“Which was my intention because you have no business skulking down an alley. If you’ve forgotten, you were set upon by criminals only yesterday. Far be it from me to point out the obvious, but criminals tend to lurk about backstreets, especially in this part of the city.”
“I come down this alley all the time by myself because Mr. and Mrs. Bainswright often invite me to visit before the store opens. They enjoy having a cup of tea in the backroom before their day begins and can’t hear anyone knocking on the front door.”
“Once again I find myself wondering how you’re still alive,” Gideon said, moving to join her.
“Perhaps the nine lives my cats possess have rubbed off on me.”
He took hold of her gloved hand and pressed a kiss to her fingers, which immediately sent her pulse galloping madly about. “An interesting theory, but if true, you’ve undoubtedly squandered at least eight of those. You may want to consider proceeding with extreme caution from this point forward.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” she asked before she retrieved her hand and held out the basket. “Here. Hold Harvey. I need to find my key.”
“You have a key to the bookstore?”
“I check in on the place whenever the Bainswrights go on holiday.”
“Do not tell me you do that checking without anyone with you.”
“My cousin Charles accompanies me every now and again.”
“I’ll take that as affirmation you do, indeed, come here unattended at times, leaving you vulnerable to the miscreants who roam this very street.”
“I’ve never had a problem until yesterday.” She opened her reticule, rooted around the contents, and extracted the key. “Shall we?” she asked, pausing after she inserted the key to look over her shoulder. “Don’t be alarmed when I begin shouting to announce my arrival. The Bainswrights are incredibly hard of hearing. If they’re not in the backroom, I’ll need to yell to attract their attention.” She gave the key a twist, opened the door, and stepped inside, Gideon following directly behind her.
A quick glance around showed no sign of the Bainswrights.
“Mr. Bainswright?” Adelaide shouted, moving through the room. “It’s Adelaide.”
To her alarm, Mr. Bainswright suddenly rushed into the room, his spectacles askew, brandishing a rifle. A second after he appeared, Gideon was standing in front of her, his hands raised above his head, Harvey apparently taking exception to that because he immediately began mewling from the confines of the basket Gideon was dangling in the air.
“Put down the rifle, Mr. Bainswright,” Gideon shouted, his voice booming around the room, which caused Mr. Bainswright to freeze on the spot and squint in their direction.
“Mr. Abbot. How did you get in here?”
“He’s with me,” Adelaide said, stepping around Gideon.
“Good heavens, child,” Mr. Bainswright began, lowering the rifle. “We weren’t expecting you this morning, but thank goodness I didn’t shoot you. I’m afraid after what the wife and I walked in to find this morning, I’m in an agitated state.”
“What happened?” Adelaide demanded, crossing the room and stopping beside Mr. Bainswright, who was gripping the rifle with white-knuckled fingers. Gideon joined them, handed her the basket with a still-mewling Harvey in it, and carefully took the weapon away from what Adelaide only then noticed was a visibly shaking hand.
“We’ve been robbed—or perhaps not, because I’ve yet to findany missing books—but poor Mrs. Bainswright is in a right state over the matter.”
“How did the robbers gain access to the store?” Gideon asked as Mr. Bainswright turned and began shuffling out of the room.
“That’s the peculiar thing. There’s no sign of forced entry, which is why we were shocked to discover the first floor in shambles.”
“Professionals then,” Adelaide muttered, earning a nod from Gideon as they followed Mr. Bainswright, who stopped once he reached the main room and gestured around. “As you can see, someone seemed to be looking for something, and not from the valuable section of books I keep upstairs. Those rooms weren’t touched, which puts a rather curious twist on the situation.”
Adelaide set the basket on a table and took a second to unlatch the lid, finding an outraged Harvey in the process, who jumped out and began wandering around the table, presenting Adelaide with his back. Her gaze traveled over the books strewn about the floor, the tables nearest to the crate Mr. Bainswright had purchased yesterday all but empty, except for a few stray novels. Books had also been pulled from a bookcase that shelved historical books, autobiographies, and journals, the manner in which those books now littered the floor suggesting someone had been in a hurry. “How curious that only one bookcase was emptied,” she said, moving closer.
“Especially when the books on that shelf aren’t valuable,” Mrs. Bainswright said, straightening from behind a stack of books she’d been looking over, one of Mr. Bainswright’s inventory ledgers in hand. “I’ve yet to find a single book missing from our inventory, although I can’t say for certain nothing was taken. Whoever broke in here tore the page from yesterday’s sales out of our accounting book—but not all the sales, mind you, only the ones from transactions that occurred in the afternoon.”
“Sales that were rung up starting around the time Adelaide made her purchases?” Gideon asked.
Mrs. Bainswright frowned. “How did you know that?”
Adelaide moved closer to her. “Because I was robbed not long after I left the store.”
“You were robbed?” Mrs. Bainswright repeated.
