A Time of Shadows (Out of Time #8)

by Monique Martin

  Charlotte stood up straighter. “Knowledge is power, I suppose,” she said in imitation of his lecturing voice.

  Elizabeth laughed. “That’s pretty good.”

  “Don’t be daft,” Elizabeth added with a scowl, comically aping his accent.

  “Very droll,” Charlotte added, and the two of them walked on, exchanging bad imitations of him.

  Simon watched them walk ahead and shook his head. They would be the end of him, he thought, and if he were being honest with himself, he couldn’t wait for it all to start.

  After a few more ridiculously long blocks, they arrived at their destination. The nondescript door that had hidden Charlie’s speakeasy was gone, replaced by a glass door with sandwich boards on either side urging people to try the Brazilian Sitio Colinas coffee which was billed as a heady mixture of floral, papaya, cinnamon and honey. Just the thought of it made Simon want to gag.

  Hoping the inside had changed far less than the outside, he held open the door for Charlotte and Elizabeth.

  When he’d stepped across the threshold he’d half expected to see Charlie’s broad face and hear his gruff, but friendly, “How’s tricks, Professor?” Instead he got a tepid, “Welcome to Jitter Juice. Wifi’s free,” from the young girl who stood behind the bar. Her sullen face, what he could see of it, was half-hidden by the hood of her sweatshirt.

  The dark, smoky, “just the wrong side of the law” ambiance was gone. In its place were bright lights, glass and polished brass. The dark wood paneling was gone and the bricks were clean and perfect. Cheery. It was…disappointing.

  Simon shook his head. He hadn’t thought he’d be nostalgic about Charlie’s place, but as he stood in this pale imitation, he realized he was. And it wasn’t just the room that had changed, the clientele had changed as well.

  Simon thought he knew what a hipster was; his classes at university were filled with them. However, judging from this crowd, he’d finally witnessed the real thing. Skinny jeans, pork pie hats and black glasses seemed to be the dress code du jour. Beards, “vintage” jackets and earrings everywhere but their ears rounded out the look. The hipsters, he was told once, were so aloof they even ignored themselves. That, perhaps, might be their most redeeming feature, he thought as he moved toward the bar.

  The long wooden bar was one of the few things that felt the same. Simon’s traditional heart made a small nod of approval. The bar was cleaner and didn’t smell of the fusel oil they used in the old days to flavor the liquor, but it was the original. He’d watched Charlie sling countless drinks across it and could still picture Dix leaning against it, yelling out her order.

  That was at least a little comforting. Somewhere, hopefully in this room, Teddy had hidden his next clue. Simon looked around. Wherever it was, the place was crowded and it would be difficult to pry something out of the wall or floor without garnering too much attention. Perhaps Teddy had made it even more difficult for them and placed it somewhere behind the bar. Simon turned to look. Not only couldn’t he fathom a way to sneak behind it to search, the day’s offerings of absurd coffee blends at even more absurd prices that were scrawled in colored chalk on boards behind the bar soured his mood that much more.

  Elizabeth must have sensed his displeasure and came to his side. “Don’t see anything you like?”

  He frowned down at her. “Coffee should be simple. This,” he said, waving toward the menu, “is not.”

  “Simple like tea? One flavor will do?”

  “Tea is completely different.”

  Elizabeth laughed. “Spoken like a true Englishman.”

  “I should hope so,” Simon muttered before leaning down to whisper. “How are we going to find anything in this place?”

  She shrugged. “Looking?”

  He rolled his eyes in reply, but she was right. And the sooner they found what they were looking for the better. Making a show of looking at the overpriced pastries and studying the menu repeatedly, Simon edged his way along the bar. Running his fingers over the wood brought back memories of the last time he’d been here—desperate and half out of his mind with worry. Without thinking about it, he turned and looked for Elizabeth on the other side of the room as he had so many times before. She smiled at him and then continued her own search.

