The Last of August (Charlotte Holmes #2)(47)

“They are,” he said. “But she’s a teenage girl, and makes mistakes, and—oh, dammit, those emails are private, Jamie. They weren’t meant for you. I’m sorry to put it so plainly, but I need to make you understand. I’m so far away from all of it, and thank God for that, because the last case I took with him? It almost killed us both. I have small children. I live in America. I need that distance, but . . .”

“But you can’t cut him off completely.”

“Yes. Well. Listen, I’ll send you the IP addresses from his last few emails. Maybe Milo’s grunts can make something happen on that front. Hold on—” He covered the receiver with a hand. There was some muffled conversation, and when he got back on, his voice was ridiculously jolly. “Well, son, I’ve been told that I need to go sing about figgy pudding! Happy I could help with your girl problems! We’ll talk more soon. I’ll send what I promised. Love you, Jamie.”

“Bye, Dad,” I said. “You too.”

“SO. NATHANIEL ZIEGLER,” HOLMES WAS SAYING AN HOUR later, spinning back and forth in her rolling chair. “Was arrested for possession three years ago. Want to know the address?”

“Let me guess.” August paused for dramatic effect. He was sprawled on Milo’s couch. We’d taken over his penthouse, despite the complaints of his staff. There was more space here than in our room. “221B Baker Street.”

“Yes, you’re a rare wit, August. Have a cookie. The address, in fact, is one we visited last night.” She gave us a street name ending in strasse. “Would the underground pool ring a bell?”

“The place was raided?” August sat up. “During a party?”

“According to the report, he lived there.”

I remembered what Hanna said, about the art school girls who hung on older men’s arms for money and connections. “I wonder if that was how he met Hadrian.”

“It certainly fits.” Holmes frowned. “And Leander’s supposed to be meeting him tonight, Watson?”

I thought back to my conversation with Nathaniel at his loft. “Yeah, if he shows up. The way he reacted when I told him that Leander was hanging out, back at home, it was like . . . it was like he knew that wasn’t possible.”

“You mean to say, he reacted like he knew Leander was dead.”

I shifted in my chair.

“Leander isn’t dead,” she said. “I know it for sure.”

“For a fact?” August asked. “Or for sure?”

Holmes lifted her chin. “He can’t be dead,” she said, and there was only the slightest quaver in her voice.

I had a lot of experience fighting Holmes over her outlandish assertions, but I didn’t have the heart to insist that, yes, in fact, her favorite uncle could be lying in a ditch somewhere. “We can. So?”

“So. It’s seven o’clock already. I doubt Leander’s ‘usual time’ for meeting Nathaniel was any earlier than eight. He’s been at this for a while; he wouldn’t want to meet even at twilight. He’d want the cover of darkness. Still, I have access to the cameras covering the corners in case he shows early.” She swiveled her chair to look out the window. “East Side Gallery is a big place. It’s a tourist destination. We need a plan to make this meeting work for us.”

“You do have an entire company of trained men at your disposal,” August said.

“Do I?” she asked. “Even if they’d follow my lead, using other people’s men leaves a rather large margin for error.”

“You really think your brother would hire subpar help.”

Holmes snorted. “You’ve met my brother, haven’t you? No, we do this alone.”

“You could kidnap Nathaniel,” I said, only half-joking. “Hey, maybe August could do it.”

He started. “Better not,” he said.

Was that an admission of guilt? I was going to murder him.

“And what? Torture him back at home until he tells us that he thinks Leander’s dead?” She got to her feet. “Think, would you.”

The ceiling fan whirred. The clock in the kitchen chimed the hour. Holmes paced in front of the window, talking to herself.

For my part . . . well, I had no part. What could I possibly suggest? “What do we even want from Nathaniel?” I said aloud. “His ties to Hadrian Moriarty? We have August, there. He’s a better link than Nathaniel could ever be, if we need to flush Hadrian or Phillipa out. She’s already asked us for access to August. Look—do we want Leander back, or do we want to solve the crime he was investigating?”

Holmes and August looked at each other.

“What? Is that a stupid question?”

I thought about it while we suited up. It only took a few moments to put myself into my Simon guise—a hat, a vest, the steel-toed boots. I was playing him again in case Nathaniel managed to catch sight of me, since I didn’t look dissimilar enough from Simon to convincingly claim I was anyone else. But as I parted my hair in the mirror, I realized that it was weirdly comforting to be him again. Simon. I knew how he walked, talked. How he thought. What he’d say. I didn’t always know those things about myself.

To my surprise, Holmes didn’t have her wig cap on. She didn’t have on a costume, either. She’d changed into a new pair of black jeans, a black button-down shirt done up to the collar. With her usual intensity, she was rooting through a makeup case.