Swamped

"There's..." He pauses. "There's a certain performance that my partner has taken an interest in. He took me to see it and, well, there was a bit of a fracas afterwards. Rowdy drunks. But what's relevant here is that the, ahem, show is set a few decades back. The central character is a particularly miserly merchant. In one of the early scenes, Matilda Laikenne swindles him out of a good deal of money."

"So which side does this show take in the debate on her?" you ask.

"Very firmly in her favor. The whole thing ends up being the first step in opening his heart and making him a better person. But the part that seems worth mentioning is this: part of how she convinces him involves using a book to perform magic."

You suddenly feel foolish. You know full well about using books to store spells - why didn't you check that once you recognized these as a book?

But not that foolish, after a little more thought. There's no ether signature, and you checked the room earlier. Besides, these are copied pages. Any spell would be in the original...

And the missing page might hold some clue to where the original is. That's a possible motive, anyway.

"So maybe the real Matilda was a wizard?" you ask.

"I couldn't say. It certainly didn't seem that historical accuracy was their primary concern, but it might have come from rumors about her, and those rumors might - I emphasize might - have some basis in fact. At the very least, our thief might think that."

"Where was this?" you ask. "When I'm released, I might want to go there and ask the producers some questions."

"Ah," the doctor says. "I didn't pay much attention to the name of the place."

Which you suspect really means he doesn't want to talk about it.

"But I did notice that the actor portraying Matilda was listed on the program as sharing her surname. I took it for a psuedonym at the time, but I realize that I don't know for sure. Even if it is, you might be able to find them by asking around about someone who goes by Laikenne."

As long as you ask someone who isn't as easily embarrassed as this poor fellow.

Before you can ask anything more, he quickly picks up the sign.

"I'll just go and hang this up," he says.

You nod absentmindedly. You're not sure what to do next.

Well, until you glance at the window and see Sunflower gesturing intently. You should probably have a word with him.