Since Sheri has taken Clea off of Jake's case, the Bohms and Clea have to meet clandestinely to figure out what and who Sheri is hiding behind the locked room 6 door, and to decipher Arthur's mound of research. Clea is initially tasked with the latter job as Martin once again is preoccupied by Jake's wanderings. Martin encounters a thirteen year old black youth named Elliot Demar, who has just committed a robbery at gunpoint. But Martin can see that the robbery is just a means of survival as he is the sole caregiver to his disabled older brother, Andres Demar. But Elliot is not divulging the entire story, which includes his dealings with his parole officer, John Tenney. The story also involves a rare musical instrument seller, a lovestruck street guitarist in Brazil and the object of his affections, a café owner whose business is all she has left of her family but who is having troubles making ends meet running it. Meanwhile, Clea unexpectedly meets someone at Arthur's office, namely his roommate, an Orthodox Jewish diamond dealer named Abraham, who knows of Arthur's work and who makes a contact into Clea and the Bohm's lives now that Arthur is dead.
—Huggo