The Lincoln Highway

In Manhattan, Duchess has arrived at the Sunshine Hotel, the less than reputable establishment where Duchess lived with his father for four years before his incarceration at Salina. Two years have passed since they have seen one another, but when Duchess knocks on the door of room 42, he is surprised when a stranger answers the door. The old man doesn’t know Duchess’s father or where he has gone, but he presents Duchess with a box that his father left behind in the room. It is one of six boxes his father possessed, each containing the personal effects of a different Shakespearean lead his father portrayed. This box is labeled O for Othello, and it houses a dagger, an earring, stage makeup, and a false goatee. These boxes were precious to his father, especially this box from Othello, so Duchess knows if it has been left behind, it can only mean his father departed with haste.

The man currently inhabiting the room has only been living there since Monday, and Duchess suspects his father vacated the room after a call from Salina alerted to him to his son’s escape. As he is leaving, Duchess stops by room 49, one that he knows well, lingering for a moment in the open door before going to find Woolly in the lobby.