He nodded. “And another note that was obviously part of it.”
I went to my desk and retrieved the note I had received from Lady Walsingham. I handed it to him.
“It seems that she found it in Sir Walsingham’s desk after I met with her.”
“Aye, another piece of the puzzle, as ye like to call it.
“And then there were three.”
Yet, apparently not sent for blackmail in that instance either.
I explained our visit with the vicar at the church in Grantchester and our search of the parish records there.
“Chastain?”
“He was vicar there for less than a year, then suddenly left after the incident.”
“There is a woman in the village who remembered,” Lily added. “The archbishop arranged for the vicar to leave and take a new assignment.”
“He was sent here,” I added. “To St. Pancras.”
Brodie frowned. “He would be quite old now.”
I had thought that as well. If he was still with the church there.
“What of the daughter?” he inquired. “Was there any word about her?”
“She went with him. As you can well imagine, she would have had few prospects after what happened. Although she might have married after arriving here.
“We also learned that each vicar is given a three-year term, then sent on to another parish,” I went on to explain. “There should be a record of where he was sent after he left there, if he did at all.”
I had already decided that Lily and I would go to St. Pancras in the morning, as it was still the middle of the week, and there would be no scheduled church services to interrupt.
Brodie nodded. “It could be useful to speak with someone there.”
At the same time, I sensed there was something else from his visit with the Prince of Wales.
“I learned something more in my conversation with His Highness,” he said. “It seems there was a man who was in service at Marlborough House until a few weeks ago and then left. A stableman according to Sir Knollys.”
Another detail that His Highness had not mentioned or did not know about at the time, in that way that things regarding servants and staff were handed off to others.
“Was there a description of the man?”
“He was described as tall, thick set, and verra strong, according to the stablemaster. He was quiet spoken in his manner, and he knew his way around horses.”
Someone who might have assisted the murderer in his escape that night at Marlborough House?
Had I seen a man who fit that description?
Admittedly, the street and sidewalk had been crowded at the end of the day and the weather dreadful. It was only a glimpse, and then he had disappeared.
“I may have seen the man Lily described.”
That dark gaze narrowed.
“Where?”
I explained about the man who resembled that description, whom I had seen across the way from the office. I went on to describe the other suspect from my brief encounter at the rail station before Lily and I departed for Cambridge. A man who appeared to have a limp, and had then disappeared.
