Something professional, Grace noted. But why couldn’t she discuss it that night? Because it was dangerous? Because the person she had met in the Tunnels was also there at the party? Could it have been the singer Ethel Adams? The talent manager? That man who had approached her at the restaurant?
Surelysomeonein the Tunnels must have seen who Harriet was meeting that day.
“Perhaps this was nothing but a tragic accident,” Grace said to Oliver. “Perhaps the autopsy results will clear you.”
He nodded, as though trying to appear hopeful for her sake. But the cousin she knew had faded into a wisp of shadow.
When their visit ended, the clerk escorted them out. Earnest tried to cheer Lillie, but it grated on Grace’s nerves. For once she was grateful for Theo’s dark, silent stoicism. As they waited for the carriage, a boy began to set up his newspaper wagon on the opposite corner.
“Papers!” he yelled. He waved a copy in the air. “Special edition!”
Lillie paled. She clutched Grace’s hand, trying to read the screaming headline at the corner newsstand. “Look at the size of the font. There must be news.”
She started to run forward, but Theo stopped her.
“Let someone else,” he said gently.
“I’ll go,” Grace said. Earnest came with her and they strode over the gravel streets, kicking up dust in their haste.
Grace’s hands trembled as she paid for the paper, taking the thin newsprint between her fingers. Letting the news sink through her.
“Oh, Oliver,” she breathed.
“What does it say?” Earnest asked, his voice soft behind her.
She handed him the paper.
STRYCHNINE POISONING! ACTRESS’S AUTOPSY CONFIRMS MURDER
“So Harriet was, in fact, poisoned,” Earnest said.
Grace took in a deep breath. “And now they are really going to go after Oliver for her murder.”
Earnest looked at Grace with a growing unease.
“But we both know he didn’t do it,” he said slowly.
“Yes,” Grace said, swallowing. “Which means the real murderer is still out there.”
Grace believed, deep down, that Oliver couldn’t have done this.
But she remembered, clear as day, him handing Harriet the glass just before she died. And she knew that meant that dozens of others did, too.
“We have to go to the Tunnels,” she said. “Maybe someone saw who Harriet was speaking to that morning.”
“Absolutely not,” Earnest said. “I know I sound like Frannie, but no self-respecting lady can go into the Tunnels.”
“Well, I’ve already been once before. I followed Harriet. It’s my fault they were fighting before she died. I told him she had gone to the Tunnels and he confronted her. I have to do this for Oliver. And, with all due respect, no one here is going to stop me.”
Earnest shook his head. “But think of Lillie. I’d argue that she can’t be seen there. There are too many people who might recognize her. They’ll jump to conclusions. Think she’s… self-medicating after what’s happened.”
Lillie stuck out her chin. “I don’t care about any of that. Not if it helps Oliver.”
“Listen. I’m meant to meet Copper and Frannie at the Olympic track today so Copper can train. We could go talk to them. Ask them what they saw,” Earnest said.
“I’ll go with Grace,” Theo offered quietly.
A look of anger and sadness flashed in Lillie’s eyes. She pulled Grace to the side. “No more secrets between us,” she said. “Us and everyone else—yes. But none between you and me.”
