Holmsteader didn’t look too out of the ordinary if you ighe scar.

  She looked youhan I expected, not much older than me, colored pale green, with a long scar runnio her eye down to her jaw, and skin turned white along its surface. As pale as her skin was, a scar shouldn’t leech all the color out.

  Holmsteader wore a fetg dress of teal ending just above her ahat I looked at through the peephole with jealously. It even had ruffles. When you had to spend money on clothes resistant t and acid, and ones for prowling about at night, the clothing budget teo not cover nice dresses as often. Or at all.

  I still had mine from Lord Montague’s party, and that was it.

  Two toughs fnked her, blue and crimson respectively, one of them idly ing his fingernails with a knife. I was almost tempted to open the door just to lecture him both about health hazards and walking cliches. Given the size of the k was shog he hadn’t cut his finger ope.

  I could keep the door shut. This had to be Holmsteader. Either that or I’d irritated some other female gang boss who’d decided t muscle. At a bare minimum, the snow was still out there; the sun taking its sweet time melting it. A few minutes in the cold to pay for the pain they were sure to be.

  I didn’t have much choice, though. This was the courteous side being shown first, instead of the discourteous side if I didn’t open my door. Who knew how many of her gang might be lurking out there, waiting for the right order to either y siege to my shop or directly assault it.

  Besides, I actually had to live here. Having Holmsteader vinced I was blowing her off would have sequences. So, with a quiet sigh, I put on my best smile and opehe door.

  “Good m! While we are closed, I am delighted to make an exception for you, Miss Holmsteader.”

  “See?” the woman said to her two bodyguards. “I told you she would open the door if we knocked first.”

  “Truth be told, Miss Holmsteader,” I said. “I wouldn’t normally, but you’re one of the first surprises in the past day that has bothered to knock first. Although surprise might be an exaggeration, I anticipated you ing.”

  “Aw, did you?” She said with a smile that bled sugar.

  I ined my head. “I humbly apologize for ing to your se of the Quarter st night without cheg first, but I figured you would not appreciate my presence. I also wish to make clear I am not operating uhe orders of Giovanni Versalicci, simply firming rumours I heard and took an i in. Ah, and one more thing.”

  She seemed somewhat taken aback for a sed, but quickly regained her posure and that sickly sweet smile. “Yes?”

  “Between circumstantial evidend my own suspis, I believe one of your employees may be involved in the disappearances of several people, and may use diabolism te this. At least to keep track of them. Nothing crete yet, but I believe a Donald Tyler has been hooking your temporary borers with diabolic trag spells. irely sure, he seems to be the only person who has been around them long enough to hook a spell like that in pce. I could be wrong, or you could fully know Mr. Tyler’s activities, but it seemed pertio inform you. I should have sent a letter. While I would uand not wantio look into the veracity of that, I would suggest at least looking into-”

  “Mr. Tyler is dead,” Holmsteader said, and oough deliberately reached for something within his coat. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Melodramatic a tad? “Which is precisely why I want to talk to you. Where were you st night?”

  I preteo eye the outside carefully and noted a few suspicious-looking figures out ireet who I hadn’t seen before. Still couldn’t be sure about them being Holmsteaders. The one on a roof crouched near a ey, covered up to resemble a pile of bricks more than a living person? They probably were Holmsteaders.

  “Are you sure you want to discuss it in the open?” I asked her. “This seems a versatio held indoors. Where it’s warm?”

  She sidered it for a sed, bang the possibility of a trap with the fact that it was frigid out there.

  “Certainly. Just inside?”

  “If you wouldn’t mind,” I said, already moving from the door towards my ter. “Hands off the merdise, unlike you want to make a purchase. Tea? I o bre, anyway.”

  “No thank you,” Holmsteader replied, probably not wanting to risk poison. Smart. I’d have to skip on the hemlock. One of her toughs closed the door behind her as they fanned around the room. She actually was browsing, looking among the various herbal wares and potions on dispy. “Seems less than what I expected, to be ho.”

  “Well, ingredients are expensive, and lises more so,” I said. “And just because the Watch doesn’t e here rarely means I’m willing to risk beio the Coffin.”

  “One would think you’d no longer be at risk of that,” she noted, and I didn’t fail to notice how the two thugs were trying to get on opposite sides of me as I set a pot of boiling water on my stove. “Does w for Voltar not offer mu the ways of prote?”

  “Alliances do not make monoliths,” I noted. “Especially when one’s line of work often involves showing up said allies. I imagine more than a few members of the Watch resent Voltar solving cases they struggled with, taking all the public glory, and walking over them. My association transfers some of that to me, and that’s not even beginning to discuss our shared history before all of that. But we weren’t talking about that.”

