Free The Mastermind Plot by Angie Frazier Page A

the steps that led to the museum’s exit.
    I was pushed farther outward, away from Grandmother’s inert form, as another doctor appeared through the crowd of people.
    â€œDr. Philbrick!” I exclaimed. He’d been at the concert? He didn’t pay me a second’s notice but got right on the floor and opened up his doctor’s case, which I now assumed he carried with him everywhere.
    â€œMove back!” he shouted. “All of you, move! She needs room to take a decent breath of air.”
    He waved a small vial beneath Grandmother’s nostrils and rolled her to her side to begin unbuttoning theback of her tight-fitting dress, and then the laces on her corset.
    â€œThese blasted contraptions. I told her to quit wearing them,” Dr. Philbrick grumbled.
    Women gasped and shooed their husbands back toward the music hall. The chiming of a bell sounded from that direction, and more people started to return to their abandoned seats.
    I was torn. I wanted to stay and see that Grandmother was well again, but I also wanted to chase after the strange man. Why did he keep turning up? What had he meant when he said he had a right to be here? And Grandmother … she hadn’t wanted him here. She’d seemed to know him.
    Grandmother took a ragged breath of air.
    â€œThere now, Mrs. Snow, there now,” Dr. Philbrick said in a surprisingly soothing way.
    He calmed her with more words and encouraged her to lie still another moment. I knelt beside Grandmother so she could see me. Her ice blue eyes were bright and watery.
    â€œOh, dear,” she said softly. “Did I faint again?”
    I nodded, trying to keep the tremor from my hand when I sought hers out. I squeezed her small fingers, and suddenly realized what could have happened. That she might not have revived.
    Dr. Philbrick packed up his bag and helped Grandmother to her feet.
    â€œJeremiah, did you unlace me?” she asked indignantly. I tried to lace her back up, but I didn’t have the muscle. Bertie must have needed tools to help her every morning.
    â€œMrs. Snow, you have to be able to breathe!” he replied. “You can’t do that when you’ve got the equivalent of an anaconda snake wrapped around your ribs.”
    I buttoned her dress as well as I could, leaving the corset loose. She still looked winded and pale. Dr. Philbrick threw his jacket over her shoulders before walking us downstairs to the front door, and then called for our carriage. Within minutes, Grandmother and I were seated across from each other, leaving Dr. Philbrick behind on the sidewalk outside the museum as the horses shuttled forward.
    I leaned across the divide and grasped her hand. “What happened?”
    â€œJust one of my episodes, dear.” She concentrated on the darkness outside the window.
    â€œNo.” I squeezed her hand tighter. “It was more than that. There was a man in the corridor with you. I saw him.”
    Grandmother closed her eyes. “He was no one. No one for you to concern yourself with.”
    I wondered if I should say something, and decided I had to. “I’ve seen him before.”
    The wheels hit something and the whole chassis jerked, compounding Grandmother’s surprise.
    â€œThat’s impossible,” she hissed. “That man is a criminal. He’s a scoundrel of the worst sort, Suzanna, and I don’t know how you could have possibly seen him before.”
    Grandmother snapped open her fan and began beating the silk ruffles again. Just like she had earlier when I’d brought up the Red Herring Heists. There was something that vexed her about both the old case and the older man who’d been following me around Boston. But I didn’t dare question her further, fearing she might faint yet again.
    â€œOf course you’re right, Grandmother. Never mind.” I watched the color return to her pale cheeks. “He must look like someone I know, that’s