Laszlo chased after Elizabeth as she moved through the house back to their bedroom. He knew that she was worried and angry. He knew that she would probably say something that she didn't mean, but he had no intention of leaving her to stew. Whoever had sent that letter had been cruel and callous, plus they had written nothing but lies. The idea that Laszlo would promise Elizabeth a child from the Institute was ludicrous. How could that even be possible? He sighed loudly before pushing the bedroom door open and looking to Elizabeth as she stood by the window, hands on her hips and gaze set out onto the street beneath her.
"Elizabeth, we need to talk about this," Laszlo urged from his wife, knowing that she probably wouldn't want to talk. She would prefer to vent and rant.
"I don't even know what to say, Laszlo," she said, her voice terse and snappish. "This only happens when you are working on a case. It always happens when you work on a case…someone comes after us."
"We don't know it is that for certain," Laszlo defended, eyes focused on his wife as she let out a sarcastic laugh and shrugged her shoulders.
"What else could it be?" she demanded to know, taking a step towards him. "Mary died…I almost lost my life…Charlotte too…Lucy was almost taken. All of those things happened because you were working on cases trying to catch these deranged individuals who don't think twice about inflicting pain on those who try to find them."
"So this is my fault?" Laszlo asked, his own temper now taking hold of him at the comments he was hearing from his wife. "You want to blame me for this?"
"I never said that," Elizabeth defended, shaking her head vehemently as she stood inches away from Laszlo, feeling his warm breath hitting her cheek as he spoke to her and she noted the tinge of red in his cheeks.
"You practically implied it," he spat back. "Do you think that I ask for things like this to happen, Elizabeth? Do you think that I want to do anything other than help Sara solve this case to save other children?"
"No," Elizabeth yelled, knowing that the children would be able to hear them and so she tried not to shout as loudly. "But the fact is that this does happen. The fact is that we spend our days worrying when you work a case…not just over your safety…but the safety of our children. We have three daughters. We have three girls who we need to protect."
"And I do everything I can to protect them," Laszlo said.
"Except for giving up these cases," Elizabeth retorted and Laszlo had to admit that he did feel hurt at hearing that. He enjoyed working the cases. Working on them gave him a purpose. He enjoyed the challenge and he knew that he could be useful. He knew that he could help.
"So you would have me give up the case, is that it?" Laszlo asked from her and she rolled her eyes before turning around and moving further from her husband, shrugging her shoulders once more and wrapping her arms around her waist.
"I don't know," Elizabeth confessed to him, knowing that it would be unreasonable to ask it of him. At the same time, would it be so unreasonable? If this letter had come from someone involved in this case then surely he would want to give it up? Surely he would want to stop now and not get deeper involved. "But if it is this case…would you not want to give it up?"
"Based on one letter?" Laszlo queried.
"Because it might start with just one letter," Elizabeth retorted to her husband. "It might start with just that letter…and what if it escalates like we've seen before? Do you want to risk it? Do you want to risk seeing anything happen?"
"Of course not," Laszlo retorted, shaking his head firmly and feeling his fingers twitch by his side as he tried to think of what he should say to his wife to try and placate her. He knew that she was angry and he suspected that her anger wouldn't go away anytime soon. "But the fact remains that if this is linked to the case then whoever sent it knows that I am already working on it…they might not stop until they are caught and I need to help catch them. I can help."
"And what if it stops?" Elizabeth responded, flapping her arms by her side and then tugging a hand through her hair, her fingers coming through it and tossing it behind her shoulders. "What if nothing else happens? What if the letter works and has acted a warning for you to stay away?"
"And what if another child dies because of this?" Laszlo questioned from her. "What if I can help and choose not to and another child dies."
"Then I would be sorry, Laszlo, of course I would be. I don't want that to happen…I don't want anyone else to get hurt…but I need to think about our own daughters and their safety. Charlotte…Lucy…Emily…they're our children and they come first, Laszlo. They will always come first."
"And you think that I don't agree?" Laszlo queried from her. "You think that I wouldn't do anything to protect our children? You think that I would even consider risking their safety?"
"Don't ask me questions like that," Elizabeth urged from him, her teeth grinding together in frustration. They were always going round and round in circles. They weren't going to agree or get anywhere. Elizabeth knew that much.
