“What did you sense about him in your conversation?” I caught that narrowed gaze he directed at me, and couldn’t prevent a smile.
“Isensedthat he perhaps knew something that he chose not to share.” He shook his head. “There was no prying it out of the man, and ye saw his manner when ye returned after yer conversation with his wife.”
“You believe that he knows something about his daughter’s murder?”
“Perhaps. And perhaps Daniel Eddington might be able to tell us something about that.”
“This has undoubtedly been devastating for him as well,” I replied. “To be planning a wedding and then it all ends with a funeral. When will you speak with him?”
“This afternoon if it can be arranged, and before Sir Mallory has a conversation with him. Unless he already has.”
“Do you believe that he would encourage him to withhold information? For what reason?”
“That is what I would like to find out.”
I was thoughtful as we returned to the office on the Strand.
“We will need to speak with Judge Cameron as well. Aunt Antonia might have some connection there through Sir Laughton. He is quite well acquainted with those in law. And I do need to visit Lily.”
“What will you tell her?” Brodie asked.
“The truth. That we have little information so far. But we did promise to keep her apprised of what we learned, and I will not leave her dangling. She is not the dangling sort.”
“No, she most certainly is not. Much like someone else I know.”
Traffic was particularly congested even past the noon hour. The weather that had threatened to set in since early morning gathered ominously over the city. Ladies with shopping baskets over their arms hurried about the marketplaces. Draymen who usually made deliveries after hours clogged the thoroughfareswith their carts and wagons as they rushed to get in one more delivery for the day.
All the while workers and shopkeepers took precautions against the high tides from the river that were expected with the heavy rain.
In the past, the lower floors of buildings along the river front had flooded, furnishings were destroyed, and people displaced. The best to be done was to seek a higher floor then clean and repair the damage.
For those of the professional sort with offices on the high streets, sandbags were brought in by the score and placed in strategic positions to divert the heaviest runoff.
We arrived back at the office on the Strand. Brodie paid the driver as Mr. Cavendish wheeled up from down the sidewalk, Rupert the hound beside him.
“Wot do ye say about the storm that is coming?” Brodie asked.
Mr. Cavendish cast what might be described as a weather eye toward the sky. He was quite an authority and usually quite accurate. Although I supposed that predicting rain over London was much like predicting that the sun would rise of a morning. It was a constant.
“Felt it earlier in my bones, Mr. Brodie,” he shrugged. “We’re in for a good solid rain.”
He hooked a thumb over one shoulder in the direction of the sand bags that were being delivered across the way.
“It’s early in the season yet. But there will be a big one comin’ later. There always is most usually after the holidays, and those sandbags won’t be enough. You remember the one five years past?”
Brodie nodded. “Aye. Good to hear this storm won’t be that bad.”
“Do you believe him?” I asked as we climbed the stairs to the second-floor landing.
“He’s been right most every time.”
So much for Dr. Merryweather with his leeches in bottles that supposedly predicted a change in the barometer before a storm, even though the predictions had been printed in the dailies according to my great-aunt.
And then there was the weather bureau founded by Vice-Admiral Fitzroy after his retirement from the Royal Navy. He gathered information from across Britain and compiled it along with maps. Somewhat more accurate than leeches in a jar.
Brodie put out a call to Judge Cameron’s office and was informed that Daniel Eddington had left earlier but would be returning for appointments that afternoon. It seemed that even death was not a reason for time away from work. Brodie made an appointment.
“I want to be there when he returns,” he commented.