  He’d been over the top of the bar twice now and didn’t see any sign of the tell-tale moon. Stepping back, he looked around the base and the brass foot rail. He nearly laughed when he saw it. The cap to the end of the foot rail, clear as day, had their moon on it. Well done, Teddy.

  But, once again, he couldn’t exactly unscrew the end of the railing without drawing undue attention. He’d need a cover. And once again, Charlotte could help provide it. One of her sneakers was untied.

  He called her over and she smiled up at him. It was the most guileless, honest and beautiful smile he’d ever seen and for a moment he completely forgot what he was doing.

  “Yeah?”

  “Your shoe is untied,” he said, and then added in a whisper. “It’s in the end of the foot rail.”

  Charlotte looked confused for a moment and then realized what he meant.

  Elizabeth came over to them. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” Simon said as he positioned her next to him to shield anyone’s view of Charlotte.

  Simon nodded to her and Charlotte knelt down. She re-tied her shoe and then quickly unscrewed the cap on the end of the brass foot rail, slipped the canister out and put the cap back on.

  She stood and surreptitiously handed Simon the canister.

  “You two,” Elizabeth said with a grin.

  Simon put his hand on Charlotte’s shoulder. “Well done,” he said.

  She beamed up at him.

  “Well,” Elizabeth said, “now that that’s out of the way. How about some of the guest beans?”

  She turned to the chalkboard menu. “Huckleberry and violet. Who can pass that up?”

  Simon smiled and put his hand on her shoulder. “We can.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “GOOD?” ELIZABETH ASKED AS Charlotte took another bite of her biscotti.

  She nodded, but Elizabeth could tell she wasn’t thrilled. “It’s no cannoli?”

  Charlotte smiled and nodded.

  Elizabeth sighed. “Little is.”

  After very little convincing, she and Charlotte had managed to get Simon to agree to a few small purchases at the coffee shop before heading back uptown. The area of the Lower East Side where both Charlie’s place and their rooms at the Manchester Arms had been was now called the East Village. To her mind though, other than the name, not that much had changed.

  And looking at the way Simon hovered and hurried them along, his view of it hadn’t changed. He always felt better in anything upper than anything lower. To her, it had always been the opposite. Although now, after spending a fair amount of time with blue bloods, she was pretty sure they all bled the same way.

  Not that she blamed Simon. He was, despite his occasional snobbishness, the best and fairest man she’d ever met. It was definitely more fun to move up in the world than down in it.

  Elizabeth took a final slurp of her Sumatran blend iced coffee that was making her feel both light-headed and like she was saving the rainforest. She slurped the last bit through her straw and paused near an overflowing trashcan.

  Simon, who was a step ahead of her now, stopped and turned back to glare disapprovingly at the sound. He did, but then his gaze went over her shoulder and his expression changed. Without taking his eyes off whatever it was he’d seen, his hand snaked out and latched onto Charlotte.

  “What is it?” Elizabeth asked, turning to look behind her.

  “The man in the blue jacket. He’s the one from the theatre.”

  He was about half a block away, walking with his head down. Her breath caught. “The man next to him. He was there, too.”

  “Dammit,” Simon said, turning around, quickly judging their circumstances. “This way.”

  He took h
old of Charlotte’s hand and started across the street. Elizabeth wasn’t far behind. She turned back in time to see the two men dash across traffic after them.

  Simon looked around as they did double-time down the sidewalk. The side street they were on was fairly empty and Elizabeth felt that old welling sense of panic. She turned back to make sure the men were actually following them. Not only were they still there, but they were gaining ground.

  “Faster,” she said, pulling Charlotte ahead. “We need to go faster.”

  They broke into a slow run and had nearly reached the corner when their sidewalk ended, thanks to a cement truck and construction zone.

  “Crap,” Elizabeth muttered, skidding to a halt.

  The sidewalk on the other side of the street was open, but they would never lose them at this rate. They needed help, and none was on the way. What they needed was a labyrinth, and she saw one across the street.

  “Come on.”