"Well, I have to," Laszlo defended himself. "Because it sounds exactly like that is what you are saying to me."
"I'm not!" Elizabeth snapped at him, her hair sticking to her cheeks as she felt sweat begin to form on her forehead. She stepped forwards and glowered back at him, refusing to back down in the argument. "I know that you're a great father, Laszlo. I know that you love our girls. I do not doubt that. What I do doubt is your judgment. You become so clouded when you work a case…needing to solve it…and our daughters can't come into the middle of that. We can't even risk anything, Laszlo, no matter how small of a risk you think it might be."
"I would never risk them," Laszlo defended himself once more. "If it makes you feel any better than you can take them away for a little while. I can rent the holiday home in the Hamptons and you can go there with them."
Elizabeth wanted to scream in frustration. She wanted to yell loudly until her throat ached and her lungs gave out.
"Don't you get it?" she demanded from her husband. "I don't want to run away with our children."
"Then what do you want, Elizabeth?" Laszlo asked, stroking his cheek and feeling the scratch of his beard underneath his fingertips. "You would be safe away from the house with the girls."
"And you?" Elizabeth snapped at him. "You're not invincible, Laszlo. You're part of this family too. I don't want to see you get hurt just as much as I don't want to see anything happen to our daughters."
"Then I don't know what you want, Elizabeth, except for me to give this case up."
"And what if that is what I want? What if, for once in such a long time, I want to be selfish and ask you to stop this? What if I just don't want to do anything to risk our family and what we have? Does that make me a bad person? Does it make me so unreasonable? Do you know how tiring it can be, Laszlo, seeing you run out and put your life in danger? And what if something happened to you? What then? Because I can't do this without you…I can't raise three children without you by my side and they can't grow up knowing that something happened to their father because he was too stubborn to put his own safety first for once."
Her speech had Laszlo on edge, his hands now shaking by his side as he thought about what she had said to him and saw the look in her eye. She had started off with anger, but that had slowly dissolved and all he saw now was worry and fear. Her eyes were wide and turning wet, her cheeks pink and her neck flushed. She moved her hands into her skirts, wiping off the sweat that had gathered in her palms.
"I don't know what to say," Laszlo said, his voice slightly hoarse as he spoke, finding that there was a lump there as he tried to swallow.
"Just say you'll stay with us," Elizabeth urged from him, unable to think of anything else she wanted to hear him say at that moment in time. It was all she longed to hear. She just longed to hear that he would stop working the case and stay with them. "Say you'll stop working this case."
"You can't ask me to do that," Laszlo whispered to her.
She shrugged her shoulders, sighing loudly and wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "Then we have nothing else to discuss."
"Elizabeth," Laszlo begged from her as she began to move to the door and he reached to grab hold of her arm, clinging tightly onto her and not wanting to let her go. She looked up to him, her gaze meeting his and there was an understanding between the two of them that this wasn't how they had wanted the evening to go. "Don't walk out like this. I don't have a choice. I need to help find whoever has done this…whoever has written that letter might not be linked to them."
"Might," Elizabeth repeated the word back to him, tilting her head to the side and looking up at him with wide eyes. "It isn't a chance I'm willing to take, Laszlo, not when we have a family to protect."
She managed to pull her arm from his grip, which wasn't too difficult considering the fact that he had almost relented his hold on her. She left the bedroom and Laszlo watched her go, seeing how she pushed her hand through her hair once more and headed down the stairs. Moving his hands to his hips, he bowed his head and sunk down onto the bottom of the bed, closing his eyes and feeling exhaustion take hold of him as he wondered just what he should do for the best.
…
Charlotte had managed to sneak out easily that night. After listening in on Elizabeth and Laszlo's argument, she had begun to wonder what they were thinking. It seemed that they thought whoever sent that letter was the recent killer Laszlo was trying to hunt down. But Charlotte knew better. She knew that it had been her mother. She had listened to them debate, hiding around the corner and pressing her ear as close to the door as she could.
Elizabeth had stormed out and grabbed her coat, telling Diana that she would be back later for fresh air. Laszlo had appeared from the room ten minutes later, asking Diana where Elizabeth had gone before he too had left the house. Charlotte had contemplated what to do, her stomach still aching and her head pounding. She knew that she had to go and see her mother to find out why she had sent that letter. What had she been thinking?
