Page 34

chapter thirty-four

James kept an eye out for Robbie as they turned off Holland Park Avenue into Ladbroke Grove.

The surprise on his face when he’d realized Gabriella wasn’t alone had chilled James. Robbie had planned to do something to Gabriella, and James had a sick feeling he had lain in wait for unsuspecting women before.

It seemed Robbie had kept going, though, because he wasn’t following them that James could see.

He walked Gabriella all the way up the stairs to her flat, and stepped inside with her when she unlocked her door.

“Can I make you a coffee to take with you?” she asked. “I think I have some paper cups.”

He had planned to go right away, because the temptation to stay was already tugging at him, but hot coffee on a night like tonight would be a life saver. “Thank you.”

She got started, and to keep his distance he walked to the window and looked out, watching what little of the street he could see.

Even if Robbie had wanted to follow them, he’d have had a difficult job of it, James realized. The fog tonight was a true pea souper, and suddenly, he was itching to get going. Because the killer was out there, James was sure of it.

Tonight’s conditions were perfect for him.

When Gabriella turned away from the stove, James left the window and walked back to her, waited while she opened a cupboard and took out some paper cups.

When she straightened, he took them from her, set them down, and drew her close.

She slid her arms around his waist with a sigh and rested her head against his coat, which he hadn’t even taken off.

“Please be careful tonight.”

“I will.” He ran a hand down her back, smoothing her long, dark hair. He forced himself to stop when he got to her waist.

Since they’d spoken of sleeping together, he had not been able to get it out of his mind, and the box of condoms he’d found the time to go and buy had been in his coat pocket ever since.

The coffee pot rattled on the stove as it began to boil, and Gabriella turned away and set about making him strong, Italian coffee in a paper cup. She put it inside another cup so it wouldn’t burn his fingers, and he took it gratefully.

“Don’t open the door to anyone. Tanner’s still out there.” He spoke from the top of the stairs, waiting for her to close and lock her door.

“He won’t be back, surely?” she asked, pausing with the door half closed.

He shook his head. “It would be crazy for him to do it, but I never discount crazy behavior.”

She shot him a grin, then closed up and locked, and he walked out, careful not to spill his drink on the stairs.

As soon as he was outside, he headed for the telephone booth on the corner and phoned the barracks, sending the officer on duty to rouse Hartridge. While he waited, he sipped his coffee and looked out into the fog.

A man walked past, hat low, collar up against the weather, and something about him made James straighten and take notice.

“Hello? Sir?” Hartridge’s voice drew his attention, and when he glanced back, the man was gone.

“Sorry. Someone just walked past who reminded me of Tanner.” James hadn’t seriously considered the private detective would come back. He’d told Gabriella he never discounted crazy, but in this case, there really was no reason for Tanner to return.

And it may well not have been him.

“What would he gain?” Hartridge asked.

“Agreed.” But still, he didn’t like it. He explained his plan to watch the Holland Park house, and heard the eagerness in the detective constable’s voice at the thought of action.

“I’m just going to walk past Gabriella’s, make sure that wasn’t Tanner and he isn’t hanging around, and then I’ll walk back to Harborne Close. It will take you some time to get from the barracks to Holland Park, especially with the chaos the smog is causing on the roads, but try to hurry and I’ll meet you there.” James hung up and stepped out of the booth. He stood quietly, surrounded by dense white, listening for any suspicious sounds, and then headed back to Gabriella’s.

When he got close, he slowed, walking as silently as possible.

He could just make out the old Victorian that Gabriella lived in through the fog.

Mr. Rodney’s ground floor flat was in darkness, but Gabriella’s flat, two floors up in the eaves, was still lit with a warm glow.

He leaned against the fence, looking up at it, until the sound of footsteps drew his attention. He heard the faint click of dog’s nails, and an elderly man walking a Jack Russell appeared like an apparition. The man drew back sharply in surprise at the sight of him standing still on the pavement, then gave an embarrassed nod as he continued on, shooting James a few suspicious side glances.

The light in Gabriella’s flat went out suddenly, and James was left standing in darkness.

Tanner was nowhere in sight, and he’d caught a few glimpses of Gabriella moving around before the lights went out, and she was alone.

He waited another minute, listening, sipping the last of his coffee, but eventually he turned and headed back to the main road.

To wait for a killer instead.

* * *

Gabriella rose up out of the hot bath, flushed and with wrinkled fingers. She seldom spent long in the tub, but tonight she had looked forward to a good soak.

The fog had chilled her to the bone, and the water made her feel warm again.

She pulled on her pajamas—red and white striped flannel pants and a red button up top that had stripes on the cuffs—a present from Dominique for her birthday in June. Dominique had been open about buying them in the end of spring sales, and this was the first time the weather had been cool enough for Gabriella to wear them.

They were almost too warm after the heat of her bath, so she didn’t put her dressing gown on over the top as she cleaned the bath. She shared the bathroom with Jerome, but she’d checked that he wasn’t home before she took her time.

She had thought tonight would end differently.

Before the fog had stopped the traffic and forced them out on foot, she had been half nervous, half excited to see whether James would stay over.

She wanted him to, but years of conditioning by her conservative family made it a bigger step for her than it seemed to be for others.

Liz, for example, had no qualms.

