Mrs. Wallaby gave a discreet cough. “No, of course business is splendid. I shouldn’t have said anything. But I think he could use a pleasant surprise. Would you like me to tell him you’ve brought Agent Sherlock?”

“Please don’t bother. We’ll surprise him.”

Mrs. Wallaby nodded, pulled her coat from the rack behind her desk. “Well, three pretty young women, he’ll think he’s in one of his video games.” The phone on her desk beeped and she picked it up, listened. She winked at Mia as she said, “Yes, sir, I’m on my way. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Once the elevator door closed on Mrs. Wallaby, Sherlock sat down in a visitor’s chair. “That worked out well. Good luck, Juliet, and thank you for coming. What you’re about to do, it takes guts. Don’t think we don’t know that.”

Juliet sucked in a deep breath. “I won’t lie, this is scary, seeing Kent again—but it will be worth it. And it’s time I stepped up to the plate.”

Mia and Juliet walked the short gray-carpeted hallway with the old photos of New York City on the walls. “You okay?”

Juliet’s beautiful face looked fierce. “Yes.” She paused. “Like I told you and Sherlock in the lobby, I might not have come, hard to say now, but Sherlock’s call talked me into it. I’ll admit, Mia, I wanted to shoot you for telling her, an FBI agent. But you know what she said to me? ‘Imagine lying in an unmarked grave, no one knows where you are or what happened to you. Imagine what your parents feel, their child, gone with no idea where or why, think about what they’d live with the rest of their lives.’” Juliet paused, swallowed. “I thought of my mom and dad, and I knew if I simply disappeared, no word, no trace, it would kill them.”

Mia laid her hand on Juliet’s arm. “What Sherlock said is true. You can’t know how much I admire you. You ready?”

Juliet took a deep breath, nodded. “Let’s do it.”

Mia tapped on Kent’s door as she opened it. He was standing in the middle of the office, holding a gilded medieval sword over his head, ready to bring it down. He jerked when he saw Mia in the doorway. He slowly lowered the sword, gave her an embarrassed smile. “It’s been a hard day. I’ve found exercising with this sword de-stresses me. What a great surprise.”