Iron Cast (24 page)

She had an epiphany and poked her head out the doorway. Gabriel and Ada were both watching her expectantly.

“We need to get you a tuxedo,” she said to Gabriel.

“Excuse me?” he asked.

“It's perfect. The dinner is at the Lenox. You'll be my escort; then I'll pretend to fall ill and we'll tell my parents that you're driving me home.”

“Brilliant plan, except that there's no way in hell that I'm—”

Corinne shut the door before he finished. Thirty seconds later Ada came in, still wrapped in her blanket. Corinne was on her knees by her cot, trying to see if the shoes her mother had provided were hiding in one of the shadowy corners.

“You know,” Ada said, shedding her blanket, “Gabriel doesn't have to help us. He's not getting paid or anything.”

“Is this the speech about how if I want to have a friend, I have to be a friend?” Corinne craned her neck to look at Ada, then sneezed when a cloud of dust fluttered past her nose.

“I thought it might be overdue.”

Ada was laying out her outfit on the bed—a ritual that always awed Corinne somewhat. When Corinne was getting dressed, it usually entailed digging through piles of clothes for a frock without
any noticeable stains and rolling around the floor with stockings. There was often cursing involved.

“For your information, I have not insulted Gabriel in at least twelve hours,” Corinne said.

“In the past twelve hours, you've been in the same room with him for about one minute.”

“No one likes a know-it-all, Ada.”

“Yes, I've been trying to tell you that for years.”

Corinne considered throwing a pillow at her, but that seemed like too much work at this hour. It wasn't exactly an insult anyway. Corinne enjoyed knowing it all. And she was already aware that most people didn't like her. After a few more minutes of crawling around the room, tossing their belongings from one pile to another, she gave up her search for the shoes. If she sat on the cot and looked useless enough, Ada would find them for her.

Once she had dressed, Ada found the shoes without trouble and placed them neatly beside Corinne.

“This room isn't much bigger than a closet,” Ada told her. “How have you managed to lose everything you've ever owned at least once?”

“But you always know where things are, so they aren't really lost.”

With Ada's help, she found the other pieces of the evening's attire and assembled them on the bed in a somewhat orderly fashion. Then Corinne shed a few layers of clothes to make herself presentable for the day. When they rejoined Gabriel in the common room, he was still sitting in the armchair, which Corinne considered his tacit acceptance of the inevitable.

“You in?” Corinne asked, trying to sound friendly for Ada's sake.

“You're both impossible,” he said.

“Thank you. You can get a rental tux from Maury's at Pleasant and Piedmont. He outfits the musicians. I'm sure he'll have—”

Corinne paused at the faint sound drifting down from above. Someone was knocking on the alley door. Gabriel was out of his chair in an instant, gun drawn.

“We should stay here,” Ada said. “What if it's the HPA or the bulls?”

“Why would they be knocking?” Corinne asked. “It's probably a delivery.”

Gabriel, ignoring both of them, was already halfway up the stairs. Corinne followed him. Ada made a noise of protest but stayed at Corinne's heels. The stale air of the storage room was achingly cold, and Corinne immediately regretted shedding her extra layers. The knocking had stopped, and Corinne was about to suggest that Gabriel go out the front and take a look around when the new arrival called out, his voice easily recognizable through the door.

“Gordon? You in there? It's Charlie Lewis.”

“Put that away,” Ada said, nudging Gabriel's arm. She unlocked the door and yanked it open.

Charlie was dusted in snow, the flakes gleaming wetly on his black hat and coat. When Ada moved back to let him in, he stomped his shoes on the threshold and shivered.

“Morning,” he said, his demeanor less chipper than usual.

He pulled off his hat and looked at the three of them. He paused, eyebrows raised, when he saw Gabriel's gun, still aimed at him.

“Well,” Charlie said.

“Ada, you can't just throw open doors like that,” Corinne said,
pushing Gabriel's wrist down so that the gun was at least pointed at the floor and not Charlie's heart. “What if it had been a thespian?”

“It could still be a thespian,” Gabriel said. He gave Corinne an irritated look but kept the gun lowered.

“Are you serious?” Charlie asked.

No one replied. Even Ada was regarding him with a sudden unease. Charlie looked at her, perplexed, then shook his head.

“Our first kiss was the day after we met, by the fountain on the Common.”

Ada winced, and Corinne shot an accusatory glare at her. “You told me that was weeks later!”

“It was an . . . accident,” Ada said.

Charlie grinned at her, but before he could say anything, Ada reached up and grabbed his chin.

“What happened to your face?”

Charlie's hand went to his left eye. Corinne hadn't noticed before, but it was swollen and darkly bruised.

“It's nothing,” he said. “I just came to make sure you made it back okay last night.” He very generously included all of them in the statement, but his eyes flicked toward Ada.

“Why wouldn't we be okay?” Corinne asked.

Gabriel had put away his gun, but a part of her suddenly wished he hadn't. They had no way of knowing if Charlie had come alone. He'd never given them any reason not to trust him, but Corinne couldn't stop thinking about those HPA agents, about how at ease they had been in the Red Cat, like they owned the place.

“Let's go downstairs,” Ada said.

“I don't think that's a good idea,” Corinne said, but it was a useless protest as Ada was already pushing open the panel.

Charlie didn't seem surprised by the secret door, which meant
that Ada had already told him about it at some point. Something Corinne intended to berate her about later. She glanced at Gabriel, who seemed uninterested in helping her dissuade Ada.

“I'm going to circle the club,” he said. “Just in case.”

It was a prudent precaution, but Corinne suspected he just didn't want to be involved. He went up the half-flight of stairs to exit through the club. Corinne locked the back door and followed Ada and Charlie into the basement.

