What Breaks A Detective.

Chapter 9

Twenty minutes later (the traffic had been horrific) Smart and Rosamund found themselves facing the front door of 15A Praed Street, both, it seemed, feeling equally nervous. Rosamund had gone paler than usual, and Smart could see the occasional shake of her fingers as she twisted them in front of her. He, on the other hand, was more worried about what Isabel was going to say to him, barging in with no warning. She tended not to like that, particularly after last time.

"Don't tell Izzy" Rosamund had said, back in the carriage. "That we've met before, I mean. She won't take it well, and I don't want her shouting at you as well as me, if she decides to shout."

Rosamund herself now had climbed the three small steps to the front door, and had rapped gently on the knocker. Smart closed the gate behind him  and came to join his latest companion on the steps as the door opened.

Isabel saw them both, and nearly collapsed into a dead faint then and there. Smart saw her wobble, and offered an arm forward for her to lean on, but it seemed that Allie's older sister found that the doorknob would do just as good a job.

"Which one?" she muttered weakly.

"Rosamund" Rosie smiled timidly, stepping forward a little. Isabel instantly grabbed her with all the grip of a grizzly bear and began hugging the life out of her younger sister as Smart looked on a little awkwardly. 

"I was so worried!" he heard Isabel mutter. "So worried! When you..."

"Izzy! Rosamund cut in, a little breathlessly. "It's fine. I've been fine. Can we come in? Detective Inspector Smart needs to look about a bit."

"What do you need, Detective Inspector?" Isabel asked, one arm around Rosamund's waist and the fingers of the other hand threaded protectively through her sister's, as if she was going to disappear at any moment.

"Anything" Smart replied vaguely. "I'm on a clue hunt. We know Allie came back here on the night before she died, because that was where the letters were found. I want to see if I missed anything the first time."

It was only partly nonsense. Smart had scoured the flat for anything of use during his previous investigation into the case, but  he hadn't exactly known what he was looking for, then. Now, he had a little more of a clue as to what he might find.

"I haven't moved anything in her room" Isabel told him promptly. "I didn't like to."

"Miss Winter, you're a godsend" Smart smiled briefly, before taking to the stairs as the two sisters, talking quietly between themselves, retired to the living room.

Smart had only been upstairs in Praed Street once, when he had looked around the place before. It was still very much as he had remembered it, the straight, whitepainted wood stairwell came up into a long, thin landing of about a metre and a half by five, papered with pale blue on the walls and a similar shade of blue on the floor. There were four doors, one on the back wall and three along the side, and one quite large windowseat behind the stairwell, looking out onto Praed Street itself, and a rather sorry looking pot plant in a rather gaudy yellow clay pot drooping next to that. 

Allie's room was the one closest to the windowseat, and Isabel's was the one closest to the back wall. The bathroom door was the one on the back wall, which, Smart realized, wondering how on earth he hadn't noticed before, left an extra door. 

He wandered up to it, and tried the handle. It protested, but gave. A plume of dust billowed from the dark interior, and Smart flicked open his ever-trusty lighter before stepping inside.

The room was entirely empty.

Dust coated the peeling wallpaper, and the floor, but there was the occasional mark in the dust, a place where there wasn't quite as much dust as there was everywhere else. A circle here, a square there. A big oval a bit to the left of the centre, where Smart presumed a rug had once lain.

Mystifying.

He shut the door, again, and, brushing the dust from his hat and coat, proceeded to move along to Allie's room. This, too, had a bit of a dust problem, but, Smart knew, the thing with dust was that you could tell which things had been touched recently and which things hadn't.

And there was one thing in the room which certainly shouldn't have that much dust on.

Allie's bookshelf stretched entirely along a whole wall, and it was entirely coated with at least half a year's worth of dust. Not a single book appeared to have been moved off the shelf.

Now that really was  mystifying.

Stuffing his lighter, which was still in his hand, down into his pocket once more, Smart paced slowly over to Allie's desk. A rather antique-looking wooden affair, it stood at an awkward angle in one corner of the room, with a window looking out over Praed Street to the right of it. Smart slowly began to check the drawers. Paper, inkwells, envelopes...

Smart pulled the whole of the third drawer out and dumped it on the bed, beginning to hunt though. This drawer appeared to have envelopes and addresses in, which meant it might also have stamps.

He found the roll he was looking for hidden carefully at the bottom of the drawer, below another roll which was only half empty.

"One lot of Scottish stamps" Smart murmured to himself. "But why? Why bother?"

He put the drawer neatly into its rightful place, and stuffed the roll of Scottish stamps into his pocket. Smart then left the room, skimming quietly down the stairs, but as he did he overheard voices coming from the living room, and quietened his footfalls still.

"What did you tell him, Rosie?"

"I went along with it, Izzy, of course I did! I know how much Allie meant to Detective Inspector Smart, and I didn't want to make him more upset!"

"What happens if he asks more questions?"

"I'll bluff it out."

"Rosie, that's not wise. What happens if he sees through you?"

"I shouldn't have told you, should I, Izzy? You're just going to worry and make things worse..."

"Rosie!" Isabel's exasperated voice sighed. "You were absolutely right to tell me! What if I'd given it away?"

Smart, who had been creeping quietly back up the stairs as this conversation had gone on, now clattered back down them noisily and poked his head into the living room.

"Miss Winter?" he asked innocently.

"Detective Inspector?" Isabel replied, sounding a little uptight.

"Where did you and Alianna buy your stamps?"

Isabel's eyebrow shot up, and Rosie stifled a snort of laughter.

"Come on." Smart turned to look reproachfully at Allie's twin, who shrugged pacifyingly, still beaming.

"Why do you want to know about stamps?" Rosamund asked, getting up as if to join Smart. Isabel pulled her down.

"You're not going with him!" she said firmly. "You're staying right here. The Detective Inspector has been kind enough to bring you home, and you're not to go gallivanting off with him again in case...in case you don't come back again."

Rosamund looked depressedly at her older sister, who looked sternly back. Smart was reminded of a mother reprimanding a child.

"I'll be fine alone" he assured them both. Isabel smiled, while Rosamund glared.

"Where do you get your stamps?" Smart asked again.

"Little post office, on the corner of St. Michael's street" Isabel replied, beaming now from ear to ear. Smart gave her a sly wink and departed swiftly.