Page 93 of The Cabinet of Dr. Leng

“A friend needs my help.”

A friend. Unexpected.Suddenly he knew.

“Pendergast,” he said. “Is that it?”

D’Agosta stared at him. “How the hell—?”

Coldmoon laughed. “I worked three cases with him, remember?Something unexpected has come up.Sounds exactly like Pendergast. So—what are you doing for him? Is it official or a side hustle?”

D’Agosta licked his lips. “Side hustle.”

Coldmoon settled back to listen.

“I’m pretty sure you know that Pendergast is upset and why. And you know where Constance disappeared to. You called it a ‘long, crazy story.’”

Coldmoon didn’t answer. He felt a tightening in his gut.

D’Agosta drained his glass. “Well, you were right about that. Crazy as a sprayed cockroach. And it’s not over yet.”

“What are you saying?”

Now it was D’Agosta’s turn to lean forward in confidence. “You’re a good man, Armstrong. So why don’t we share what we know? You tell me what happened to Constance and I’ll tell you what Pendergast is up to.”

Coldmoon waited before replying, then finally broke into a smile. “Well, it’s like this: Constance used that machine in the basement of a Savannah hotel to send herself back in time to a parallel universe, to prevent the deaths of her two siblings.”

D’Agosta poured himself a fresh glass. “Pendergast had that machine transported from Savannah to his mansion here in town.”

Coldmoon stiffened in shock. He knew Pendergast had been hit hard by what happened—that he was mourning the loss of Constance, or feeling guilty, or maybe both—but he’d never expected this. “But it was fried all to hell!”

“Not fried enough.”

“So what’s he doing with it?”

“Opening a portal to New York—in 1880.”

This was crazier than anything Coldmoon could have imagined. “Son of a bitch.” He looked back at D’Agosta. “You’re sure it’s really working?”

“I’m sure. Because we used it. Together.”

“What?”

“I didn’t believe him. I told him he was stone nuts. He has Proctor and some propeller-head down in that basement operating it for him—so he took me back to 1880 to make me a believer.”

“Don’t get me wrong, but are you sure it wasn’t just some hallucination?”

“If I was still wearing the boots from that field trip, I’d prove it to you by scraping off some vintage horseshit and garnishing your beer.”

Coldmoon paused to let this fresh surprise settle in. Now that he thought about it, it shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise at all. It was pure Pendergast.

“How can I help?” he asked simply.

D’Agosta shook his head. “I don’t think you can help. You know, this relationship between Pendergast and Constance, I just don’t know what the deal is there…”

“Neither do I.”

“He’s using the machine to shadow Constance, try to keep her out of trouble. He doesn’t dare show himself for fear of how she’d react. You know she’s kind of…” D’Agosta didn’t say it.

“Crazy? She’s one scary—well, let’s leave it at that.”

---