Chapter 10

“Call Harrison and see if he is still with her,” I said.

Viv looked at me with an annoyed glance. “How am I supposed to do that?”

“Just chat him up,” I said. I waved her phone in front of her face. “But sound casual.”

“Like he’s not going to figure out that it’s you putting her up to it, yeah?” Fee asked.

“He might not,” I said.

The three of us were standing in the front of the shop. Harrison and Tuesday had left twenty minutes before, and as soon as Fee had arrived downstairs to start her shift, I had begun to badger Viv about following Harrison and Tuesday.

Fee rolled her eyes and began hand-stitching tiny seed pearls to the edge of a length of amethyst tulle that she was using to decorate a mother of the bride hat. It was going to be spectacular.

“Hi, Harrison, sorry to bother you,” Viv said into her phone.

Fee and I both watched her as if we could figure out what Harrison was saying by her facial expressions.

“No, no emergency,” she said. “We were just thinking we should remind you that we planned to meet up at Nick and Andre’s tonight and wondered if you could still make it.”

I raised my hands in a gesture of what are you doing? We needed his location now not later. She frowned at me and turned her back on me.

“Sounds great,” she said. “So, are you still with her?”

I made an outraged noise. Seriously, the woman had zero skills in the art of covert information gathering.

“And where are you?” she asked.

Now I did a face palm. Why didn’t she just say we were planning to stalk them?

She looked over her shoulder at me. “At your apartment?”

Now I gasped and so did Fee. Tuesday having Harrison alone in his apartment was not good, not good at all.

“All right, tonight then,” Viv said and she hung up.

She tossed her phone onto the counter.

“Well, that was bloody uncomfortable,” she said. “They’re at his place.”

I headed for the door. “Fee, watch the shop, come on, Viv.”

“What?” Viv asked. “I have work to do and you’re being an awful bossy boots.”

I paused to stare at Viv and Fee. They were not getting it. “Tuesday could be the killer and Harrison is alone with her. Let’s go!”

At this both Fee and Viv jumped. I realized my bark had been a bit ferocious, so I tried to tone it down.

“Now!” I yelled. Okay, tried and failed. Still, it got Viv moving. She grabbed her coat and her handbag, shouted instructions at Fee and followed me out the door.

As we jogged through the neighborhood to Harrison’s place on Pembridge Mews, the sky grew increasingly dark and the wind picked up. Neither Viv nor I had thought to bring an umbrella, as if we didn’t know better living in a city known for its rain.

Harrison had a second-story flat, so with any luck his curtains would be drawn back and we’d be able to see inside. I tried not to think about what we might see if Tuesday had her way—with him, that is.

We loitered under a tree across the street. The curtains were drawn back but the angle was no good. We couldn’t see anything.

It began to drizzle and Viv’s long blond curls started to poof into their natural frizzy state. She gave me a look that said she was very unhappy and then she dug into her purse until she found a scarf, which she wrapped around her head. My hair was getting sodden as well, but I knew I didn’t have a scarf in my bag.

“You don’t happen to have another one of those, do you?” I asked.

“No,” she said. The look she gave me was dour.

Okay, then. I glanced around to see if there was a better vantage point in the area. The steps to the house behind us would give us a bit of a boost. I gestured for Viv to follow me and we trudged up the steps.

Ah, now I could see into Harrison’s place. I saw him pass across the window. His shoulders were hunched and he ran his hand through his hair. It was his usual look when he was agitated. I tried not to be thrilled that they were clearly not having a good time. I failed.

“Stop smiling,” Viv chided me. “It’s bucketing out here and we’re spying on our friend who is obviously fine. There is nothing to smile about.”

I glanced around me. Viv was right. The drizzle had turned into a full-on soaking. My hair was streaming water and my coat was drenched, but I didn’t care.

The door opened behind us and an elderly man glared at us through the crack in the door.

“Who are you?” he asked.

Viv and I exchanged a glance. We couldn’t say we were using his stoop to spy.

“I’m Scarlett,” I said. I gave him my most winning smile, which was lacking its usual charm given my drowned rat appearance. “And this is Vivian.”

“What do you want?” he asked.

His hair was sticking up in tufts on his head and he was wearing a baggy gray cardigan over a dress shirt and slacks with slippers. He looked toasty warm and dry and I felt a spurt of envy.

