"And this is?" Anna held the bill up the light again.

"Money we found in a crate in one of those backrooms."

Anna lowered the bill, looking at Robert and John. "Money I'm sure you've filed and documented as being recovered from the scene."

"It will be, once we know who to trust."

"I'm sorry?" Anna blinked at them, "Once you…"

"Someone's telling on us." John spoke first. "Someone's telling whoever's behind these murders that we're close and they want us cut out entirely. Whoever that is might be able to make all this go away."

"Go away?" Anna raised an eyebrow and John shrugged.

"We can't let this evidence go missing and risk the case falling apart. And we can't let that happen."

"So much for trusting the establishment." Anna tapped the bill. "Well I've got good news and bad news on this."

"Bad news first." Robert insisted and John nodded.

Anna held up the bill, "It's counterfeit. A good one but fake."

"And there's good news?" John raised an eyebrow and Anna shook her head.

"Patience. The good news is that I know the kind of people with the skill to make these sorts of things."

Robert turned to John, his arms crossing over his chest. "I'm going to guess she's the contact you've got."

"She might be."

"If you are," Robert rolled his eyes as John only shrugged in return, "Can you put us in contact with this friend of yours?"

"I could but it's…" Anna winced a second, putting the bill back on her desk. "I know these people because we worked together in a former life. Contacting them now, especially since I'm not a part of that life anymore, isn't always as easy as picking up the telephone and giving them a ring."

"But you'd be willing to try?" John tried to encourage and Anna gave him a tight smile. "What does that mean?"

"It means that wile I didn't burn any bridges in my previous life, knocking all the old haunts on this case might risk me losing valuable favors I may need at a later date." Anna opened her hands to both of them. "You've got your case to protect against higher authorities who want to keep it all buried. I've got people in my life I only see in the shadows because to see them in the open is dangerous for them."

"We wouldn't risk that for them." John insisted but Anna shook her head.

"It's not as simple as promising them you'll keep quiet. They live their lives watched and hunted and followed. One false move, one misstep, and it's over for them. I don't want to risk them like that."

"It's a bit of paper." Robert went to argue but John raised a hand.

"What if you met them?" Anna arched an eyebrow and John let his hands slip into his pockets. "You meet them, on your own, and then there's no risk of two policemen like us making any kind of show."

"Kind of show?" Robert almost blustered, "We're-"

"Distinctive, tall, and obviously police." John motioned between the two of them before turning back to Anna. "I know this is… Far beyond your obligations, in both professional and personal courtesies to us, but if you know how we could cut through the lines of red tape and middle men who'd give us circular answers, we could use your help."

Anna put two fingers on the fake bill, pushing it back and forth on her desk of a moment before slapping it softly. "On one condition."

"Anything."

"You can't ask how I know this person, who they are, or for another contact. This is, most likely, a one-and-done deal for my… friend. Anything you have to ask, you had better hash out now because we'll probably not get another chance at it."

John nodded and pulled at Robert's shoulder. "Come on. We've got questions to draft for a friend of a friend."

Anna watched them go before turning back to the bill on her desk. She contemplated it for another moment before grabbing her coat and tucking the bill into her pocket. Slipping out of her office, she took to the street and wrapped herself more tightly in her coat as she wove through the early morning traffic to the nearest phone box. As she tucked herself inside, counting out the right number of coins, Anna pulled the numbers on the rotary.

Waiting a moment, Anna listened for the tone and then dialed another series of numbers. A second tone followed and she dialed again before hanging up the phone. It clicked into the receiver and she turned to open the door when someone banged on it.

Anna jumped and reached for the handle, stopping the man standing outside from entering. He wrenched at the handle, fighting Anna for the door, but she dug her feet in at the corners of the box and gritted her teeth as she held it shut. The man's fist banged against the panes of glass, rattling a few of them, and cracked one. Anna almost screamed but then the man's full body weight hit the booth.

Glass shattered, tinkling over Anna as she surrendered her hold on the door to cover her head and face from the flying glass. A muffled thud and a few exhalations had her peeking carefully over her arms to watch as John and Robert wrestled the man to the ground. Carefully, her hand shaking slightly, Anna opened the door to the box and stepped onto the street. Despite the passing onlookers, most of them hurrying away as quickly as they could manage when Anna actually met their gaze, Anna was absorbed in the man Robert bodily lifted to his feet.

"Are you alright?"

She jumped as John's hand touched her arm and nodded, pointing at the man. "Who is that? What does he want?"

"I've no idea." John looked between the man and Anna. "Do you know him?"

"He's not a friend of mine, if that's what you're asking."