Charlotte had left it on the sideboard outside of Laszlo's room and the alienist had picked it up once he had left. Charlotte knew where her mother would be and had rushed down the stairs, bypassing Diana with ease considering Emily was crying and Lucy was causing a fuss.
She snuck out the front door, looking to a coin that sat on the sideboard as she passed by and reached for her coat from the rack. She let her finger run over the coin, recognising it as the one Laszlo always kept his pocket and would used to use to perform his magic tricks on her. She reached behind her ear out of instinct and felt her chest ache at the memory of her giggling as he did it and eventually growing wise as to how he did it. She missed him. She missed Elizabeth. She missed what she used to have with both of them.
But she couldn't dwell on that. She left the house and moved quickly through the streets, knowing that it would be quicker to catch a cab to where she had to go. Reaching into her pocket, she found some notes that Laszlo had insisted she always carry with her in case of emergency. Hailing a cab once she left the residential streets, she gave the driver the address and watched the scenery pass her by.
Coming to the large terraced house, she looked outside the window and up to it. The lights were on upstairs. She paid the driver and jumped out, racing up the steps and towards the front door. Knocking on it loudly, she pushed her hands into her pockets and waited for an answer. Eventually, the door flung open and she saw the woman stood there. She looked flustered, hair tied into a tight bun and her skirts askew on her body.
"Why did you send them that letter?" Charlotte demanded from her mother.
She barged her way into the house, the familiar smell of lavender entering her nostrils. Her mother's house always smelt so overpowering of lavender. It was an old house and once upon a time, Charlotte could understand that it would have been grand. But now it looked dated. The furniture was covered in dust and looked aged. The wallpaper peeled off the walls every so often and the carpets were stained and tough. It was almost as though no one had lived in it for many years.
"I did what I had to do," she responded to her daughter and closed the door. "It's almost time, Charlotte. They need to know that we know the truth about who they are and what they have done."
"No, they didn't," Charlotte snapped back, moving into the parlour and looking around for a moment. "They didn't need to know, mama. You've scared them…Elizabeth…she is talking about leaving for the Hamptons…leaving Laszlo."
"Clearly their marriage isn't all that strong then," she said and rolled her sleeves down to her wrist, covering the specks of blood that were sat there. She pushed at the blue skirts down her legs and perched on the chair by the window where her own mother would read to her in the evening. But that had been a long time ago. It felt like another life.
"Yes, it is," Charlotte defended them, the practice coming naturally to her at that moment in time. "But Elizabeth thinks that whoever sent the letter is the person who is killing those little girls…the case that Laszlo is working on."
The woman arched her brow inquisitively. "Does she?" she asked from Charlotte. "And I take it you didn't tell her that it was actually me?"
"Of course I didn't," Charlotte said, almost insulted at the idea. She wasn't foolish. "I just don't know why you sent it and said the things that you did. Elizabeth…she was really scared and upset."
The woman sneered at the idea and Charlotte remained stood, tugging her coat tighter around her body. Her mother never lit a fire in the old house. The house was similar to Laszlo's. It was just as big and grand, but it was empty except for old furniture. There were no photographs. There were no homely touches. It felt cold to Charlotte, both figuratively and literally speaking.
"Why do you care how that harlot feels?" her mother demanded from her. "You know who she is and what she has done. You know how she stole you from me…her and that crazy Kreizler. The alienist and his whore deserve everything coming to them."
Charlotte's brows knitted together on her forehead at hearing that. Lines formed on her forehead and her face scrunched up. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means that they aren't good people," her mother said and held her hand out towards Charlotte. Usually, her daughter would rush over to her and take hold of it. But this time she remained rooted on the spot. She didn't move, nor did she soften. "They took you from me, Charlotte…my own little girl. She took you and raised you as her own, but you were never hers. You were always mine. She should have known better."
"What if you're mistaken?" Charlotte wondered from her and she looked at her with a narrowed gaze and her jaw jutted out slightly. "What if Elizabeth didn't know?"
"Of course she knew."
