twenty-five

“What, what?” I said. “Blackmail?”

Blue looked taken aback. “I thought you said you already knew why they were arresting me.”

“I do. Because of the poison and stolen items at your house.”

“What are you talking about?” Blue said, trying to get out of bed but realizing she was still attached to an IV. “There are stolen goods and poison at my house?”

“Don’t try to stand,” I said.

“Did anyone get hurt?” She gave up fiddling with the IV and stared at me. “Oh, God, Brixton. You said he was okay, right?”

“Brixton is just fine.”

Blue rested her head against the pillow and crossed herself. “Thank God for that. Anyone else?”

“Just you.”

“I drank something, didn’t I? Things are still a bit fuzzy.”

A nurse stepped into the room. “That’s enough for today.”

“I’m fine,” Blue said. “I want to know what’s happening.”

A detective followed the nurse into the room.

“I agreed to tell you what you wanted to know to fill in the blanks of my past,” Blue snapped at the detective. “But you’re not telling me everything. I have a right to know the charges against me.”

“Thank you, Ms. Faust,” the detective said. “We’ve got what we need.”

“What do you mean?” None of this made any sense.

“Thank you, Ms. Faust,” the detective repeated. “Your service in the interest of justice is greatly appreciated.”

I held Blue’s gaze for a moment before walking out the door.

I found Max in the waiting room. “What’s going on?” I asked.

“Not here.”

We walked in silence to his car.

“Blackmail?” I said. “You think Charles Macraith was blackmailing Blue? Why would you think that?”

Max drew a deep breath, his hands taut on the steering wheel of the car, looking straight ahead at the concrete parking garage. “I shouldn’t have anything to do with this case.”

“I might know something,” I said before I could stop myself.

His head snapped toward me. He was so close to me I could smell peppermint on his breath. “If you know something, you should tell Detective Dylan.”

“He won’t believe me.”

“Why would I believe you?”

“Isn’t poison a strange choice for a killer these days?” I asked.

It used to be a lot more common for people to poison each other. Before modern toxicology, it had been easy to get away with it. Many fatal poisons could easily be confused with diseases of the day. Arsenic was such a popular way to kill someone and disguise the death as being from natural causes that it acquired the nickname “inheritance powder.” But these days, poison was a strange choice, especially when it was such a diluted form.

This didn’t make sense on so many levels. If Dorian and Brixton hadn’t stolen the vial, I was confident the lab would have come across the mercury and isolated the other toxins. The killer hadn’t stabbed Blue, so the lab would have been looking for poison in her case, unlike with Charles Macraith. It wouldn’t have gone undetected. Which didn’t seem worth it, since there wasn’t enough poison to kill.

“I can’t figure you out,” Max said. “Why can’t you answer a simple question with a simple answer?”

“It wasn’t a simple question.”

“So you have to answer it with another question? Why don’t you just tell me what you’re getting at.”

“If you tell me what’s going on with the blackmail.”

“Why do you care? Detective Dylan isn’t pursuing you as a suspect. You can get on with your life.”

“I suppose ‘justice’ isn’t a good enough answer?” I asked. I couldn’t tell him about Dorian, the dying gargoyle, for whom I needed to solve the case in order to retrieve the book that I hoped could save him.

“One of the reasons I’m good at being a cop is because I know human nature. Justice is a damn good reason, but only if it accompanies something more personal.”

“Brixton cares about Blue,” I said, “and I care about Brixton.”

“He got to you, huh?”

“You’re telling me he hasn’t gotten to you?”

“That was different.”

“Why?”

“Because I saw myself in him.” Max looked away and started the car, but didn’t make a move to back out of the parking space.

“You mentioned that before. What did you mean by it?”

He hesitated for a brief moment. “Only that you were never a fourteen-year-old boy.”

“I had a brother. He was impetuous like Brixton. He—” I broke off. My hand flew to my locket. I hadn’t meant to let it slip out, but it was too easy to let my guard down around Max.

“I’m so sorry, Zoe.”

“Why?”

“You used the words was and had.”

“You picked up on that, huh?”

“Good cop skills, remember.” He tried to smile but failed.

“It was years ago.”

“I’m even sorrier to hear it, then. It’s never easy to lose someone you love, but it’s especially difficult when they’re taken too young.”

“We’re supposed to be talking about Blue.”

“We’re not supposed to be talking about anything.” He leaned back in the seat of the car and shook his head. “You’re supposed to go talk to Detective Dylan about whatever it is you think you know about the case.”

“It’s only an observation.”

“Your observations have been pretty good so far. Blue probably wouldn’t have been found in time if you hadn’t suspected something and gone to see her.”

“A lot of good I did her.”

“The evidence still would have pointed to her, regardless of when we found her. But because of you, she pulled through.”

“Thanks for being a good liar. I doubt there was enough poison in her system to kill her.”

“What do you mean?”

“That’s what I wanted to tell you. Ever since you told me the poison was stolen from the lab, I’ve been trying to think more about what I smelled.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. Omitting facts he didn’t need to know was hardly the same thing.

“You placed the scent?”

“I told you it reminded me of something I couldn’t put my finger on. I realized what it was. It smelled like an old Chinese herbal remedy … that had been tainted.” I tried to think of a way to mention the mercury, but there was no good way to do it. It was odorless.

Max shook his head. “I know a thing or two about Chinese herbs. You’re off base.”

“You learned from your grandmother.”

“I did.” His lips tightened as he said it.

“She wouldn’t have exposed you to toxins. To anything dangerous.”

He opened his mouth and took a breath to speak but decided against it.

“You admit I have a point,” I said.

“Maybe. It’s too bad you didn’t think of this before the sample was stolen. This could have helped the lab guys narrow things down.”

“I know,” I murmured. I wondered if there was a way for the vial to be “found.” It wouldn’t be able to be used as evidence, but successfully prosecuting the culprit was less of a concern of mine than finding Dorian’s book and making sure Blue wasn’t unjustly convicted. Would the police even consider testing something that was lost and then found? Maybe there was a way we could plant the vial in the grass near the lab, making it look like the thief dropped it …

“Zoe?”

“Yes?”

“I lost you for a minute.”

“Sorry. I’m distracted. I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

“Tell me about it. Let me drive you home.”

“There’s something else I’ve been thinking about,” I said as he maneuvered out of the parking garage.

“Tell it to Dylan.”

“Let me run it by you first.”

He sighed and kept his eyes on the road, flipping on the windshield wipers as a misty rain began to fall.

“You guys are looking into some blackmail angle about Blue’s past—”

“I can’t talk about it,” Max cut in.

“I know. That’s fine.” It wasn’t fine, but I could deal with that later. “What I mean is that you might be ignoring the real motive.”

“Which is?”

“Those antiques of mine that were stolen. I’ve been spending a little bit of time cataloging, and some of the things might be even more valuable than I previously realized.”

“Mmm hmm.”

“Is that the cop sound for a noncommittal answer?”

“We’ve been looking into all the angles, Zoe. You don’t have to play detective. We know what we’re doing.”

“But the alchemy book—” I broke off when I saw Max’s hands tighten on the steering wheel. His expression had changed. A wall had gone up. This wasn’t like the other information he was withholding. He was hiding something.