It was a stab, but it found its mark, for her breath paused, then resumed.
“You’ve no proof I did that,” she said.
“Well,Idon’t, but the police have an eyewitness,” I said. “He can identify you, once you’re found. So if anything happens to me, there will be a letter that will land at Scotland Yard giving your name and a photograph.”
She looked incredulous. “You’ve no photograph of me!”
“My ma did,” I replied, passing the lie as well as I knew how. “I’ve no idea where she got it, but there’s four of you. You’re sitting next to Fanny’s mum, June. Billy was in it, too, standing behind you, looking to be about thirteen, and there was a man. Tim Lowry. It was taken when you were an actress.”
This shot told, too. Her lips parted.
“And if Sarah isn’t returned to me alive, I will tell the police that I nicked the three gems at your demand, and the jeweler wasn’t to blame,” I said. “So your revenge will fail.”
“You can’t do that,” she said dismissively. “You’ll hang.”
My two hands hard around the top of the chair, I leaned in. “When will you understand I don’tcare? Love isnotjust a long con for me. For God’s sake, you’recountingon that!”
“I’ve no doubt you love her! But not as much as your own neck.”
“I would risk mine to save hers.”
Her jaw came out, jutting stubbornly. “This is a stupid conversation. I’ve no reason to harm Sarah or you. Why would I? Annie was decent to me. You’re a tool for this, nothing more.”
A tool that knows what you’ve done, I thought.
“Fine.” I crossed my arms. “Then tell me. On the day we thieved together, why didn’t you tell me my mother was your jenny?”
“Because it was clear you didn’t trust me, and I didn’t want you to make anything of it.”
“When did you learn Rose informed on you to the police?”
“At the trial,” she said. “As soon as they mentioned the hotel by name.”
“You didn’t expect it, did you? That Rose would do such a thing.”
Maggie rubbed her thumb over a nick in the desk’s surface, back and forth, like she was sanding it smooth. “We were friends, rather like you and Mary Pratt,” she said, her voice brittle. “We slept in the same bed. We sat together at night, mending our pockets or our hems, drank together in the taproom, played cards, flirted with young men so they’d buy us pints. There used to be a man named Winkie John with only one eye who played the fiddle some nights, and we’d dance. We looked out for each other. No man could get the better of either of us, if the other was around.” She laid her palm over the nicked wood. “Then along came Tim Lowry. He was shiftless and useless as every other Castle man, and he wouldn’t let me alone. But he was handsome, and she wanted him.” She shrugged, and I could guess the rest.
The door swung open, and Billy reappeared. He handed the note to Maggie, who read it and passed it to me.
I’m alive, Kit. Please be careful.
It was Sarah’s tidy writing, familiar as my own hand. I looked up to find Maggie’s eyes narrowed.
I folded the page and tucked it into my pocket. “All right, Maggie. You’ve got me. Now what?”
“Tomorrow, you’ll go to Seamus’s shop to start preparing your tools and stones,” she answered. “I’ll see you on Sunday morning, here.” She laid both hands flat on the desk and pushed herself to standing. “Needless to say, you tell no one about any of this.”
“I’m not a fool.”
I turned away, left the room, and started down the stairs, cold running over me, scalp to arms.
I made it halfway down before I had to stop, my courage falling away. I set my spine against the wall, for my legs would no longer hold me.
Two deep breaths.Steady, Kit, I told myself.
I drew one more deep breath and kept on.
My fear for Sarah made me clumsy, tripped me down the final steps. Numbly, I made my way through the taproom, opened the front door, rounded a corner, and took refuge in a dark alley that ran beside the inn. A cat slithered around a dustbin with a mouse screeching and writhing in its mouth. I closed my eyes, pressing my spine into bricks this time, imagining Sarah, caught and terrified. Likely bound to a chair or bed and gagged so she couldn’t cry out. But alive. And at least she knew that I knew and was doing what I could. She wasn’t alone anymore.
