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The wind had been getting stronger all morning, and as she walked back down the path to the street, she noticed two letters had been blown up against Mrs. McKenzie’s hedge.

She retrieved them, planning to put them through the letterbox, until she saw they weren’t addressed to Mrs. McKenzie at all, and they weren’t letters, they were empty envelopes.

She tried to read the postmarks and even though the paper was very wet, it looked very much like they both said Holland Park on them.

More stolen letters from the other day?

On the back of both of them, an address had been written in the bottom righthand corner.

She studied it, but it was for somewhere south of the river and she wasn’t familiar with that part of town.

She had to speak to Constable Evans anyway, regarding the theft Mrs. McKenzie thought she’d seen evidence of, and now she had more letters, so Gabriella kept a look out for him.

They usually crossed paths multiple times a day, and had developed an easy friendship.

When Gabriella spotted him, just two roads down, Evans was busy looking up into a tree.

“Morning,” she said, coming to stand next to him.

“Morning.” He glanced down at her. “There’s a letter in this tree. Might be another like the two you gave me the other day.”

“I’ve got two more for you, actually. Well, empty envelopes, but I think they’re from the robbery.” She held them out and then finally saw the letter he was talking about, caught up in a high branch. “Look at the back of these. Someone’s written the same address at the bottom of both of them.” She showed him.

“I see.” He looked at her. “How are you at climbing trees, because no chance those branches are going to hold me.”

Gabriella studied the tree, then lifted her bag off her shoulder, handed it over to him, and hauled herself up. She hadn’t climbed trees for a long time, but Evans was right, there was no way the branches would hold under his weight.

She had to really stretch to grab the corner of the letter, and it ripped a bit as she worked it through the twigs and eventually had hold of it, but at least she had it. It turned out to just be an empty envelope, too.

Interestingly enough, it also had the handwritten address on the back.

She climbed down carefully, and when she finally jumped to the ground, there was a little crowd of onlookers, including a woman with a little girl who watched Gabriella with big eyes.

“Find kitty?” the little girl asked.

“No. Only a letter.” Gabriella handed it to Evans. “A kitty would have been more fun.”

She hitched her bag back on her shoulder, and Evans glanced around at the group. They seemed to take it as their signal to leave.

Gabriella waited until they were gone. “Have you had any reports of a break in? Even just into a shed?” she asked.

“Actually, yes.” Evans perked up. “What have you heard?”

“The lady who’s hedge these two letters blew into saw her neighbor’s son and two of his friends hauling a garden refuse bag to his house on Saturday, and she is sure they were out doing a little breaking and entering.” She gave him the address, and he looked at it thoughtfully.

“That’s only one road away from where the theft occurred.” He tapped his notebook with his pencil. “Ta very much, I’ll pass it along.”

“And you still haven’t heard anything about Jerry?” She knew he couldn’t have, but she was asking now just to keep it in his mind, so he didn’t forget.

He shook his head, and she carried on with her route.

On her way home, she got off the bus close to Mrs. McKenzie’s house and went to check for any tiles just inside the gate.

“Gabriella!” Mrs. McKenzie had obviously been watching from the front window. “I left them out for you.”

“Thank you so much.” Gabriella picked them up carefully. “I’m so sorry to have to ask you for another two, and I really appreciate it.”

“What happened to the ones that broke?” Mrs. McKenzie asked.