And then he did remember, back through the years, all the faces of all those who’d been arrested and brought before his desk.
“I see it now…you remember,” his attacker snarled.
He saw it in the expression on the chief inspector’s face. Then the disbelief as he brought the knife up and slashed it across his throat, and watched with grim satisfaction as blood soaked the front of Chief Inspector Dawe’s shirt and that last thought slipped away on a gurgling gasp…
Six
BRODIE, #204 ON THE STRAND
The sound waspersistent and brought him up out of sleep and old dreams, followed by a snarling sound from the floor beside the bed. A glance at the window told him it was not yet morning as he reached for the revolver.
He went into the outer office, the hound beside him as the pounding on the door continued.
A stocky shadow showed through the door’s glass panes in the pool of light from the landing. And then a voice—Inspector Dooley of the Metropolitan Police.
Brodie pocketed the revolver, turned on the electric in the office, then opened the door. The hound was there and made a thorough inspection of Mr. Dooley, then turned back to the warmth of the office.
“Wot has happened?” Brodie demanded.
Was it possible that the man who’d killed Constable Martin had been found? Yet, instinct told him different, along with the grim expression on Mr. Dooley’s face.
“There’s been another murder,” Mr. Dooley replied as he shook the rain from his overcoat, then removed his hat and stepped into the office.
“The word came in from the district office, with a call made by the housekeeper,” Dooley explained as he sat in the chair across the desk from Brodie.
“The poor woman was near hysterical after she found the Chief’s Inspector’s body.”
He used the formal title even though the man had been retired for several years. The respect was there for a man they had both served under.
“She found him dead in the parlor, blood everywhere, as there seemed to have been quite a struggle.”
“Did she see anyone?”
Mr. Dooley shook his head. “She went to let him know that supper was ready and found him. A neighbor nearby heard her screams and contacted the constable who patrols the area. Word was sent over to the station, and they put a call into me. The poor woman was near hysterical when I arrived.”
“Has the residence been inspected?”
“Not as yet. I had a constable stationed there after the body was removed. Due to the chief inspector’s long association with the MET, the people from CID will be called in. And then very likely the case will be handled by them.”
Brodie nodded. The deaths of two persons connected to the MET within a handful of days. What did it mean? Was there something at the residence that might tell them something about who had done this?
“I know wot yer thinkin’,” Mr. Dooley commented. “Ye want to see the place for yerself.”
Brodie nodded. “Aye, before the Criminal Investigation Department gets their hands into it. Ye know verra well how it works.”
The C.I.D. had been established years before to take over the investigative side of crimes after a corruption scandal. They had the resources to investigate crimes, as he well knew. And with the murder of one of their own, they would be all over this. Then everything, all evidence, any possible leads, would be locked down, and the case very likely taken over by the New Scotland Yard.
Mr. Dooley agreed. “That will be the end of learnin’ anything about what happened.”
“I need to get inside the residence,” Brodie replied. “Before they begin their investigation.”
“The housekeeper is not about. She went to her sister’s place last night. And I know well the man I placed on duty there. He’s had his own encounter with the C.I.D., and he’ll not say a word of your presence there if I ask it of him.”
Brodie nodded. He needed to change clothes. The street clothes, as Mikaela called them, that he’d worn the day before, might well have the constable on duty call out the alarm at first sight.
His presence there would be far more acceptable if Dooley explained that he was there as a ‘consultant’ to the Metropolitan Police, a service he had provided from time to time in the past since he left the MET.
Abberline was another obstacle. It wouldn’t be the first time, nor the last. For now, it was best to learn what he could before the man was involved. He was a political beast, and they’d had confrontations in the past that had seen the man put on suspension. There would be no cooperation from that quarter in this.
