The Dark Glamour (666 Park Avenue 2)

nodded, her eyes finally filling with tears. ‘It’s not that simple, of course. He was manipulated. There’s a whole history, and it’s all super-complex. Except that really, it is that simple. He murdered my only family, and now I have to reunite his just to stop them from murdering
me.’
    Elodie drew her plump lower lip between her teeth. ‘This sister, who’s in London. You must know more than that – haven’t you even Googled her yet?’ She pulled a sleek phone out of her faux-crocodile purse. ‘I can do it now; what’s her name?’
    Jane shook her head. ‘It used to be Annette Doran, but there’s no way she’s been living under that name for more than twenty years without being found.’
How was she never found?
Jane’s mind prodded at her; she still didn’t have an answer, and she didn’t have the time to try to figure one out. Annette was alive, and Jane had to find her; that was all that mattered right now.
    Elodie put her phone away, then turned back to Jane. ‘So then how will we find her? There are a lot of women in London.’
    ‘I know,’ Jane agreed, ‘but we don’t need to find a woman. We just need to find a building.’ She fished in her own purse for the little notebook and pen she had stashed in there in case she stumbled across any clues she needed to write down. She sketched the one real clue she had on it: the outline of the building she had seen outside the window of Annette’s pub. ‘These parts were windows,’ she clarified, shading most of the two half-cylinders, ‘and the whole thing is sort of goldish brick.’
    But Elodie was already nodding confidently. ‘This is King’s Cross Station. She lives at King’s Cross Station?’
    ‘She works across from it,’ Jane clarified. She felt a momentary stab of doubt; Elodie’s eye for architecture was at least as good as hers, but Jane’s drawing was cramped and marred by the lines on her notebook paper. ‘Are you sure?’
    ‘Of
course
I’m sure,’ Elodie insisted, rolling her brown eyes in annoyance. ‘You disappeared to the States like all those girls who dump their friends for a guy, showed up on my doorstep like the world’s most conspicuous protected witness, and then dumped all of these ridiculous secrets in my lap; the least you can do is believe what I tell you. Especially when your entire “plan” apparently consisted of strolling around one of the biggest cities in the world looking for one building. Dolt.’
    Jane nodded, although she would have preferred to be dancing with glee.
She works across from King’s Cross Station,
she tried out in her head.
Oh, Annette? Sure, she’s at some little pub by King’s Cross. I know just where she is.
‘Okay,’ she agreed. ‘Well, look. I’ve heard of that station, so I’m sure it’s on my map. I can’t thank you enough for believing me and helping me. I promise you that once all this is over—’
    ‘Seriously?’ Elodie asked in a dangerously low voice. When she spoke again, it was nearly a shriek. ‘Seriously? So you go find this chick and I go to the Finnish embassy and that’s it now?’
    ‘Consulate,’ Jane corrected automatically, and then winced. ‘Look, El, I couldn’t stand being responsible for getting you any more involved than I already have. It’s not safe.’ The image of Maeve sleepwalking out into the middle of a city street flashed before Jane’s eyes. She saw Lynne’s malevolent stare, the taxi hurtling forward, Maeve’s fragile body crumpling like paper. Then she saw Yuri, pinning Dee’s helpless body to the ground and raising a tyre iron for what would surely have been a fatal blow. Jane shuddered. ‘It’s better for me to go alone.’
    Elodie pursed her lips, and Jane sensed trouble. ‘Like you went to New York alone? Like you fled the scene of your own wedding alone? Or came to London and started wandering around with no plan whatsoever until you cracked and told me your whole story, alone? Jane, honey, you’re really not doing so well on your own.’
    Jane thought about pointing out that she had, technically, done the first two things on Elodie’s list with Malcolm and the third with André, but she doubted that any of those corrections would support her point. Besides, she hadn’t been able to even really talk with Dee during the last couple of weeks, and it was undeniably nice to have a close friend by her side again. ‘I’ll be fine,’ she protested, but her heart wasn’t in it.
    ‘You haven’t been