Chapter 11 - THE CONSERVATORY
The ballroom smelled of lilies and expensive perfume.
Clara entered in a plain black dress Naomi had brought from home.
No borrowed diamonds.
No Costello driver waiting outside.
Across the room, Commissioner Pike laughed with a judge beside a display of charity photographs.
Clara wondered how many people had thanked him for keeping the city safe.
Arthur arrived six minutes later.
Conversations thinned around him.
He looked at Clara once, then approached Pike.
“Where’s Julian?”
Pike smiled.
“Good evening to you too.”
“Where?”
“East conservatory.”
Clara followed at a distance.
Her earpiece crackled softly.
Ward’s voice.
“Stay in the agreed area. We have both exits.”
Julian stood beneath a lemon tree in an enormous clay pot.
He looked almost pleased to see her.
“Clara. You clean up well when you stop looking exhausted.”
“Where’s Ruth?”
“Safe.”
“I want to see her.”
He held up his phone.
Ruth sat in a chair against a tiled wall.
Clara studied the image.
A blue stripe.
An exposed pipe.
Behind Ruth’s shoulder, part of a faded sign.
ICE.
“The files,” Julian said.
Clara placed a sealed envelope on the table.
“Copies of what you asked for.”
Julian glanced at Arthur.
“You taught her bad habits.”
Arthur stood near the door.
“She learned most of them watching you.”
Pike stepped inside and closed the door.
Clara heard Ward quietly repeat the visible details to the team.
Julian opened the envelope.
His expression hardened at the first page.
“These aren’t the only copies.”
“No,” Clara said. “They’re enough to show you I have them.”
He looked toward Pike.
The commissioner’s smile vanished.
“You said she didn’t know.”
“I said I could handle her.”
Arthur moved closer to the table.
“What happened to Daniel?”
Julian gave him a disgusted look.
“Still pretending you’re better than the rest of us?”
“I asked you a question.”
“He wouldn’t give up the records.”
“So you killed him.”
Pike snapped, “Keep your voice down.”
Clara barely heard him.
She was looking at Julian’s phone.
Ruth had moved.
For one second, the camera revealed a red door behind her.
Clara recognized it from the waterfront safety inspections.
She touched her earring.
“Cold storage,” she said. “Pier Nineteen.”
Julian’s eyes narrowed.
May you like
Then he grabbed her wrist.
“Who are you talking to?”
