A Lesson in Love and Murder (20 page)

After their dinner was finished, she excused herself to change into clothing appropriate for their evening's mission.

He waited at the table with a cup of coffee he was too distracted to touch, opting instead to fixate on a plastic plant erupting from a bronze planter directly in his line of sight, wondering why his fingertip still tingled as if deliciously burned from its fleeting touch with her.

But pleasant thoughts soon peeled back, leaving his earlier encounter with Jonathan in their stead. “It's safer this way.” Benny heard Jonathan's voice in his head. He reeled at his inability to spring into action even as his cousin had been standing right before him and his duty clutched at his chest. Moments later, Merinda arrived, dressed as a man—and almost convincingly so.

She chatted excitedly about finally being a part of Ross's grand plan as they wound the dark streets. She told him everything she'd deduced about the man's sad life in Poland and his susceptibility to Goldman's words.

“I wouldn't be surprised if we saw Jonathan there tonight, Benny. He's obviously involved in the PLM. We're getting closer and closer.”

Benny couldn't help but smile in the midst of his uncertainty. She was dressed in the black clothing that Ross had apparently insisted on. Her curls were tucked under a bowler positioned at a jaunty angle.
The clothes suited her flat, slight figure and made her legs seem even longer as she kept pace, swinging her walking stick beside her in excited rhythm.

“Men's clothes become you,” Benny said. He'd say anything to keep his brain from racing back to Jonathan.

“Are you teasing me, Benny?”

“Why would I tease you?”

Merinda grumbled something. It might have been “Thank you.” Benny couldn't tell. They walked a bit farther before turning in the direction of the warehouse, sloping down toward the lake. “I like how your tie is always straight,” she said lowly. “DeLuca always has his collar open. Doesn't bother with ties.”

“Are you teasing me, Merinda?” Benny asked with a glint in his eye.

“Cracker jacks!” she fumed. They walked a few beats in silence. Then she revisited her earlier preoccupation with Jem. “Who would have thought it, Benny? Jem just ups and goes to find DeLuca on her own. Sends me a telegram! Can you believe it? Well, I hope she doesn't get in too much trouble. You know she needs me in these moments to be able to… especially now that… ”

“I saw my cousin Jonathan.” Benny stepped on her sentence.

Merinda stopped in her tracks. “I'm sorry?”

“I saw Jonathan. Here. Earlier today.”

“We came all this way to find him, and you have already seen him? Well, I assume then that you marched him straight to authorities!” Merinda gave a decisive nod.

“He said… he said he'll find me again when he needs me.”

“Benny.” Merinda spat. “We've just spent the past hours in each other's company and you had the audacity to expound on the fascinating winter patterns of the lynx while keeping this information to yourself!”

“I still haven't worked it out myself.”

“But you let him go?”

“He's not gone. I mean, he said that he will find me again, and I trust him.”

“Benny Citrone, this is the man responsible for numerous lives lost. A young officer, a friend of ours… And you trust him?”

“A man is only as good as his word, Merinda. And he as good as gave me his word. I believe him.”

Merinda fell into silence.

Benny was even more at odds with himself now that Merinda's green eyes bored into him. If he wasn't doing his duty by the law, he had trouble making sense of anything. It was more than unorthodox to let Jonathan go when he should have arrested him then and there. But perhaps his bending of the law would result in something good.

“It is quite dangerous to gallivant about on your own, Jemima. You know better,” Jasper chastised, intercepting her and Ray en route to the address Hedgehog had given Ray. An address very familiar to Jem once she saw it. The department store that had provided the very clothes she currently wore.

Despite Ray's numerous attempts to put Jemima in a taxi back to her hotel, she clung to him with force, and he didn't have the heart to send her away. Not when her eyes beamed up at him as if she saw nothing else—not the strange new city, not the stars spreading over the sky or the moon ribboning over the lake as they walked along.

Jasper was muttering about all of this being a terrible idea. Jem said little, trying to tuck her truant curls under her cap.

“She still looks pale,” Jasper chided to Ray, his tone surly. “She was unwell on the train, Ray. White as a sheet.”

“Motion sickness,” Jem said with finality in her tone. “And it has quite passed. You can't think I mean for the two of you to have all of the fun!” She made to loop her arm into Ray's, but he gently shoved it back.

“You forget you're dressed as a man, my love.” He dipped his chin to her ear.

“You forgot quite quickly earlier,” she countered with a sarcastic twinkle in her tone.

