A/N - Thank you everyone for your kind reviews! I hope this story continues to live up to your expectations.

Part 10.

Eliza was waiting in the meeting room on the second floor of Scotland Yard that they had been working in that morning. She was reading over William's writing on the chalkboard, waiting for him to come back after he spoke with the parents in reception. She knew she shouldn't wish that he would hurry up, but she desperately wanted to know what was going on.

There were a handful of photographs spread out on the table of the photo and newspaper-clipping wall from the house that William had gone to earlier. She was still rather irked with him that he'd cut her, but now wasn't the time for that argument. They had much more pressing things to be worried about.

The photos were too small for her to be able to see anything clearly, no matter how hard she tried. She'd have to wait until the actual photographs were brought in from evidence to look at them properly. She picked up one of the photographs showing the newspaper clippings, the front cover of her police times article was clear to see even in such a small photograph. She had to admit the fact that this killer seemed to know who she was made her slightly nervous.

She turned around when she heard the handle on the door, and saw William walk in the room and shut the door behind him.

"What happened?" She asked quickly, folding her arms across her chest, while William slowly walked towards her. He appeared worn down and his shoulders looked like he had the weight of the world on them.

"Well, the missing girl is Natalie Matthews. She was supposed to meet and stay over night with a friend yesterday, but never turned up." William rubbed the back of his neck as he reached her and perched on the edge of the table.

"So why are they reporting her missing now?" She asked him, confused why it had taken the family so long. Could that mean they had less the 2 days to find her?

"The friend she was supposed to be staying with assumed she missed a message cancelling, so it wasn't till she didn't arrive home today that it was realized she was missing."

"So what now?"

"We're putting a message out to the carriage companies now, see if any have a Barnaby Sherwood working for them."

William sighed, as he looked at her he could tell she was anxious to do something. She stretched her fingers and then spun round to lean her hands on the table.

"Do you still think this Barnaby is the right person?"

"Well, the address that Moses gave us was listed for B Sherwood, and that's where the pictures were, but that could just be an assumed name. It's not looking likely that he's a banker, 3 of the banks have come back and confirmed that there is no Barnaby Sherwood working for them."

"You mean the address that Moses gave you, not us," she said pointedly with narrow eyes and a cold stare. He chose to ignore her, and continued with his train of thought.

"If he's a carriage driver though, there is going to be massive ramifications."

There were hundreds of carriages all around London, there would be wide spread panic if it was thought that people using them were potentially not safe.

"We don't know that yet," Eliza confirmed, sensing William's concern and wanting to help settle him. "Lets look over the files again, maybe there is something we've missed."

"Eliza, we went through those with a fine tooth comb this morning, there's nothing more in them." It was getting late, and if he was honest, he couldn't face fruitlessly looking through all the files again.

"The photographs from the house then?" Eliza asked, itching to do something.

"They need to be catalogued first, they won't be ready for us to go through until the morning."

"So, there is nothing more we can do?" She asked him frustrated.

"Not at the moment." William rubbed the back of his neck again.

Eliza released a heavy sighed of annoyance, as she started pacing. She was never very good at sitting still doing nothing, and now was no different. She couldn't just sit and wait.

"There must be something." She stared at the map she'd plotted all the locations on, but nothing was standing out. She leaned back on the desk, and she could feel William staring at her, but he kept quiet for a couple of minutes and let her stare at the map.

"Look, let me get Honeychurch to take you home." He told her softly, his voice full of concern. "Rest, I'll pick you up in my carriage first thing in the morning, we can start again then," he said calmly. She was taking this personally now, becoming emotional, and that wasn't going to end well for either of them.

"I don't need a police baby sitter William!" she exclaimed.

"I know, but I would feel more comfortable knowing you're home safe." William continued to be calm. He was too tired to fight, and didn't have it in him right now to get into an argument with her.

"Are you sending Phillips home?" Eliza asked pointedly.

"Eliza please," William started, almost begging her, annoyed that once again, she wouldn't listen to him.

"What? After today, how do I know you're not just trying to get me out of here." She folded her arms defensively, waiting for his response.

"Please, I'm not. There's nothing more we can do here tonight," he told her honestly.

Eliza studied William, she always knew when he was lying, and he didn't appear to be. He did appear to be exhausted. He wasn't even trying to fight with her. Perhaps a clear head in the morning would help.

"Fine, I will let PC Honeychurch escort me home in a carriage, but that's it. I don't need a babysitter!"

"Thank you." William breathed a sigh of relief that Eliza might actually do something that he asked for once.

Eliza sat one side of the carriage with PC Honeychurch on the seat opposite her in his immaculate navy blue police uniform and his helmet on his lap. He was purposely avoiding her eye contact and looked almost as uncomfortable as she felt. Why she had agreed to this she wasn't entirely sure.

Having PC Honeychurch escort her home didn't exactly make her feel that much safer. They weren't exactly friends, and he was slightly terrified of her, which she ordinarily quite enjoyed, but this was just plain awkward.

She looked out the carriage window in the doorway and hoped that the short journey to her home would be over soon. Though she wasn't sure she'd be able to stop her brain from thinking enough to actually sleep. She knew with the late hour that Ivy would be asleep.

The minutes were ticking by as she was staring, not really focusing on anything going by out the window, lost in her own world. Unexpectedly, she noticed something strange, in the distance on the left she could make out St Paul's Cathedral in the darkness.

That didn't make sense. She didn't live in that direction. With a slight fear she sat up straighter finally taking in the surroundings and she suddenly realized they were on the wrong side of the Thames. This wasn't right. This wasn't at all where they were supposed to be.

"Honeychurch, where are we?" She asked, confused and feeling slightly panicked.