  Her smile was just as friendly, but her eyes were hard now as I broke out a teacup, grabbing a few leaves from one of my ste cupboards.

  “What were you doing oreet st night, Miss Harrow?”

  “Iigating,” I answered. “But more specifically, looking into a string of disappearances pointed out by Versalicot the most reliable of sources, nor is our retionship anything I sider friendly, but unfortunately, ign him is not an option I have. Spent all the evening firming the disappearaalking with the various people oskirt of your territory. Discovered that someone was using Diabolic spells to keep track of them and came bae. Diabolists aren’t something one should leap into fronting unprepared.”

  “So you deny going to Donald Tyler’s house,” she said in a careful, measured tone. “You did not shoot him, you did not break into his celr, any of that?”

  I poured hot water into my pot over the grill taining my tea leaves, the aside to steep.

  “I could have,” I admitted, turning around the face her, my gaze firm. “And the ways I could vince you it wasn’t me are rather thin. Oher hand, why is it me?”

  “You seemed quite certain it was Mr. Tyler,” she said.

  “He was the first on the list of suspects because he’s the only on hat came up,” I said. “The spell that was being used to track them o be affixed to its target. I was going to determine if it was him or not tonight. I suppose that’s pointless now.”

  “The watcher I have posted near his house was choked out,” she ented. “The st thing he could remember is seeing was a blue arm choking him out.”

  I ined my head at her left bodyguard, his own blue skin just a shade lighter than my own.

  “While the cssical red seems most ong us, blue is hardly unon.”

  “That is true,” she said. “I suppose most of the evidence is circumstantial. Including the alchemy we found oe.”

  I yawned. I didn’t eveo fake it. I felt tired, and this btant interrogation was only makiire faster.

  “What is it?” I asked, ign the gres of the two toughs and the slight crag of her facade.

  “I’m not sure myself,” she said cheerily. “All I know is that it knocked my watcher out!”

  “Well, if you’d brought a sample, I could maybe help you,” I said. “Check my records, see if I sold any fast w knockout air-delivered chemicals. I know a few that would do the trick myself, but again, without a sample, I couldn’t say for sure. We check my stores, I show you my notes, but then again, I could have just as easily fabricated them.”

  “You aren’t helping the case that it isn’t you, are you?” Holmsteader said, grin fading. I’m sure gears were turning inside her head on why I wasn’t even b with hard eviden it not being me.

  “The circumstantial evidence against me is quite a rge array,” I said. “Denying that would be foolish. The question is, am I the target you want to set your eyes on?”

  Because unless she had been using Tyler’s services as a diabolist, I’d just done Holmsteader a service. I hadn’t even do in a way that challenged her authority unless she went public with the details, which she had no reason to.

  A muffled grunt from downstairs, followed by the sound of something hitting the floor. Shite.

  Holmsteader raised an eyebrow as she looked down at the floorboards.

  “I’m eaining a couple of friends,” I said. “I sent them downstairs. It seemed more ve for everyone involved.”

  “Really? One of them wouldn’t happen to be Gregory Montague, would it?”

  My nail scratched across the surface of the teacup with a painful screech. My expression flickered as I wihen pulled my hand bato my p, putting on my best grin.

  The wince wasirely theatrics. I hated I had to scratch a perfectly good teacup just to sell that.

  “Gregory Montague,” I said, f a smile as much as I could. “I wasn’t aware he had visited Glee Street st night. Did he e to any harm?”

  “Not that I’m aware of,” Holmsteader said, watg me closely.

  “Pity. I’d have loved for someoo clip his wings, but the world be such a disappoi in that regard. If you suspect he’s down there, you’re wele to look?”

  She wouldn’t, and both she and I khat. Downstairs, in a pce I could have prepared, with only her and the two toughs? Instead of here on the ground floor, where someone could have a rifle trained ohrough a window? Nope.

  “I’ll pass. I think we’re done here.” Her eyes narrowed, that smile finally turning into a frown. “Don’t let me ever catch you oreet, Miss Harrow.”

  I smiled sweetly back, hand firmly on the revolver. “Don’t let me catch you inside my stain, Miss Holmsteader.”

  She and her goons didn’t even bother browsing, leaving my door with a nasty sm that made it shake. I o get a big, heavy one when I had the spare money. Ohat could withstand a battering ram if needed.

  It didn’t take long to get downstairs as quickly as I could, opening the door to my practice chamber to see Gregory sitting on the same stool.

  “What was that noise?” I asked, gng over at Melissa. She still seemed to be asleep, having not moved an inch since I’d gone upstairs.

  “Got tired of sitting, tried pag, fot the stool was there,” Gregory said, shying away as I turned my gaze to him. “Bad timing with whoever stairs?”

  “That was the former Mister Taylor’s employer,” I said. “Here to find out if I killed him. Tssk, it seems I’ve been banned from Glee Street without having ever been there. Probably you as well, Gregory.”