"I just don't know if that's possible," Charlotte said, remembering how Elizabeth had come to her and helped her earlier that evening. She remembered the woman who had raised her and kept her safe. She remembered the woman who had done so much for her and how Laszlo had done the exact same. She remembered all of it.
"She's gotten into your head," the woman said, a knowing smirk on her face as she stood up and moved towards Charlotte. Bending down slightly, she took hold of her by the shoulder with her one good hand. "You know what she is like, Charlotte. You know just how manipulative she can be. Don't let her trick you. Don't let her inside of your head."
"I just don't know if she is that manipulative," Charlotte said with a shrug of her shoulders and her mother's grip on her shoulder increased, refusing to let go of her.
"Of course she is," the woman said, her voice on the verge of hysteria. "You know how she lied about what her husband did to her so that she could run off with Kreizler. You know how he seduced her…wanted her for his own and promised her a child."
"But-"
"-There are no buts," she interrupted Charlotte, voice harsh and demanding. "They aren't good people and you know that. I just want you, Charlotte. I'm your mother. I'm your real mother…why can you not understand that and accept it?"
"I do accept it," Charlotte said, her stomach churning at hearing her mother speak in such a way. She didn't mean to upset her. She never meant to upset her. She just wanted her to see her point of view.
"Then why are you doing this to me? Why are you taking their side over my side?"
"I'm not," Charlotte said quickly, seeing that her mother had begun to cry. She didn't want to upset her. The last thing she wanted to do was upset her. "Mama, I know who you are."
"Then stop hurting me like this," she begged from her. "Please. They already took you from me once…I couldn't stand it if they took you from me again."
Charlotte sighed and shook her head, wrapping her arms around her mother and embracing her tightly. She held onto her firmly, her mother returning the embrace and resting a hand on her back. Charlotte didn't see the way her lips turned upwards from over her shoulder.
"I'm not going anywhere," Charlotte promised her mother. "I just want to stop lying to them."
"And you can," her mother promised, looking at her again and running a hand over her cheek very slowly. "Very soon."
"How soon?" Charlotte questioned.
"When I have finished the business I am working on," she assured her. "But for now you need to go back home. No one saw you come here, did they?"
Charlotte shook her head. "Elizabeth and Laszlo left after an argument," she said. "I'll be home before them, I think. If not they won't notice I've gone. Just…please don't send them another letter."
"Hmm," she responded is a non-committed manner. "You should get back. Do you have enough money for a cab?"
"Yes," Charlotte said and felt her mother usher her towards the door. On the way out, Charlotte paused and looked at the coat stand that had just two coats on it. One was the one she always saw her mother wear, but the other one looked smaller. She frowned and pushed her hands into her pockets.
"Whose coat is that?" Charlotte wondered, nodding her head in its direction.
"Oh," she responded, looking at it. "I found it upstairs when I was looking through all the old boxes of things."
"It doesn't look old," Charlotte commented, noting the intricate black lace collar over the blue wool.
"It's been preserved very well," she replied quickly. "I was going to give it away."
Charlotte said nothing further on the matter, pulling the door open and leaving the house after a final goodbye. Her mother shut the door behind her and turned around, leaning against it and sighing to herself, pushing loose wisps of hair from her face as she looked to the coat. Her lips arched and she shook her head.
"Shouldn't leave things lying around," she muttered to herself, picking it up and moving to the staircase and calling out loudly, hoping that the little girl in the room at the top of the steps heard her. "Don't worry, Jessica, I'm coming."
…
Laszlo should have known that both he and Elizabeth would go and seek the counsel of the same person. He had gone to see Sara at her office, finding that Elizabeth was already there and talking to her. He would have laughed if the situation hadn't been so dire. He had gone for a walk for a while, not wanting to interrupt the two of them and had, instead, sought out the counsel of Cyrus. He had gone to his friend's bar and sat down there, drinking bourbon and telling Cyrus of the argument he had had with Elizabeth.
The issue was that he could see both sides of the argument. He could understand why Elizabeth was upset and annoyed. He knew it all too well. And as Elizabeth sat with Sara in her office, she could understand why Laszlo wanted to continue on the case. She could understand it completely, but she just didn't like it.
