Page 53 of Ticket Out

She understood now.

chaptertwenty-three

James pulledup outside Gabriella Farnsworth’s house and leaned back against his seat.

He closed his eyes for a moment and let himself enjoy being still and relaxed.

It was Friday night. Theoretically he was off the clock until Monday, although that wasn’t going to happen.

Since Lenny had given them Sam Nealy’s name, they had found Nealy’s basement flat in Holland Park, and searched it thoroughly.

His landlady, the house owner who lived above, hadn’t even realized he was missing. Apparently she thought it was life as usual, him working nights and sleeping days.

She had not been pleased to discover police officers at her door. It seemed Nealy had given her the impression he was a security guard, and she had actually felt safe, knowing he was on the property.

Finding his next of kin was proving harder than it should have been, and Hartridge had spent a frustrating day trying to track down his mother, the only name on his birth certificate.

The clubs and vice unit had promised to get back with some names of heroin dealers who operated in the West End, but James had the distinct feeling they were being territorial.

He held the option of calling in DI Whetford in reserve. Whetford could be counted on to beat his chest and push his way in when it came to jurisdiction, and as long as he wasn’t taking a backhander from this particular heroin dealer, James could use him as a threat.

A clatter of bin lids jerked him from his thoughts, and he opened his eyes.

A man of Caribbean heritage set a metal bin on the pavement, and disappeared around the side of Gabriella’s house, then came back with a second one.

As he set it down next to the first, Gabriella came out of the front door and called a greeting to him, carrying what turned out to be a rubbish bag, to put in one of the bins.

They chatted for a moment and then Gabriella went back inside, and the man went to fetch another bin.

Above him, Gabriella’s light winked out, and James forced himself to get out of the car.

He had come to check on her, and it looked as if she was about to leave.

He’d managed to find a parking spot close to her front door and he came round the front of the Wolseley in time to see Gabriella emerge onto the street.

She walked away from him, into the growing shadows of dusk, and as he was about to call to her, a man stepped out from the side of the house opposite hers and crossed the road just in front of James to follow her.

He was so focused on his prey, he hadn’t noticed James. He never once look around or back.

James surged after him, quiet now, focused on every detail of the man in front of him.

He had a stocky build, so possibly not the same man who’d attacked Gabriella and Mr. Rodney the night before.

Gabriella had described her attacker as wiry.

Her follower was wearing a flat cap and dark clothes, and he moved confidently. He wasn’t nervous about trailing a woman in the darkening streets.

James tried to catch a glimpse of his hands, and thought there might have been a knife in his right hand, but it was difficult to tell.

The man was gaining on Gabriella, but holding back a little. The street was busy, with plenty of people coming home from work in time for dinner, a few children still playing in the road, squeezing out every second of freedom before their mothers or fathers called them in.

He was looking for a quieter place to attack, James guessed.

He wouldn’t get one.

And then, Gabriella stopped and stepped up to the edge of the pavement.

James had been concentrating so much on her and her follower, he was taken surprise by the sight of a bus coming down the street on the opposite side.

---