“I’ll do it.”

Her eyes narrowed and for a minute he thought she was going to try and tell him he couldn’t, then she smiled without much humor. “You’ve definitely got a better chance of actually getting the twisty buggers to listen. But again, last resort. Well, second last resort. I want to talk to Auntie Catherine again before we widen our circle. She might’ve seen something else.”

“Wouldn’t she have told you?”

“Giving her the benefit of the doubt, she might have Seen something and not have realized it was connected.”

That was possible, Jack acknowledged, although Charlie sounded like she didn’t entirely believe it. “And without the benefit of the doubt?”

“She’s an auntie. Aunties are . . .”

“Are you two coming in for breakfast?”

Jack sucked in a lungful of his own smoke and began to cough. He could feel Auntie Gwen’s regard from where she stood in the doorway of the roof access and he wondered how much she’d heard. Then Charlie was beside him, pounding on his back. “We’re on our way.”

“Alysha thinks you’re hiding something.”

“And what do you think?”

“I don’t think you’re hiding anything, Charlotte.”

Wiping the snot off his upper lip on the sleeve of his jacket, Jack looked up in time to see Auntie Gwen roll her eyes.

“Neither of you are exactly subtle,” she said. “Secret conversations. Bouzoukis.” Arms folded, she studied first Charlie, then Jack.

Jack squared his shoulders and met her gaze, no child to be cowed merely because he was expected to be. To his surprise, she smiled.

“Really?”

He wasn’t sure what kind of answer she wanted, so he continued hold her gaze without speaking. When she finally turned her attention back to Charlie, he changed enough to blink his inner as well as his outer lid across dry eyes.

“If I ask you what you’re hiding, Charlotte, will you tell me?”

“No.”

“No?”

“Not yet,” Charlie amended.

“Not until you’ve either solved the problem or discovered you can’t solve the problem.”

“Pretty much.”

Auntie Gwen made a noise Jack couldn’t quite identify. It would have sounded like she was accepting the inevitable had the aunties considered anything regarding their interactions with the family inevitable. He supposed the closest translation would be that’ll do for now. “Then I won’t ask. But don’t leave it too long, Charlotte.”

“Trust me, this one has a best-before date.”

He wondered why Charlie’d put the emphasis on this one rather than trust me, then he remembered that once the aunties lost trust, they didn’t bother to ask questions.

“Most secrets do.” Auntie Gwen turned on one heel and started back down the stairs. Her voice floated up from the stairwell. “Sooner or later, it all comes out in the wash.”