Brodie found marks on the wall where it appeared that something or someone had scraped the stones, perhaps as they climbed over and then dropped to the sidewalk.
“And two sets of muddied boot marks on the sidewalk just here,” he commented.
He then looked past the sidewalk to the space that separated it from the road with the row of trees. He pulled the small handheld lamp he carried and shone the beam across the ground between two trees opposite those two sets of dried prints on the sidewalk.
“More marks here,” he pointed out as he crouched down for a closer look.
One set of prints was quite large and deep, the same as those Lily and I had found on the ground on the opposite side of the wall. The second set was not as large with a long mark in the mud as if the other man had dragged his left foot!
Fourteen
After accompanying Lily backto Sussex Square, we returned to the office on The Strand so that I could add the notes about what Lily and I had discovered to those we already had. And I was most anxious to hear what Brodie had learned from his conversation with His Highness.
“He was reluctant to tell me anythin’ at first,” Brodie explained as he loosened his tie, then leaned his head against the chair back.
I poured us each a dram of my great aunt’s very fine whisky. Perfect on an evening after take-away supper from the Public House, the cold that had set in with the weather, and a fire in the coal stove.
“I can imagine how you were able to persuade him.” I handed him a glass. There was a faint smile in one corner of his mouth.
“I mentioned that unusual title that her ladyship recalled from his university days.”
“The Four Horsemen.”
He nodded. “And explained that ye had discovered that all mention of it appeared to have been removed from the newspaper archives. I then explained that there might verra wellbe a connection to the notes that have been left on the bodies of the two young men. And that last note that may indicate that the murderer is not finished.”
Most interesting. “What was his response?”
“He didna deny that unusual title.”
“And the note with that quote from the Bible?” I inquired.
“Sins of the fathers.” He took a sip of whisky.
“It seems there was a particular incident their second year at university that could have meant a serious difficulty for the young prince and his companions.”
That did seem to match what my great aunt remembered from about that same time.
“Prince Albert had gone to Cambridge,” I recalled what was well known. “And Prince Edward left shortly after and took up a commission in the army. Perhaps to avoid a scandal?” I suggested.
“So it would seem,” Brodie replied.
“And the others who were known as the Four Horsemen?” That dark gaze met mine.
“Lord Salisbery and Sir Huntingdon are two of them.”
“Who was the fourth member of their private little club?”
“Sir Alfred Walsingham.”
Though I was not personally acquainted with him, I still recognized the name. Sir Alfred was a prominent barrister and judge in the royal courts.
“It seems that his son died in a riding accident six months ago in St. James’s Park.”
That took me a moment. Four young men who became known as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse during their time at university. And now, over thirty years later, the sons of three of them were dead?
My thoughts raced.
I did not keep up with the death notices in the newspapers, something I found to be morbid and quite boring. However, what Brodie had learned made sense about that note—“And then there was one.”
