Page 17 of Promises to Keep

“Yeah, yeah I did. I hope it helps.”

We made it to the front doors where the police patted down our shoulders gently, then said, apologetically, “Sorry ma’am,”

We both looked haughty.

They checked our bags, mine in particular because of my yellow plastic Burt’s Bees lip balm with a bright red cap.

The officer scrutinized it, sniffed it, and showed it to another man who took the lid off.

I explained, “It’s lip color, for ladies.”

“Oh, sorry ma’am, we’ve just seen unexplainable things here tonight, we cannot be too safe.”

“True.” He dropped the lip balm back in my bag, and told us we were free to go.

CHAPTER 11 - KAITLYN

On the front steps we overheard a man say, “That was a freak storm. It was over before it barely started.” A crowd was watching the sky over the back of the museum.

James and Quentin rushed up. James said, “I was listening on the radio, you weren’t supposed to make contact, that was so much contact!”

Quentin directed us across the street away from the museum. “What happened to ‘Ice cream sucks’? Basically, that whole ‘discreetly taking photos’ thing, gathering intelligence — that was just thrown out the window? What the hell, Katie, you were talking to her!”

“I know! She saw me, there was nothing I could do! She pulled me into conversation, and now she’s taken Lady Mairead. Damn. And I couldn’t use the code word because there was nothing you could have done either, I hate to say it Quentin, but that there,” I waved my hand toward the museum, “is amess.”

We walked briskly down the block until we came to Elmwood and stood looking up at the mansion.

Hayley said, “So after leaving the museum, Lady Mairead will put the letter in the safe asking for Magnus to come?”

“I mean yes, she did, but we are here now, we might have changed the course of events.”

We crossed the road and walked down to Central Park.

I said, “The good news is we have photographic evidence, the bad news: I’m not sure what Magnus will be able to do. She said she wants to destroy us… She took Lady Mairead, I don’t know where... did I mention it’s a mess?”

Quentin said, “Yep, you mentioned it.”

* * *

All four of us jumped back to present-day Central Park, and once I was able to move and speak, I realized Magnus was holding my hand.

“I am verra relieved ye are back.”

“Were you worried?” I mumbled.

“Aye, it made sense when we planned it, but once implemented I thought it might be a mistake. Did ye get us information?”

“A lot of information: photos, direct dialogue, the villain laid out her plan, we ought to have enough, but... my love, it wasalsoa big mistake, this is far more complicated than you thought.”

“Let us brush ye off and go speak on it.”

We traipsed down the hill from the woods and across the wide grassy fields to the park gates. I held onto Magnus’s arm and dragged my feet. “How come whenever we wake up from jumping we have to walk a long long way?”

James joked, “Do you really want an answer or are you just bitching? Because we are walking a long distance and I don’t have the strength to answer.”

“Just bitching.”

Then, exhausted, we climbed the steps to the house, and my kids came running from all directions to see us.

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