“No!” The man shouted so loudly that she jumped. “Are you an idiot?”

He tried to snatch the card back, but she yanked her hand away. “Henrico Dargero? That’s you?”

“It is.” Hearing the name seemed to calm him. He nodded solemnly. “I am from Brazil.”

“Brazil?” She shot him a doubtful look. The words on the card looked like they’d first been written in pencil, then traced in black ink. “You a detective?”

He nodded. “We keep them safe. Girls. Curls. Because.”

“‘We’?”

“Me and Willhie. Silly.”

“Who’s Willhie?”

“My friend the night watchman. He’s gone to Decatur. Later.”

She recalled the tall man she often saw with him, the other half of Mutt and Jeff. She glanced at the card again. Gemini Child Protective Society. “Is your name really Henrico?”

He scowled and murmured something she could barely hear. It sounded like Henry.

“Who are you?” he demanded, as though it had been her idea to meet, and not his.

She hesitated. “Pin.”

“Pin?” Henry laughed in disbelief. His deep voice grew shrill as a woman’s. “Pinprick? Pinhead? Pinhole? Pin—”

“Just Pin,” she snapped. “So you and this night watchman—you’re the Gemini? And you find them? Missing kids?”

“Yes. Did you see where he took her?” She shook her head. “Are you sure?”

She shrugged. “I guess. I looked around afterward, but I didn’t see her anywhere. Or him. Did you?”

“No.” He seemed disappointed, like he regretted having signaled her to join him. “I need to go.”

He gestured at the card. Reluctantly, she returned it, and he slid it back into the cardboard wallet. He didn’t notice as a scrap of newspaper fell to the ground.

“Do you ever find them?” she asked. “The missing children? “My sister—”

Henry raised a finger to his lips, turned, and broke into a shambling run, his head jerking back and forth as though arguing with someone. When he’d disappeared into the crowd, Pin stooped to retrieve the scrap of newspaper that had fallen from his wallet. One side was an advertisement for Cream of Wheat. The other was an article about Iolanda Vasilescu, an eleven-year-old Gypsy girl who’d gone missing a year ago:

When she did not return from the washhouse where she worked, her mother contacted the police. Members of the Gypsy camp immediately began to search for the girl. Iolanda’s father, Constantine Vasilescu, berated the police captain, who accused the Gypsies of kidnapping the child and did not organize a police search for two days…

Pin’s stomach clenched. She remembered this. The girl had been only a year older than her sister. And, like Abriana, she’d never been found.

Chapter 21

Chapter 21