"Is he a… not friend of a friend of yours?"

Anna took a breath, ducking her head slightly to look at the man with already reddening skin where a bruise would grow and a few cuts and scrapes from where his skin broke the glass. Something about him struck at the back of Anna's brain, niggling for her to remember, but she shook her head. "I've never met this man before in my life. I don't know him."

"We'll get him to the station. And then a nutter center probably." Robert forced the man forward, still holding the man's handcuffed wrists. "More than likely he's a vagrant and public nuisance. We'll get him a nice cell where he can mull it all over and maybe a straitjacket."

Anna took a few deep breaths, nodding as Robert shuffled the man away from the phone box. Her hands still shook slightly as she held her coat closer and jumped again when John touched her arm. "Sorry. I'm…"

"No need to explain it to me." John put up his hands as if surrendering. "But are you alright?"

"I don't know." Anna rubbed at her arms. "Is this the kind of thing you've been dealing with on this case? The dead bodies and your… The constable?"

"It might be." John shrugged, scratching at the back of his head. "This whole case… It's been odd from the start."

"You mean the fact that seven people witnessed a man's death and now three of them are dead?" Anna shook her head, "I watched Doctor Clarkson perform the autopsies on Mr. Barrow and Ms. O'Brien."

"They were strangled."

"No, they were strung up, there's a difference." Anna raised a finger, "They didn't die by asphyxiation, strangulation, or a broken neck."

"No?"

Anna shook her head and put her hands to her throat. "Look…" She stopped, dropping her hands, and looked around the street. "This isn't the place to talk about it. We should… We should go inside."

John followed her gaze and nodded. "Seems best."

They went back inside the building, John holding the door for Anna before turning to address a constable. Anna paused a moment, as John leaned to one foot and then the other, and she waved him off. "Go on. You've got to report what happened and I… I need a minute."

"I…" John reached a hand toward her before retracting it. "I'll be right there."

Anna took a breath, forced herself to nod, and went back to her office. Before she could reach her desk a hand grabbed over her mouth and dragged her into a storage closet. She fought against the hold but an arm wrapped over her chest and kept her close as the door closed.

Moving her jaw slightly she managed to bite down on the fingers of the person holding her long enough that he released her mouth. Twisting as the distinctly male voice cursed, Anna brought her elbow around into the man's side. He stumbled back, impacting a shelf, and Anna readied her arm to strike again before the man crossed his arms in front of his face and leaned back into the already tipped shelf. "Stop."

Flailing her hand back, Anna could not find the switch. She stumbled back, a sliding sensation bringing her hands up to clutch at a dangling string, and yanked it hard to blind both of them with light. Her jaw dropped and her hands went to her hips as she looked at the man.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"I know." Jack lowered his arms, "It was intensely bad timing but I couldn't risk anyone knowing I was here."

"I just had some lunatic try to corner me in a phone booth and then, I walk not twenty steps inside this building and you grab me like-"

"I know." Jack held up his hands, before Anna could bring her fist down on him. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize you-"

"You bastard." Anna slapped at his arms, grabbing one to kick him solidly in the side before stepping back. "I'm not a toy or a game or-"

"Did I say any of that?" Jack pushed himself to his feet, dusting himself off and holding his side for a second. "Gah woman. I think you broke a rib."

"I only bruised it you baby." Anna went to open the door but Jack jumped forward to slap his hand on it, stopping Anna getting it open more than an inch. "Are you keeping me trapped in a storage closet?"

"I can't talk to you where anyone might see us." Jack pointed at his face. "For various reasons but the chief one being that I'm not supposed to be here."

"Then why are you here?"

"You dialed a number."

Anna narrowed her eyes. "Are you following me?"

"I may be interested in this particular case for various reasons." Jack shrugged. "Reasons that I can't share."

"Reasons that would have you following me?"

"Reasons that have me following the two policemen who've stayed on the case despite the Turkish ambassador insisting there was no wrongdoing."

"You and I both know that's not true."

Jack opened his hands to her. "Why do you think I'm here?"

"You suspect foul play."

"You've already proved, in your reports, that there was foul play." Jack sighed, "But there might be other agents at play here."

"Might be?"

"Like I said, I'm not allowed to say."

"How very encouraging of you." Anna put a hand to her forehead, "If you're here because you're following the two policemen, then why are you cornering me in a storage closet?"

"Because I don't know them but I know you." Jack went to lean on the shelf again but stopped himself when he noticed the way it sagged against the wall. "And I can't reveal to them how I know you, why I'm following you, or any of the other details they'd demand if I was about to give them the information I'm trying to give you at this moment."

"Which is?"

