Laura Lee Guhrke by Not So Innocent Read Free Book Online Page B

Sophie through the doorway, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Grimstock jump out of the carriage with his fists clenched, ready to come to her aid.
    “It’s all right,” she called to him as the detective pulled her through the doorway of the lodging house. The last thing she needed was for Grimstock to get arrested for assaulting a policeman. “Stay here,” she ordered. “I’ll be right back.”
    Inspector Dunbar dragged her through the doorway and kicked the door shut behind him. He gave his landlady a brief nod as he started for the stairs with Sophie in tow. “Mrs. Tribble, I see that Nanki Poo is home safe and sound.”
    “Aye, and no thanks to you,” she called after him ashe pulled Sophie up the stairs, “And I run a respectable ’ouse, Mr. Dunbar. Missionaries, indeed!”
    The meaning of the landlady’s words was not lost on Sophie. She tried to jerk free of the inspector’s hold, but it was useless. When he reached the top of the stairs, he pulled her down a dark hallway. Still keeping a firm grip on her, he stopped before a door about halfway down the passage and reached into his pocket for his latchkey. He unlocked the door, hauled her inside the room, and shut the door behind them. She heard the slide and click of a bolt locking into place. Only then did he let her go.
    The room was utterly black, and Sophie had to fight back a wave of panic. God, how she hated the dark. Though she could see nothing, she knew he was standing right beside her. She could hear the measured rhythm of his breathing, she could feel the heat of his body and the full force of his anger. She tried to remember to breathe, but the darkness was all around her, and Sophie felt as if she were suffocating.
    After several tense seconds, she was able to speak. “Could you—” Her voice failed her. She cleared her throat, then tried again. “It’s so very dark in here. I know it probably seems silly to you, but I don’t. . . I don’t like the dark. I never have, not since I was a little girl. I have very frightening dreams sometimes, you see. Do you think you could light a lamp?”
    He said nothing, but after a moment she heard the rasp of a match, and lamplight flooded the room.
    Sophie took a glance around and saw that she was in the only room of a flat. It was sparsely furnished, scrupulously clean, and tidy. Between herself and theinspector was the lamp, resting on a small dining table. Nearby was a pair of overstuffed chintz chairs that had seen better days, and beyond them a bed stood in one corner, its sheets tucked in and its counterpane smoothly laid out. Against the wall to her right stood a tall bookcase, filled with books.
    The sight of the books did rather surprise her. She wouldn’t have thought a police inspector to be in any way intellectual. Still, she had no doubt the books were alphabetically laid out by author or grouped in some other logical manner. She knew Inspector Dunbar was a man who believed in keeping everything in his life well-ordered.
    Beneath the window directly opposite to where she stood was a shelf containing a gas ring, a kettle, cups, and a bright red tin of tea. Other than the books and the tidiness, there was nothing about this room to show the personality of its tenant. There were no pictures on the walls, there were no photographs or daguerreotypes, no keepsakes, no objects of intimacy whatsoever.
    She returned her gaze to him. The lamp illuminated his face, and she noticed he needed a shave. His clothing was rumpled, his tie was undone, and the bruise beneath his eye had darkened to deep purple. He looked more dangerous to Sophie’s way of thinking than any member of the criminal classes could possibly be.
    “Where is it?”
    The question was so abrupt that it took Sophie a moment to assimilate it. When she had, she still didn’t understand. “Where is what?”
    “Where is the gun that fired the bullet that missedmy head by inches in Victoria Embankment Gardens less than an