for the last four months?
“Children, children,” he said easily. “This bickering is getting us nowhere and giving Tim Flynn more time to get away. If you’d just consider it calmly you’d realize that we have no choice but to work together. We’re all after the same thing, and if we go at it from different angles we’ll keep stumbling over each other and screwing things up. We need a united force if we’re going to get anywhere. Unless, of course, any of us is willing to give up the search?” Dead silence greeted that question, and he nodded.
“As I thought,” he continued. “All right, let’s face facts. None of us know what the man looks like …”
“Wrong,” Holly and Andrews said in unison, then turned to glare at each other.
Maggie couldn’t help but grin at the two of them. “Well, that’s a help. I know Holly saw Flynn at Sybil’s once, when he didn’t realize she was there. How do you happen to know him, Ian?”
“That’s my affair,” Andrews said with a touch of grimness. “But I could pick him out in a crowd anywhere.”
“Then we’re already a step ahead of everyone else,” Randall said smoothly. “And I happen to know where he might be likely to spend time when he’s in London. A certain exclusive gambling club enjoys his patronage, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he shows up there this evening. It’s certainly worth looking into.” He took a leisurely drink. “What do you have to offer to this consortium of knowledge, Maggie?”
The look of acute dislike she cast him was better than the panicked hatred that had swept over her face earlier. “Oh, I have all sorts of talents, Randall. I can be the brains of the organization.”
He snorted gently in disbelief. “So. Any more objections?”
“He’s right, Maggie,” Holly volunteered. “We’ll just keep bumping into each other if we refuse to work together. God knows it won’t be much fun with a charmer like your friend Andrews, but I can put up with him if you can put up with Randall.”
“The feeling’s mutual, lady,” Andrews snapped. “We don’t need an overdressed mannikin getting in our way.”
“That’s exactly what we do need,” Randall interrupted. “Champignons has a strict dress code. I somehow doubt that Maggie thought to pack evening clothes.”
“You’re right,” she said, still withdrawn.
“And Andrews, you wouldn’t have a tuxedo stashed about you? I thought not. So it will be up to Holly and me to find out whether Tim Flynn has been gambling recently,” he said smoothly. “I suggest we leave about nine.” He allowed himself a furtive glance in Maggie’s direction, hoping vainly that she might exhibit a tiny bit of jealousy. Her pale face was stonily unmoved.
Holly nodded, and excitement lit her aquamarine eyes. They were the same color and shape as Maggie’s, yet oddly different. They were more open, trusting, without the dangerous depths of Maggie’s haunted eyes.
“Is everyone agreed?” Randall let his glance drift over the three occupants of the room. “Are we going to work together?”
“As Holly says, we don’t really have a choice,” Maggie said gracelessly, putting her empty glass down and turning away. “Andrews and I will be waiting for you when you get back. You aren’t going to tackle him without me there, Randall,” she warned as an afterthought.
“I wouldn’t think of it, dear heart,” he said gently. “Holly and I will have a full report for the two of you. But don’t expect us before midnight.”
Maggie opened her mouth to snarl something at him, then shut it again, turning away from him. “Whatever you say,” she replied woodenly, and her shoulders looked suddenly narrow and defenseless.
“I’m not sure I agree,” Andrews said, glaring at the smug Holly. “She won’t be much help if you get into trouble.”
“I have no intention of getting in trouble,” Randall said smoothly, reluctantly putting his concern for Maggie in the back