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August leaned forward in his seat, his hands steepled before hiency on this matter since we’ve arrived All the tools in the world to track down your uncle, and instead, you play back the sa it apart for analysis but listening to it like you’refor him? My brother and sister were at your disposal At your unpoint, and then at an auction that you de information froive me that look, I know precisely how bloodthirsty you are--you show a cute little surveillance video that implicates the paintings, one two three? There’s no hard evidence there It’s bad detective work, plain and si this sloppily, Charlotte, withto use Milo--who, unlike you, has a moral code underneath all that expediency--to put them in whatever black box you put Bryony in It’s like you’re trying to race to so wolves catch you, and that would make sense if you feared for Leander’s life, but you don’t And now you’re saying he’s been in England the whole tiher any quickly to catch up No That was a lie, and I knew it But there had been soone about all of this from the moment we’d touched down in Berlin, and all ust had co us there," Holmes said "We need to speak to o I her face in the cloth of ust pulled a notebook from his pocket; he turned it over in his hands And hly betrayed, so abandoned, that I hardly knehat to think She was holding on to ht it was the last time I’d let her

And if she’s kept all this froht, and stared out the darkened aiting for the first lights of London to appear

WE TOOK A CAB TO THE TRAIN, AND THE TRAIN DOWN TO Eastbourne, and a black car from the station up to her fa of it that turned and turned in the wind We weren’t speaking to each other None of us I didn’t knohat to say to August, especially now, and I didn’t try As for Holician’s trunk and sed the key There wouldn’t be any prying her out, not until the big reveal

I thought I knehat it

The house came into view at the end of the drive, and beside ust draw a sharp breath He hadn’t been back here since the night he had Lucien deliver his latest shipust Moriarty

It didn’t seeister for Holmes She sat between us, hands folded in her lap Her jaas set "You need to decide e do with Hadrian and Phillipa," she said to August

"I thought you’dthem subdued I want you to decide what happens next"

"Can’t we ask Milo his opinion?"

Without looking, Holmes pointed out the"He isn’t here," she said "Ours are the only tracks in the drive Things are about to happen very quickly Make a decision Or else I will"

August sighed "It’s difficult, Charlotte That’s ust, Milo will have theht? What do you want? Make a decision!"

The car began to turn down onto the long drive, but Hol

Holain, and leaned over me to pull the door handle "I’ll do itGod help et out"

"What are you--"

She pushed ravel on my hands and knees Holust’s face, I heard her say, "You always sit back and let someone else be the monster Hadrian Lucien Me, as a o"

I knelt there, on the ground, in disbelief I’d never seen her do anything that cruel Never, at least, toher scarfdown the drive, she took off down the salted path that cut through her house’s backyard Careful, even in her haste, to keep froust clambered out of the car and offeredthe gravel off of my knees "What do you think?"

We weren’t as careful as she’d been not to leave footprints, though I tried Even now the light was fading, at four o’clock in the afternoon, and behind us and down the cliffs to the sea, the water raged against the rocky shore Holh the grounds, head down, keeping to the stands of bare trees and bushes, until she reached the house The woodpile was there, the one I’d worked with Leander,