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Gabriella really didn’t want to get into it. “It was an accident,” she said. “But I meant to say I passed on your suspicions of your neighbor, and the local bobby says there was a theft reported on Saturday. He’s going to look into it.”

“As I suspected.” Mrs. McKenzie sent a dark look across the road. “I’ll keep my eyes open, dear, and let you know if I notice anything else.”

She looked across the street at the Jameson’s house as Mrs. McKenzie headed back inside, but there were no lights on and it looked like no one was home.

She looked up at the sky, saw rain was on the horizon once again, and began walking quickly toward home.

She was fixing the roof tonight.

No more drips for her.

chapter

twenty-eight

“Three envelopes, all with the same address on the bottom.” DI Layman set them out on the table in his conference room.

His full team was present, along with James and Hartridge, and James could feel there was a real energy in the room.

“Found in Holland Park?” one of Layman’s men asked.

“Yes, one was up in a tree and the local bobby got it, and two were handed in by a resident.” Layman tapped one of the envelopes. “This address is for a manufacturing jewelers, and we’re going to be watching it night and day from now onward.”

“Are we thinking someone is tossing these envelopes out as a message to us?” James asked. “And is giving us the gang’s next target?”

It was a far fetched scenario, but there wasn’t much else that could explain it.

Layman made a face. “I don’t know what else could explain it, but I agree it sounds unlikely.”

“The gang could be playing games, diverting our attention, or something.” Another of Layman’s team spoke up.

“Why not just lay low, though?” Layman asked. “It’s not like we have any idea where they’re going to hit next, so right now it’s the whole of London. This address is far more than anything else we’ve had.”

That was true. James was very suspicious of the letters, but Layman was correct that they could not ignore the address.

“Will we speak to the owners about a possible robbery?” Hartridge asked.

Layman hesitated. “I considered it, but what if this is an inside job? Then someone might be given the heads up. Also, what if we’re completely wrong about the significance of the address on these letters?”

“So we keep watch and lie very low?” James asked.

“Yes.” Layman leaned back against a desk. “Four vehicles, all different, to be parked around the building at all times, and switched out every two hours.” He held up a roster, and it was passed around. “You’ll see the roster really only starts tonight because it’s unlikely they’ll try to rob the place in broad daylight, but if anyone can swing by there earlier than eight tonight, just to get the lay of the land, that will be helpful.”

James and Hartridge were at a stalemate in their own case. Their search of Harry’s home office furniture had come up with nothing, so James offered to use his personal car and head over to the address straight away.

It was already early afternoon, so the factory wouldn’t be open for too much longer anyway.

Layman pulled him aside as everyone left the room to get organized. “I just thought you’d be interested to know it was Miss Farnsworth who handed the two letters in and climbed the tree to get the third one. PS Yates told me she’s an excellent resource.”

James didn’t know what to say. His mind went straight back to waking up next to her this morning, all soft hair and skin, and soft kisses. To how she had sat naked in his lap to make love the night before.

He still didn’t quite know how he’d gotten so lucky.

Eventually he simply nodded. “I meant to ask you, have we got an update on the blackmail package we found, or are we completely out of the loop there?”

Layman frowned. “I haven’t heard anything, and my guess is we’re out of it now. Why?”

“I saw the woman involved last night by chance. She was singing in a jazz club in Chelsea.” He had contemplated keeping quiet about it to Layman, but he couldn’t justify it. He could square his conscience for leaning hard on Sutcliffe while using his badge because the man was stepping way over the line. But if authorities were looking for Fiona St. Yves and he had seen her, and he didn’t speak up because he wanted to use her against Sutcliffe, that broke his own personal code of honor.