Chapter Forty-Four
“So let me see if I have this right,” Tobias said, dragging a hand through his hair for what had to have been the hundredth time as he tried not to let his growing frustrations and fear get the best of him.
The very idea of Jack making herself a sitting duck was not his idea of keeping her safe.
“You stand on the table that’s going to be sitting up on the stage, right above the trapdoor cut into the wooden floor above us?
” He pointed to the hidden trapdoor cut into the makeshift ceiling of the room they stood in, which was underneath the stage.
“Then Miss Montague throws a silk cloth over your entire body, which she then sets alight, while you’re underneath it—I have that correct so far, don’t I? ”
“You don’t have to sound so skeptical about it,” Jack said, crossing her arms over her chest and staring at him with a mutinous expression. “But yes, that’s correct.”
“And then,” he continued, “you use your foot to knock a small switch on the table that will simultaneously open the table trapdoor and the stage floor trapdoor, thereby instantly dropping you down onto this sandbag here?” He kicked at the large sandbag, which was so heavy, it didn’t move as it lay on the floor, directly underneath the trapdoor Jack would fall through, from the stage above.
“Yes,” she replied.
“And while this is done, the audience thinks you’ve disappeared and been replaced by a pile of ash? But in reality, you’ve fallen into this room, where presumably Thomas Clorren now is lying in wait, having somehow snuck into the room here while waiting to abduct you. Yes?”
“Yes, mostly,” Jack replied. “Simple, isn’t it?”
“It’s not simple at all,” Tobias ground out. “I can’t understand your willingness to put yourself at the mercy of a killer.”
Jack pinched the bridge of her nose and took in a deep breath. “How else do we find Mrs. Thompson if we don’t let him take me?”
“I still think we should just arrest him after he tries to grab you,” Iain said, the frown on his face matching Tobias’s own. “Then force him to tell us where he’s keeping your housekeeper.”
“But what if he refuses to tell us?” Cordy cried. “We might never find her, or at least not in time before she could perish from a lack of water and food.”
“We have to let him kidnap me and then take me to wherever it is he’s staying, which hopefully is where he’s also keeping Mrs. Thompson,” Jack said to Tobias and Iain. “And you both know that’s our best chance for saving her, and to ultimately catch him.”
“He’ll be anticipating this is a trap,” Tobias replied.
“I know he will,” Jack agreed. “And he will expect you all to be hidden in the shadows backstage, watching the one and only door into this room. But what he won’t be anticipating is that I know the secret to this room. That there’s also a hidden door into this space.”
She walked over to where a large, walnut-colored wardrobe was resting against the far wall.
Opening the right side of the wardrobe, Jack reached her hand inside to the left and a loud click sounded in the room an instant before the back of the wardrobe swung backwards, revealing a narrow hallway leading off into the distance.
“Magicians always like to have an escape route. This is where he’ll be coming from,” Jack continued, “and where he’ll be leaving with me too. He won’t realize I know about it, as no one does, and that is how you’ll be able to follow him without him being the wiser.”
“Where does it lead?” Tobias stepped next to her and peered down the dimly lit corridor.
“It winds around underneath the building and comes to a set of stairs that lead directly up to an exit one street over from this building.”
“Are you sure he’d know this secret entrance is here?” Tobias asked.
“I was only seven when my father first started performing here,” Jack replied.
“But I remember sneaking down here while my father, the baron, and the old owner of the Hall, Mr. Brickton, came down here to discuss the layout of how the tricks above the stage could best be performed. I was spying on them through the keyhole of the door, and I saw Mr. Brickton show my father and the baron the wardrobe’s secret entry, just as my mother found me and whisked me away.
I’m certain the baron would have told Thomas about it, especially in light of this theater being the location of my mother’s death. ”
“What was it used for?” Miss Montague asked, coming over to stand near Tobias while peering down the passage.
“For quick escapes, and to sneak props and people into this area without any of the audience or stagehands seeing what was going on. Thomas Clorren will have no idea we know about it and won’t even consider that you’ll have men hidden in the next street over, watching him arrive and then make his escape.
You’ll be able to follow us to his final destination. ”
“I still don’t like it,” Tobias grumbled. He’d make sure to have his most trusted men hidden along the route, and he’d follow them himself too.
“I know,” Jack replied. “But this is how we’re going to catch him.”