The two of them had returned home late into the evening at different times. Elizabeth had been the first one back, thanking Diana for looking after the girls and checking that they were sleeping soundly. She looked in on Charlotte last, seeing that she was under her duvet and sleeping soundly in the dark. She went back down to the parlour and knew that she should wait for Laszlo to come home before going to bed.
Her mother had given her some advice when she had been younger, namely that you should never go to bed on an argument. She had always tried to abide by that advice, but more often than not she found that she failed. But not tonight. Tonight she didn't want to fail. She perched on the armchair in the corner and looked at the clock, wondering how long he would be. Thankfully she wasn't waiting all too long.
The door opened and closed quietly, the familiar clink of Laszlo's cane hitting the wooden floor before he left it by the coatrack. She heard the rustling of him shrugging out of his coat before he padded into the room and Elizabeth looked to him. He stood in the doorway for a moment and looked at her before sighing and she let her lips arch upwards in a sad smile.
"I'm sorry," she began.
"No, I'm sorry," Laszlo responded.
"I know that you care about us more than anything and if I insinuated anything other than that then I didn't mean it…and I know you care about your cases because you see it as helping and keeping us safe too," Elizabeth continued talking.
"And I know that you just want to do the best by our daughters," Laszlo said. "I understand that completely and after everything we have been through, I understand why you are so worried and protective. I should have been more sensitive to that."
"I think we both said things that we didn't necessarily mean," Elizabeth said, not wanting to spend anymore time rehashing their argument for she knew that it would do no good. It had happened and all that they could do now was try to move on. "And I don't want to fight, Laszlo. I never want to fight with you."
"Just as I never want to fight with you," Laszlo concluded and pulled his jacket off, leaving him in his white shirt and waistcoat. He tossed it over the arm of the couch and moved further into the room as Elizabeth stood up and he took hold of her waist as she looped her arms around his neck and embraced him. "I just don't know what to do for the best, Elizabeth."
"You have to do what you feel is right," she said, mumbling against his neck as she gripped him firmly and hoped that he would make the choice that she so longed for him to make. But she knew Laszlo. She knew that he didn't walk away from things, no matter how scary they could get or how worried Elizabeth was.
"I know," Laszlo agreed, hands holding onto the small of her back to press her tighter against his body. "And I know that things can be dangerous, but I just don't know what else I can do…if these killings continue…they're little girls, Elizabeth. They're little girls like Charlotte…Emily…Lucy. They're just like them."
"I know."
"And if anything happened to them and it was my fault…I couldn't forgive myself."
Elizabeth nodded her head, knowing what he was going to suggest. She had already come to that conclusion in her mind too.
"If the person who wrote that letter is the killer then they know us, Elizabeth. They know about us and that means they know that we have three girls," Laszlo said and his wife pulled back from him, running a hand along his cheek softly, letting her fingers rest against his jaw. A knowing, sorrowful smile took hold of her face.
"I know," she said again.
"I can't leave knowing that," Laszlo confessed. "I can't leave knowing that they could be in danger."
"I'll take them," Elizabeth said to him. "Tomorrow, I'll take Charlotte, Lucy and Emily to the house in the Hamptons and ask Diana if she can come with us."
Laszlo's eyes widened at hearing her say that. He had expected a bit more a fight, but it seemed that she had no fight left in her. She moved her hands to his shoulders and held tightly onto them.
"What made you decide that?"
"Talking to Sara made me realise that you never abandoned me when I needed you. You don't abandon people who are in danger if you can help and that's just one reason why I fell in love with you…your selflessness."
"What are the other reasons?" Laszlo asked, his tone slightly lighter as Elizabeth chuckled and moved a hand to press against his chest.
"Still to be finalised," Elizabeth said to him and he chuckled back to her and nodded his head, reaching his hand up to brush her hair behind her ear, playing with it as it sat there and he searched her features for a moment. "But I think that this is the right decision."
"You're certain of this?"
"So long as you are," she rebutted. "But just promise me that you'll do everything you can to close this case quickly so that you can come out to us. I think sometime away from the City might be good for us, Laszlo."
"Agreed," Laszlo said to her with a nod of his head. "And I'll come as soon as I can."
Elizabeth's lips remained turned upwards at that and she wrapped her arms back around his neck, playing with the hair at the nape. "Then that's all I want to hear."
