“No. She was out.”
“Or she was avoiding you.”
He’d considered that. If Paula Blickson still wasn’t in when he went first thing tomorrow, he’d try another tack. He loosened the cords on each of the drapes with more force, irritated that his day had turned up so little other than a new dead body.
Descriptions of the stolen jewels would print in tomorrow’sPolice Gazette, and once distributed to other divisions across London, there could be word from constables checking in atpawnbrokers. The men Jasper had sent out to some of the finer jewelry shops, however, had come back that evening with no matches to the stolen items.
“You never said if Sir Eamon was able to tell you what he and Mrs. Seabright were discussing so seriously just before she was killed,” Leo asked. “Was it anything useful to the case?”
“I’m not sure,” he answered. After finding the body in Gavin Seabright’s rooms, Jasper hadn’t pondered his discussion with Sir Eamon any further. “She wanted to know if a nurse at the orphanage was still employed there but didn’t explain her interest. A Nurse Radcliff.”
“That is curious,” she replied. “I wonder if Gavin or Paula would understand why she wished to know about the nurse.” Leo crossed her arms, her fingers tapping her elbow in thought. “I also wonder if Gavin might be at his mother’s home, hiding.”
Empty as Martha’s home would now be, it was an obvious place for him to hunker down. However, if Gavin was wise, he’d know it wastooobvious.
“I have constables keeping an eye on the place,” he replied.
“Has it been searched? There might be something there that could explain?—”
“Leo.” He turned sharply from the shrouded window, ready to tell her to let him handle the investigation. Her challenging glare hinted she expected that very response. “It has been searched. Nothing of importance was found.”
The glint in her eye eased off, and she accepted his answer with a nod. She crossed her arms again, her fingers drumming her sleeves in a quick rhythm. Jasper knew many of her tells, and this one implied that she was thinking of something but choosing not to voice it.
“What is it?” he asked.
The drumming stopped. “Nothing,” she said, much too quickly. “Though I was thinking about the woman Mrs.Beardsley saw with Gavin. She might be connected to the robbery at the benefit dinner. Perhaps they were planning it together.”
Jasper pinched the bridge of his nose, exhausted. He was cold, wet, and hungry and felt as if he’d accomplished little except gaining a new dead body. “That is pure speculation.”
“How can we not speculate? We don’t know anything for certain just yet. There are too many questions and not enough people to give answers.”
“That is a common occurrence in inquiries, unfortunately. It just means we need to look harder.”
His mistake in sayingweblared in his ears, and he knew Leo had heard it too. He braced himself for her to jump on it. But when she spoke, it wasn’t about his blunder.
“Why did you pull the drapes?”
He didn’t want to tell her about the man who’d been following him. She would only worry and then set her mind to figuring out who it was and what he wanted. Jasper already had his suspicions, and he didn’t want Leo anywhere near it.
“Privacy.” At the parting of her lips, he realized the word sang differently aloud than it had in his head. “This is a ground floor room. The pavements are busy this time of evening.”
She seemed to weigh his logical answer as she turned back toward the glass-fronted bookcase, her fingertips again skimming the tops of the chairs. Her hands were slim and graceful, and though it wasn’t wise, Jasper easily recalled what they had felt like, pressed flat against his chest.
He licked his lips. “There is no whisky in here.”
Leo reached for her handbag. “I just wanted to let you know what I learned today. It sounds like the rain is letting up. I’ll go.”
Without thinking, Jasper stepped toward the door. He didn’t want her to leave. Not yet. “Why are you in here and not the study?”
He thought he knew, and if she answered honestly, it would mean broaching the topic they’d both been avoiding. It was time.
Leo slipped her handbag into the crook of her elbow and fidgeted with the beaded strap. “I didn’t think it would be…appropriate.”
Her gaze met his but then averted toward the covered windows. He saw her suspicion in the tense hold of her shoulders: that he’d drawn the drapes for unprincipled reasons. The stirring Jasper had felt earlier returned, only this time, it had a ravening edge. He wasn’t going to back away from the matter.
“Because the last time we were in there together I kissed you?”
Leo’s eyes slammed into his. He watched her draw a deep breath, a pink tint blooming on her ivory cheeks. A strangely mercenary feeling of triumph gripped him.