She was glad to be away from Melbourne, away from the stifling, watchful eye of aunts, uncles and family friends that never seemed to give her a moment of privacy.

She had privacy here, and she reveled in it.

When this killer was caught, she would invite James over, and make it clear what she meant by that.

She didn’t know now if the flush on her cheeks was from the bath or her thoughts as she gave the tub a final rinse and gathered up her toiletries.

She stepped out into the narrow hall that separated her flat from Jerome’s, reached back into the bathroom to switch off the light, and then paused, frowning, when she was enveloped in darkness. The light that illuminated the hallway had blown.

She shrugged and reached back into the bathroom again to switch the light back on, running her fingers over the wall to find it in the darkness.

Suddenly she was pressed against the doorjamb, the corner of the wooden frame digging into her collarbone.

“Be very quiet.”

Tanner. She could smell his strong cologne.

She had been so careful, switching off the light in her flat before she’d gone to take her bath, making sure to lock her flat door behind her.

And he’d been waiting outside the bathroom all this time.

The agony of the sharp edge pressing into her chest warred with her fear.

“How on earth do you think this will help you?” she asked on a wheeze as at last he pulled her back against his chest.

The relief from the pain made her lightheaded.

“You will drop the charges, or I’ll keep coming back. And I also need to know what you’ve told the coppers. Everything you’ve said to them, so I can prepare a defense. Do that, and I’ll walk away, no harm, no foul.” Tanner shoved her down the short passageway to her door in the dark. “Where’s the key?”

Gabriella looked back toward the bathroom, at where she’d dropped her robe and her toiletries. “In the pocket of my bathrobe.”

He swore in her ear, spun her back to the bathroom, and shoved her in front of him until they reached the fallen items.

“Get it,” he told her.

She tried to bend to pick it up, but his grip tightened.

“No funny business.”

She waited, and after a beat he loosened his grip, allowing her to reach down for it. As she dug in the pocket of her robe, she held onto his forearm for balance, and then crouched suddenly, spinning with her elbow out and slamming it into his crotch.

He gave a keening grunt, bending at the waist, and she shoved him to the side.

He fell through the open bathroom door, and Gabriella ran, taking the stairs two at a time. Long familiarity made her footing sure, even in the pitch dark.

As she flew down, she considered her options.

Mr. Rodney was most likely asleep, and it would take too long to rouse him for help, so she headed straight out of the front door.

The fog was still thick, and she had a good chance of losing Tanner in its white embrace.

She raced toward Holland Park Avenue, glad she’d put her slippers on before she’d left the bathroom. They were pretty sturdy and matched her pajamas, a gift from Ben and Trevor she knew full well Dominique had organized.

She and James had passed a few people on their walk back to her flat, but now, more than an hour later, the streets seemed empty. She reached the main road and listened for cars, but she could hear someone running behind her, and she chanced it and darted across to the other side.

A big lorry suddenly lumbered by, and using the noise from its passing she ran down the first street to the left she could find.

She knew the street name where James was waiting—but she didn’t know exactly where it was, especially in the fog.

She would have to head in the general direction of Holland Park and figure it out.

When she reached an intersection, she went right, but before she continued on, she stood in the lee of a large oak tree on the corner and listened for Tanner.

There was no footsteps behind her any longer, and she leaned against the tree in relief, closing her eyes and catching her breath. Her heart had been pounding, trying to fight its way out of her chest, but it slowed at last and she was able to take her first real breath since Tanner had grabbed her outside the bathroom.

Slowly she realized she was cold, and moisture was seeping into her flannel top from the tree bark, so she pushed away and carried on down the street, looking for a road sign so she could work out where she was.

When she got to the next intersection, she found a pole with a sign on it, and had to go right up to it to make out what it said, but the street name meant nothing to her. It wasn’t Harborne Close, and she didn’t know the area well enough to find it from here.

Still, she had to be near the park, and as soon as she reached it, she would hopefully be able to orientate herself. She walked down the road, glad to have a destination in mind.

Most of the houses along this street were in darkness, and she didn’t want to knock on a stranger’s door. She slowed when she heard a sound up ahead, and stopped, head tilted, trying to work out what it was.

The squeak, squeak, squeak was rhythmic, and for a moment she wondered if it was a gate, swinging back and forth.

Then, just for a second, the fog thinned, and she saw a man up ahead, pushing a wheelbarrow. An arm hung, limp, over the side of it.

She stayed frozen in place as the fog swirled back to cover him. She thought something was lodged in her throat, and her hands crept up to rest, all twined together, between her breasts.

A man had used a wheelbarrow to transport the victim she’d found at the Billick Building.

And James was waiting for a killer tonight.

She had been so pleased to be headed toward him, so happy to get away from Tanner, that she had forgotten why James was out here in the first place.

The killer was in front of her, but she knew for sure they were not in Harborne Close, where James was waiting.

Perhaps the killer would be turning down into that street soon. Either that, or Teddy Roe had given James the wrong address.

She could not let the wheelbarrow get too far ahead, but she wanted a safe distance, as well.

She looked down at her slippers and took them off, and immediately felt safer now that she could walk silently on bare feet.

Up ahead the wheelbarrow continued its squeak, squeak, and Gabriella hurried after it.