It was obscene, Leo agreed, and as she didn’t wish to criticize Connor’s inability to think on his feet, she let it go.
“He will no doubt send someone in to speak to us,” she said. “Let me do the talking. I’ll think of something.”
Connor whipped off his bowler, agitated. “Sergeant Lewis likely has no idea what we are doing. We’re going to have to extricate ourselves. My God, what was Lydia thinking, going undercover for a story this dangerous. Better yet, what arewethinking?”
He was panicking. But while Leo considered the current situation risky, she didn’t imagine someone would come in here and strangle them as had happened to Lydia. However, she was beginning to sense that their hasty plan to pose as husband and wife trying to purchase opium might be falling apart.
She was about to suggest to Connor that they leave when a door Leo had not noticed on the back wall, papered over with the same dark floral wallpaper, opened. A tall woman with greying blonde hair, upswept in a fashionable twist, and wearing a ruffled dark blue skirt and bodice entered. It was the samewoman who had been speaking to Dita the other day, Mrs. Gleason.
She shut the door behind her. “My floor manager advised me that I should come speak with you. It seems there is some concern over our superior stock?” Her blue eyes, edged by fine lines, narrowed on Leo. They flashed with recognition. “I know you. You were here yesterday. You spoke to Miss Clark in ladies’ fashions.”
Leo was surprised the woman remembered her. She’d hoped she would be forgettable.
“Yes, I believe I was at the ribbon counter,” she confirmed, thinking it better not to lie. “I was impressed by what I saw of the store and thought I’d bring my darling husband. We have a new home to fill, after all.”
Connor had come back toward her upon Mrs. Gleason’s arrival, but his bearing was tense and protective, as if he suspected the woman of something.
“Is that so?” Mrs. Gleason replied, cutting Connor a suspicious glance, then, settling it back on Leo. There was a shift in the air, and Leo knew their ruse was over.
“Miss Clark is working for a detective agency,” the woman said, her stare now hard and businesslike. “Are you as well?”
Leo wasn’t quite ready to give up and, hoping their cover could be salvaged, laughed. “Detective agency? How amusing. You cannot be serious, though. Can you?”
Mrs. Gleason didn’t so much as blink. “How did you hear of our exclusive stock?”
Now, it was Connor who attempted a laugh. “Is it not on view in every display case?”
If possible, her glare would have cut him in half. “Do not play coy. I will ask you once more, how do you know of it?”
Again, Connor began to deny that he knew about what she was speaking, but Leo rested her hand on his arm. She triedto think what Jasper would do in this situation. Intuitively, she suspected he would stop playing games.
“Lydia Hailson told me,” Leo said. And when the tension around Mrs. Gleason’s eyes smoothed with her astonishment, she continued, “Or rather, her article on the drug smuggling operation you are running here did.”
“That is impossible.” Mrs. Gleason looked ill, and her fingers gathered the sides of her skirt, as if preparing to run. “Miss Hailson can’t have published any article.”
“Why not?” Connor asked, no longer sounding nervous over their subterfuge. “Because she is dead?”
Mrs. Gleason sealed her lips into a thin line at his angry question, the revelation that her employee was dead not startling her in the least.
“You know she was murdered,” Leo said. “What did you have to do with it, Mrs. Gleason?”
“Nothing,” she hissed. “I don’t know of what you speak.” She hastened to the door leading out to the department floor. “I demand that you both leave.Now. Before I send for the police.”
Leo stayed where she was. “Scotland Yard is already on their way.” At least, she hoped that Roy Lewis was.
Mrs. Gleason tripped to a stop, her hand already reaching for the doorknob. She lowered it back to her side and then started for the papered-over one. She moved in a panic, starting slow but then picking up speed.
“You cannot escape, Mrs. Gleason,” Leo said. “The police are aware of yoursuperior stock, so to speak.”
The warning did not convince her to stop. As she tore open the door, Leo shook her head. “Connor, go out to the street and summon a constable. Go!”
“What are you doing?” he asked as Leo rushed after Mrs. Gleason. “Wait! Leonora!”
She entered a narrow hall and found her quarry dashing away. Leo set off after her.
“I have all of Lydia Hailson’s research!” she shouted as she hurried to keep the woman in sight. “She knew what you were doing.”
Mrs. Gleason turned at the bend in the corridor, and Leo picked up her pace.
