Laura Lee Guhrke by Not So Innocent Read Free Book Online

and why she had chosen to warn him. He was going to turn her inside out and find out everything about her. Including whether or not she owned a little pearl-handled pistol.

Three
 
    Sophie paid little attention to the conversation around her at dinner that evening. Unable to eat, she toyed with the food on her plate, her worry growing with every tick of the clock.
    It wasn’t as if she could go to Victoria Embankment Gardens now; a London park at night was too dangerous. The murder might not happen tonight, in any case. It might be tomorrow, or the day after or next week. There was no way to know, and she couldn’t very well camp out in the Embankment like a gypsy.
    He was a policeman, after all, she reminded herself. Big and strong and well able to protect himself, now that she had warned him. But his laughing face came before her eyes again, reminding her that her warning had done no good. He thought it a joke.
    A joke. God in heaven.
    Sophie tossed aside her dinner napkin and stood up. Her abrupt movement brought an immediate halt to the conversation, and the other five people at the table stared at her in surprise.
    “Sophie?” Violet frowned with concern. “You’re looking peaked again, as if you’re going to faint. You always look that way when you’re seeing things. Have you had another premonition about that policeman?”
    “I can’t stand it, Auntie. I must do something.”
    “But darling, you’ve warned the man. What else can you possibly do?”
    An idea came to her in a flash of inspiration. “I think I’ll pay a call on him, just to make certain that he got safely home.”
    “Now?” Miss Peabody glanced at the darkened window of the dining room. “Is that wise?”
    “No, it is not,” Miss Atwood answered for her. “Sophie, you don’t even know where the man lives.”
    “I’ll go to Scotland Yard and find out where he lives. I just need to satisfy myself that he’s all right.”
    “Well, you can’t go alone.” Colonel Abercrombie stood up. “I’ll go with you.”
    Sophie appreciated his gallantry, but she knew that wouldn’t do. The colonel was seventy-six, and though he might have faced down wild tigers and rebel outbreaks in India many years ago, he wasn’t up to adventures now. She smiled at him and shook her head. “And have you miss your game of dominoes with Mr. Shelton? It’s Friday and you always go to Mr. Shelton’s on Friday nights while the ladies have their meeting. I couldn’t let you miss it.”
    Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mr. Dawesmove to stand up. Unable to tolerate the thought of being trapped in a carriage with him and analyzed as if her psychic ability were some sort of fascinating disease, Sophie spoke quickly to forestall his impending offer to accompany her. “I’ll take Grimstock.”
    She turned to the butler, who was standing by with a tray, ready to take away the dinner plates. “You’ll come, won’t you?”
    The butler hesitated, and Sophie immediately understood the reason why. Though he no longer had anything to fear from the law, the mention of police was still enough to make him uneasy.
    “Don’t know why you’re going to all this trouble for a copper,” he mumbled. “They’re ones can watch out for themselves.”
    Sophie didn’t answer; she simply waited. Grimstock sighed and gave in to the inevitable. “Of course I’ll go with you, Miss Sophie.” He set the tray on the plum-colored mahogany sideboard. “You’ll be wanting a hansom.”
    “Yes, we’ll need a cab. And speak with Hannah, would you? Auntie’s friends from the society are coming in half an hour for their meeting. Hannah will have to serve dessert on her own, since you’re coming with me.”
    These necessities accomplished, Sophie and the butler set out. Their first call was at Scotland Yard. While Grimstock waited in the carriage outside, Sophie obtained Inspector Dunbar’s address from a night constable, and soon they were at the detective’s lodgings,