Laszlo bent down and kissed her tenderly, knowing that this was all the motivation he needed to get to the bottom of this case as soon as possible.
…
"You cannot make me go."
"You will find that I can, in fact, make you go," Elizabeth said to Charlotte as she moved around her room the following day and picked out clothes from her wardrobe considering she was being stubborn and refusing to pack. "You are still a child and you are still under our care, so you really don't have a say in any of this, Charlotte."
"This is so unfair," Charlotte snapped, sitting on the edge of the bed in a bright red dress that Elizabeth swore she hadn't seen before. "I am supposed to be going back to school next week. You can't just take me out of school."
"Yes, I can," Elizabeth retorted. "And Laszlo knows an excellent tutor in the Hamptons who can teach you in the meantime. Your school didn't seem to have an issue with us taking you out for a while."
"And my friends?"
"Will be able to live without you for a few weeks."
"Why can't I just stay here with Laszlo?" Charlotte demanded to know, wondering how her mother would react knowing that she had gone. "Why do you have to do this right now? Whoever wrote that letter was probably just being mean."
"We don't know that," Elizabeth retorted and Charlotte wanted to huff that she did, in fact, know it. "And until we are certain, we are being safe. Do you not remember what has happened in the past? I don't want anything like that to happen ever again, Charlotte."
Charlotte remained mute. She knew that. She knew what they had been through and what they had seen. She didn't want anything to happen to Lucy or Emily either. She wanted them to be safe and if this was how they were kept safe then she guessed she would have to go along with it. But she needed to tell her mother. She didn't want her to be worried.
"Fine," Charlotte agreed weakly. "But I need to go and see Jennifer before we go. She has some of my books that I need for schoolwork I should be doing while I'm at home."
Elizabeth sighed and looked to the clock, biting down on her bottom lip. Charlotte knew that she didn't trust her. She knew full well that Elizabeth didn't entirely trust her and she knew that would make sense after everything that they had done.
"I promise that I'm not going to go anywhere else," Charlotte said to her firmly. "I know that I might not have your trust, Elizabeth, but I'm coming with you because I love Lucy and Emily and want them to be safe. I'll come because of them."
"Have Stevie take you," Elizabeth said, finally relenting and Charlotte was glad that she was able to escape even if it was just for a few brief minutes. "You go to Jennifer's and come straight back, understood?"
"Understood," Charlotte said and Elizabeth walked down to the front door, calling out to Stevie and asking him to take Charlotte to Jennifer's as the younger woman shrugged into her coat and prepared to go. Charlotte was glad she had said Jennifer's house as she knew that it was just around the corner from her mother's. All she had to do was slip around the back and down the alleyway behind the houses. Stevie would never know she had been gone.
"Where is Charlotte going?" Laszlo's voice entered her ears as she saw him move up the steps back to the house just as Stevie took Charlotte.
"To collect some books from Jennifer," Elizabeth said. "I asked him to keep an eye on her and bring her straight back."
Laszlo nodded his head and Elizabeth looked over his face, sensing that something wasn't quite right. He looked particularly pale with the usual concerned expression he wore whenever something had gone wrong that he was anxious over.
"What is it?" she asked from him.
"There's been another one," he said and she noted the brown document folder he held in his good hand. He lifted it between them, motioning for Elizabeth to take it. She pulled it gently from his fingers that seemed to be gripping it particularly tightly, almost as though he didn't want to let go of it. She peeled it open and glanced down onto a portrait of a young girl who could only have been a few years younger than Charlotte.
"Jessica Chappell," Laszlo said her name. "She went missing two night's ago and was found last night in a park…hair scalped…fingers cut off…and eyes, tongue and ears missing."
"Christ," Elizabeth said, not looking any further into the folder. She closed it and handed it back to Laszlo, tucking her hair behind her ear. "What about her family?"
"Her father is an accountant and was raising her on his own. His wife died in childbirth several months ago," Laszlo declared. "There's no link between Jessica and Josephine or Mary. They'd never met before…none of them knew each other. The only similarity is that they had younger siblings and that is now beginning to look more like a link than a coincidence."
"You think so?" Elizabeth questioned from him.
