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Jasper set down his spoon. “And what might that be?”

Leo bit her bottom lip, then said, “I went to Castelan Private Inquiries today to discuss Mrs. Lawlor. Mr. Castelan informed me that he knew you were in Spitalfields this morning.”

Jasper went rigid in his chair. He’d gone to visit Desmond Pierce early to try to avoid being seen. What were the bloody chances?

“Why should that concern me?” he asked.

“He says you and his detective are working parallel cases. And he seems to know you weren’t there for anything sanctioned by Scotland Yard.”

Hell.

“You were searching for Andrew’s nephew, I presume,” Leo went on, stirring her soup while her eyes speared him.

“Yes,” he answered, his appetite gone. He tossed his napkin onto the table. “I doubt Castelan has been hired to look for Cillian Carter, though.”

“Cillian?” Leo’s spoon went still.

He groaned. At this juncture, there was no longer any reason to hold back. “Sean Carter’s only son. He’s twenty-one and was having an affair with Tabitha Pierce, the wife of a Spitalfields Angel named Desmond Pierce. That was who I visited this morning.”

Leo’s expression honed with interest. “Andrew thinks he may have harmed Cillian after finding out about the affair?”

“He does, and Pierce does have recent scratch marks on his neck that point to a fight of some kind,” Jasper said, recalling the gouges inflicted by fingernails. “But I’m not convinced Pierce even knew his wife was stepping out on him with Cillian. And when I told him Cillian was missing, he understood that the East Rips were looking at him with suspicion. He became scared.”

“Perhaps because he did kill him?” Leo suggested.

“He’d have to be a half-wit to kill the heir to the East Rips and then stick around, waiting to be found out.” Jasper thought of Pierce’s interest in how many days Cillian had been missing. “No, I think I understand what Mr. Castelan meant by parallel cases. And how he knew I wasn’t visiting Pierce on Scotland Yard’s orders.”

He could only think of one way, in fact. If Tabitha Pierce was also missing, as Jasper suspected, Pierce must have hired Castelan to find her. He didn’t know where the Angel would gather the blunt to afford an agency like Castelan’s. But if determined, he could have fenced some of his belongings—or something he’d stolen—to afford it.

“Well? Are you going to tell me?” Leo asked when Jasper stayed quiet.

He sat back in his chair, his resolve to keep Leo out of this hunt for Cillian Carter diminishing rapidly. He gave in and explained his theory, including how Desmond Pierce had likely told Castelan’s detective all about Jasper’s visit and line of questioning.

“So then, if both Tabitha and Cillian are nowhere to be found,” Leo said afterward, “they have probably run off together.”

“That is what I’d like to think too,” Jasper said. “But Andrew told me Cillian left behind all his belongings. For him to totally disappear, there is another possibility I can’t overlook.”

Leo caught on. “That he is dead.”

“Tabitha could have killed him and fled after it happened,” Jasper said.

“Or she knows who did kill him, and she’s gone into hiding somewhere,” Leo added. “She very well could be dead too.”

The inquisitive gleam in her eye, the way she nibbled her lower lip in thought, concerned him. “I would like you to concentrate on Mrs. Lawlor’s case, Leo. Not this one.”

She blinked, as if coming back to herself, and picked up her spoon again. “Mr. Castelan and his detective are going to put together that you’re working for Andrew Carter, if they haven’t already.”

“Let me worry about that.” It wasn’t so unbelievable that an inspector at the Yard might take on a private inquiry, just as he’d said to Desmond Pierce. Though he didn’t want it getting out that he’d accepted a job from an East Rip. It wouldn’t reflect well on him at work and could tarnish his reputation. Rightly so, too.

“What happens to you also happens to me,” Leo said with a pointed stare. “Let me in, Jasper.”

It was a command as much as it was a plea. Heaven help him. Once Leo got her teeth into something, she would not let go.

“What do you suggest?” he asked.

“The fastest way to get Andrew off your back is to find Cillian, dead or alive,” she said. “Tabitha Pierce seems to be the one person who might know where he is or what has happened to him. If you believe her husband has hired Mr. Castelan to find her, then I might be able to find out what the agency knows. He has offered me information if I try working for his agency.”

“No.” It was practically a bark, but Leo only looked at him with exasperation.