  As a delivery truck drove past, she pulled Charlotte across the street. They dove down a stairwell that appeared like a magic rabbit hole in a cement forest. Their footfalls echoed in the stairway. They rushed down another flight of stairs before spilling out into the entryway of the subway station.

  Only a few people milled through the turnstiles and there didn’t seem to be any security around at the moment. Of course, they hadn’t bought Metro Passes, but that wasn’t about to stop Elizabeth. Barely breaking her stride, she slid under the low turnstile arm and turned back to Charlotte.

  “Come on, honey.”

  Charlotte looked anxious but followed Elizabeth through. Simon braced his hands on either side and easily lifted himself over. Just as he grabbed Charlotte’s other hand, Elizabeth saw the men arrive at the bottom of the stairs.

  The platform was long, and for a moment Elizabeth hesitated. The signage made no sense. Brightly colored circles with letters and numbers in them stared back at her defiantly, keeping their secret code to themselves.

  “This way,” Simon said.

  Thank God he could figure it out.

  They hurried down along the platform, stanchions whizzing past them on the right and white subway tiles a blur on the left. Daring to look back, she saw the two men chasing after them.

  An express train roared past on the middle tracks.

  “Here,” Simon said, pulling them toward an archway.

  They ran through it and down another short flight of stairs, and then another before turning and racing through a short tunnel. The sound of their feet and gasps for breath echoed loudly around them.

  At the far end was another flight of stairs. They ran up them. Elizabeth’s lungs started to burn, and they emerged onto the opposite side platform just as a train was pulling into the station.

  A hot gust of air pushed against them. The train’s air brakes squealed as it slowed, finally clanking to a halt. They ran down the platform toward the exit, but as she turned back, she saw the men weren’t far behind.

  The door chimes sounded and people got off the train, briefly blocking their view of their pursuers. Elizabeth felt a wave of anxiety and gripped Charlotte’s hand harder.

  Without a word, Simon tugged them into the middle car. An overhead announcement said something Elizabeth couldn’t make out. She poked her head out of the still-open doors and saw the men get on a few cars back.

  “They got on,” she said. “We should get off.”

  Simon nodded, but instead of getting off, he dragged them all toward the back of the car and then through to the next. Then he paused at the open doorway for a few seconds and picked up Charlotte. She clung to him tightly.

  “What are we waiting for?”

  The door chimes came again and he nodded. As soon as the chime had finished, the doors started to close. Just before they did, Simon quickly stepped out of the car and onto the platform, pulling Elizabeth with him.

  Behind them, the doors shut and the train whirred and creaked as it started to pull out of the station. They hurried down the platform toward the exit. Elizabeth could just make out the two men inside the train working their way down toward the car they’d just been inside.

  She tried not to think about what would have happened if they’d caught them. Somehow this had changed from following to chasing. Any pretense of being silent observers was gone, and that meant they didn’t care that Simon and Elizabeth knew about them. And not caring about that meant nothing good.

  Nearly out of breath, they emerged onto the sidewalk of the city. Even though they’d only been down there a few minutes, the sunlight on her skin felt like freedom.

  Simon hailed a cab and they piled in quickly. It pulled away from the curb and for the first time since the chase had begun, Elizabeth felt like she could breathe again. She let out a deep breath.

  Next to her, Charlotte squeezed her hand.

  “Okay, honey?” Elizabeth asked.

  Charlotte nodded, but gone was the effervescent child that had just skipped down the street an hour earlier. Her eyes were round with fear.

  “It’s all right,” Elizabeth assured her.

  Charlotte nodded, but Elizabeth could tell she was fighting back tears.

  “Are they coming for you, too?” Charlotte asked.

  “I don’t know,” Elizabeth said honestly. She pulled Charlotte close. “But they won’t get us. I promise.”

  On the other side of Charlotte, Simon clasped her hand. She looked up at him.

  “We Crosses are clever,” he assured her.

  She nodded solemnly, but it seemed to soothe her.

