thirteen

Dorian handed me a pencil sketch of where he’d found the pendant. The location wasn’t directly next to the water, but at least it was on a path that did at some points come close to the water.

“Monsieur Freeman is staying with us?” Dorian asked, eyeing Tobias’s duffle bag.

“For a little while,” Tobias said. “I needed a change of scene.”

“Tobias is going to help me find Nicolas,” I added. “As soon as I get this situation with the police settled.”

Dorian blinked at me. “Am I not the great detective Dorian Robert-Houdin?”

“You are,” I said. “But Toby can go places with me where you can’t be seen. I want him to come to the gallery with me. Here.” I handed Dorian the note from Nicolas. “While I’m out, you can show Tobias how to read the note. See if you two see anything else in it.”

“Bon,” Dorian said. “And you owe me a rematch of gin rummy, Monsieur Freeman. Do you also play chess? I now have a superb chess set.”

“Until it sells,” I reminded him.

To make the attic a cozy living space where he could cohabitate with the alchemical artifacts sold through Elixir, Dorian had hung much of the art on the walls, put his favorite objects on display shelves, and used an antique table and chairs for the hand-carved wooden chess set. He was teaching Brixton to play.

“I need to go,” I said. “Unless you two need anything else, I’m going to grab a handful of dried fruits and nuts for breakfast and be off.” If I didn’t take care of myself first, at least basic care such as eating, I’d be no good to anyone.

Dorian gaped at me. “You have not eaten le petit déjeuner? But it is nearly time for lunch.”

“I was planning to have tea and breakfast at the teashop, but then—”

Dorian clicked his gray tongue. “This will not do. One moment.”

He disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a plate of misshapen scones, rolls, and muffins in one hand, and a glass mason jar of mixed berry compote in the other. As a Frenchman, he believed that presentation was an important part of enjoying food, so he only left perfectly shaped food to be sold at Blue Sky Teas. The rest he brought to our house.

“I have used the last of the cardamom for this recent batch of fruit preserves,” he said as I spread the sweet and faintly spicy mixture of blackberries and strawberries over a nutty muffin. “I wished to use the last crop of berries of the season. I have made enough to fill many of our mason jars. We will need more for the apples that are now in season.”

“You’ve got some flour on your wing,” I said.

He unfurled his wings, which spanned a good six feet, and shook the flour onto the floor. Tobias gave a low whistle, transfixed by the sight. I understood the feeling.

“Très embarrassing,” Dorian mumbled as he tucked his wings into their resting location along his back.

“You’ve always told me that was the mark of a true chef,” I said.

“Not the flour. My wings.” Dorian spoke softly and his gaze fell to the floor. “They look as though I should be able to fly, and yet …”

“How do we know you’re supposed to fly?” Tobias asked. “Gargoyles are attached to cathedrals.”

Dorian looked up at Tobias and his cheeks flushed dark gray. “Am I ‘supposed to be’ one of the greatest chefs of the ages? Perhaps not as was fated in the stars, yet I have done this for myself. I learned from my father how long it takes to perfect an act. Was it fate that brought him the books on magic when he had ordered clock-making manuals? Perhaps it was an accident. Perhaps it was fate. But he achieved what no other Frenchman had done before.”

“I concede,” Tobias said. “How can one argue with that?”

“I really should go.” I bit into a ginger scone topped with blackberry compote. “Detective Vega will send a car to the house if I don’t show up soon.”

“Though I do not approve of eating as an afterthought while walking,” Dorian said, “a police escort would not be desirable.”

“You’ll be okay on your own?” Tobias asked.

“I will. Let’s not get you too close to the police again. Especially after I screwed up—”

“Let’s hope Max was too concerned about you to pay attention to what you said.”

“Allo,” Dorian said, waving clawed hands in front of our faces. “I am another living soul in your presence. Yet you speak of things I do not know. Would you please enlighten me?”

“I told Max that Rosa was Tobias’s wife. But Tobias had been telling people he was her caregiver or her son, because she grew old, but he’s still only fifty.”

“Hey, I’m only forty-nine,” Tobias quipped. “That’s how old my body was when I found the Elixir.”

“I told you, Zoe Faust,” Dorian said, “that you are too comfortable in front of Max Liu for your own good.”

“It’s all right,” Tobias said. “But Zoe is right that I should stay away from the police.”

“Chess?” I heard Dorian asking Tobias as I slipped out.

Tobias laughed. The rich, deep sound made me smile. It had come so infrequently when I’d first met him. “So that was why you plied me with that Irish coffee.”

“Moi? I am but an innocent gargoyle.”

I scoffed at the thought. If only.