Orensen waved goodbye and Ramsey watched him cross the street to his car parked in front of the historic Louis Sullivan Jewel Box Bank. The bank’s odd diamond-like façade was a city landmark. The Masonic-looking emblem seemed to point its tip right at the professor. Ramsey shook his head. The synchronicity contained in his friend’s story and its connection to the shrine gave him a new jolt of energy. He checked his watch. The call to Des Moines would have to wait. He ordered a cup of coffee. He needed some time to think about all the coincidences that had led up to this point, coincidences that went back twenty years to a meeting with Orensen in his office.
Sitting behind a huge desk, littered with papers, tapes, post-it-notes, and strange curios, Professor Orensen had said, “I suspect yo