  When she looked away, his calm expression fled. Something grim and dark took its place, and it made Elizabeth shiver.

  ~~~

  “Well, dammit, destroy them!” Simon barked into the phone. “Redacted clearly wasn’t sufficient, was it?”

  He clenched his jaw and continued to pace the length of the sidewalk in front of the motel. That idiot Travers hadn’t disposed of their files. Simon wasn’t sure why in the hell they had files in the first place. They didn’t work for the Council, and if they survived this idiocy they’d never go near it again.

  “Yes, yes,” Simon said tartly. “Just get it done.”

  He didn’t wait for another of Travers’ explanations and hung up the phone. Cars sped past the little motor lodge along the highway and for a brief moment, Simon thought about throwing the cell phone onto it and turning his back on all of this forever.

  It was tempting. Damned tempting. His fingers curled tightly around the small phone. The muscles in his arm tightened in sync with his jaw. He raised his hand, but he couldn’t do it.

  No matter how disgusted he was with them, how vulnerable his family was, it would be infinitely worse if the Shadow Council got their hands on the watch. If only there had been some way for them to have stayed out of it, he thought. But there wasn’t. The men following them had seen the pattern of the clues, and knew that their past was the key.

  Now that their files had been rifled through, that cat was out of the bag. The only thing in their favor was that the Shadow Council didn’t have the clues. Although, he thought ruefully, all that seemed to do was buy them a little time. They were one step ahead, but barely.

  He briefly considered stopping the whole ridiculous masquerade. If they stopped looking, the Shadow Council wouldn’t know where to go next. Not immediately, anyway. Still, with enough manpower and patience they would be able to scope out the places he and Elizabeth had traveled to in the past. And, eventually, find what they needed.

  No matter how much he hated this, they could not let that happen. And for now, they were safe.

  He turned to look at the shabby roadside motel with its filthy pool and chipping paint. Garden State indeed.

  They’d taken their cab to Penn Station where they’d switched to another cab. They could have boarded any number of trains, but he figured that all of them had enough of trains for one day.

  Abandoning their luggage at their hotel in Midtown, Simon told th
e driver to head east.

  Somehow, they’d ended up in a small motel in Union, New Jersey. Simon had never felt quite so unsure of himself. He and Elizabeth couldn’t stop searching, but every step endangered those he loved.

  Looking back down at the cell phone still in his hand, he sighed, slipped it into his pocket and started back toward their room. The sooner they found this damn thirteenth watch the better.

  He unlocked the door to their room and pulled it open, but the chain held it in place. Inside, he heard the distinct halt of movement.

  “Sorry,” he said through the small crack. “It’s me.”

  Elizabeth closed the door and slid off the chain. She sighed at him as he came in.

  “I’m going to take a shower. I feel…” She wriggled in place.

  Simon nodded, understanding.

  “I’ll just be in there,” she said to Charlotte as she started for the bathroom.

  Charlotte sat on the bed with her back against the headboard, her knees pulled up to her chest. She nodded but kept her head focused on the television. What appeared to be a talking sponge was driving some sort of boat across the bottom of the ocean floor. He could tell, though, that she wasn’t really paying attention to it. Thank God. Her eyes had that glazed-over, “thoughts anywhere but there” look to them that Elizabeth wore when the world weighed too heavily on her shoulders.

  Clearly the day’s events had bothered her tremendously. And why shouldn’t they? Her parents had been attacked by strange men and now the same thing was happening again.

  Simon walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge next to her. They sat in silence in for a long moment until Charlotte leaned forward and rested her chin on her knees.

  “It will be all right,” he said.

  She tilted her head to the side and looked up at him with soulful green eyes. She nodded and turned back to the TV, but he could see she was far from assuaged.

  Simon reached for the remote control and turned off the television. He moved until he too sat back against the headboard and extended his legs out toward the television.

  She sat up. “Shoes on the bedspread? Back home that’s a paddlin’.”