Chapter 30

Saffron hadn't intended on screaming when the hand landed on her shoulder, but the walk to the train station that evening had been dark and lonely—her own fault, for avoiding Nick—and with what she'd learned about the goings-on at the lab, fear had curdled in her stomach. She was prepared for the worst up until she'd reached Harpenden's brightly lit high street, when she relaxed just enough to be scared out of her wits when a hand fell on her shoulder.

Her alarmed screech broke off the moment she wheeled around and saw Elizabeth flattening her hat over her ears.

Glaring, Elizabeth ground out, "Oh, for heaven's sake, Saffron!"

"You snuck up on me!" Saffron shot back, face flaming as she realized half the street was staring at her. She hurriedly took Elizabeth's arm and continued toward the station. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, hello to you too!" Elizabeth huffed.

Saffron narrowed her eyes at her friend. She was flushed, and her lipstick was nearly gone. "What have you been doing?"

"Been down the pub." Elizabeth winked. "Where I've had several very interesting conversations I'll tell you all about on the train. Let's get a move on, we have places to be!"

Elizabeth was keen to tell Saffron about all the things she'd discovered in the Dancing Sparrow. She was clearly quite proud of herself for taking the initiative to go to the pub from which Jeffery Wells had collected so many receipts, and frankly, Saffron was impressed, not only that she'd recalled that negligible detail from Saffron's description of Jeffery Wells's house, but that she'd managed to learn so much.

Jeffery Wells, according to Elizabeth's report, was often to be found drinking ale in the evenings at the public house. Most nights, he'd chat with the locals. But the barkeep, whom Elizabeth described as "magnificently authentic" to the "rustic setting" of the Dancing Sparrow, remembered that on several occasions, Wells would scoff at the local beer and order hard liquor, but only when his friend from London came to town. They'd share a few drinks and talk, and those talks were not always friendly.

"And you'll never guess who Wells was getting so cozy with," Elizabeth whispered, eyes widened dramatically. "Do you remember those few months I was stepping out with Sammy Lambert last year?"

Saffron could scarce forget; Sammy had been one of Elizabeth's less worthy suitors. She'd been rather relieved when Elizabeth had broken off with him. "Don't say Wells was meeting up with Sammy!"

"No, it wasn't him. Sammy took me to a cabaret a few times, the one down on Fentiman Road. The dancing was just average, but the place was always packed, and I could never understand why until one evening Sammy got bored and decided we ought to go gambling instead. I told him I didn't want to pay to be dragged all over London so he could have a good time—you know he never took the bill for anything—and he said the gaming was to be found there at the cabaret. And then I asked him—"

Saffron withheld a sigh. She knew Elizabeth would get to the point eventually.

"—if they took bets on how many beads would fall off the dancers' bodices with all the shimmying they were doing!" She snorted. "Then he took me to the back room of the cabaret. It was a proper gaming hall in miniature, all shoved into some room off the main floor. I was quite disappointed we didn't need a password or something like they do at those little drinking holes in America."

Now impatient, Saffron asked, "And you recognized the description of the man Wells was drinking with as someone you saw at the gambling room?"

"Yes, darling!" Elizabeth beamed. "The barkeep described him quite inadequately, but I've heard of him. He's a middle-aged man who walks with a limp. He frequents the gaming room. Everyone just calls him Alfie."

"Alfie," Saffron repeated, wracking her brain for if she'd heard that name recently.

"We've got to go to Le Curieux Cabaret and speak to Alfie. Having unfriendly talks with a dead man is definitely suspicious!"

It took ten minutes of Elizabeth coaxing and cajoling her until Saffron had to agree there was some merit in the idea. It wasn't incredible that a second-rate cabaret might have a secret casino hidden in the back. Such things were reported in the papers—which Elizabeth was sure to point out to her, as she'd usually at least heard of the places, if not actually visited—she just didn't see how it could possibly relate to the lab.

Elizabeth was convinced, however, and ready with a plan. Considering she'd already taken it upon herself to search out clues relating to Petrov's and Wells's deaths twice now, Saffron was sure Elizabeth would end up asking questions around the gaming room regardless of whether Saffron agreed to accompany her.

The actual plan, Saffron was even less confident about.

Alexander had mentioned he would not be available to see her that evening—he planned to go to Kingston to check in on his brother—thus she'd stayed at the laboratory late. Elizabeth didn't think that was a problem in the least. She refused to telephone her brother's hotel, saying breezily, "We don't need him to sit down at the card table."

They did need an escort, however, and Elizabeth's suggestion of who ought to accompany them surprised Saffron, even more so when he agreed to go with them to Le Curieux Cabaret.

Yet there Lee was, waltzing into their flat at a quarter to ten that evening, decked out in his evening kit and looking as fresh as a daisy.

"Everleigh," he said, dropping a kiss on her cheek. "Elizabeth, a pleasure." He kissed her hand.

Despite her frequent protestations that she despised Lee, Elizabeth grinned. She and Saffron were already dressed in their third-best gowns on Elizabeth's orders, and Elizabeth was sipping a sherry. She handed Lee his own glass. "Ready for a bit of fun?"

"I would have agreed had you stopped at cabaret, my dear," he said, lifting the sherry in a toast. "But add in a secret casino and nefarious characters, and you would have to pry me loose from the pair of you."

Saffron glanced warily between her two friends as they drained their glasses. She had the suspicion that, of the three of them, she would be the most reasonable, and that was absolutely unnerving.