"This." Jack flipped an envelope out of his pocket and handed it over to Anna. "Is an invitation to Lord Sinderby's party tonight."

"I already had a way in to his party." Anna snatched the envelope all the same. "And if you wanted to give me this invitation, you'd have sent a messenger. So this isn't what you came all the way here to feign an abduction of me for."

"It's about the belladonna."

"The Turkish Ambassador's already ruled that even if we proved that the belladonna was what killed him they won't use it and they don't care about-"

Jack shook his head. "That's not what I'm talking about."

"Then what are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the autopsy you witnessed on Mr. Barrow and Ms. O'Brien." Jack shrugged, "The one where the strangulation wasn't what really killed them but that's what you had to write on the report."

"I don't write the reports." Anna narrowed her eyes. "And they're not even written yet so how do you-"

"Did you miss the part when I said I was following your policemen friends?"

"And you already read the doctor's report on the autopsies?"

"I did." Jack shuffled. "And we can't let you tell anyone that the same person murdered those three people."

"Did you think I was going to be as stupid as to suggest that there's anything to this case we'll be telling anyone about?"

"Not necessarily." Jack nodded, "But I had to be sure."

"I'm still failing to see why whatever you're telling me made it necessary for this meeting." Anna motioned to the closet. "Or this space."

"You've got some evidence I need."

Anna frowned before slipping her fingers into a pocket to retrieve the counterfeit bill. "All this for some petty cash?"

"It's evidence we can't let you have." Jack reached for it but Anna held back. "I'm not asking, Anna."

"And I'm not giving it to you." Anna nodded her head back toward her office. "I'll bet that you've got all the samples of it already."

"We're missing a case." Jack pursed his lips, studying Anna before nodding. "And I'll bet your policeman has it."

"There are two of them."

"Only one of them's sleeping with you."

Anna scowled, "I'm sure I don't want to know how you'd figured that."

"I already told you. We're-"

"Following them." Anna sighed and paced in a small square for a second. "Are you the one taking all the evidence from this case?"

"We've only taken what could implicate us in a bigger picture process than you're currently allowed-"

"You mean than I'll ever be allowed to know."

"We can't let anyone know about that information." Jack shrugged, "Sorry to make it a thing Anna but…"

"You're going to keep getting in the way of their investigation, aren't you?"

"We can't let them get in the way of our investigation." Jack reached up and tugged the string to let the light blink out. "Sorry Anna."

Anna moved to the door, finding it in the dark, and opened it to slip out. As she did she ran right into John. He caught her before she could stumble and frowned at the storage closet.

"Uh…"

"It's not a story I'm allowed to tell you." Anna motioned back at the storage closet. "Some of those friends I'm not allowed to talk about."

"They're the ones interfering?"

"Only with some of this case."

Anna shook her head, "I don't know. All I know for sure is they want this." She held up the counterfeit bill. "And that case you've hidden."

"It's-"

"Don't." Anan held up a hand. "Don't tell me where it is and don't go near it. They're following you."

"They're following me?" John whistled lowly. "I can't imagine what they've seen then. If they've been-"

"They know." Anna rolled her eyes. "And they want us as far away from this as everyone else seems to."

"Then we just keep our heads down and move forward." John took the bill from Anna. "Does someone else still want this?"

"They want the whole case." Anna took the bill and tucked it between the door and the jam as she closed it. "They can take that as their consolation prize."

John frowned, "Did I miss something?"

"More than I care to elucidate on and less than you think." Anna took John's hand. "We've got an invitation to a party we can't miss."

"Lord Sinderby's party?"

"Yes." Ana pulled out the invitation and put it in John's hand. "Meet me at mine and we'll go together."

"Before I go," John pulled out a paper of his own and handed it to Anna. "Here's our list of questions. We carefully cultivated it so I hope it asks everything we need to know from your… friends."

"I'll be honest." Anna gave another look toward the storage closet. "I'm starting to doubt how good my friends actually are."

"We all have doubts about our friends on occasion." John held up the invitation. "I'll find something nice to wear for tonight."

"Good, because I will too."

John used the invitation to salute and Anna mimicked the motion with the list of questions. "Then I'll be by yours an hour before we're supposed to arrive at that party. We can go over our… stories, before we get there."

"I don't plan on doing anything to get us noticed." Anna shrugged, "This is my expertise, Detective."

"Then I'll rely on you." John pulled a small bow. "I'll see you later Doctor."

Anna watched John leave, casting a final look toward the storage closet, and returned to her office. The few other bills she analyzed under the watchful eye of Robert and John were gone. With a shake of her head, Anna cleared her desk and set to work on her other cases.

