Chapter 52

CHAPTER 52

SEVEN THE NEXT morning.

Auguste Poe was on his second cup of coffee when he saw Holmes slumping his way down the staircase to the first floor. The air was filled with the scent of cinnamon. Virginia’s apple-spice muffins. New recipe. A basket of the treats sat on the table, still warm from the oven. Poe took one onto his plate and broke it in half, drooling over the warm apple filling and sugar-crumb topping.

As he reached the first floor, Holmes inhaled deeply, then called out, “Virginia, stop! You are overwhelming my senses!”

Virginia’s head turned away from her computer screen, her hair streaked with a striking new tint. Purple today.

“You’re welcome!” she called back.

Holmes walked past Poe to pour himself a cup of coffee. “Margaret’s flown off,” he muttered.

“I know,” said Poe. “London. She told me yesterday.” He stared down into his coffee mug for a few moments. “I should probably tell you: Helene’s gone too.”

Holmes sat down at the table, his hands wrapped around his steaming coffee mug. “What do you mean, gone? Gone where?” He reached over for a muffin.

“Apparently,” said Poe, “she decided that she and the babies would be better off without me.”

“Babies?” said Holmes, his eyebrows shooting up. “Plural?”

Across the office, Virginia rolled toward them in her desk chair, nearly running over her dog. “Babies?”

Poe let out a long sigh, then jerked his head to invite her over. No sense in going through this twice. Virginia hurried over to the table, eyes wide and alert.

“What’s going on here?” she asked.

“To bring you up to speed,” said Poe, “Helene is pregnant. I’m the father. And we just found out she’s having twins.”

“ Twins? When were you planning to tell us?” asked Holmes.

“I knew it,” said Virginia softly, almost to herself.

“What do you mean?” asked Poe.

“I could feel it,” said Virginia. “The day Mr. Holmes came home from Ithaca. Helene was here waiting for you. I could tell there was something different about her. It was a very confusing vibe, so I didn’t want to say anything. Now it makes total sense. She was pregnant. Pregnant with twins.”

“So she’s taking a leave from work?” said Holmes.

“Not a leave,” said Poe. “She left. She quit her job.”

Holmes looked incredulous. “Quit? For God’s sake. To go where?”

“No idea,” said Poe. “She didn’t want me to know. She just got in her car and drove off.”

Poe could feel Virginia’s energy building, ready to burst. “I’m not pushing,” she said, “but I could track her social, find her relatives, friends, reach out to her FBI contacts, check her OB-GYN’s office…”

Poe shook his head. Nothing there he hadn’t already thought of. “No,” he said. “If Helene wants to disappear, she knows how to do it. For all I know, she could have a whole new identity by now. She could be running a coconut stand in Belize. The fact is, she wanted some space, and I’m giving it to her. She didn’t really give me a choice.”

Holmes set his coffee mug down and stared across the table at his partner. “So there we have it, Auguste. The women in our lives have totally abandoned us.”

Virginia looked from Poe to Holmes and waved her hand in front of their faces. “Hello. Not every woman.”