Chapter Nineteen
NINETEEN
Honor grabbed Vivian by both arms and pushed her flat against the wall. They were right next to the clock, their bodies barely hidden in its shadow. The door to the cellar was only a step away, but neither of them moved as the beam of the flashlight swept past them.
A second light joined the first, making a slow path around the shop. “I don’t see anyone,” a gruff voice replied.
“Could have sworn I saw movement in there, though. Check the door?”
Vivian held her breath, glad they hadn’t come through the front. She was trembling as she peered over Honor’s shoulder, trying to make out what was happening outside without being seen herself. In the glow from the streetlight, she could see two men in uniform.
“Cops,” she breathed to Honor, who let out a short breath that might have been a laugh under any other circumstances.
“The one time they decide to stop some real criminals, we’re the ones they find.”
They could hear the two men outside still debating, though their voices were more muffled, until suddenly there was a loud banging on the front door.
Vivian jumped, and Honor held her more firmly against the wall to keep her from giving away their hiding place.
Another time, all of Vivian’s attention would have been focused on the feel of Honor’s body pressed against hers. But there was too much at stake.
“Hey!” the deep voice called. “If anyone’s in there, we’re ready for you. You ain’t getting out so easy!”
Vivian glanced at Honor, her face barely visible in the dim light, wondering what the hell they were going to do.
And then, suddenly, she heard singing. Horrible, off-key, drunken singing.
“‘Five foot two, eyes of blue, but oh, what those five foot could do,’” the voice yowled, loudly enough to make them wince even from inside the shop. “‘Has anybody seen my girl?’”
“It’s Leo,” Vivian whispered, holding back a terrible urge to laugh.
“Hey!” she heard one of the cops yelp. “What the hell? Where did he come from?”
“Now see here, fella, ain’t you heard of Prohibition?” the gruff voice said with a long-suffering sigh. “You can’t just wander the streets when you’re blotto.”
Leo’s serenade continued unabated. “‘Turned-up nose, turned-down hose, never had no other beaus. Has anybody seen my girl?’”
Vivian felt Honor shift slightly as she glanced around. “Come on,” she whispered, her lips against Vivian’s ear while Leo kept singing. “We can get to the door while he’s distracting them. We need to get out of here before they decide to bust in and check the place out.”
“Can they do that?” Vivian breathed.
“If they think they’re going to catch a robbery in progress? I’m guessing they’ll break first and ask questions later.”
“God, send him on his way already,” Deep Voice said impatiently. “He’s clearly got the money to manage just fine, and if someone takes it off him before he makes it home, well, that’s what he gets for breaking the law.”
The moment the flashlight beams were pointed in another direction, Honor slid along the wall, keeping the clock and its heavy shadows between her and the front window.
The door wasn’t far, and she slipped through without swinging it all the way open.
Her voice whispered back from the shadows. “Come on, pet.”
Vivian took a deep breath, willing feet that were numb with fear to move. Copying Honor, she slid along the wall until she could squeeze through the open doorway.
“There!” the deep voice called out. “There, I saw something moving.”
“I didn’t see it.”
“‘Has anybody seen my girl?’” Leo bellowed, more aggressively now.
Balancing on her toes on the top step, Vivian nudged the door closed. Every sound seemed magnified to a hundred times its normal volume as she turned the handle back slowly so the latch would catch without clicking. As soon as the door was shut, she let out the breath she had been holding.
“Honor?” she whispered. “Can we get out the back while they’re busy at the front?”
She could just barely make out the two voices through the cheap, flimsy wood of the door.
Honor’s soft exhale brushed her cheek, and she felt Honor fumble for her hands before pressing the pocket light into them.
“You stay here and listen for them. I’ll get the door open while they’re busy up there.
Count to thirty, then come down, unless it sounds like they’re going around back.
If that happens, flash that thing down the stairs quick as you can, okay? ”
“Got it.” Vivian pressed her ear to the door, beginning to count slowly in her head and trying not to jump at the creak of the stairs under Honor’s feet.
If she had stopped to think at all, she would have been terrified, but there was no time for that.
She strained to hear both the faint voices on the other side of the door and the rustle and bump of the cellar door as Honor eased it open.
