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“I have to be contactable tonight, so I’ll need to sleep over at my flat when we finally pack it in at whatever time we finish up,” he said.
He’d invited her to come over to his flat a few times, but she’d been strangely resistant to the idea. Mainly, she knew, because her mother would have a fainting fit at the thought.
Not that she wouldn’t have a fainting fit at the thought of James spending the night in her bed like he had the night before, but somehow it was less daunting in her own place, rather than braving the newly built fanciness of James’s flat in Covent Garden.
“A lot is happening, then? You’re getting close?” She really hoped he was, because the man with the gun worried her a lot.
“A lot is happening, yes.” He sprinkled some vinegar over his chips. “Getting close, no.”
She knew he couldn’t talk about it, so she didn’t ask. “I suppose PS Yates let you know about those letters PC Evans and I found yesterday?”
“They were very helpful.” He seemed to be considering whether to say something. “Can you tell me exactly where you found them?”
She stood and got her London street atlas, opened it up to the correct page, and turned it to face him, pointing to Mrs. McKenzie’s house. “The two letters were in the hedge here. The third one was in this tree, in the same street but on the other side of the main road.”
“So the wind’s blowing them, but where from?”
She took the atlas back and looked at it, then pointed to where the first two letters had been found. “This was where the first two appeared, see it’s just one street over from Mrs McKenzie’s.”
“Do you mind if I draw on this in pencil?” he asked.
She shook her head and he took one out of his pocket and connected all the points, then tapped the middle of the strange egg shape he’d made.
“Somewhere here.”
Gabriella looked at where he was pointing, and lifted his hand, moved it slightly downward, and rested it on the Jamesons’ house. “Or here?”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because Mrs. McKenzie thinks they’re up to no good. She suspects she saw them carrying something they’d stolen on Saturday afternoon, and PC Evans said someone did break into a shed nearby.” She considered what she’d just said. “None of which is grounds to suspect them of robbing the post office and a jewelers, though.”
“Unfortunately not. What was stolen, did Evans say?” James asked.
She shook her head. “He didn’t. The only thing I can say honestly links them to anything is that the son drives his deceased father’s Austin Cambridge, and I saw one drive away after we got shot at at the jeweler’s, but again, there are a lot of those cars on the road.”
“It’s too thin,” James agreed, “but I’ll keep it in my back pocket in case something else comes up that might point in that direction.”
She nodded. “Speaking of the jeweler, how is Mr. Garelli?”
“I can’t say because I haven’t been able to get hold of him since he left the hospital on the weekend.” James finished his fish and chips and folded up the paper neatly. “But I’ve finally got an appointment with him tomorrow at his wife’s parents’ house, where he’s staying while he recuperates.”
“Please send him my best,” she said, remembering how he’d been in the hospital. So frightened and outraged.
“I will.” James smiled. “As he only liked you, that might actually help me.”
She grinned back. “It was just because I spoke Italian,” she said.
“Maybe.” James didn’t look like he believed it. He glanced at his watch and sighed. “I’d better get going. We were only given an hour for dinner and then we’re expected back.”
Gabriella got to her feet. “Well, thank you for spending your hour with me.”
He drew her into his arms. “I honestly don’t know what to make of it when you say things like that.” He kissed her forehead and then tilted her chin up so he could kiss her mouth. “I would spend every hour I could with you if that was possible.”
She smiled against his lips. “Is that so?”
“It is.” He deepened the kiss, then groaned and eased back. “I have to go. I’ll try to stop by tomorrow.” He got to the door. “And if you see anyone that looks like they might be sent by Sutcliffe, you call the Yard and get them to run me down. Anyone at all.”
She nodded, then stood, bemused, as he closed the door and ran down the stairs.
