“I would prefer to have you arrested for obstructing the matter!” he threatened Brodie. “However, I have another problem that exceeds what I would very much like and my hands are tied.”
I glanced over at Brodie for his reaction, his expression calm, not the least perturbed as he waited for the moment.
“I have been instructed to leave the matter of investigating the case in your hands.”
I didn’t bother to hide my surprise. Sir Avery Stanton, the head of the Special Services, perhaps? He seemed to know things that others— obviously Abberline —were not privy to.
The chief inspector had returned to the desk. He pushed a portfolio across the desktop toward us.
Brodie opened the folder. Inside was a photograph not unlike the second photograph that Sir John and Lady Mainwaring had received. Except it was not a photograph of Amelia Mainwaring.
It was a photograph of another young woman and she was posed in the same manner that Amelia Mainwaring had been after she was murdered! And there was a note as well—And then there were two…
Abberline appeared as if he might have apoplexy.
“The young woman is Miss Catherine Abbington-Thorpe,” he continued. “She is the daughter of?—”
“Sir William Abbington-Thorpe,” I suggested. I was well aware who her father was from connections through my aunt. “He is counsel to her majesty, the Queen.”
“Yes, quite,” Abberline replied. “That was delivered to the family last night. Perhaps you can understand the gravity of this matter.” This directed at Brodie.
“God knows the reason…” the chief inspector started to say, then appeared to decide against it. “You are to conduct the investigation with all possible haste. Do you understand, Mr. Brodie? And you will keep me informed of everything in the matter.”
“Of course,” Brodie replied. Considering his history with Abberline, I thought it highly unlikely that he would send daily dispatches to the chief inspector.
Abberline had been told that Brodie was to have charge of the investigation. Considering the two families this now affected, the reasons seemed obvious— no publicity, no scandal, but find the person responsible.
To say that the arrangement rankled was another understatement. However, Abberline was no fool. Those now involved knew other people in high places. If he objected or thwarted Brodie in any way, it appeared that the chief inspector’s ambitions might disappear into air.
Oh, my, wouldn’t that be dreadful, I thought, as we left Whitehall Place with that new photograph in hand.
“Sir Avery?” I questioned as we found a driver and made the return to the office on the Strand.
“That would be a safe assumption,” Brodie replied as he stared out the window of the coach.
Seven
I was notsurprised that Sir Avery agreed to meet with us straight away. It did seem that he was expecting it.
Alex Sinclair joined the meeting, his expression most somber as the head of the Special Services stood and greeted us.
On the whole, I liked Sir Avery. Brodie’s opinion, most particularly after our previous case, continued to be… reticent.
“He knows a great many people,” I had pointed out on the ride over from the Strand. “He’s not full of himself like Abberline, and it’s understandable that someone is needed who isn’t encumbered by those like Abberline.”
“Aye.”
And that summed up the total of the conversation to the Tower where the Service had their offices under that stone fortress that had stood over London since the time of William the Conqueror. It somehow seemed appropriate, I thought.
“Good afternoon, Lady Forsythe,” Sir Avery greeted me, most congenially. “Brodie.”
Oh good heavens! I thought. It was as if the two men were about to square off with each other— or in the very least in Brodie’s case —when we now had two clients who had suffered greatly and were very much in need of our services.
“Sir Avery,” I took the moment and the conversation. “We met with Chief Inspector Abberline. You were contacted in the matter by Sir William Abbington-Thorpe, and perhaps Sir John Mainwaring?” I suggested.
He nodded. “Please, sit down,” he replied. “I will explain.”
It was a simple matter in the beginning. Lady Mainwaring had contacted him, a longtime friend of the family— a fact that she had not disclosed to us, about the first photograph the family had received.
