“And now those are gone too.”
Lily immediately started to cry. “You shouldn’t take it. Not the last one. It’s mine.”
“I’ll just hold it for you, then. Just so you still have it tomorrow.”
Lily wiped muddy hands across her cheeks, her tears all but forgotten. I spotted Lily’s handbag, slung across a wilted bouquet of flowers on the far side of the tree. I upended the bag and scattered the contents across a patch of grass. No burner phone. Not even her regular mobile. And as I shoved all Lily’s things back into her bag, I realized what that meant.
“It’s not her,” I said to Lock.
Still, according to the app, the phone was right next to us, which meant the person who was after me was somewhere close. Somewhere close enough to be watching. Lock stood up and while Lily whimpered in the mud, we both looked around, but all I could see were bushes and trees falling deeper into shadow by the second.
“Anything?” I asked under my breath.
Lock shook his head. “I’ve a question. Why was the burner hanging around near Lily before we got here?” He leaned closer to speak into my ear, so that Lily couldn’t hear what he said next. “And what might have happened if we hadn’t shown up when we did?”
I hadn’t thought of that, but the minute he said it, all I could imagine were headlines of Lily being slaughtered at the same place where her father had died.
“Help me get her up.” I slung her bag over my shoulder and we helped Lily to her feet. But then Lock let go and started backing away from us toward the trees.
“What are you doing?”
“We’re so close,” Lock said. “We need to know who it is.”
I pulled out my mobile and watched the little blue dot stuttering away from my red dot slowly. Then I shoved the mobile at Lock. “Take this and find whoever it is. I’ll take Lily back to my house.”
There was almost no light left in the sky, but I could see Sherlock’s expression in the glow from my mobile, and his eyes were already bright with the adventure of chasing off into the night. “Be careful.”
“Maybe I’ll look for a stick on my way.”
“A cane or staff,” I called after him. “Never a mere stick.”
And then he was gone, and I was left in the dark with a groaning, drunken Lily Patel.
“You’re bad,” she said once we’d made it up onto the path. “You’re a bad one.”
I gritted my teeth to guide her around the corner when she threw her full body weight the other way. “That’s the rumor.”
She swung her body around so that we were eye to eye, her face so close to mine, all I could smell was stale beer. “Bad stock.”
I took a quick look behind us, but it didn’t seem like we were being followed.
“Not feeling well,” Lily mumbled into my hair. It was suddenly very tempting to leave her there in the park, sprawled out on a bench for one of the park staff to discover at closing. But I didn’t. She and I weren’t friends, but I didn’t want her to die. Not by some creeper with a burner phone, anyway. So I hoisted her, step by step, out of the park and up Baker Street to my empty house.
What would the paparazzi have made of us? I wondered when I got to our stoop. Apparently, Alice’s marks had gotten the memo that the family was at the hospital. All but me, the wayward child who couldn’t even sit vigil beside the brother for whom she claimed to care so much. And the press? Who knew. Maybe Alice’s men had run them off for good.
“Bad stock,” Lily slurred again. I leaned her back against the door to dig out my keys. “Daughter of a thief and a killer.”
“Shows what you know.” I unlocked our door and repocketed my key. “They were both killers.”
Lily smiled. “I’ve only just the one killer. Got you beat.”
She lifted a finger and tried desperately to make it touch my face somewhere. Was she saying something real? Or just hyperbolizing over her angst with her mother? “Do you have secrets too?” I asked quietly.
Lily’s fingertip finally connected with my cheek just above my jaw and she burst out in a fit of giggles. I indulged in a deep breath, which I huffed away. More likely, she was extremely drunk and had no idea at all what she was saying.
I managed to haul her inside the house and lock us both in, but I knew I’d never be able to repeat the feat all the way up our stairs, so I dragged her into Alice’s room and fell back onto the bed with her to catch my breath. A knock at the door brought me right back to my feet. Lock pushed his way inside, out of breath, covered in dust, twigs, and leaves, and practically glowing with excitement.
“Did you see who it was?”
He shook his head. “The signal went dead just outside the park, and when I reached the spot, a bus was driving off. No luck.”
I nodded and took back my mobile when he held it out.
“I’ll get Jason to put that app on my phone as well so we can surround whoever it is next time. How’s the drunkard?”
“Whimpering into Alice’s pillows.”
“Ah. Alice. She called.”