Chapter Sixteen #5
“Don’t worry about it,” Vivian said quickly, sliding the brush out of her sister’s nervous fingers and using her reflection in the window as a mirror to style her hair.
Sliding a pin decorated with feathers and beads into place, she gave Florence a smile, trying to reassure herself as much as her sister.
“By tomorrow, Leo should have things in motion for us. And then it should just be a little while until whoever is doing this is either caught or slinks back into the shadows.”
“I’m glad you have a plan,” Florence said, easing herself down onto the pillows, still curled into a tight ball. “I’m still angry with you, by the way. For keeping this from me.”
“I didn’t have a good reason to share it,” Vivian protested.
“I just thought we were telling each other everything now,” Florence said quietly, her words a forlorn accusation that made Vivian flinch. “No more keeping secrets.”
“Are we?” Vivian asked, thinking of the way Danny and Florence had kept sneaking glances at each other as Danny went in and out of the kitchen that night.
“Do you tell me everything, Flo?” Her sister didn’t answer, and Vivian sighed as she picked up her shoes.
“Anyway, I’ve got work. Danny’s off tonight, so he’ll be sticking around here to keep an eye on things.
And no one but Honor knows we’re here, so you don’t need to worry, okay? ”
“And you’ll be careful?” Florence asked as Vivian turned to leave.
Vivian gave her a quick smile over her shoulder.
It was a pretend smile, the kind that she gave customers who wanted someone to flirt with, a girl with no worries so they could forget about the worries in their own lives, too.
She hoped Florence couldn’t tell the difference.
“I’m always careful. I’m just not always good. ”
Florence shook her head. “That’s not funny.”
Vivian relaxed into a real smile. “Sure it was. Cheer up, Flo. I’m taking care of it. I promise.”
Danny’s parents hadn’t wanted her walking through the restaurant to head to work—which Vivian couldn’t blame them for—so Danny had promised to show her the trick for getting out the back and down the fire escape. She wasn’t surprised to find him waiting for her in the family’s common room.
But the man waiting with him did catch her off guard.
The last she had told Leo, she had expected they would be staying at the Nightingale; if he was standing there now, hat in hand while he met her eyes, that had to mean he had gone there looking for her and Honor had sent him downtown. Which meant …
Vivian caught her breath. “Did you already see the medical examiner?”
“I did—” Leo began, but he didn’t get any further than that before she threw herself forward, wrapping her arms around him.
Leo, completely caught off guard, just managed to catch her; his answering embrace was not nearly as enthusiastic as she expected, but that didn’t dim her relief.
Stepping back to catch her breath, she didn’t let go of his arms as she asked, “You did it, then? Already? Thank you, thank you. What did he say?”
“What were you up to, pal?” Danny asked from behind her. “Whatever it is, you don’t look happy about it.”
Danny was right, Vivian noticed, her relief beginning to seep away like cold water trickling down a drain. “Leo? If you talked to him already, what’s got you looking so flat-footed?”
“I know his home address,” Leo said quietly.
“So I went to see him this evening. And he seemed relieved when I told him what I knew. He’d been worried ever since our visit.
Bellevue is technically closed on Sunday, but as soon as I told him what I needed, he said we could go right away.
Well, not right away.” He was babbling, something she had never heard him do before, as if he didn’t want to tell her what had actually happened.
“He had to have his Sunday dinner first, his wife’s pretty particular about that.
But as soon as that was done he met me there. ”
“Leo,” Vivian said, cutting him off. She forced herself to meet his eyes, trying to smile and failing. “Just tell me what happened. Please.”
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. He’d been keeping the bottle in his office, hoping that we’d be willing to tell him more. But when we got there tonight … It was gone. Someone had taken it.”
Vivian felt as if she’d been spinning in circles to music that was going faster and faster and the music had suddenly disappeared, leaving her staggering and about to fall.