Ray wasn't sure what had gotten into her, but he assumed it was just her heart racing as fast as his was. It hadn't slowed since he had first caught an unbelieving glimpse of her. Hadn't even had a moment to tell her that as she was throwing herself at him in the middle of a public street, he had been on his way to the Palmer House to plead with her to board the first train back to Toronto.

But Ray DeLuca was only human, and even in the middling light of an overhead streetlamp, he could make out her wide eyes as blue as china, her striking profile, the dimple that pricked her cheek. He had little choice but to tell Jasper she would be accompanying them. He assumed it was safer for her to be in his line of sight and near Jasper than wherever she might find herself with Merinda.

David Ross smiled when he saw Merinda and Benny. “You came.”

“I brought a friend. This is Benny.”

“Benny?” Ross waited for a last name.

Benny shook his head. “No. First names only. We are all brothers in this present cause. That is all you need.”

“A man after my own heart.” Ross smiled and extended his hand. “David.”

“Benny is as committed to the cause as I am,” Merinda said with a side glance at Benny.

“Well, we can't make a bang without the appropriate resources,” David said with a glance at the shadows of the warehouse. “Which is where our friend comes in.” He gave a quick call, and a middle-aged man with close-set, beady eyes stepped into the lantern light. “This is Hedgehog.”

It took all Merinda had not to snicker. The name. The man who suited it so well. Instead, she nodded curtly. “Hedgehog,” she said.

“Good shipment,” he told Ross. “Just what you need. A bit sticky.” Merinda noticed him take a grimy kerchief from the pocket of his overalls and rub at his hands. He leaned into Ross. “Sloppy, though. It came with more than we bargained for.”

“Not… ” Ross hedged.

“Yes. You tell him to be more careful. I don't know what's going on back there, but my job is only to make sure you have what you need.”

“And you have.” He gritted his teeth and then eased and smiled at Benny and Merinda. “Come! If we want Armageddon to arrive, it will need a bit of a push, yes?”

Hedgehog and Ross going ahead of them, Benny held up a lantern and gleamed its light over Merinda. “Armageddon?”

“I have a feeling this fellow is always going to speak hyperbolically,” she whispered. “If we get through the entire process without his comparing our enterprise to a phoenix rising from the ashes, I will be more than surprised.”

Ross led them through the warehouse, informing them of the usual method of securing the devices and telling them about the man who would arrive slightly later with a truck to take everything back to Ross's own living room. “My landlady thinks I have a particular passion for syrup,” he said with a wink at Merinda. “She doesn't know it's the kind that blows up.”

A few streetlamps from the main road lent light to the back alley. The door to the warehouse, however, was cloaked in darkness, with only a single light cutting through the pitch black around them.

Ray looked to Jasper and then to Jem with a shrug. He was unsure whether to knock or to push the door open. Fortunately, just as he leaned in, the door opened and Hedgehog appeared on the other side. He gave Ray a nod and then looked to Jasper, taking in his obvious height, broad shoulders, and strong build.

A moment later, he made out Jem. “
Two
friends?”

“He kinda tagged along,” Ray said quickly. “Doesn't say a lot. But if you have anything delicate you need handled, he has a light touch.”

“We call him Silent Jim,” Jasper improvised.

Hedgehog thought a moment before resignation crossed his face. “Very well.”

Once inside, Hedgehog gave them a brief assessment of the towers of boxes and crates and the perimeters needed for their mission that evening.

Hedgehog used a torchlight to find his way: a hinged belt made to propel goods up a ramp sat still. Pulleys and levers that in the daily bustle moved boxes and trunks over the cool cement floor hung listlessly. The smell of concrete, oakum, and a thousand fragrances from pried-open carts and smashed bottles in need of a cleanup assaulted their senses.

“A man is coming to inspect the goods tonight,” Hedgehog said. “In a few moments one of my boys will pull up. We have exactly forty-five minutes to get everything in order before the night crew arrives.” He pointed to a large door that was bolted and chained. “They bring the goods through there during the day. We are confined to this door only. Once the Benz arrives, I'll need you both at it. Last night you were quick.” He inclined his head toward Ray. “And you look pretty strong.” Jasper gave a quick nod. Jem stood quietly behind Jasper's shoulder, happy that the soft, low lantern light hid her delicate features. “A lot of what we have here is very delicate. Fragile. That's where your quiet little friend comes in.”

Ray nodded. “We just need to be quick.”

“Exactly. You.” He looked to Jasper. “You wait here for the truck and immediately start at it.” He looked to Ray again and crooked his finger. “You come with me. We'll get clearer instructions from Ross.”