"Excuse me Miss?" he questioned, with surprise that she was addressing him since they'd been in silence since the moment they'd left Scotland Yard.

"This isn't the way to my house," she told him.

PC Honeychurch looked at her wide-eyed, as he too started looking out the carriage doorway windows, trying to work out where they were.

"Something's wrong, this isn't right," Eliza told him, trying to sound calm, and not give away her fear and worry to him.

They felt the carriage turn right and saw out the window and that they were heading away from the River Thames, going even further in the wrong direction to her house.

PC Honeychurch put his head out the window to see if he could alert the driver. Perhaps this was a simple case of mistaking the address they were supposed to go to but the driver kept looking straight ahead and made no acknowledgement of him.

The carriage started to slow down, and Honeychurch was still leaning out the window. Eliza put her hand on his knee to get his attention, which only made PC Honeychurch jump and bang the top of his head on the roof of the carriage as he moved back inside the window.

"Honeychurch, whatever happens, you get a message to William," she told him quietly and firmly.

"What?" He asked in confusion.

"Trust me. You need to get a message to Inspector Wellington." She was serious, and he quickly realised that she meant for him to leave her.

"I'm not leaving you, The Duke would kill me!" he told her terrified. He was looking at her rather panicked, though Eliza wasn't sure if that was because of what was happening or the idea that William might actually kill him if he left her.

"Not if the driver gets you first," she told him incredibly calmly. "When this carriage stops, you run, as fast as you can. You don't stop and you tell William this…."

The carriage slowed to a stop, and PC Honeychurch opened the carriage door and looked out, still hoping there was an innocent explanation to what was happening, only he saw the driver wasn't in his seat. He hesitated for just a moment as he looked back at Eliza still sat poised like a lady in her seat.

She was still incredibly calm, as she just nodded and mouthed run. So he climbed out the carriage and ran without looking back. His PC helmet fell to the floor of the carriage in his haste, but he didn't stop for it.

Eliza finally moved from her seat to the door to look out the window to see PC Honeychurch running away as fast as he could down the street. Without warning, she saw something hit him on the back of his head and she could only watch helpless as he fell to the ground.

She went to scream as she felt someone behind her cover her mouth with a cloth, and an arm around her waist before she was pulled backwards into the carriage.

William was exhausted, as he sat at his desk. He reached to the table behind him for the open bottle of Whiskey, poured another sizeable measure into his glass and then took a large gulp. He stared over the report he'd been writing up on the day's work. He sighed and took out at his pocket watch from his waist coat to check for the time. It was getting late, gone half past midnight.

He picked up his paper again, trying to read through what he'd written, but the time was bothering him. It had been well over two hours since Eliza had left with PC Honeychurch. Why hadn't he checked in with him yet?

He'd asked him to come by his office as soon he'd got back. Eliza didn't live that far from Scotland Yard, so he certainly should have been back by now. Had she changed her mind and agreed to let him stay?

He was wondering if perhaps he should go to her house and check, but it was so late he didn't want to disturb her if she was sleeping.

"DUKE!"

William looked up as he heard his name being screamed by Detective Phillips from the corridor, before he almost fell through the open doorway into his office.

"What's wrong?"

"You've got to come, NOW!"

From the tone of Phillips voice, William didn't hesitate. He got out of his seat and followed him, and they both ran out his office and down the corridor to the main entrance.

PC Honeychurch was lying on the floor of the entrance to Scotland Yard surrounded by 5 other uniformed officers, bleeding badly from his face and hands. He'd torn a huge hole in the knee of his uniform, and lost his hat. One officer was holding a cloth to the back of his head. He looked badly injured and shocked. William's mind started racing as he took in the scene in front of him.

"He took her!" PC Honeychurch managed, looking directly at William, breathing hard and clearly in pain.

"What?" William's heart started pounding. No, he'd sent Eliza home to be safe. What had happened? He didn't understand. They were meant to take his carriage and driver and take Eliza home, why hadn't they?

"I'm sorry I … She made me leave…." PC Honeychurch was so panicked as to how his Inspector would react to the news.

"Who? Eliza?" William queried. Why would she make Honeychurch leave her?

"She said I had to get you a message, she said to tell you Deptford Park. Said you needed to know. I'm sorry sir. I didn't want to leave her, but she made me."

PC Honeychurch looked devastated, but there was really nothing he could have done. Eliza could be incredibly stubborn, and everything had happened so quickly, there was no time for him to argue with her. He also doubted that they would have got very far if they had both run when the carriage stopped.

William shook his head, Deptford Park, what the hell did that mean. Who gives someone a message of just a place! Damn it Eliza! He needed a map. He ran straight back into his office, and his eyes darted over the map on his wall by the filing cabinets.

Deptford Park, he scrolled his finger over the map looking for it, whilst cursing her at the same time. It took him a few minutes but finally, he double tapped his finger on the map when he found it, near New Cross.

It was a large wooded park, but there was a major carriage store on it's edge, and a stable yard located with it. That carriage park would be incredibly convenient for the house they'd searched earlier.

"Clever Eliza. Very clever!"

William grabbed some spare bullets from his desk draw and threw them in his jacket pocket. He grabbed his coat from the coat stand, not bothering to bring his hat, and ran back out to the main entrance. PC Honeychurch was still on the floor surrounded by officers, looking paler then he had moments earlier.

"Well done Honeychurch!" he told him. "Phillips, you six with me!" he said, pointing to a group of four PC's and two Detectives that had gathered around their fallen colleague. Then he turned to two of the officers who were attending to PC Honeychurch.

"You two, get him to a hospital, now!" William demanded, before leaving the building with his officers in tow.

To be continued….