Page 85 of Return Ticket

“And everything looked fine?” she asked.

“Yes. But it’s only nine now. Too early for our man to be dumping bodies. I’ll walk you home and then I’ll go back and keep watch.”

She was silent for a good minute, thinking of reasons why he should take her with him, when someone coughed up ahead.

Her grip on James tightened, and she tried to see through the smog.

A figure coalesced from the mist, and she stopped in surprise, loosening her grip as James moved to stand in front of her.

“Robbie?” she asked, peering around James. “That’s your name, isn’t it?”

Robbie cleared his throat, his gaze darting from her to James.

“Thought you were on your own,” he said, then tilted his head to James. “Where’d you come from?”

He wouldn’t have seen James when he’d left the house, Gabriella realized, because James had been checking out Harborne Close.

“This is Victoria Jenkins’ boyfriend,” Gabriella explained to James.

“How did he get ahead of us?” James wondered.

“He ran off as soon as he heard Dr. Jenkins coming out of his study,” Gabriella said.

“Hey, hey, thanks for that, by the way, making sure the old killjoy saw me,” Robbie said. He tried to make his voice jocular, but he failed.

Gabriella felt a frisson of fear. He’d been waiting for her, thinking she was on her own. What had he been planning to do?

“Full name?” James asked suddenly, pulling his warrant card out of his inner jacket.

“What?” Robbie stumbled back a step. “You’re a copper? Look, I was just going to tell her it wasn’t very nice to out me like that, and . . .” He trailed off.

“And?” James asked, voice sharp.

“Never mind.” Robbie turned and disappeared, and they both heard his footsteps fade as he ran away.

Gabriella stayed standing for a moment. “If you weren’t here . . .”

He had looked at her in a way that made her skin crawl when she’d gotten a glimpse of him in the parlor, and that was before she’d said a word to him. She wondered if she hadn’t called to him as he’d tried to sneak out—outing him, as he put it—whether he would have waited for her like he had.

Her guess was there was a strong chance he would have done it anyway, and come up with another excuse why he should waylay her.

James took her hand, and they started walking again.

“I’m going to call Dr. Jenkins and ask for Robbie’s full name,” James said. “And let him know about this incident.”

That would certainly make Robbie’s life a little harder. Gabriella approved.

“I don’t want you waiting for the killer on your own,” she said as they reached Holland Park Avenue and turned left toward Notting Hill.

“I’ll call Hartridge to meet me, don’t worry. I’ll need him if the killer does turn up.” She could hear the suppressed excitement in his voice. Like he was looking forward to it.

“If he comes tonight, it means he’s killed someone,” she said.

“I know.” His voice dropped an octave. “But I can’t guess where he might attack. The best I can do is use Teddy Roe’s information to watch where he might go afterward. Even though stopping him from hurting someone would be the main prize.”

She got it. James had to work with what he had, with what he could feasibly do. She just wished she could shout to everyone who was out and about on this filthy night to stay in, wherever they were.

Because a killer was on the hunt.

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