“I’m bored with you now,” Madeline announced. She brushed past him, and Corinne followed, keeping her head low so that her smile wouldn’t be so obvious.
They edged around the tables with the last sleepy patrons and ducked backstage. Somewhere along the way, Eva had vanished, and when they stood blinking in the dim backstage area, Madeline was standing beside Corinne again.
“Do we even know if he’s here?” she whispered to Corinne.
“They would have just finished their last set. He’s around here somewhere,” Corinne said, though she wasn’t as certain as she tried to sound.
After opening a few doors to empty rooms, supply closets, and one couple passionately necking in the dark, they finally found the back room where the band gathered, cleaning their instruments. Charlie was just tucking his French horn into its case when he saw them. He jumped up.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded in a low voice, crossing the room.
“Damn, Charlie, my man,” said one of the musicians. “You get around, don’t you?”
“Introduce us to your friends, Charlie,” said another.
Madeline waved cheerily at them as Charlie herded them out of the room and slammed the door.
“We’re not here to cause trouble,” Corinne told him.
“Little late for that,” he said, glancing around them nervously. They were alone for now.
“Ada’s been taken to Haversham,” Corinne said.
He started at that. “How did—”
“Listen to me, Charlie,” Corinne said. She was so desperate that her words spilled out almost faster than she could think them. “I know the only illegal thing you’ve ever done is play these shows for the Red Cat, but we need your help. I’ve got a plan to save Ada, and honestly there’s only a snowball’s chance in hell that it will work—”
“That’s the first I’m hearing of those odds,” Madeline interjected.
“—and Ada is going to murder me when she finds out I dragged you into this,” Corinne continued. “But I can’t think of any other way, and there’s no one else I can ask. Please—”
“Corinne,” Charlie started.
“Just listen to me,” Corinne insisted. “I know you haven’t even known her a year, but she’s my best friend in the entire world, and it’s her own fault she’s there alone right now, but I have to get her out. I’ll do anything.”
“Corinne—”
“Dammit, Charlie. Can’t you at least consider it for a few seconds before you say no?”
Charlie raised his eyes heavenward and rubbed his finger across the bridge of his nose. “As soon as you’re done yammering, maybe we can leave,” he said.
Corinne blinked, caught off guard. “What?”
“If Ada’s in trouble, of course I’m going to help her. I’ll meet you out back in five minutes,” he said. “Don’t be seen.”
Eva Carson was waiting for Madeline and Corinne outside the stage door. Beneath her fur-lined coat she wore a green silk dress and black gloves. Her golden hair was twisted atop her head, with an impeccable curl falling on either side of her face. Her arms were crossed.
“Damn,” Madeline said. “I didn’t do you justice, did I?”
Corinne elbowed her. Eva smirked at them. In the shadows of the alley, without her thick-necked husband beside her, she looked sharper. More dangerous.
“I never smoke after midnight,” she said. “I also don’t hire idiots.”
“Good to know,” Corinne said. “We were just leaving.”
“Charlie Lewis is a good boy,” Eva said, as if Corinne hadn’t spoken. “He’s been with us a long time.”
Corinne waited for a threat, but it never came.
“He’s got a shiner from one of the HPA agents your husband is in bed with,” Corinne said.
Eva tossed her head and snorted. Somehow, she made it look like an elegant gesture. “Luke is no choirboy, but he would never work with the agency.”
“I saw him take the bribe,” Corinne said. “Last night when I was here.”
Madeline had grabbed her wrist, but Corinne refused to back down. Someone had to answer for Luke Carson’s crimes. It might as well be Eva. She was probably behind them all anyway.
“What you saw was my husband trying to pay them to leave our boys alone,” Eva said. “But the HPA wouldn’t take the money. If I had to guess, I’d say they have a better arrangement with someone else.”
“The bulls?”
“Johnny Dervish.”
Eva said it like a challenge. She was facing Corinne head-on. No more pouting smiles or tinkling laughs. Eva Carson was all business.
“Why would Johnny have anything to do with the HPA?” Corinne asked.
Eva shrugged without uncrossing her arms. “Maybe he was bargaining to keep the HPA away from the Cast Iron. Or maybe he knew that when enough of our crew disappeared, it would be Luke’s head on the chopping block. Or maybe he just needed the money.”
“I’m going to get to the bottom of this,” Corinne said. “If you help me, then Luke will be able to come home.”
For a moment she thought Eva was going to laugh. Instead, she let out a long sigh.
“Luke was a good husband,” Eva said. “But he’s done all he can for me, and he knows it. The Red Cat is my club.”