"It is all that makes them similar except for the way in which they're killed," Laszlo confessed, the sun beating down over him and causing him to become quite hot under the collar. They remained stood on the steps of the townhouse, hearing Diana through the open front door as she chased around after Lucy and Emily.
"Laszlo!"
Turning his head over his shoulder, Laszlo peered down to see John stood at the foot of the steps, dressed in a grey suit with a purple tie. He removed his hat from his head as he took the steps up towards them two at a time.
"John," Laszlo greeted his friend. "I had not expected to see you here."
"And I would have preferred to come under better circumstances," John confessed to Laszlo and he looked to Elizabeth. "Elizabeth, it's good to see you."
"You too, John," Elizabeth agreed on that point and felt him lean in to peck her on the cheek as she did the same, steadying herself by holding onto his shoulder. "But what is wrong? It's not Violet or William, is it?"
"No, my wife and son are just fine," John promised them. "It is this case that we are working on."
"You're working on it too?"
"A reporter has a good ear and I just so happened to hear something interesting this morning," John said, looking between the two of them. "I was talking to an officer down at the precinct in Brooklyn about the recent spate of girls going missing and he was telling me that the bigwigs are trying to downplay it and hide it. They don't want mass panic or hysteria."
"The shock," Laszlo said, his voice laden with sarcasm.
"That's what I thought," John agreed with him. "But this officer who I rely on for inside scoops told me that a man came into the station…a vagrant…said that he had seen a woman acting suspicious just around the corner from where Jessica's body was found this morning."
Laszlo's ears pricked upwards at that and his forehead creased in concentration. "What did the officer say?" he wondered from John.
"Said that the Inspector turned him away. Claimed that he couldn't be a reliable witness because he's a drunk," John declared with a shake of his head. "Anyway, I told Sara and she is trying to track him down after the officer told me where he usually spends his days. I told her that I would come and find you and meet her there."
"Of course," Laszlo agreed.
"I have a carriage held up just round the corner," John spoke.
"Hold it for a moment longer and I will be there," Laszlo urged from him and Elizabeth nodded goodbye to him with a kind smile as Laszlo turned to look to her, a hand going to her arm and holding it gently. She kept the smile on her face and nodded at him.
"Go," she urged.
"But your train leaves soon-"
"-And if talking to this man helps you solve this case then you will be back one to us soon enough," Elizabeth interrupted him. "Just go and say goodbye to Lucy and Emily. Don't keep John waiting too long."
Laszlo nodded at her and moved into the house as Elizabeth remained stood on the step, looking out onto the street and folding her arms over her chest. She waited for Laszlo to come back out, knowing that he would hate saying goodbye to Emily and Lucy. He returned to her moments later without the folder. He took hold of her by the cheek and bent down to kiss her chastely, knowing that he would never leave if he deepened the kiss. Elizabeth pushed a hand through his hair before running it down his cheek and pulling back, forehead brushing his.
"Be careful," she urged from him.
"I will be," Laszlo promised her. "And call me as soon as you reach the house. James, the house manager, will be there to meet you at the station."
"I remember him," Elizabeth promised her husband. "Now go and solve this case."
"I'll do my best," Laszlo promised his wife, bending down to kiss her once more. "Say goodbye to Charlotte for me and if you need me then let me know."
"We'll cope," she promised him, remembering the months they had been alone while he had been in Vienna. At least the Hamptons wasn't as far away as that. She was grateful for that much. "Don't keep John waiting because if I had my way I'd keep you on this doorstep forever."
His lips quirked at that and he nodded, kissing her one more time before letting her go from his grip. He walked down the steps as Elizabeth remained stood there, watching his retreating figure. Wrapping her arms around her waist, she saw him climb into the carriage down the road after one final glance in her direction and she smiled to him, waving softly before he left. Once he was out of sight, she looked around the street after a shudder went down her spine.
Looking around, she swore she felt that something wasn't quite right. It was like danger was imminent. Shaking that feeling away, she convinced herself that wasn't the case. She turned on her heel and went back into the house, ignorant to the woman stood behind the bushes across the road watching her intently.
…
A/N: Thanks so much to everyone who is still sticking with this story! I really hope you're enjoying it and I would love to know what you think!