When her day ended, her reports all neatly filed and forms properly filled out, Anna took the bus home to change. With a bath and her hair tied on top of her head, Anna inspected her potential outfits and pulled at a few before sighing and letting the fabric fall back into the wardrobe. She paced her bedroom for a moment before pivoting to face the options again.

When John knocked at her door, Anna opened it wearing her long coat and tied it tightly as he frowned. "I'd hate to spoil the surprise."

"How do I know if I match you?" John motioned to himself.

"You're wearing black." Anna pulled her door closed, waving to her neighbor.

"And?"

"Everything matches black." Anna walked with John to the lift. "That is the benefit of you wearing a tuxedo and me picking a dress."

"Wish I could see the dress." John tried to prompt but Anna shook her head.

"You don't want to see the dress."

"Then why would I ask to see the dress?"

"Because you want to see what's underneath it." Anna winked at him, "There's a promise for that later."

"Don't make promises you can't keep."

"I don't plan to."

With John hailing a cab, they drove outside the city. The winding roads to the old manor proved empty until they joined a trail of cars disgorging their occupants at the doors letting out sporadic spurts of light. After John paid the driver, opening Anna's door for her, they joined the entourages of the other guests in the weaving trail that led to the opening and closing doors.

"What do you know about Lord Sinderby anyway?" Anna leaned over to John, smiling as the woman at the door took the invitation before waving them inside.

"More than likely less than you."

"Humor me." Anna patted his arm before grabbing the edge of her skirt to take the carpeted stairs up to the coat check. "I'm curious what you can dig up on your end that mine wouldn't tell me."

"He bought the title before the war. One of the only people during the Depression who still had money but that's what happens when you're Jewish, in banking, and you make smarter investments than the rest of us." John shrugged, releasing Anna's arm as he removed his coat. "He's very shrewd in all of his dealings and can come off as… Abrupt and heartless but he's very protective of his family and the heritage there."

"Explains a lot more about why he was opposed to his younger son's marriage." Anna put her hands to her coat, unbuttoning it to reveal a white, backless dress. She smiled at John's mouth dropping open. "Told you. The anticipation increases the beauty of the surprise."

"Not sure you need anything to increase your beauty." John took Anna's hand, kissing it before tucking her hand into the crook of his arm. "But you were saying about Sinderby's son?"

"His youngest, Atticus, was a friend of mine during the war."

"One of your friends like the one who visited you today?"

"He's a better friend." Anna took John's hands as they joined the dance floor, swaying with the music. "He came to my office and left the lights off instead of snatching me into a storage closet."

"I'm grateful your friend didn't try to grab me."

"You're twice the size of my friend." Anna took the twirl John encouraged, eyeing the room. "But Lord Sinderby's over there."

"What is your plan?"

"We get ourselves some drinks and find a way to introduce ourselves." Anna ended with a dip in John's arms. "You are quite the dancer."

"I'm not completely unpracticed in the art of wooing."

"No you're not." Anna released John's hand for a moment before nodding toward Lord Sinderby. "We should move."

Anna led the way, shivering a second as John's fingers ran over her back, and snagged two drinks from a tray to hand one over to John. They slipped and moved around one another as they joined a line of well-wishers and grateful participants at the party. When they found the head of the line, Anna tugging slightly at the skirt of her iridescent dress, she extended a hand to the bald man.

"Lord Sinderby, it's a pleasure to meet you." She shook his head, tugging him forward slightly to whisper in his ear. "I know your son, Atticus."

Lord Sinderby froze for a moment, his hand tightening on Anna's. "What do you know about Atticus?"

"I know he told me you made this." Anna's fingers slipped the pen from John's pocket and flashed it before Lord Sinderby's eyes. "And that we should probably have our next conversation in private."

He swallowed, turning to the thin, handsome woman next to him, and whispered in her ear. Lines appeared on her forehead for a moment but she nodded and Lord Sinderby motioned for Anna to follow him. "This way."

Anna and John trailed out of the line, following Lord Sinderby from the hall and into a study. They closed themselves into the wood paneled walls and Anna took a second to appreciate the books before she realized none of the books had cracked spines. She sighed and pivoted, swallowing back the contents of her drink before facing Lord Sinderby as he pulled back a portrait to reveal a safe.

"Atticus was always the more altruistic of us. He thought he could do good in the world and he worked with military intelligence to do that. Said I could help the country and save our people." Lord Sinderby's fingers paused on the spinning combination lock. "One of the only times I thought he actually wanted to be one of our people."

