sadie and Nick to inform them of another theft—a first edition of The Scarlett Letter, stolen from the cage. Since Claude was the last person to handle it, Nick confiscates his key. Sadie then shows Nick an early draft of Leaves of Grass to acquaint him with the Berg Collection.

The next morning, Nick visits Mr. Babenko in the book binding department and reports a spate of book thefts over the decades. He mentions the Tamerlane theft and the implication of Jack Lyons as a suspect. Babenko then checks off a list of bookstores “that have been flagged for purchasing stolen items in the past” (130-31).