Any other night Sarah would have found Lady Balcairn’s company secretly tiresome, but this evening she was more than happy to sit next to her and give the occasional smile and nod as she talked and Sarah watched the auditorium fill with people. Sarah didn’t even mind that Lady Balcairn had also taken her usual seat against the low wall shared with the next box, leaving Sarah to sit by the gap that split the box’s two rows of padded velvet chairs in half.

Sarah considered herself a good observer of character, and she didn’t see anyone acting suspiciously while Lady Balcairn monologued next to her. There were plenty of people in the grand tier and the better parts of the stalls who acted like they owned the place—and could probably afford to—and more in the higher levels and cheaper seats who looked a little nervous and unsure about how they were supposed to behave. But no one who looked like they might be a killer.

Excitement turned to anticipation that swirled around the audience as a thousand conversations rose and fell like waves. Sarah leaned forward, craning her neck over the stalls and twisting to look at the balconies above the box.

‘Are you alright, my dear?’ Lady Balcairn asked, finally realising Sarah’s attention was not entirely devoted to her.

‘Of course,’ Sarah replied, sitting back in her chair and giving Lady Balcairn another practised smile. ‘I just love a full house.’

Eventually the auditorium settled into silence. The house lights started to fade, and Sarah hoped again that the evening might pass without incident after all.

But then two things happened that told her she, Knox, and Bennett wouldn’t be so fortunate.

First, there was a sudden shaft of light to her right as the door to a nearby box opened and she saw Aleksei Kosygin, half-silhouetted, take his seat.

And then, looking back towards the stage to wait for the curtain to rise, she noticed the faint glint of a reflection in the stalls as a lady in a gold dress at the far end of the second row stood up and walked down the staircase next to her seat. The staircase that Sarah happened to know led to one of the opera house’s exits, and also to a service corridor that went all the way behind the stage.

Chapter 50

Chapter 50

Sarah leaped out of her seat and into the corridor, surprising both Lady Balcairn and the police officers guarding the door to Kosygin’s box. She rushed back down to the entrance hall, which was now deserted apart from a couple of men in Opera House uniforms. One of them, who was actually a Watcher, recognised her and stepped forward.

‘Problem, ma’am?’ he asked. His voice was gruff but deferential.

‘Where’s Knox?’ she replied.