Irene had noticed his slippage from the carefully polite ma’am to the more casual lady. She hoped it was a good sign. ‘Well, it’s a positive that the Boston police department warned you I was coming. It shows that police communications across America are functioning properly. It’s just inconvenient for me. It’s going to be difficult for me to do my job as Jeanette Smith, if everyone in this city knows where I am and that the cops are keeping a close eye on me. Nobody from the mobs is going to want to talk to me—’
Captain Venner brought his hand down on the table. ‘Lady, hold it right there. You’ve got it wrong. You’re in more danger than you realize.’
‘Why?’
‘You’re a hot property now,’ he said. ‘Any gang that doesn’t make a deal with you is going to want you out of the way, so that the opposition doesn’t profit. Hell, some of the boys may be thinking about taking you off the board right now, just to keep things simple. The moment you walk out the door, you’ll have them on your tail.’
‘Damn.’ Irene hadn’t thought of that. This must be the other half of the trap: slow her down by tagging her as ‘Jeanette Smith’, and give most of the gangs in New York a reason to want her dead. She had to admire the plot’s efficiency, from an academic standpoint.
‘Yeah.’ The captain sighed. ‘Tell you what, I could have a couple of the boys drive you back to the station and put you on the next train out of New York. You wouldn’t talk to your targets, but at least you and your friend would be alive.’
‘That’s certainly a possibility,’ Irene agreed. She could see that it would suit Captain Venner. It would get her off his hands, and he wouldn’t have to take any blame for letting the reporters publicize her arrival. A win–win situation for him. Less useful for her. ‘But my superiors will still want me to get the job done.’
‘Do they want you to get shot?’ the captain asked. ‘Because that’s what’s going to happen, if you walk out of here.’
Irene shrugged. ‘One thing I suspect we’ve got in common, Captain, is that our superiors can be a bit unrealistic about what they think we can do.’
‘You got that one right.’ He took off his glasses and polished them thoughtfully. ‘Still, if you’ll take my advice, you’ll find a good excuse and get the hell out of town. This isn’t Atlantic City and it’s not conference season.’ He saw her blank look. ‘You know, when the big boys meet up to talk terms and make deals. But the boys aren’t playing nice with each other right now, and you’re going to be in the middle.’
‘I’m no happier about it than you are, Captain,’ Irene said feelingly. ‘This wasn’t what I had in mind at all.’
There was a knock at the door. ‘Come in!’ the captain called.
Dorrins entered and waved Kai in, before firmly shutting the door. ‘Captain, some of the reporters downstairs are asking questions,’ he said. ‘They’re wanting interviews.’
‘With me?’ Irene said.
Dorrins shrugged. ‘With anyone, ma’am. But it’s going to make it harder to get you out of here.’
Irene nodded and turned to Kai. ‘It’s all right, Robert,’ she said. ‘These gentlemen are in on the mission now.’ She turned back to Captain Venner. ‘Please allow me to introduce Detective Inspector Murchison of Scotland Yard.’
Captain Venner leaned across the desk and offered his hand for Kai to shake. ‘Good to meet you, Inspector. Your colleague here’s been giving me the real story. I hope the boys downstairs didn’t give you too rough a time.’
Over the last year or two, Kai had become adept at remaining impassive while being introduced under various unexpected aliases. This one didn’t even rate a blink. He returned the handshake easily. ‘Not a problem, Captain. They were just doing their jobs.’
‘What we need from Captain Venner, right now, is a way to get out of this police station and lose anyone following us,’ Irene said.
She was aware that time was slipping past. Every minute made it more likely that Captain Venner’s Language-induced misperception would wear off and he’d remember that she’d just flashed a random advertising leaflet at him.
‘You got any thoughts on the matter, Murchison?’ the captain asked, turning to Kai.
‘The same as her, to be honest.’ Kai gestured to Irene. ‘We need to get out of here, and we need to do it without being seen.’
‘The easiest way for you to lose your tails might be at a subway station,’ the captain said thoughtfully. ‘All right. Here’s how we’ll play it. Dorrins, you’ll get a couple of the boys who know how to keep their mouths shut and tell them to bring a car round to the back of the station. Make it one of the ones with tinted windows. Then you’ll take our guests here down the back stairs. They’ll hop out and into the car, before the reporters can catch up with them. Then the boys will run them down to, oh, say East Penn station, and they’ll jump on a subway car. Change lines a few times, and you should be able to lose any tails. That work for you, Murchison, lady?’
‘An excellent plan,’ Irene said warmly. ‘Thank you, Captain. I do realize that we’ve placed you in a very awkward position, and I appreciate your help.’
Captain Venner looked mollified by her prompt agreement and Kai’s nod. ‘Set it up, Dorrins,’ he directed. ‘You got any more questions, either of you?’
Irene glanced at Kai. He shrugged. She was about to shrug as well, when a thought struck her. Dragons were skilled at many things, but avoiding attention wasn’t generally one of them. ‘Have there been any unusual new arrivals in town over the last month?’
The captain snorted. ‘This is New York. Everyone comes here. Even Scotland Yard agents.’
‘They’d probably have been claiming to be foreign nobility or royalty,’ Irene persisted. ‘And they’d have had a lot of money to throw around.’
He frowned, thinking it over. ‘Now that you mention it . . .’ He counted on his fingers. ‘There’s a guy at the Plaza Hotel, says he’s Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, but he’s not. He’s running a scam, claiming that he just needs some money to go retrieve his art treasures. We’ll be pulling him in next week, or sooner. And there’s this guy staying at the St Regis Hotel on Fifty-Fifth Street. Been here in New York the last couple of weeks. It’s not so much him making claims about being royalty; it’s the fact that he has pet wolves and likes to take them for walks down Broadway and around town. It ain’t exactly illegal, but we had some concerned citizens making representations about it.’
Irene saw Kai’s eyes narrow. ‘So did he have to keep the wolves at home after that?’ she asked casually.
Captain Venner rubbed his thumb against his fingers, in the universal shorthand for cash. ‘Money talked, and a whole lot of people decided they could live with wolves on Broadway. Course, they’re the well-behaved sort of wolves. But when you ask about visiting nobs with more money than sense, that’s who comes to mind.’
Irene nodded. ‘Thanks for the information. But I’m more concerned about anyone who might know the real Jeanette Smith.’
‘I still think you’d be safer out of town. But it’s your decision. At least once we get the two of you on the subway, you’ll be . . .’
‘Out of your hair?’ Irene suggested. ‘Someone else’s problem?’