  “Once was enough,” he replied immediately. “I’ve seen a dozen streets like it. They’re all the same. There are a few unique features to each, but holy, it’s the first oo utilize a gibbet for fvor. She just left?”

  “I think she got what she wanted,” I said. “Or as much as she hoped to get. She ’t firm things one way or another, but she probably thinks she’s guessed close enough. Did my uest do anything?”

  “Not really,” Gregory said. “I think she stirred a few times, but she hasn’t done much. It’s not a faked sleep either, either that or she has really excellent breath trol.”

  “Well, we’re about to find out,” I said, then stepped oail.

  Melissa woke up with a yelp of pain, cursing me and the world in general as she struggled against her restraints.

  “Harrow, you’ll pay for this. I swear on my-”

  The revolver’s hammer clicked as I pulled it back, and Melissa went quiet.

  “Sorry?” I said, finger origger guard for now. “You wao say something?”

  “Must you do that?”

  I turned my attention tory, who was looking on unfortably. “Gregory, the st time Melissa and I were alone when she wasn’t uhe supervision of an adult, she beat me till the point my jaw broke and I couldn’t even speak. All because she felt her pride got wounded. Oh, and me leaving the Fme.”

  Melissa hissed, but she didn’t say anything, her eyes locked onto the muzzle of the gun. Gregory still seemed unfortable, but didn’t look like he would interfere.

  “The boss will have me out of here soon enough,” she whined, expression sullen.

  I shrugged. “The boss might, he might not. You admitted you went behind his ba this one, so he might not even know you’re here. He might not even know you went to Glee Street. The fact of the matter is once he does, I doubt he’s going to be happy. He doesn’t like people ag against his orders, and even if he’s not said a single word about not doing this, I guess what his rea would be to you potentially starting a fight with Holmsteader.”

  She scowled, defiance building back up behind her eyes.

  “He sent you there-” she started.

  “I’m an ex-member,” I stated. “Something he will py up if I ever do anything that puts his hide at risk and py down whenever he o pressure me to do something. You? He’s not got as many options as pying the ‘she left my gang years ago. I do not know what she was doing. Feel free to go after her.’ You, he actually has to make amends for what you do, and that es out of your pocket and hides. Hide being quite literal, although he favors heads if you screw up badly enough.”

  “He wouldn’t-“

  “He would, but that’s besides the point,” I interrupted. “You clearly felt the o iigate Tyler on your own, and clearly somethied to diabolism. Something that has got you worried enough to go behind Versalicci’s back. Something that you think o be handled, and the boss has the wrong solution. So, what was it?”

  “Does he have to be here for this?” Melissa said, looking over at Gregory, pulling further away as he gave her a friendly smile.

  “Yes, he does,” I said. “Turns out Mr. Tyler is in some way mixed up with the church murder yesterday m.”

  “Church murder?”

  She seemed genuinely puzzled by the statement, and I was a little at a loss for words. Did she not read the neer? Any of them-no, no, there wouldn’t have been enough time for them to carry the story. Even if an eveniion had been put out, would she have read it before sneaking out to Glee Street?

  “There riest of Tarver killed in his church,” I said. “One ected to Mr. Tyler. One who was murdered with diabolism. Enough to desecrate the church itself.”

  Her eyes widened for half a sed before she got trol of them, f them to narrow.

  “That…how reted could that be?” she asked.

  “I think that’s for us to determine, miss,” Gregory said brightly. “Ideally, we’d all pool our information together, ahis solved real fast.”

  I raised my eyebrow at that. I suppose he had said he wasn’t in favor of keeping the existence of the Diabolism program from us, but still.

  “If you think I’m going to share anything incriminating with him, let alone you, your brains have rotted since you left,” Melissa s me.

  “sidering I left before you ever joined,” I said. “I’d sider you a poor judge of that. But it’s either us or someone else. Do you think the Watch ’t eventually get answers out of you? The church?”

  “You wouldn’t hand me over to the Halspus church,” she said, a slight quaver on that faked fidenbsp;

  “Ordinarily no,” I said. “However, I am even less ined to have another excuse handed off, leading to them targeting the Quarter as a whole. Besides, they aren’t the only church tied up in this. Holy, there are half dozen others I’d try first who’d be better at it.”

  “You’re askio betray Versalicci,” she hissed.

  “No,” I said. “I’m asking for you to give us something where he’s less likely to be a suspect. Because the timing is rather suspicious.”

  “He directed you to Tyler,” she said, idly pying with the cuffs. Trying to make sure the links were obsg whatever she was doing. My tail grabbed the links in the middle, pulling it forward. Her forehead pressed against the muzzle of my revolver.

