Page 37 of Betrayal from Beyond
“I should love to show it to you.” His glance strayed toward Tom’s door. “But do you really think the police will wish to question me?”
She suspected he was in search of a tale to dine out on. “They will, I imagine, since you knew him. They will likely wish to know when you last saw him.”
“Saw him? Or heard him?” Sculley tittered. “Everyoneheard him a couple of nights ago. He had a great row with his guest.”
“Did he?”
“Oh, yes. Shouting. Banging. Crashing. All the works. But it has been quiet since.”
“Do you know what they were arguing over?”
“A lover’s spat, I presume. I could not make out the words.”
“Did you meet his guest, sir?”
“Me? No, of course not.”
The man was drifting almost imperceptibly toward the door, so she waved him on. “Go on. Inspector Wooten is inside. He will wish to hear about the row.”
Aquiver with excitement, the neighbor flitted along and put his head in the doorway. “Good evening, gentlemen,” he said before he entered.
With a sigh, Kara moved toward the window again. She stood a moment, gazing into the courtyard below. A movement directly beneath her brought her attention to the constable waiting by the stairs. She could just make out his hat below. The rest of the courtyard looked empty in the flickering torchlight.
Suddenly a shiver went up her spine. She felt certain somebody was watching her.
She spun around, but the passage and the stairs were empty. She could see no one at the railings above. Turning, she looked out the window again and peered into the shadows in the courtyard.
Nothing.
A memory jolted her—a recollection of the last time they had been on the hunt for Petra Scot. She looked up.
There. A figure on the roof opposite. A woman. Her skirts swayed a little as she approached the edge. Very deliberately, she leaned onto the decorative balustrade lining the roof. Kara felt the weight of her stare as if it were tangible.
Déjà vurippled up her spine. In just this way, she’d once had her first glimpse of Petra—from a distance, in that very same pose.
“Niall,” she gasped. “Niall!”
She was running, rounding the corner and starting down the stairs when her husband burst out of Tom Hawkins’s rooms.
“She’s there! I saw her! Across the courtyard! On the roof!”
Together, they sprinted down the stairs, in pursuit.
Chapter Nine
Niall had surgedahead of Kara as he sprinted up the stairs of the house she indicated. He didn’t slow, nor would she wish him to. On the second-floor landing, he nearly collided with a young man. He gripped the youngling’s arm. “How do I get to the roof?”
“Letgo, sir!” the young man demanded. “What do you think you are about?”
Niall had no time to deal with a stripling likely here to meet up with his kept woman. “It’s urgent.” He grabbed the lordling’s other arm. “Tell me how to access the roof!”
“On the fourth floor, head right, then take the last passage.” A woman with her shift drooping off her shoulder leaned out of a nearby doorway. “There’s a door at the end. The stairs beyond it lead up to the roof.”
“Thank you!” Niall released the young man and started up the stairs again.
“Come and see me when you are done with your business up there!” she called after him.
“Millie!” Even as he ran on, Niall could hear the youngling’s shock—and hurt. He kept going, found the passage and the door, and hurtled out onto the roof—only to find it empty.
