“Will you be having a bit to eat?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“Not this mornin’,” Mr. Conner told him.
“You know about the arrest warrant that Abberline has for Brodie.”
He nodded. “I heard about it last night from one of the lads I keep in contact with. We raise a pint or two from time to time.” He gave me a long look. “This situation is most serious.”
“I want to help but I have no idea where he is.”
“Ye’ve not seen him since ye learned about this?”
“Not since two days ago. With the death of the young woman, I’m certain he’s determined to find whoever murdered her.”
I knew that he and Brodie were extremely close from the time they worked together at the MET, perhaps including that particular case ten years earlier. They had a mutual respect, as well as mutual dislike of the Chief Inspector.
“I cannot help him if I don’t know everything about this,” I told him.
“Has it occurred to ye that he doesn’t want you involved?”
There was no need to reply to that. My presence there was answer enough.
He swore under his breath. “I knew ye could be stubborn…” The rest went unspoken. He shook his head.
“Brodie’ll not take kindly to my telling ye what I know, or allowing ye to involve yerself.”
I waited. He swore again, then began with a question of his own.
“What do ye know about the reason he left the MET?”
“I know that it was over a case where a woman witnessed a murder that he was investigating. It seems that she was threatened because of what she saw. The Chief Inspector demanded that he turn the woman over to the police. WhenBrodie refused, Abberline threatened to have charges brought against him. He left the MET shortly after.
“She had returned to London and was living under another name,” I told him what I had learned. “And apparently there is a child, a boy Brodie was seen leaving the woman’s flat with the night she was killed.”
“You know a great deal,” he replied.
“Munro was able to provide me with some information. “But there is obviously a great deal more that I don’t know about all of this.”
I retrieved the cloth from my bag and handed it to him.
His gaze narrowed. “Where did you get this?”
“Thebeast, as you called him.” I then explained the encounter the previous night. “He returned to the town house with this piece of cloth.”
The frown deepened. “Has Abberline called on ye?”
“Not yet. However, I would imagine that is only a matter of time.”
He was clearly trying to decide what to tell me. He shook his head.
“Nothing has changed about the man,” he replied, then paused as Mr. Finlay appeared to fill our coffee mugs. When he had returned to the counter, Mr. Conner handed the cloth back to me.
“It would seem that Mr. Abberline has already sent someone to watch yer place with the hope of finding Brodie.”
“When was the last time you spoke with him?” I then asked.
He took a long sip of coffee, holding the mug between both hands.
