Miranda here.
I took a deep breath and entered the building.
The woman who owned the building looked me up and down. "Yes, can I help you?"
"Hello. I'm looking for Angie? Someone said she lived here."
"Are you a relative or a friend?"
"I ran into her on the street this afternoon," said Carmen. "She dropped her purse and didn't notice she'd left something behind.
She looked me up and down – probably wondering if I was a man dressed as a girl.
Seriously, you'd think the girls would meet their boyfriends somewhere else, instead of risking getting evicted.
Carmen's a ballerina, very light and pretty. It would have to be a very young man to pretend to be her, far too young to be up to anything. As for me… I don't look overly feminine, but I don't look really like a guy at all.
"Very well, go on up." She gave me her room number.
We headed up the stairs to the hallway and knocked on Angie's door.
She answered. "Hi."
"Me again, hello. You forgot something when you dropped your stuff," said Carmen.
I produced several coins I'd pocketed when they'd rolled toward me.
"How'd you know where to bring them?"
"Oh, I asked around," said Carmen. "Someone who you auditioned for knew who you were, and it was just a matter of a little detective work after that. This is my friend Miranda, by the way."
"Miranda like in The Tempest?"
"Yes, my mother read it a lot before she had me," I replied.
"Thanks so much about for going to all that trouble," said Angie.
"It's nothing." Carmen gave her a warm smile.
The door shut.
"That was an awesome plan you guys thought up."
"Oh, it was mostly Jack's idea."
Someone nearly collided with me.
"Whoops, sorry!"
Carmen let out a little yelp of surprise – something in German which I didn't understand because I don't speak a word of it.
"Sorry," said Dottie. "Friends of Angie's?"
"Just returning something." Carmen retained a fairly normal facial expression. "Haven't I seen you before? A show somewhere…"
Dottie named off a show that I'd never heard of.
"Oh, yes, that's the one. You were really good – I'm a dancer too."
"Really? Are you looking for work in New York?"
"I wish. I'm not quite that good, not yet. Perhaps in a year or two, I'll be good enough."
On a side note, Carmen actually was accepted to join a ballet school in New York for when she graduates. Big congratulations, by the way.
Carmen and her talked for a few more minutes, with Carmen and her discussing various things about dance that I didn't understand. I never took ballet or anything.
"Well, I have to go now. It was nice talking with you, Dottie, perhaps we'll end up in a show together next year or something."
Then the SSR agents took it on themselves to show up. They quite rudely pushed past myself, Dottie, and Carmen to bang on Angie's door.
Sousa approached us. "Miss, mind if I ask a few questions?"
Dottie, of course, had vanished.
"Sure."
"Do you know Peggy Carter?"
Carmen shook her head. "We actually don't live here."
"Sure you've never met her? Have you?"
I shook my head. "No." Seeing someone on a TV screen is hardly meeting them.
He asked a few more, then told us to stay on the perimeter. No one was allowed to leave.
We went down the hall for a minute.
"What do we do?"
I shrugged. "Wait it out, react as things come."
"That's the best plan you and Jack came up with?"
I shrugged again.
"Bit of a let down after the last one."
"Jack's the genius, not me."
"You're smart."
"You barely even know me."
"Ivy didn't like idiots."
I couldn't help smiling. "No, she most definitely did not, though she certainly behaved like one sometimes." My face burned, realizing what I'd said.
Carmen just laughed. "Yes. She doesn't know how to stop and think. Didn't."
There was an awkward silence.
The SSR agents retreated from Angie's room. A moment later, the door opened and Peggy left.
I moved further back into the shadows.
Peggy greeted Dottie on the stairs.
I moved quietly back towards the end of the hall.
Carmen was too horrified to move.
That was why Dottie saw her and not me.
Dottie attacked her, slamming her head against the wall. Carmen slumped down, blood beginning to trickle into her blond hair.
I stepped into a doorway, flattening myself. Head wounds bleed a lot, I told myself.
Dottie returned to Peggy, raising the knife.
Then the SSR agents were there, shouting at Dottie to back away.
Carmen groaned and started to come around. She mumbled something.
German. All German. Because nothing else could have incriminated her more than that – except Russian, maybe.
I stayed very still, watching, my back against the wall. I somehow doubted I could do anything except make the situation worse.
I watched silently, afraid to interfere. There was absolutely nothing I could do here to make the situation better.
They cuffed Agent Carter. Thompson grabbed Carmen's arm, trying to talk to her, but she didn't seem to be responding much, or to know quite what was going on.
They took her, too.
Dottie left.
I was torn between guilt and relief.