I looked at her.
"You knew," I said. "About Eleanor's ownership of the shell company structure."
"I found out by accident," she said. "Two weeks after the Iron Cross was founded. I was — I was in Eleanor's house. For reasons that are—" she paused, and the crack widened further, and what came through it was the specific expression of someone who is about to say something that costs more than they thought it would. "I was close to Eleanor. I had been — she had been cultivating me. For years. I understood later that she was using me as a source of information about Damien's personal life, and about you, but at the time I thought she was — I thought she liked me."
The shape of it was arriving in full now. Every piece landed in its correct position.
"Eleanor used you," I said quietly. "To g