“We’re lost,” Viv said. “We’re just trying to get our bearings.”

“Well, do it somewhere else, or I’ll call the police,” he snapped. “Go on, get off with you.”

He gestured us away with his hand and when we stepped down the stairs he slammed the door behind us.

“Rude!” Viv cried out.

“Shh!” I hissed. I grabbed her arm and pulled her behind a parked car.

“What is it?” she demanded.

“Look!” I cried. I pointed across the street where Tuesday Blount was coming out of Harrison’s building. She paused to put up her purple umbrella, of course she had one, and then strode down the sidewalk toward Notting Hill Gate.

“Thank goodness, now let’s go home,” Viv said.

“No, we have to follow her,” I cried.

“What?” Viv asked, incredulous.

I didn’t answer but dashed across the road, giving Viv no choice but to follow me. She caught up to me at the crosswalk near the stairs to the underground.

“Have you lost your mind?” she asked.

“I just want to know what she’s up to,” I said. “She had to talk to Harrison in private and now she’s hurrying off to go who knows where. I say it’s suspicious behavior.”

“You just don’t like her because she’s Harrison’s ex,” Viv said.

“Be that as it may,” I said. “We need to know what she is doing in case she is trying to set up Harrison for Win’s murder.”

Viv sighed. We followed Tuesday’s purple umbrella all the way into the underground. I grabbed one of the newsmen’s free papers on the way in and used it as a shield to hide my face should Tuesday look back at me. She did not.

I was careful to keep several people between us at all times. Still Viv and I managed to jump onto the same train car as Tuesday. I opened the paper and found myself face-to-face with an ad for men’s underwear. Awesome.

Viv wrapped her scarf more loosely about her head, trying to hide her face. We were on the Central Line and I noticed when I peered around the paper that Tuesday wasn’t taking an available seat but was staying by the doors. I figured that meant she was getting off soon. Sure enough, when we pulled up to the Bond Street platform, she darted out.

“Go, go, go!” I ordered Viv.

The crush of people getting on the train made it tricky to get off. We muscled our way through the crowd and found Tuesday switching to the Northern Line platform. We joined her while carefully keeping our distance.

The electronic board above told us the train would be arriving in three minutes. We followed Tuesday onto it and it went much as before with her switching to the Victoria Line and us following like eager little puppies.

“You are aware that this could go on all day,” Viv hissed as we pulled into Victoria Station.

“It won’t,” I assured her.

Tuesday left the platform and headed up into the station. We followed as closely as we could. She circled a kiosk and I motioned for Viv to go one way while I went the other. When we met on the other side, there was no sign of Tuesday.

I scanned the area but there were so many people bustling about the enormous station, I couldn’t get my bearings and I couldn’t locate the annoying brunette.

“That’s it then,” Viv said.

She began to walk away and I was forced to follow her. She didn’t look the least bit sorry to be ending our mission, and I was annoyed with her lack of commitment until I realized she wasn’t headed back to our platform.

“Where are you going?” I asked. “Do you see her?”

“No,” Viv said. “But I do see a lovely cheese and onion pasty with my name on it. I think I deserve it after that soaking we took.”

I followed the direction of her gaze. Sure enough, tucked into the side of the station was The Pasty House. The display case in front showed stacks and stacks of the half-moon-shaped pies. I saw a chicken and mushroom and figured Viv was right. We deserved some comfort food to bolster our spirits.

We paid for our pasties and coffee and found a small café table and chairs. I shrugged off my jacket, hoping it would dry a bit while we ate. The crust was flaky and the inside was flavorful without being overdone. It was perfect rainy day, big disappointment food, and yet, I didn’t feel any better.

I don’t know what I had been expecting to figure out by following Tuesday. A secret lover? A rendezvous with a tabloid reporter? Something.

“You know Harrison is over her, don’t you?” Viv asked.

“That’s none of my business,” I said.

“So we’re following her because . . .” Viv’s voice trailed off but before I could answer the devil herself plopped down in the empty seat at our table.

“Because you’re busybodies and you’re sticking your noses in where they don’t belong,” Tuesday Blount said as she eyed us with supreme disdain and loathing.