Page 42

The foot traffic was heavy, but she didn’t really pay attention.

Eventually she realized her thoughts were just going round and round. She couldn’t do anything more to help Havelock, and she didn’t like to dwell on her father’s reaction, so it was probably better to get to work and start her day.

She lifted her head and finally paid attention to her surroundings. She was on Millbank, and there was a bus stop up ahead, already with a queue of tourists and Londoners waiting for the next one. She guessed the threat of an impending storm had something to do with the large number of people waiting for the bus.

As the double decker approached, she leaned out around the crowd to check to see its number and if it was the right one to take, and someone gave her a hard shove into the road.

She fell forward in front of the bus with a cry, hands out to catch herself, and the bus driver shuddered to a stop with a shriek of brakes.

People surrounded her immediately, helping her up.

Her palms were scraped and burning, and looking up at how close the bus was to her, she felt her knees wobble and almost give way. A stout lady with a flower in her hat who’d helped her up tightened her grip and eased Gabby’s head forward and down.

“There, love. You tell me when you don’t feel so lightheaded.”

Gabriella took a deep breath and slowly straightened up. “Much better. Thank you.”

“What’s the problem?” A bobby had obviously been drawn by the crowd, and people sidled out of his way so he could get through.

“Someone pushed her!” A woman with a wicker basket over her arm called out. “I saw them.”

“Did you see who it was?” Gabriella asked. “I felt hands pushing me, but I never saw them at all.”

“It was a man. Young and tall.” The man who spoke up had the soft North American accent of Canada.

“He ran off as soon as he pushed her,” someone else in the crowd called out.

They were all standing in front of the bus and the bus driver, obviously aware he was on a schedule, gave a light hoot to hurry them all up.

Most people scrambled back onto the pavement and into the bus, and Gabriella stepped out of the way with the bobby.

“I’ll take a report, because if we’ve got someone going around pushing people in front of buses, that’s something we need to know,” the bobby said. “We had someone like that two years ago. I hope he isn’t out of prison, or something.”

Gabriella gave her name and address, and as she couldn’t tell him anything else, he wrote down what the witnesses had called out as far as the man’s description, and went on his way.

Gabriella stood by the bus stop, waiting for the next bus, keeping well back from the road, and gave herself a quick once-over.

Her hands had taken the brunt of it. They smarted where she’d caught herself as she’d fallen, but otherwise she was fine.

If she’d been in her uniform, she’d have said it might be someone with an animus toward traffic wardens, but she could have been anyone in her day clothes.

As it was, it had taken the bobby a few minutes to realize she wasn’t an Australian tourist but a London resident.

She looked around as she waited, but there was no one nearby that matched the man’s description, and no one who was behaving suspiciously.

Just one of those things, she decided as the next bus pulled up and she got on board.

It could have been anyone. This time, unfortunately, it was her.

She hoped it wasn’t the beginning of a spree.

chapter

sixteen

“You seem distracted.” Hartridge glanced across at James while they sat at a traffic light. “How’s your back?”

James roused himself, and realized he hadn’t spoken a word since they’d left the Yard to go look through Harry Fingers’ office.