“But … but that was our evidence. That’s the only proof we had that…
” Without the brandy bottle and its deadly contents, they couldn’t prove that Pearlie’s death had been anything other than a suicide.
And without that, the letter that he received—and the letter that Florence had received—were just odd mail.
The police would never look twice at that.
How had someone known it was there? And how in God’s name could she keep Florence safe now?
Beside her, Danny let out a long string of whispered curses, only half of them in English. Vivian wanted to do the same—wanted to yell them—but her brain felt too numb to think of anything ugly enough for how she was feeling.
Vivian stared at a point on the floor, not seeing it. She should have told the coroner right away. She felt cold all over at the thought that someone had thrown that bottle away on purpose. Someone who didn’t want its contents to be tested and scrutinized again.
But it could just as easily have been tossed by accident. There was no way to know for sure. Either way, the result was the same. They had played this all wrong, start to finish.
“Viv?” Leo’s voice was cautious. “What do you want to do now?”
“Now?” Vivian looked up to find both of them watching her. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I guess I’m going to steal a dress.”
“Where have you been?” Bea grabbed Vivian’s arm and pulled her to a corner as soon as she walked into the dressing room.
A few other waitresses were chatting and resting their feet before the rush and aches of the night ahead of them; Bea cast them a wary look before lowering her voice.
“I went by twice today to find you, but no one was home. And then I heard someone in your building died? Is everything okay?”
Vivian stared at her friend, wondering how much to tell her.
On the one hand, she and Bea told each other practically everything.
Bea never would have brought her to the Nightingale in the first place if they hadn’t been sure they could trust each other.
But on the other hand, if Bea knew Florence had received a letter …
She would guess right away what Vivian had tried to do, and she would know Vivian had gone to the medical examiner without telling her. And even though it hadn’t worked, she would feel furious and betrayed that Vivian had gone behind her back, maybe even put her family at risk, for Florence’s sake.
Vivian couldn’t blame her for that. But she also didn’t regret doing whatever she could to keep her sister safe.
And it hadn’t worked anyway, which meant there was no reason to confess and cause that sort of trouble between them. And if Bea wasn’t furious, when she found out what Vivian was planning next, she might insist on coming along.
Vivian couldn’t let that happen. She wouldn’t put anyone else in danger if she didn’t have to.
“Everything’s swell,” Vivian said. She gave her hair a quick fluff, checked the back of her stockings in the mirror, and smiled her pretend smile once again.
“Can’t wait to hear your set tonight. We’ve missed you.
And so have the folks out there.” She gave her friend a bump with her shoulder.
“You’ll be famous one of these days, I just know it. ”
She could feel Bea’s eyes on her in the mirror, but she bent to fuss with her shoes so she didn’t have to meet them.
“What aren’t you telling me, Viv?” Bea asked quietly.
“Nothing,” Vivian answered, straightening at last. “Nothing at all. See you out there, okay? I need to find Honor and ask her something.”
Vivian caught up to Honor by the end of the bar, where the club owner was coolly surveying her domain, lights dim, liquor stocked, band just striking up the first tune of the night.
Soon, the doors would open and patrons would trickle in by twos and threes, laughing as they found their way to the bar.
Later there would be larger groups tumbling out of cabs and down the steps, men and women slipping in by themselves to look for a friend or a stranger to keep them company for the night.
Honor looked it over with unmistakable pride.
“There you are, pet,” she said when she caught sight of Vivian. “I was wondering when you were going to show up. I was worried something had happened.”
She had only been fifteen minutes late, but trust Honor to notice. Honor noticed everything. She would notice instantly that something was wrong, too—her brows were already creasing into a frown as she took Vivian in from head to toe—so Vivian didn’t bother dancing around her request.
“Honor,” she said, her whisper urgent as she glanced around to make sure no one else was close enough to hear.
“I really hope I’m going to owe you a hell of a favor after tonight, because that means you’ve said yes to what I’m about to ask.
” She took a deep breath. “Danny told me that you know how to pick locks.”