The night was as still as water, with a half-moon in the sky and stars like diamonds.
The lights in the row of red-brick buildings at the Conservatory of Music had all gone out. A dark figure darted through the trees, leaping like a ghost onto the second-floor balcony of Professor Edison Holden's house.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK, KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. The sound of knocking on the window, twice in a pattern of three.
Ivy Holden suddenly jumped up from her bed and coughed softly from behind the curtains.
"It's me." Bill Holden's voice came from the crack in the window.
Ivy Holden pulled open the balcony door to let him in.
"How did it go?" Ivy Holden kicked her computer chair over to Bill Holden.
"I didn't get what you wanted. All I got was a bunch of random gossip." Bill Holden took a small USB drive from his breast pocket and handed it to Ivy Holden.