They were going to make it, she thought, heady with relief.
Soon they’d be out in the night and slipping away.
Then, just as her count reached thirty, a tremendous crash echoed through the shop. Vivian flinched, instinctively ducking into a crouch on the top step at the sound of shattering glass. The sound of gruff and deep male voices suddenly grew louder.
Feeling like her heart was trying to leap straight out of her throat, and all too conscious of the valuable dress slung over her back, Vivian slipped down the stairs, still in a crouch, as though that would somehow save her if they found their way to the cellar door.
Her path through the storage room was faintly illuminated by the dim square of night where Honor had the alley door open.
She was waiting at the top of the steps, one hand outstretched.
Vivian grabbed it, weak with relief as Honor helped her scramble out of the shop’s basement.
Without a word, they both grabbed the edge of the heavy door to ease it shut.
Vivian was shaking so much she could barely keep her hands on it.
There was a faint thump as it closed, and then Vivian was searching the ground to find the padlock.
Honor snatched it from her hands, clamping it into place.
Though Vivian knew a sound that quiet would be lost in the noise of the city, it still seemed to echo through the alley.
She and Honor both crouched against the wall of the building, half-hidden among the broken crates and trash bins, waiting to see what was going to happen.
“Can we leave down the other end?” Vivian whispered. Worried about what the dress might be pressed against, she slid the bag off her back and clutched it in her arms.
She felt Honor shake her head. “I checked. Dead end. It’s a solid wall. We get out toward the street or not at all.”
Vivian held back a whimper. She could hear the crunch of glass, now, and the sounds of the two cops having a heated argument in low voices.
“I told you there wasn’t anyone in there. What the hell did you want to go breaking the glass for?”
“I’m telling you, I saw someone moving inside. Who’s going to fuss over a little broken window when we catch the bastards robbing the place?”
“Yeah, but I don’t see us catching anyone. So we’d better beat it out of here unless we want to be the ones accused of breaking and entering.”
“Keep your shirt on, pal, we still haven’t finished looking around yet. There’s an alley or something down there.”
Both women tensed. “Vivian, get behind me,” Honor whispered.
But Vivian couldn’t move. They were half-hidden, pressed against the rough brick wall of the building. As long as no one actually came toward them …
Two figures appeared at the end of the alley. Silhouetted in the glow of the streetlamp, they loomed menacingly against the night, their faces dark and unreadable.
Vivian took a deep breath. It was her fault that Honor was there, and if Honor was arrested for burglary, everyone at the Nightingale would suffer.
If Vivian turned herself in, it might distract them enough for Honor to get away and turn over the dress.
Vivian would be arrested, there was no way around that.
Her stomach turned over at the thought. But both Honor and Florence would be safe.
Vivian took a deep breath. “Don’t move,” she whispered, pressing the bag with its valuable cargo into Honor’s hands.
“What are you doing—” Honor tried to grab at Vivian, to keep her where she was, but she was just a breath too slow.
But just as Vivian stood up, the night erupted in song once more.
“‘Everybody loves my baby, but my baby don’t love nobody but me, nobody but me!’”
The two police officers both jumped and spun around, one of them making a gesture like he was reaching for a weapon before he realized what was going on. Vivian froze, stunned into stillness.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, he’s back,” Gruff Voice groaned loudly.
Neither of the cops was looking at the alley now. Honor grabbed Vivian’s arm and yanked her back down. “What the hell do you think you were doing?” Honor hissed. Vivian could hear her voice shaking.
The singing was still going. “‘Everybody wants my baby, but my baby don’t want nobody but me, that’s plain to seeeee…’” Leo stumbled into view, throwing an arm around one of the two stunned men. “Fellas, who’s up for a nightcap?”
“Buddy, you must really want to end up in the drunk tank tonight,” Deep Voice said through gritted teeth. Vivian could see him struggling to dislodge Leo’s arm.
“I wish it were true,” Leo went on, his voice wobbling up and down like he was trying not to cry. “She doesn’t want me, you know. I should be singing that other one instead. ‘After you’ve gone and left me crying…’ You know that one?”
“Look here—”
“She kicked me out tonight,” Leo wailed. “And now I’ve got nowhere to go at all!”