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“Be careful, please? No, don’t you dare make that annoyed face! I adore you. The truth is, I’d be lost without you.”
“Yes. You would.” Mabel laughed. “I love you, too.”
Mabel continued on her way. She did love Evie. And she felt guilty for not inviting her along, especially when Evie had been standing there in the cold. With those wisps of her bobbed hair sticking out crosswise around the sides of her fashionable cloche, she’d looked less like Evie O’Neill, Sweetheart Seer radio star, and more like Evie, her best friend, and Mabel was hit by a pang for the times Evie had just mentioned, when they were writing letters to each other about film stars they swooned over and how delicious milk shakes were.
Yes, it was true that the Six was a secret. But the deeper truth was that as much as she loved Evie, Mabel didn’t want to invite her. She didn’t want to watch Evie suck up all the attention. This was Mabel’s place to shine, and she didn’t want to compete with Evie’s bright glow.
This business with Maria Provenza had her worried, though. Somebody had planted those papers, Mabel felt sure. Arthur would say you never really knew people, but Mabel’s gut told her that she did know that Maria Provenza wasn’t an anarchist; she was just a woman worried about her missing sister. And if the Shadow Men really had taken Anna Provenza, then where were they keeping her—and why?
Mabel thought again about Anna’s vision and the warning from the Diviner at the camp. They’d both said that danger was coming. That Mabel should be careful. Arthur would say she shouldn’t believe in Diviner warnings. Evie would put all her faith in them. And there was Mabel, caught in the middle. Mabel’s whole existence was about belief in causes and change. But for once, she didn’t know what to believe.
The coffee shop’s windows blazed into the night. Arthur sat inside at a table. Mabel stopped to check her breath and fix her hair. In the glass, she thought she saw the reflection of the burly man. She whirled around, searching the shadows across the street, but it was just an ordinary man on his way to wherever he was going, and so she went inside.
Evie knocked at Henry and Theta’s door.
“To what do I owe this great honor?” Sam asked, arms folded.
“Oh, clam up, will you? I’m worried about Mabel.”
Sam welcomed Evie inside, and she plopped herself down on Theta and Henry’s one decent chair.
“Mabel? Mabel’s probably the one person you don’t need to worry about,” Sam said, bringing over two Hires root beers and taking a seat in the smaller, rickety chair. “She’s got her head on straight. Why, I’ll bet she’s downstairs right now making up a box for the poor.”
“No, she’s not, either. She’s out with a boy.”
“Well, bully for her!”
“I’m not so sure. This boy might be trouble.”
Sam smirked. “You want me to go steal his wallet, tell him he can’t have it back until he promises to be a prince to Mabel?”
Evie managed a brief smile. “No. At least, not yet.”
“Aww, listen, Sheba. Mabel’s a good egg. She wouldn’t go for any funny business.”
“I hope you’re right.”
Sam took a swig of his root beer. “But speaking of funny—something funny happened to me today.”
Evie scrounged in her purse for her compact and checked her complexion in its small round mirror. “Funny haha or funny strange?”
“I had the feeling I was being followed.”
“By whom? Adoring packs of schoolgirls?” When Sam didn’t answer, she asked, “Was it adoring packs of schoolgirls?”
“You finished?”
“Since I didn’t get a laugh, I suppose I am,” Evie said, and powdered her nose.
Sam took another swig of his root beer and wiped his hand across his mouth. “I didn’t see anybody when I turned around. I just had this… hunch. That weird feeling in my gut.”
“Who would want to follow you?”
Sam quirked an eyebrow. “You want me to make a list?”
Evie closed her compact with a snap. “No, thanks. I hate to see you have to work so hard. I know what a toll thinking takes on you.”
Sam shot her an annoyed look. “Okay. Then how about this: Maybe the people who have my mother. Maybe those creepy Shadow Men.”