"His work did matter to the salvation of your people. To the foundation of your Holy Land." Anna played with the pen in her hands as Lord Sinderby brought a pallet out of the safe to display nine other pens on a velvet drawer. All identical to the one Anna put on the desk between them. "He believed in the work we did."

"I'm sure he did." Lord Sinderby reached across and took the pen, looking it over. "But these I didn't make for the government. I made these for my personal collection because I wasn't allowed to talk about what I did or the part I played."

"We're not allowed to admit what we did." Anna pointed to the pens. "But I know what these looked like in the war. The ones here are far more expensive. More refined. Better, in general."

"It's what I do." Lord Sinderby shrugged, "I work in banking but I've always liked to tinker. It's where Atticus got it from."

"And you developed these for your personal collection?"

"I did." He nodded, handing Anna back her pen. "The government could never afford these. They were my pet project."

"Then how did this one get out of your safe?" Both Anna and Lord Sinderby turned to the safe, where John dragged a finger along the sides of the metal. "It couldn't have been stolen. This is a top-of-the-line safe. The manufacturer's German and, from what I can tell, it's about as theft proof as you can get."

"He hired safe crackers to test it." Lord Sinderby nodded and slipped his hands into his pockets. "And you're right, it wasn't stolen. I lost it."

"Lost it how?" John pressed and Lord Sinderby's jaw flexed before he bit down. "Lost it how, sir?"

"Gambling. There's a back room, at the Cerulean Swan where-"

"It's not there anymore." John shook his head and Anna noted the surprise on Lord Sinderby's face. "And the woman who ran it, Ms. O'Brien, was found hanged there just last night."

"I didn't-"

"I assume you didn't know or else the surprise wouldn't be written all over your face." John motioned with his finger before putting a hand on Lord Sinderby's shoulder. "So tell me, who'd you lose the pen to?"

"A card shark, Terrance Sampson."

John frowned, "I've booked him before. Petty theft and cheating."

"It's why he's not allowed in any real clubs."

Anna looked between John and Lord Sinderby. "But you are. Why go to-"

"A backroom club to gamble?" Lord Sinderby laughed, "Because I don't gamble to make myself rich. I gamble to pay for… Other things."

"A woman on the side?" John suggested and then nodded at Lord Sinderby's chalk white face. "Thought so. You can't have anyone you know finding out you've got a woman who's not your wife keeping any bed you might have outside your house warm. So you gamble where no one'll have anything to hold over you because they've all got secrets of their own to hide."

"Point is," Anna held up a hand to stop the two men. "What happened to the card shark? What happened to Mr. Sampson?"

"His run ended that night with a bad time against a Mr. Michael Gregson."

"The newspaper man?"

Lord Sinderby nodded, "He didn't win the pen but it sent Terrance Sampson out of the club. And he needed to get more money."

"Where would he go?"

"Mr. Sampson always bragged he had a place to sell things. Secrets, little tricks, and other tidbits he'd scrape together to get money for his next run at the tables." Lord Sinderby frowned, "Another newspaper man."

Anna closed her eyes, sighing, "It wouldn't be Mr. Richard Carlisle, would it? The other newspaper man?"

"Yes." Lord Sinderby nodded, "And he might've bought the pen as consolation with whatever bad bit of evidence Mr. Sampson claimed to have on the Duke of Windsor but I never set store by the lies that man spread around like his bad card tricks at the table."

Anna turned to John, "I think we're done here." She held the pen and extended it to Lord Sinderby, "To add back to your collection?"

He shook his head, "I lost that. No matter how unfair, it's not mine anymore. And besides, it's tainted. You wouldn't have it if you weren't investigating it for something. I'd suspect because someone used it."

"That's right." John extended a hand to Anna. "You're right, we're finished here. Thank you, Lord Sinderby."

"If I may," Lord Sinderby stood, holding out a hand. "Would it be too much of a kindness to beg that you not tell anyone as to why I was in that gambling den and… Why I needed that money?"

Anna looked at John and nodded when he did. "Your secrets are yours, Lord Sinderby. We're only here about this one." She held up the pen. "And our curiosity in that regard has been satisfied."

"Then I bid you both a good evening."

They left the party, retrieving their coats, and waited at the doors as the footman called a cab for them. John tucked his hands into his pockets, taking the pen back from Anna. "I guess we know that this was in the hands of Mr. Carlisle."

"But not that he was the one who released the poison." Anna shrugged, "We're not quite solved here yet."

"But we're finished for the night." Anna smiled at John, "There are promises we've got to keep otherwise."

"Yes?" John grinned back as the cab arrived. "I remember."

"So do I, John." Anna accepted him opening the door for her to climb inside. "So do I."