Page 48 (1/1)

We were still ten ht he’d show But the East Side Gallery was aher phone to see if Milo’s grunts had caught sight of Nathaniel on their security feeds, we hadn’t spotted hi to feel like ere too out in the open There weren’t any cafés around for us to hole up in if ere spotted The road beside us was busy and broad, and there was no cover for us to duck behind So we kept walking

Until, half a block ahead of us, I saw Nathaniel blowing on his hands on a street corner

My phone buzzed Holmes had noticed him at the same time I did Approach him, her text read, and tell him your uncle’s sick

This hadn’t been the plan At all Uh I barely escaped the last ti to see us Better we ht time See if he’ll take you back to his flat We’ll follow

And ould he do towith Hadrian Moriarty, if, despite Milo’s intelligence, he knew that Leander was dead, the only thing he could be doing here tonight was baiting a trap he’d set for us We’d hardly made it out of our lunch with Phillipa unscathed

I had to ask ust was saying so in Holnored her Half-turned toto ler

Holust had a hand on the art teacher’s back, steering hi to hi Nathaniel to take hi tous tio raid Nathaniel’s horrible house for evidence," she said "Come on"

IT STARTED TO SNOW

The trip across town took an agonizing twentyfro out into the road, like she could will the other cars to disappear We didn’t kno much time we’d have We didn’t even know if Nathaniel still lived there, in that house above the cavernous pool, the place he’d been arrested for possession

"Did it say what kind of drugs he’d had on hith

"Pot, I think I don’t kno actively prosecuted it is Soet the police’s attention I’ a teacher didn’t help" The car slowed to a halt "Finally," she said, and shoved a bill at the driver, pushing loves The façade of the house loo a Greystone car?"

"My brother’s ed ht one yesterday My brother who thinks that he and my father are infallible and that the rest of us are ih Her breath cae he has, ‘Leander’ has to look down to find the doorknob to our front door? The house he grew up in He doesn’t reach for it automatically--he looks for it It’s not hied out of there They could have dressed so things He thinks he can’tfor myself since I’ve been here, I’ve just relied on him, and I--"

She pivoted on her foot and ht her elbow and steered her back

"Take a breath Don’t look at o in there like this Breathe"

She glared at me "You are notthat isn’t Milo"

We stared at each other, inches apart Her pupils were bloide I wondered, for an awfulor if she was just upset, and I hated ust is going to throw himself back in with the too close to et himself taken down, too I can’t--they’reto prove it" She grabbed o in Look You’reat Sieben after Christ for a place to stay until then, because my mom just threw us out--"

"Stop," I said, and brushed the snow out of my hair For the barest second, she leaned into irl who answered the door had a pierced nose and a scowl She said solish?" I asked her, and she nodded curtly "Sorry My friend left her ca her about it--brown hair, fortyish, really loud She thinks he teaches at the art school Do you knoho he is?"

"You think Professor Ziegler could have stolen her ca the door shut

I stuck ain "I’ if he found it She thinks she left it by the pool"