Downstairs, once Charlie had convinced Ada he didn't need a cold compress, Corinne was finally able to cut in. “Charlie, what happened last night after we left?”

“I don't— I'm not sure,” he said.

He was sitting on the sofa, his shoulders hunched over. Ada sat near him, her eyebrows drawn together as she studied his face. Her hands were tight fists in her lap.

“Was it Stuart Delaney?” Ada asked.

Charlie nodded.

“Friend of yours?” Corinne asked.

He nodded again. “I was there when they took him,” he said. “We were leaving for the night, out the stage door, and they were there, waiting.”

“Ironmongers?” Corinne pressed.

“I don't think so. It was two men in suits. No masks. One of them had iron knuckles.”

His hand floated halfway toward his shiner in reflex, then fell limp.

“I blacked out,” he said. “I don't know how long. When I woke up, Stuart was gone. He's not—”

Charlie cut himself off and looked between them, his expression torn.

“He's not the first,” he said at last. “Carson's kept it quiet, but there have been others in the past couple of months.”

Corinne met Ada's eye. She had to be thinking the same thing.

“It had to be the two agents we saw last night,” Corinne said.

Ada nodded, her fists tightening.

“You saw agents at the Red Cat?” Charlie asked, lifting his face. “Luke doesn't let the agency anywhere near his club.”

“Has anyone told Carson that?” Corinne asked. “Because he seemed pretty chummy with them when he was taking their money.”

“You saw him take money from them?” Confusion and disbelief swirled in Charlie's expression.

“Yes.”

“I have to go.” Charlie stood up and reached for his hat.

“You can't go by yourself,” Ada said, standing with him. “Not if they're just grabbing people off the street.”

Charlie was poised to argue, and Corinne was prepared to agree with him, because he certainly wasn't going to camp out in the Cast Iron indefinitely. Gabriel interrupted from the stairs.

“I'll go with you. It's on my way home.” He looked at Corinne. “I'll stop by Maury's and be back in time for the dinner.”

Ada seemed satisfied, which Corinne thought was a little hypocritical.

“Wait a minute,” she said. “So Charlie isn't allowed to go by himself, but it's okay if Gabriel gets himself snatched?”

“I'm not a hemopath,” Gabriel said.

Before Corinne could formulate a reply, he and Charlie were already halfway up the stairs.

“He'll be fine,” Ada said once the door had shut behind them.

Corinne wanted to reply that she didn't care whether Gabriel
Stone lived or died, but that seemed unfairly harsh. It was also patently untrue. “Boys can't manage anything themselves,” she said. “Least of all staying alive.”

Ada's expression twitched, but it passed so quickly that Corinne couldn't tell if she was appreciative or unamused.

“Speaking of which,” Corinne went on. “Where the hell is Saint? Why does he think he can run all over Boston while there are killers and kidnappers and God knows what else on the loose?”

“I told you, he's at the Mythic. He's helping with the set.”

“That's hardly a priority right now, is it?” Corinne flopped onto the sofa, stretching out her legs and resting her head on the arm. “Besides, we're mad at James and Maddy.”

“Just because you're mad at someone doesn't mean the rest of the world is,” Ada said. She seemed to come to a decision and jumped to her feet. She disappeared into their room and reemerged seconds later with her coat and cloche.

“Where are you going?” Corinne asked, scrambling to her feet.

“I need to check on my mother. The HPA knows where she lives.”

“Yes, because they're trying to catch
you
.” Corinne was already headed to their room to grab her coat. She knew she wasn't going to dissuade Ada, and she couldn't let her go alone.

“We'll be careful,” Ada said, pulling her hat onto her head. “I just have to make sure she's all right.”

“It's too bad Gabriel isn't here to tell us how reckless we are,” Corinne said. She slipped into her coat and was pleased to find some kid gloves in the pocket. “I might actually agree with him this time.”

At Corinne's insistence, they took the long way to the apartment, staying off the more trafficked streets. Ada didn't argue, but she thought the measure was unnecessary. All the white-slick roads were empty this morning. The snow was falling faster now, sticking to her eyelashes and blurring her vision.

Corinne was hugging herself and skipping to avoid the denser patches of snow. She had always been better suited for sunshine and springtime. Ada kept her hands buried in her pockets. Melting snow was thick on her wool coat; and despite her hat, she was beginning to feel the dampness on her scalp. An umbrella probably would have been a useful thing to bring along.

“I haven't seen your mother in ages,” Corinne said. “You think there will be any of that bread waiting? I can't ever remember what it's called—pan?”

“Pão.
” Ada hunched her shoulders, trying in vain to protect her neck from the chill. She had forgotten a scarf. “Cor, my mom's pretty angry at me. She might be mad at you too—I don't know.”

“Why?”

“We had another fight. About Johnny and the Cast Iron. About what we do for a living.”

Corinne's lips were a grim line. Her hair was stringy with the melting snow, and thin rivulets ran down the contours of her face.

“We're just doing the best we can,” Corinne said. “You've done all this for her.”

“That doesn't make any of it right.” Ada's voice was so soft that the fluttering snow drowned it out.

Shawmut Avenue emptied onto her mother's street, and she could see the apartment building a block down on the right. Corinne started to cross the street, but an unfamiliar shape caught Ada's eye and she grabbed her arm. The black, hulking car was parked across
the road from the apartments. There was a man leaning against the driver's side door, puffing on a cigarette. Ada didn't see his face, but the hairs on her neck prickled. Corinne saw him too and cursed. She backed up and threw open the door of the nearest shop. Ada ducked in behind her.