Page 25

This case just became even more impossible.

“This is odd.” Madame Tricheuse tapped her finger against the paper, her brows drawing together.

“What’s wrong?”

“This name.”

Ford squinted to see better, but at that moment, Madame Tricheuse whirled away, got the leather-bound tome out of the safe, and started flipping through the pages.

“What is it?” Ford tried to catch the name Madame Tricheuse alluded to, but his eyes swam from the flood of names on the page.

“There’s this one man… I remembered him because he was new and acted a bit strange.”

“Strange how?”

“First, his appearance drew undue attention. He was tall…” She paused and looked up at Ford. He blinked, waiting for her to continue. “Even taller than you.” She returned her attention to the book. “He was wearing an oversized coat, an intricate, white-powdered wig, and had quite an elaborate mustache.”

“And that’s odd?”

“Not on its own, no. But after he requested a harlot—he didn’t have a specific preference—he asked her to leave him alone in the room for a few moments.”

Ford frowned. “Alone in an empty room of the brothel?”

“Yes, he said that his wife had passed recently, and he hadn’t been intimate with anyone since. The first time he came, after spending some time alone, he had paid for the harlot’s time and then asked to go to the watching chambers instead. But the second time, when the harlot returned after letting him be alone for a moment, he had disappeared. Colette, who was assigned to service him at the time, thought he just left. She felt sorry for him, but now…”

She blew a strand of hair away from her face in frustration. “I can’t find his name in the book prior to this day, but I am certain he’s been here before.”

Ford placed his hand on hers to still her frantic turning of the pages. “What is his alias?”

Madame Tricheuse returned her attention to the thin stack of papers and slid her finger down the page, stopping next to the word: Erebus.

* * *

Oh, bollocks!

Not this again.

When Grace watched the man scribble this name on the logbook, she chuckled a little. Who hadn’t used the name Erebus in the past few years?

It was a badly concealed contest amongst the criminals. Who could taunt the man more?

Erebus was the leader of a prominent secret society, The Shadows.

A few years ago, rumors started circulating around town about the vile criminal group lurking in the shadows, stealing men, women, and even children in the night. What they did to them was a mystery, but those people were never heard from again.

Then they had abducted a powerful lord—an earl!—the Earl of Payne, if she wasn’t mistaken. Later on, one of their members was imprisoned.

Hades had even thought that one of the members was responsible for his sister’s murder until it was discovered otherwise.

Every little sin was attributed to this secretive group and their infamous leader.

Hell, even William had impersonated the man.

Erebus.

Was it possible the legend himself had been in her brothel, standing right before her eyes, and she let him escape her grasp?

Even if she’d thought he was the real Erebus, what could she have done?