  “Yes, he did, and at what a veime as well. Right when diabolic murderers started happening, the person most likely to be first suspected provides information leading to ue diabolist getting caught right after. Almost as if he knew what was going to happen, and was setting up a fall person. Or if a rogue element of his anization itted the murders, and he o cut all links between him and them as quickly as possible. Versalicci is already on people’s mind after the shape-ger i, Melsisa. Who would you wager will get suspected first for the killing?”

  “He had nothing to do with the shape-gers!” she protested, pulling back.

  “You and I know that,” I corrected. “But everyone else? Even people who were there for most of it probably have their own suspis. Gregory?”

  He seemed startled to suddenly be a partit in this, but recovered quickly. “I ’t ent. I never knew enough about the Fme til the end, and even then I only looked into a few specific things. My father, though, remained vi was some kind of Bck Fme plot for quite a while, and still is.”

  I raised an eyebrow, choosing to ignore how those few specific things were probably my criminal record. “He thinks the Bck Fme was responsible? He was the one trolling things towards the end.”

  “Well, there are appearao be met. He’s hardly going to admit that in public.”

  “Point stands,” I told Melissa. “There are people who will bme Versalicci regardless of if he did it. Or even if there’s hard evidence. He’s not very popur with the authorities, to begin with, so it’s easy to point the fi him. So we need something for why he’s not mixed up with this. crete evidence wait ter. Right now I o know why I shouldn’t suspect Versalicci?”

  She remained silent, and I sighed, maybe a touch too dramatically.

  “Melissa, clearly something happeyler didn’t kill Father Reginald. He ran a very tight ship specifically pig off people no one would notice missiually, someone did, but there’s a leap between killing enough of the vagrants ireet people actually tell, and murdering a priest and desecrating a chur Belton of all pces.”

  “Nothing ever happens ion,” Gregory ented. “Last time I was there the faeone had brought their cow from the try with them was the piece of local gossip.”

  “Precisely,” I said, as Melissa’s expression turony. “And someone did a fshy murder, whose sequences led to a Diabolically possessed statue pulping an awful lot of people into a paste. We’re barely a month past the st near-riots against the Quarter, and that ended in gunpowder. People will already assume the worse, so-”

  “There’s a deal,” Melissa said, looking up at me, her gaze firm. “I never heard it, but it’s there.”

  I paused. Deal. Shite.

  “I’m assuming not some kind of trade of goods and services?” Gregory asked me.

  “No,” I said. “Devil’s deal. And when it’s being offered from the other side, it’s unusual. Usually, the diabolist approaches the devi. How many heard it in the Fme?”

  “All of them,” Melissa said. “All of the Fme’s diabolists.”

  I froze. All of them? All of them offered a deal? Lower level devils might be desperate to make deals, but they’d need a diabolist to bore a hole to the Hells to unicate, for a devil to unicate. Versalieeded me just to take with the creature that spawned us, so a devil able to reach through the other way into Anglea…

  More powerful than the Master. The Imp firmed in my head.

  Damnations, what has Alice said when she’d snu here and held me at gunpoint? ‘Got a little whisper in my ear on the way in that’s tempting me first.’ Not just the Bck Fme. How far did it extend?

  What archdevil was behind this?

  “Whose it?” I asked her. “Name, rank, what sin they might associate with?”

  “I already told you,” Melissa said tiredly. “I never heard it. Some of the others talked about it because they didn’t realize I hadn’t.”

  I froze. A thought occurred to me. One I did not like eaining, both because of the implications it had for me, and the implications involving Melissa.

  “Gregory,” I said quietly. “Could you wait upstairs for just a minute?”

  He looked quizzically at me. “Malvia, are you sure? If this involves Father Regi-“

  “It does rete to it,” I interrupted firmly. “But you’ve already heard the relevant parts. What’s left doesn’t just fail to add anything to solving the case, it is private. If it is, I’ll tell you. So, please?”

  He seemed relut, but eventually left the room, shutting the door behind him. And to my enhanced hearing, went all the the stairs.

  “I uand why I didn’t hear the offer,” I muttered. “It’s why I never hear any offers. I’m cimed, a direct desdant of a royal line of the Hells. You don’t offer your rivals ss deals, and you don’t offend allies or subordinates by doing anything that may cim their bloodlines’ souls. If your lower rank than them, especially don’t do this or you might get eaten. Or worse, they inform the devil who spawhem, so you just don’t tayone who is truly half-blooded. And I only know one whose been able to sneak into Anglea i tury to spread their line.”

  The Imp cackled in my brain, but I ig, and focused on Melissa.

  She seemed tired as she mutely hen sidered her cuffs for a time before speaking up.

  “Brother will be angry, that I helped you figure it out. He was hoping to hold it secret for at least a while longer, Sister.”