But did Cynthia know about it? And if so, how much? I couldn’t be sure, and I didn’t want to push too hard and shut her down. She’d just been shot at, and I could see the fear in her. Besides, I had more important things to worry about.
“Where’s your brother?”
“What does that have to do with my uncle?”
“Questions with questions,” I said.
“Tough shit,” she snapped. Her anger put some strength back into her voice. “What does it have to do with Uncle Cabot?”
I shrugged and drained the rest of my coffee. It made me hungry. “Nothing. My boss and I want to meet with him.”
“About what?”
Fine. I set the cup down. “Why are you here, telling me about your uncle?”
Suddenly, she wouldn’t look at me. “I’m afraid… I think he might come after me again. I can’t ask Emmett for help. Or Sugar, either. Not now. I want… I need someone to help me.”
Damn. She wanted me to kill him.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“And how exactly am I supposed to do that?”
“I don’t know,” she said, still not looking at me. She knew very well what she wanted, but she wouldn’t say it.
“Why don’t you leave town? You could be in Sea-Tac in less than three hours. From there, you could go anywhere in the world. I hear New York is nice in the spring.”
“I can’t leave my brother.”
“The brother you never see? Please. Tell this story to Able Katz. He strikes me as a smart guy. He’ll square things with the Dubois brothers. He could help more than I could. But neither one of us is going to commit murder for you.”
The word
“So buy a gun. I’ll bet you can afford a nice one.”
“I’m sorry I bothered you.” She stood and turned toward the door.
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t help you. Just that I wouldn’t kill him for you. What if I talked to him? Maybe I could make him back off.” And maybe I could get him to tell me where Charles the Third was hiding.
“Would you do that?” she asked.
“Sure.” I couldn’t help smiling. “In exchange, all you have to do is show me how to make a good cup of coffee.”
We went out of the room. The shadows were a bit shorter and the air noticeably warmer. Cynthia took out her car keys, but I wanted to stop in and tell Annalise where I was going, and also to make sure she didn’t need me.
I knocked. She told me to come in.
She was in the same position she’d been in the night before. She looked a little paler, and her eyes looked watery. Her bedcovers were rumpled, so I knew she’d had some sleep. Or at least had tried.
“Any luck?” I asked.
“I opened his files. Understanding them is something else.”
“What do you mean?” I slipped into the room, and she turned the screen toward me.
“Have a look.”
I squinted at the screen. “Is that some kind of code?”
“It’s Polish. Karoly made his notes in his native language. Which I should have expected, but damn. I’m going to ask for English-speaking investigators from now on.”
“Well, it answers one of my questions, at least.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Why didn’t Emmett know about your investigation as soon as we hit town? I’m not sure what was in the note Emmett took-“
“The note isn’t on here. I checked. He must have written it by hand.”
“I thought so. We didn’t find a printer in his stuff.”
“I’m uploading the files to the society. Someone there will translate and prioritize them.”
“That’s cool. Can I see them when they come back?”
She stared at me a moment. “Maybe. It depends on what-“
The door opened. Cynthia stepped inside and shut the door behind her. She stood as close to the door as she could without being on the other side of it. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t feel safe out there alone.”
I turned to Annalise. “Emmett let Cabot out of his cell. I’m going to go have a talk with him. Cabot, I mean.”
