The Kidnapped Bride (Redcakes Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Never dealt with anyone locally.”
    Dougal drank his cup’s contents, nearly swallowing the lone tea leaf at the bottom. “Who would want to toss the place? Who would know tae look for the swag there?”
    Tippett shrugged. “You hunted Cross. What did ye tell the locals?”
    Dougal drummed his fingers on the desk, concerned for a moment that he might have brought this misfortune on the lady during his search. “No. I didn’t ask anyone questions about Cross. I didn’t know it was Cross when I went through the building. That was just before he was caught in the bushes outside that ball with the diamond necklace.”
    “Right,” Tippett said. “What about in the lockup? Fellow prisoners? Someone who was released since?”
    Dougal nodded slowly. “That’s the most likely. He wasn’t there long, but long enough.”
    “Talk to the constable there. See if he can point ye in any directions.”
    Dougal scratched his cheek. “Anything else?”
    “I’d take yourself to Leith before the next tide goes out, make sure your lady isn’t on a ship.”
    “So there really are white slavers, then?”
    “Ye wouldn’t run across them much in your line. Your contacts and cases are a bit more upper crust, what with your background. They mostly take girls who are out on the street. But the problem is real.”
    Dougal considered. “Have a tide table in this mess?”
    Tippett pulled open a drawer and poked around. “They aren’t likely to attempt to set sail with a cargo of screaming girls in the daytime, and you’ve about missed this afternoon’s high tide anyway. Try a few minutes before three in the morning.”
    “Where are they keeping the screaming girls the rest of the time?” Dougal asked.
    Tippett shrugged. “Lots of grain warehouses dockside.”
    “Look, I get this seems to be a lark to ye, but I’ve got a missing marquess’s sister on my conscience.”
    Tippett’s round face rose from his drawer.
    “Yes, a marquess,” Dougal snapped. “Ye can’t treat my case like it’s just another bunter gone missing.”
    The detective’s gaze sharpened. “Why didn’t the family come to the police formally?”
    “They knew she was here and who she was with,” Dougal explained patiently. “Rather soon after she ran off. Didn’t want tae ruin her reputation. She was with the nephew of an earl.”
    “That jewel thief fellow is the nephew of an earl?” Tippett spluttered.
    “I’m afraid so. But now the girl has no protection. I can’t let her disappear into some harem, not a marquess’s sister.”
    “Ruin your reputation, a case gone bad like that,” Tippett said. He removed his cigar from his mouth again and flicked it between his fingers. “I can spare ye a couple of constables tae search the warehouses around the docks. You are correct; most of the girls they take aren’t the sort to have families asking after them.”
     
    Blinding pain shrieked through Beth’s head when she tried to open her eyes. She quickly shut them again and lifted a groggy arm to feel her head on the right side. Her hair felt crunchy over an exquisitely sore spot. Her jaw ached. She smelled a coppery tang around her body. As she woke further, she felt something beneath her, arching her back. She rolled a little, and odors from grain and sacking beneath her drifted up to her nose. Where was she?
    Images of those two horrid men on the stairs came to mind. She put her fingers to her nose and smelled putrid male sweat and tar. Struggling, she got her elbows beneath her enough to prop herself up. The only light came from chinks in the walls. Not a very sturdy structure, and definitely not anywhere in her building. The light seemed artificial, and she thought it was night.
    Freddie came to mind, and she wondered if he had suffered a fate similar to this last month. She pushed up a little harder, holding her head, until she came to a sitting position. Dear God, what would happen to baby Hester if she couldn’t escape? She pressed her