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“Jerry might have gone to look, in case there was something worth taking,” Teddy Roe said, but he sounded despondent.

“Even if he did, they’d put it out for people to take, so it’s not as if he would have been doing anything wrong,” Gabriella pointed out.

Teddy Roe sighed. “No. I’ve been coming and going from home via this street, just because we know you saw him here, Gabriella.” He began to shuffle past them. “I’m going to the high street now to see if I can find someone new who might have been around on Monday. Someone might remember Scotty, if they don’t remember Jerry.”

He kept walking and as the wind began to gust, Gabriella turned away from him. She’d been standing here for longer than she could really justify.

“Well, thank you, Mrs. McKenzie. Let me know if you do see or hear something.”

Mrs. McKenzie nodded, tapped the side of her nose, and pointed to number twenty across the street again.

Gabriella began walking down the street, feeling a little guilty at the surveillance she guessed was about to happen on number twenty.

She had a feeling Teddy Roe would probably pay more attention to it, as well.

Remembering the way they’d treated that girl, and the barely restrained violence of the man she’d encountered when she was moving the furniture, she hoped they were both careful.

Maybe she’d keep an eye out, too.

It was raining by lunch time. The kind of rain that came at you in cold, relentless waves, and so she and Liz had been forced to run from their bench in the park and take shelter against a wall next to the post office.

They were eating their sandwiches standing up.

“Miserable,” Liz said, shaking the rain drops off her coat sleeve.

Gabriella took a sip of hot coffee, and gave a hum of agreement.

“You didn’t see Melvin last night, did you?” Liz asked.

“Just briefly. As I was leaving dinner with Mr. Rodney. I guess he went off to work straight after.” Gabriella didn’t see the need to tell Liz he’d been hauling a man off Solomon at the time.

“Was he with anyone?” Liz asked.

“He was with George when I saw him, but as I said, it was for a couple of minutes, tops.”

Liz mulled that over. “I know I sound ridiculous.”

Gabriella sighed and looked over at her just as a post office van pulled up ahead of where they were standing. The back doors opened, and two men got out, and went inside.

“You’re understandably upset that he’s not looking for anything with you, and you’ve done the right thing and eased back.” She patted Liz’s arm. “Feel free to be ridiculous, if you want.”

Liz gave a weak chuckle. “Thank you.”

“You should come to dinner at my place one night,” Gabriella said. “So you won’t sit at home and sink into despair.”

Liz turned to say something just as the two postal workers came back out of the post office, each carrying a big hessian bag, and as one of them reached out to open the van doors, two men, dressed in black pea jackets, with knit caps over their heads and thick black scarfs wound around their necks and lower faces, ran toward them from across the street.

One raised up his arm and shot at the van’s tires.

The crack of the gunshot was shocking.

Moments later, the men slammed into the postal workers and banged their heads against the closed van doors.

They grabbed the sacks and ran.

Gabriella edged out from under the awning to see which direction they ran in, and once they were gone, turned back to the mayhem.

The postal van driver had already scrambled out the front and run to the rear.