“What? That’s what happened.”
“But do you have to be so graphic? It was anaccident.”
“Okay, sorry. Before Grant gently discouraged him from being alive.” I glance back at Grant. “Better?”
“No,” he says, his face in his hands.
Lesley waves us off. “Listen, I don’t care if you put him througha wood chipper or sang him to sleep on a sinking ship. The point is: You caught him. You did what we couldn’t. Now, ideally you’d stop short of fatality and get some information out of the scumbag. But that’s what next time is for.”
Grant emits a strangled sound through his hands.
“Next time,” I repeat, a fizzy sense of anticipation building in my stomach.
“That’s the best bit,” says Lissa. “There’s going to be a murder in London, where it all began, in two days.”
“Mr. Page is bringing it home, baby,” says Lesley, arms raised in triumph. “Andyoucan help us take him down. The Dynamic Duo. The Tenacious Twosome. The Avengers.”
“That’s already a thing,” points out Lissa.
“TheOtherAvengers.”
Grant wearily scrubs his hands over his face. “This has all been a mistake. We don’t even know each other. I’m only here because she hijacked my Uber last night!”
“Even so, think of all you two have done so far,” Lesley says. “Escaping a murderer, twice over. Thwarting his plot. You’ve got excellent getaway car skills. Good aim with a gun—as a projectile, anyway. And carjacking? Very cool.”
“I told you,” I hiss at Grant.
“Shh,” he cuts back.
“For randos who crossed paths by chance, you two make a solid team,” says Lissa. “And we want you on ours. All you have to do is pose as the would-be victims; once you’ve been targeted, you’ll turn the tables on them and we’ll take over for questioning.”
Grant snorts. “Oh, well, if that’sallwe have to do.”
I cross my arms. “Why should we help you?”
Lesley shrugs. “Justice? Morality? Free trip to London, I suppose?”
It’s that last part, meant facetiously, that cuts off my retortand stops me in my tracks. Because unbeknownst to Lesley, he’s just said exactly the right thing.
• • •
“IT’S A NO-BRAINER.So explain to me why you look like you’re having second thoughts, or an aneurysm.”
Grant and I have stepped outside to discuss Lesley’s invitation in private. As a formality, or so I thought. London is where Anna Matthews is. London is the key to escaping this story. What could be an easier yes?
According to Grant, literally anything else.
“We don’t even know them,” he says, looking like he’s fending off a nosebleed. “We can’t just run off with them.”
“I mean, we kind of know them,” I point out. “He might be Banksy.”
“He’s not Banksy.”
“You’re the one who said we should go with them in the first place,” I remind him.
“Yeah, to the coffee shop around the corner! Not across the Atlantic. All I’m saying is this is a serious decision. We have lives and responsibilities. What will people think if we just disappear on a whim?”
Again with the responsibilities.Blah.Something occurs to me for the first time. “What, do you have a girlfriend you don’t want to leave behind?”
