I did hope that he might have learned something important regarding Dr. Bennett’s disappearance.
“Mikaela, dear,” my aunt called out, once more with every slice of “damned” vegetable securely in place.
“I am hosting a bit of a soiree tomorrow evening in celebration of Sir James’ return to London. I do hope that you will be able to attend, and Mr. Brodie of course. You and Sir James shared those earlier adventures and he must have new ones?”
Though the invitation was more or less in the form of a question, there was actually no question involved. When my aunt extended an invitation it was assumed that it would be accepted.
Not that she commanded attendance. However…
“Of course,” I replied.
“Eight o’clock, dear,” she added, then went back to her cucumbers.
After retrieving several slices, Lily and I removed to the library with the excuse of learning more about her progress with her lessons. As soon as the door closed I retrieved a deck of cards from the drawer in the game table.
“Lessons, indeed!” Linnie commented as she found us in a heated game of poker and announced supper.
I tallied up the sum I had lost to Lily and promised to pay her when I returned to Mayfair as I rarely carried anything larger than cab fare. The girl had an incredible talent for the game.
We had just finished supper and dessert was to be served in the formal salon when Mr. Aldrich, my aunt’s footman, announced that Munro had returned and requested to meet with me.
I excused myself and met with him in the office off the kitchen.
“You’ve learned something?”
“Aye,” he replied.
He had removed the black wool jacket that now hung on a hook on the wall across from the desk. At a glance it was damp from the weather.
“This afternoon, I spoke to a man who provided the name of someone who made unusual deliveries to a tenement in Aldgate, just across from the ironworks. After a good sum and several pints, he provided the name of the man, a fellow by the name of Darby.”
“What was unusual about the deliveries?”
“In the first place, that part of Aldgate isna the sort of place where others make deliveries. Those who live in that part of London are poor and the best they can afford are the scraps left from market and handouts. As for the rents…”
“I see your point. What about the items that were delivered?”
“According to the man I spoke with, the deliveries weren’t food or cast offs that might be the usual for those in that part of the city. They were instruments and some sort of medical supplies.”
I might not have thought anything of it, except for that last part; medical supplies. While it seemed a remote possibility that a location in Aldgate had anything to do with Dr. Bennett, still…
“When was this?”
“The first delivery was three months ago, then several more after. It was a lucrative connection for the driver.”
“Have you been able to make contact with the driver? A name of the person to whom the deliveries were made?” I then asked.
“No. The driver worked independent as opposed to one of the usual companies one can hire about the city for such things.”
His expression indicated there was more.
“He died in a stramash outside a tavern some six weeks ago, stabbed through the heart.”
A coincidence?
Another crime among many across the city, and particularly in the East End where there was so much poverty and few enough of the Metropolitan Police. And then, as I had learned, there were those who simply looked the other way. As I had also learned from Brodie, there was no such thing as a coincidence.
“Do you know where the tenement is in Aldgate?”
