above the pharmacy left. I’ll wander the streets during the daytime. Eventually I’m bound to catch his notice.”
“Of course I don’t like the idea of it, Wadsworth. I can’t fathom anyone who would.”
“It’s a little reckless, but it’s also a good way to provoke him into action.”
“Please. Don’t. You do realize what you’re asking of me, right? You’re asking me to stand by and wait for a cunning murderer to come for you. As if it might not break me to lose you.” He gripped the doorframe as if to keep himself from rushing to me. “I won’t ask you to stay. But I will ask you to consider how you’d feel if I was the one marching into death. Would you stand back and not fight for me?”
An image of him sacrificing himself as bait sent chills skittering along my body. I would sooner chain him to a laboratory table than permit him to do such a thing. He deserved credit for allowing me a choice when I’d rob him of his without second thought. “Thomas…”
I watched him swallow his fear down, saw the resolve set in. He wouldn’t stop me. He’d watch me walk out the door and disappear into the night. He would be terrified, but I knew him well enough now to know he’d keep his word. We’d been down this path together before. One where our ideas of how to proceed during a case diverged. That time, I’d chosen my own way over trusting in our partnership. It was a mistake. One I did not intend to make again. I slid off the trunk, deflated. A tear slipped down my cheek and I angrily swiped at it.
“I don’t know what else to do,” I confessed, holding my hands out. The scent of lavender wafted into the air, the oil healing and soothing my burns. “How do we catch someone who might as well be a demon born of another dimension?”
Thomas crossed the room in an instant, taking me in his arms. “By standing against him together, Wadsworth. We will solve this mystery and we will do it as a united front.”
“As touching and nauseating as this little scene may be,” Mephistopheles said from my doorway, his hands shoved into his pockets, “I have some information that might assist in your endeavor.”
The ringmaster strode into my room and settled on the bed as if he were the high king of the Fairy claiming his throne. He set his top hat on the golden ram’s-head mask and kicked his boots up, the leather shining in the most annoying manner. “Cute mask. Do you wear it to set the mood, or…”
“You are completely ridiculous.”
“Is this the first time you’ve realized this?” Mephistopheles raised his brows. “And here I thought you were quite bright, my unrequited love.”
“Where have you been?” I asked, hints of my earlier suspicion returning. I couldn’t stop thinking about how talented career murderers were. They were friends, lovers, family members. All leading what seemed like regular lives, except for one monstrous secret. “Minnie has been looking for you.”
“She—”
“Let me guess,” I said, losing patience and cutting him off. His usual response always involved mention of his… charms. I was not in the mood for jokes. “She wouldn’t be the first woman or man to do so. Can you be serious for once?”
“What I was about to say, Miss Wadsworth,” he said, amusement in his dark eyes, “was she must not have been looking too hard. I haven’t been anywhere but my theater. In fact, I went to call on her today and her staff couldn’t find her. Maybe she couldn’t handle seeing a face this handsome again.”
He glanced over my shoulder to where Thomas now leaned against the wall looking bored. I shook a sense of foreboding from my heart. I’d seen Minnie a couple of hours ago and she seemed fine enough. If he’d visited her after, that meant he was the last person known to be at her home. Maybe she saw him arrive and asked her staff to send him away. Or maybe he’d taken her…
“I did, however, manage to gather some information you both may find interesting,” Mephistopheles continued, unaware of my growing worry.
“Oh, good. It has a purpose for crawling out from its hidey-hole at last.” Thomas smiled sweetly, his eyes flashing with delight as Mephistopheles’s jaw tightened.
“Weren’t you the groveling soul who inquired after my expertise?” he said. “What other tasks are you not measuring up to? Or”—a slick,