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“You pretended you didn’t want to tell them about the notes,” the old man said, keeping his voice very low, even though Robby, Pete and Robby’s mother were all downstairs.

“Keep those thoughts to yourself,” she warned him. “For both our sakes.”

“All right.” He struggled to his feet by turning over on his hands and knees and then using the wall to help himself stand. “I wasn’t going to rat you out, just thought I should know what’s going on, is all. Given it looks like I’ll be here for a bit.”

“I’m sorry about that.” The fear that had flared up when he’d said he knew she wasn’t as reluctant as she pretended she was, faded away, and guilt replaced it. “I didn’t know he’d attack you like that. I was trying to get away.”

“He’s a piece of work,” the old man agreed. “I’m Jerry by the way. I live up the road.”

“Jerry.” She handed him a towel, and the clothes which she guessed had belonged to Robby’s long deceased father. “I’m Sarah. I live in Holland Park. I don’t actually know where we are.”

“We’re still in Holland Park,” Jerry said. He told her the street name but it meant nothing to her. He picked up the cup of water and drank a little more. “Do you know what happened to Scotty?”

“The little dog?” She winced as she remembered the sound of pain it had made when Robby had kicked it. “It ran away after it bit Robby’s ankle.” Although she thought she’d heard barking a few times in the hours since then. It could be another dog, though.

“Hehe.” Jerry gently rubbed his side. “Good for him. But I hope he’s all right, and doesn’t get run down in the road.”

“Will your family be worried about you, Jerry?” she asked.

“I don’t have much in the way of family,” Jerry said. “But me friends will be looking for me. I’m sure of that.”

“I’m afraid that when they don’t think there’s any more value in keeping us, that they’re going to kill us,” she said. “They killed my father and his assistant. They almost killed me until they realized I could print counterfeit money for them.”

“So what’re we going to do about that?” Jerry asked.

She hesitated. She didn’t want to tell him her plan in case he used it against her somehow. She didn’t know him well enough yet to trust him.

“It’s all right.” Jerry patted her shoulder as he passed her to go to the bathroom. “You don’t know me yet. But you will.”

She gave a nod, and then settled down on the bed up against the far wall.

She needed to think about which of the heists she was going to send Robby and Pete on first.

If Pete’s access to the gun really had been withdrawn, that would make it easier, because she wouldn’t have to worry about people getting shot.

Her plan was a simple one.

She would lay out all the audacious capers that her father and Stephen had ever discussed with her, their ‘if we had an unlimited budget and a crack crew who didn’t make any mistakes’ jobs to Robby and Pete. Because these clowns did not have an unlimited budget, and they were the crew, and it was not top tier.

They were too greedy and too cock-sure not to give the plans a try, and she had to hope if the police were even half good at their job, at some point they would catch them.

And hopefully that would lead them straight to this address and freedom for her and Jerry.

If that didn’t work, though, she’d have to come up with another way. And right now, she didn’t know what that was.

chapter

twelve

“Can I help you?”

The question came from behind Gabriella, and she turned in surprise to find a wrinkled, pink-cheeked face staring at her through the evergreen leaves of a privet hedge.

She had been standing near the spot she’d last seen Jerry, hoping to find something that might point to where he’d gone.

A cold wind that promised rain tugged at her cap and she hunched a little into her dark coat as she crouched a bit to see the person better. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen an elderly man called Jerry who went missing a few days ago, have you?” she asked. “And his little black dog?”

“No.” The voice was on the high side, and Gabriella guessed she was speaking to a woman. “Well, I have heard a dog barking a few times, and that’s not usual.”