Page 50

chapter

nineteen

“It’s not their moped,” Gabriella said to the bobby who was standing over the boys.

“It’s not,” the lady from the car agreed. She’d offered to stay to give her statement, and Gabriella was more and more grateful to her. “The driver ran off after he plowed into those poor lads and the moped fell over.”

“And you say he pushed you into the traffic?” PC Timms looked skeptical.

Gabriella looked at him with dislike, but was well aware asking him if he thought she was making something like that up would not help the situation.

“Right in front of my car!” The woman, who’d introduced herself as Mrs. Ledbetter, said, waving her arms. “I watched him do it, and thank goodness I did because I was able to brake in time. Otherwise she’d be dead.”

PC Timms looked over at her car, then to the lads. “Then what happened to the boys, then?”

“He was so busy watching to see if he’d pushed me far enough into the traffic he wasn’t keeping his eyes ahead of him,” Gabriella said. She straightened her uniform, and as if noticing it for the first time, PC Timms began to nod his head.

“Are you looking for witnesses?” A man in an apron came up. “I saw the whole thing.” He gave a deep nod to Mrs. Ledbetter. “Excellent reflexes, madam.”

“Thank you.” Mrs. Ledbetter beamed. “I say, can I take that boy to the hospital? He’s obviously broken something.”

“I called the ambulance,” the man in the apron said. “I own the grocer’s.” He tipped his head to the shop behind them.

“Right, then. Do you need any more from me, officer?” Mrs. Ledbetter asked.

As PC Timms had already taken her name and address, he let her go. Gabriella had listened as she’d given her details, and committed them to memory. She would have to send Mrs. Ledbetter a thank you gift of some kind.

Then she walked over to the boys. She felt stiff, and her back felt as if it had been grazed.

They’d circled the wagons when Timms had started out being sure they’d done something wrong, and she didn’t know what her welcome would be.

But it seemed as if they’d been listening in, because they all gave her a nod.

“An ambulance is coming. I don’t suppose you got a good look at him?” she asked.

“Just that he was tall, pretty young, and that’s it. The helmet covered his whole face.” One of the boys stood up. “He broke Callum’s arm!”

Gabriella looked down at Callum and had to agree. That was a clear, and nasty, break. She winced. “I’m so sorry you were hit.”

“When I looked back, you were in the street. He did something to you, too, eh?” Another lad, who wore the tight black trousers and pointed black shoes of a mod, asked.

“He pushed me into the traffic, and wasn’t paying attention to what was ahead of him, which is why he plowed into you.” She looked down at her hands, which had been abused for the second time that day.

“Do any of you know the moped rider?” Timms had come over to join them, and the lads looked mulish the moment he arrived. They shook their heads.

“I don’t know who he is, but I was working my route down a side street and he drove past me,” Gabriella said. “He turned onto the high street and I didn’t think anything of it. He turned left, so he should have been ahead of me.”

“So he was lying in wait for you, like?” Callum asked from the ground.

PC Timms sneered at the suggestion, and Gabriella realized he had no curiosity about the incident, and probably saw it as an unfortunate accident. He also thought the boys knew the moped rider, because he hadn’t looked particularly convinced at their denials.

“Maybe. Or he stopped for some reason and then saw me again. Unfortunately people don’t like traffic wardens very much.” Gabriella didn’t want to bring up that this wasn’t her first attack today. Given PC Timms clear skepticism, she thought it would be a bridge too far. Anyway, she hadn’t been in her uniform for the first attack, and like this one, no one had seen her attacker.

Just then the ambulance arrived, sirens screaming, and Callum was loaded up and taken away.

“You’re out of the Kensington and Chelsea Traffic Warden Office?” Timms asked.

She nodded. “I was on my way back to headquarters when this all happened.”