“My father and mother as well.” He watched Brodie with open curiosity.
“Yer word on our arrangement will do,” Brodie told him as we turned to leave. “And I will hope to see Mr. Dooley with the police report. Then we will begin.”
The chief inspector took out a pen and wrote something on the back of what appeared to be a calling card.
“You may need this.” He handed it to Brodie.
“Will he keep his word?” I asked as we reached the street and Brodie signaled for a cab.
“He will.”
Or? I thought.
The answer to that was obviously in that comment: ‘Ye are a Scot.’
I knew what it meant between Brodie and Munro, a loyalty that was bone deep between the two of them. A promise once made would never be broken.
It was part of who they both were, that Scottish background, relying upon each other to survive on the streets as young boys. Even now.
If one was to need the other, that one would be there, no questions asked. And the secrets they shared?
I was somewhat new to the arrangement. Yet I was learning what that loyalty meant and grateful for it.
Bone deep. That brought all sorts of situations to mind that I might not want to question too thoroughly about the past.
As far as the here and now, it did seem that initially Mr. Graham intended to keep his word about those ‘conditions’ Brodie had told him.
And that calling card that Mr. Graham had given him. It declared that Brodie was to be given every consideration and full cooperation, along with Mr. Graham’s signature.
Within an hour of our arrival back at the office on the Strand, Mr. Dooley arrived with a large envelope in hand.
“I don’t know what you told the man.” He handed the envelope to Brodie. “He said ye were to have the report in the matter of the Cameron murder, anything else that you ask for, and that I am to consider myself part of your investigation for the time being.”
Mr. Dooley shook his head as he sat across the desk while Brodie opened the envelope and read through the police report on the Cameron murder.
“Forget I said anything about it,” Mr. Dooley added. “It’s probably best that I don’t know the reason.”
Nine
The police reportthat had arrived with Mr. Dooley was quite thorough.
It stated the approximate time two constables were dispatched from their area to investigate a body found in St. James’s Park by an individual named Edgar Peabody.
Mr. Peabody, a London wine merchant, was returning from a late delivery to one of the residences at the edge of St. James’s Park, and might have run over the body of the young woman if one of his horses hadn’t shied away.
No one else was seen in the area at the time, which indicated that Margaret Cameron might have been abducted and killed at another location.
Other information in the report included the single knife wound that had obviously killed the victim almost immediately, and a note regarding a flower, later said to be a red rose, laid across her body.
“What do ye know of the two constables who were called out when the body was found?” Brodie asked Mr. Dooley.
“Good men, both. I’ve walked the street with John Hix. The other one is young but has good reviews from his superiors.
“Where is the young woman’s body at this time?” he then asked.
“The family requested that it be taken to their private physician in Westminster.”
“We will want to see the body, even though the report appears most thorough.”
