“I don’t know any Mr. Elmendorf.”
“Just like I’m sure you’re going to claim you don’t know Lottie McBriar, even though we’re aware she works for you and was sent to take up a position with Sophia Campanini with orders to steal a journal. She was clearly unsuccessful with that, but she did succeed with uncovering the combination to Sophia’s safe, didn’t she?”
“I don’t know Lottie McBriar.”
Adelaide smiled. “Now, Frank, lying is not going to aid your case, and know that it’s an easy matter to verify you’re lying since Lottie’s here, right at this very moment, and can certainly clear up whether or not she works for you.”
She glanced around, her smile fading a second later. “WhereisLottie?”
“I saw her hightail it through the front door a second after the bullets began flying, but not before she grabbed something from the table,” Vernon said from where he was keeping his cane, one that had a sharp blade attached to the end of it, trained on Bernie.
“The diary,” Adelaide muttered, glancing to the table before she blew out a breath. “And doesn’t that complicate matters, but we’ll have to deal with that later.” She turned to Gideon. “Would it be alright with you if I take another few minutes to delve into a more in-depth interrogation with Frank? He really hasn’t been as forthcoming as he could be, and I’m finding that rather annoying.”
“Annoyance can be a constant companion in the intrigue business,” he said.
“I see that now, but you know how irritable I become when I’m in an annoyed state.” Her lips began to curve again. “I’m certain uncovering at least a few answers will have my annoyance decreasing, but besides that, this may be the only opportunity I’ll ever have to fully interrogate a known criminal, and you wouldn’t want to deprive me of that, would you?”
He fought the most unusual urge to laugh. “I don’t suppose asking Frank a few more questions could hurt, but you might want to make it quick. You did, after all, shoot Frank, and we probably should get him to a hospital soon.”
“Too right we should,” Frank agreed, earning a roll of the eyes from Adelaide before she grabbed hold of a chair, dragged it over to Frank, pulled the pepperbox from her pocket, then took a seat.
“If you haven’t realized this, Mr. Fitzsimmons, or ... shall I call you Frank?” she asked.
“Frank’s fine, but you have me at a disadvantage because I have no idea who you are.”
“I’m simply the lady who’s determined to get to the bottom of what led to the events of this evening.”
When Frank settled a scowl on her, Adelaide’s lips twitched before she cocked her head to the right. “Where was I going with all this?” she began. “Oh, yes, your injury, which I’m going to assume isn’t as dire as you believe, otherwise you’d already be on your way to a doctor because we, unlike you, aren’t monsters.”
“The pain I’m in suggests otherwise,” Frank muttered.
“Pain that will be addressed just as soon as you answer my questions.” She gave the pepperbox a tap. “I should disclose, before I begin, that I’m a novice with weapons. I’ve been known to fire off weapons unintentionally, which should provide you with the proper incentive to tell me the truth.”
“Are you sure that’s even armed?” Frank asked. “It’s a five shot. I would think you fired all those rounds earlier.”
She shrugged. “Perhaps I did, or perhaps I only shot four rounds, which would leave me one. And while hitting you earlier was not exactly intentional on my part, I doubt I’d be able to miss now, given my close vicinity to you.” She inclined her head. “With that out of the way, on to my questions. I’m curious as to why there’s still such interest in that diary. One would assume that whoever left that cipher code in it—and yes, we do know there was a cipher—would have re-sent it.”
“How’d you know about the cipher? That diary was still in its wrappings.”
“I’m clever” was all Adelaide said to that before she arched a brow at Frank and simply waited.
After a full minute passed, Frank blew out a breath. “The idiot who created the cipher got himself arrested not long after he placed it in the diary. He then started a fight while in jail and was thrown into solitary confinement. He hasn’t been able to smuggle another cipher out of jail to replace the one that was lost or to even send the numbers I had Lottie leave in this store for him to retrieve.”
“Ah, so Lottie does work for you. But why didn’t she keep a copy of the combination to prevent this unlikely situation happening in the first place?”
Frank released a grunt, probably because he’d not been intending on admitting Lottie worked for him. “Maybe she knows that keeping information like that could be incriminating evidence if she ever got caught.”
“Or you told her to destroy the combination after she left it for someone to fetch in this store, an order that I would assume was given to alleviate the possibility that Lottie would sell the combination to a rival crime boss.”
“She wouldn’t dare.”
Adelaide tilted her head. “Ah, so she’s afraid of you, which explains why she obeyed your order and didn’t hide a copy of the combination somewhere just in case.”
“I do hold the reputation of being the most frightening man on the streets these days,” Frank admitted, a distinct trace of smugness in his tone.
A snort from Bernie drew Gideon’s attention.
“Was there something you wanted to add to the conversation?” Gideon asked him.
