“Some days before. He had asked me to inquire through people I know about counterfeit money that has been found about London. He was hoping to find a connection…” He shook his head. “Not since then.”
“What do you know about the woman who was murdered?”
He seemed to have come to some sort of a decision as he set the mug back on the table, then sat back in his chair.
“She was hardly more than a girl when she showed up at Covent Garden, selling fresh produce. According to the story she told, the woman her father kept with threw her out of where they lived.
“It’s difficult enough to make it at the Garden if ye own the stall and work it yerself, but a young thing like that…”
He shook his head. “She was near starvin’ to death when she was accused of stealin’.
“Brodie stepped in the middle of the situation when she might have been arrested, and paid the vendor what he claimed he was out. Comin’ from where he had, he felt sorry for her, and found her a place where she could stay, along with work at a public house that paid better than what she could make at the Garden.
“She made the acquaintance of a woman there who worked in one of the private men’s clubs, one of those fancy places where they go to drink, gamble, and…” He hesitated and looked at me.
“I quite understand,” I told him. “Please continue.”
“She was a pretty little thing and eventually became acquainted exclusively with one of the young men. She made far more money there in one night than a month at the public house.”
It wasn’t difficult to know what that had included.
“The young man promised to take care of her,” I replied.
“Aye, with fancy clothes, her own flat verra near the club, and a good amount of coin in the bargain,” he continued.
“She witnessed a murder.” I also knew that much.
He nodded. “The young man she had been with was killed. She saw the man who did it. She was terrified and went toBrodie. He promised to help her. Abberline had other thoughts in the matter.
“He needed a witness in order to solve the crime. However, she was threatened if she ever revealed what she had seen.”
I knew the rest of it. “And Brodie helped her to leave London for some place safe.
“Aye, as far from Abberline as possible and under a different name,” Mr. Conner replied.
“She returned and apparently found work at the Brown Hotel,”
He nodded. “That was just over a year ago.”
“Why did she return?”
“That, I do not know, miss. I only know that Brodie was aware of it.”
As much as he was Brodie’s friend, and would undoubtedly say anything to protect him, I did believe that Conner didn’t know the reason she had returned.
“He was seen leaving her flat with a boy,” I then told him. “Do you know anything about that?
I thought I saw something in the expression on Mr. Conner’s face, perhaps a thought, something he might have said, then decided against.
“Mr. Brodie might be able to tell ye more about that,” he replied.
“If I knew where to find him,” I pointed out. “Do you know where he is?”
He shook his head. “There are many places for a man to go when he knows the streets. I’ve already put the word out to contacts I have,” he said. “There’s a man I’m to meet later who may be able to tell me something.”
I nodded, then caught that sharp look.
“The man is known to frequent an establishment in Whitechapel on the high street,” he continued. “He sellsinformation, and I’ve used him in the past. But it’s no place for a lady, and Brodie would have none of yer goin’ there, with the killings of those women.”
