Laura Lee Guhrke by Not So Innocent Page B

empathy with Mrs. Tribble.
    “Your lodgings arc disagreeable to you?” Violet asked him.
    “They are, ma’am, I must confess. But finding an affordable flat in London that is clean and respectable is a nearly impossible task. I make do.”
    Violet sighed. “It must be horrible to live in unpleasant surroundings.”
    Sophie heard the innocent tone of her aunt’s voice, and she knew what was coming. “Oh, no!” she cried, horrified by what Violet was intending to do. “Auntie, no, he can’t stay here!”
    Dunbar was looking at Violet in surprise, but when he glanced at Sophie, she understood he’d had this in mind all along. “Are you offering me a room here, Mrs. Summerstreet?” he asked, returning his attention to Violet.
    “No, she isn’t.” Sophie scowled at him. “She is most definitely not offering you a room.”
    “But, darling, it’s perfect all round,” Violet said. “So perfect, in fact, that I am certain the spirits have arranged it. I told you they would send us someone today.”
    “It’s not perfect,” Sophie said, panicking as she thought of Cousin Katherine’s stolen necklace tucked in the secret drawer of her secretaire. “It’s not perfect,” she repeated with emphasis. “It’s a disaster.”
    “But finding someone to take that last room before your mother arrives was your idea.”
    “Yes, Auntie, I know, but letting the room to Inspector Dunbar isn’t what I had in mind.”
    “If Mr. Dunbar takes the last bedroom in the house,” Violet went on as if her niece had not spoken, “dear Agatha will have to stay with Charlotte.”
    “I know, but—”
    “We’ll once again have the income from that room, which is always welcome, and we won’t even have to pay for advertisements in the papers, I thought you’d welcome this, dear. You are always so concerned about our finances. And you won’t have to deal with your mother’s presence twenty-four hours a day.”
    “Yes, but—”
    “Mr. Dunbar will have a decent place to live, and we will be able to watch over him so no one tries again to kill him.”
    “Yes, Auntie, but he thinks one of
us
is trying to kill him,” she said, finally managing to make her point. She glared at the man across from her, who was sitting back in his chair listening to their discussion, silent and looking quite pleased with himself. “He thinks one of us is a murderer.”
    Her aunt looked at her with an indulgent smile. “Inspector Dunbar knows now that it was impossible for any of us to shoot at him. Besides, this is the perfect way for you to fulfill your responsibility to help him determine who is trying to kill him.”
    “Someone
is
trying to kill him!” she shot back. “That is the material point. It’s not safe for us to have him here.” Only she seemed to appreciate how true that was.
    Violet studied her with a frown of concern. “Sophie, you’re becoming overwrought. It’s due to lack of sleep, I’m sure. Take some valerian tonight, dear, and you’ll sleep better.”
    “Auntie, didn’t you hear me? Having him here would be dangerous.”
    “If someone wants to kill him, I hardly think they will come breaking into our house to do so.” Sheturned to Dunbar, who had not spoken during their discussion of him. “What is your opinion? If you were to take a room here, do you believe the villain trying to kill you would be any threat to us?”
    “I doubt it,” he answered. “Given your niece’s dream, this person seems to have no connection with your household, and it would not serve him to inflict harm on any of you.”
    “Of course that’s what you’d say,” Sophie said through clenched teeth. “It’s so self-serving.”
    “Sophie!” Violet turned her head to look at her niece. “What an extraordinary remark. What has gotten into you?”
    Sophie bit her lip at the rebuke and fell silent.
    “It is most likely,” Dunbar went on, “that the assassin will come after me when I am alone, probably by another gunshot in the