“I had to, Lou,” I said, my fingers jittering against the glass of the tumbler. Maybe she hadn’t understood me; maybe she didn’t realize how bad this was. The name hadn’t gotten me anywhere. “But it didn’t mean anything to them; they didn’t believe me. They thought I was making it up.”

Lou was looking past me out the window, her face still frozen. Those lovely big eyes, dark and blank. “They wouldn’t have let you know if they believed you,” she said, her voice low. “Rita Palmer. Well.”

“Didn’t you hear me? We have to go now, tonight. If we don’t get the money and leave right now—”

“I heard you.”

She snapped herself back from whatever mental void she’d fallen into and smiled at me. It wasn’t her usual smile, and it wasn’t very convincing, but it was better than nothing.

“I heard you,” she said again, leaning forward to pour me another tipple of gin. The silk robe moved with her, tugging open down her chest. I closed my eyes, knuckling my fists into them so I could concentrate.

“Lou, please, you have to understand, I didn’t have any choice—”

Lou scooched the drink to me across the marble countertop of the kitchen island. “Okay,” she said softly. “We’ll go tonight.” She met my eyes briefly—shyly, almost—and I stopped talking, not sure I’d heard her right.

“What?”

Lou nodded, and then she knocked back the gin she hadn’t touched yet, grimacing. “You’re right—you’re always right, Jo. There’s no point staying anymore. We’ll go.”

In my wildest dreams, I hadn’t imagined that it would be so easy, that Lou would agree with me so quickly. But I’d always known she was the survivor, capable of seeing the writing on the wall. There was nothing left for us with the Lady, now. It was exactly what it had to be. I slumped in relief against the countertop.

“Where should we go?” I asked. I hadn’t packed anything—we’d have to stop by my apartment, for me to pick up my things. And the money. But MacLeish and Lafferty were probably watching my apartment, I thought, the panic starting to rise in me. They’d be suspicious if I came there with Lou, grabbed anything.

I closed my eyes, trying to think it all through. When I looked up, Lou had taken a step closer to me, silk wrinkling and flexing with each move. I closed my eyes, and I could smell the lemon in her hair without even trying. When I opened them again, she was standing right in front of me, her face tilted up to mine. Her eyes didn’t look flinty now, only sad and wet. Her face twitched and the freckles on her nose jumped and danced.