“If I were to take it during the day, it would have to be when it’s out of the safe being cleaned or repaired,” I replied. “I can’t imagine how to do that, unless it’s at knifepoint. It’s not as though they’ll have the real thing displayed in a case, like a piece for sale.” I bit my lip. “But I think Maggie intends to steal it at night, after the shop is closed. Only the constables are all over Hatton Garden. There’s a swarm of them.”
“Does she know about the constables?”
I spread my hands. “I told her. I might be able to scale the gate that blocks the alley, but I’m rubbish at picking locks beyond the usual ones, and I’ve certainly never cracked a safe. But she has a man who can manage that.” I saw the look he gave. “I don’t know who. She’s only telling me bits and pieces.”
“Hm.” He sat back, resting an elbow on the chair arm, rubbing his mouth with his fingers. “What necklace?”
“It belongs to the Marquess Hargrave. French made, with a ruby the size of your thumb.”
He let out a soft whistle. “No small prize.”
“I know.”
“Where exactly is this jeweler?”
“Do you have some paper and a pen?”
He fetched them for me out of a drawer, and I sketched Hatton Garden, the three main streets and the crosses.
“Here.” I pointed to the southern corner of Hatton Garden Street, which ran down the middle of the rectangle. “Just below Charles. It’s on the east side of the street, so the front door faces west.”
He studied it a moment. “Is Simonson’s part of one building, or its own?”
“It shares with Willingham’s to the north.”
“You probably know that whole area is a rabbit warren of vaults and doors and secret passageways among the buildings,” he said.
My heart skipped. “That’s what I was hoping. You don’t think they’ve crumbled or been bricked up?”
He shrugged. “Some might be but I’m guessing most are still in use, one way or another. Maggie might’ve picked this jeweler because she knows about one that’s still open.”
I frowned, thinking back to what Maggie had said and how she’d said it. “I could be wrong, but I think she picked the necklace first. And I got an odd feeling about it. She sounded ... bitter when she mentioned the marquess’s family. Mocked them for being inDebrett’s.”
“Hm.” He lowered his gaze to my scribbled map. “I imagine most jewelers have Yale locks on the doors, front and back?”
“Simonson’s does. I checked. Two in the back, one in the front.”
“Tell me more about the shop.”
I gave him all the details I’d given Maggie, and I could see him building the shop in his own mind.
“Do you feel you have to do this for her?” he asked. “Or do you want to?”
“She offered me two hundred pounds as my take,” I said.
His eyebrows shot up.
“Iknow.” I hesitated. “I just don’t know how much to trust her. I mean, I’ve told you why I’m leery—not least because she’s tried to gain my trust, flattering me, telling me I’m the best thief she has, confiding in me about her time in Swan River, making me feel sorry for her.” I rubbed my thumb along the end of the wooden arm. It was worn smooth from years of hands curving around it. “But now she’s pushing Mary and Nell out of the ring.”
“Oh.” His face registered dismay.
“So I don’t trust her to look out for me. I think she’s putting together a dodge that ends up with me in prison.”
“All right, then,” he said. “Let’s think on this.”
We were silent for a long minute, and then his face changed.
“What?” I asked.
