“It was out of concern for ye when I telephoned the townhouse. Right or wrong, ye mean a great deal to her after the loss of her daughter. I’ll not have ye put any blame on her for it.”
He was right, of course. Mrs. Ryan was more than my housekeeper, particularly after the loss of Mary in that first inquiry case that also included my sister’s disappearance.
Stunning as it was, the evidence was there. Still, I was not over the fact that he had kept it from me.
“What is to be done?” I asked.
“Ye did say that ye have figured out the meaning of those numbers.”
I nodded. “The eighteenth day of the twelfth month— December,” I replied. “Something is to happen tomorrow, and then I read the announcement in the dailies that the Queen is to dedicate the new war memorial.”
“Aye, that supports what we suspected. If Soropkin is part of this, it makes even more sense given past incidents that he’s instigated.”
It was an attempt, I knew, to ease the tension between us. Like tossing a bone to a dog?
However, not quite enough.
“Has Soropkin been found?”
“No, and that is the worry. He is still out there as well. The man seems to have an uncanny ability to blend in and then disappear.”
He assured me that he would contact Sir Avery with the information about a potential target for Soropkin, and possibly bolstering what they already suspected.
He paid for the coffee then escorted me from the Public House.
It seemed that Mr. Conner had concluded his “questioning” of the man I had glimpsed at the office.
“He was well paid, more than I earned even after twenty years with the Met,” he commented, as I looked about for some sight of the man, or perhaps a body?
Mr. Conner did seem quite pleased with himself in spite of a bruised fist.
“A thousand pounds paid to him… by Sir James Redstone.”
In consideration of what Brodie had told me, it was hardly surprising.
“Wot else was he able to tell ye?” Brodie asked.
“It seems that the job he was paid for has to do with the Queen’s dedication of the war memorial tomorrow.”
Brodie nodded with a look at me. “Aye, what else?”
“The payment was for the man and his people to arrange to have a barrier in place at a specific location along the route the Queen will be traveling from Buckingham Palace.”
A barrier, and then an attack on the Queen? As there had been attacks on members of the ruling monarchs in two other countries?
“I might argue the politics of it,” Mr. Conner added. “I still believe that Scotland should be our own country. However, I canna condone the murder of an old woman.”
He referred to the fact that Britain was now governed by a constitutional monarchy. The Queen was now more or less a figurehead rather than the ruler of the country, who made suggestions and recommendations to Parliament rather than setting out laws herself with the assistance of her council as in the past.
“Ye have the location the man told ye?” Brodie asked.
Mr. Conner nodded. “I telephoned the Agency and gave the information to Sir Avery’s people. They’ll see that protections are put in place.”
“What about Soropkin?” I asked.
Mr. Conner shook his head. “The man claimed that he only met with Redstone. According to what he told me, he knew nothing about Soropkin.” He rubbed his bruised knuckles.
“I believe that he was telling the truth.”
