She’d lost her entire family?
“Thank you.” The words sounded calm even as she was clearly far from that. “It was many years ago now.”
“But you never forget the pain.” Gray’s tone was somber. “Their deaths were avoidable, and had I been working with your father, I would have ensured he was better protected than others did.”
Mungo saw the curiosity in Ellen’s gaze and knew his eyes would hold the same, but they both stayed silent.Whathad happened to her family, and further to that, what had happened to her?
“Thank you, and I wish that had been the case also, Detective Fletcher,” she whispered, but they all heard the pain laced in the words.
“Make her a cup of tea, Ellen,” Mungo said. He then urged Eliza forward. Reaching a chair, he nudged her into it. That she went willingly told him just how upset she was.
Mungo took the cup from Ellen and brought it to Eliza, then moved to stand behind her chair, where he could lean on the wall.
Bram’s eyes met his briefly before he spoke. “Why is Ellen having a vision of Miss Downing’s father if we are trying to find information about Fenella?”
Calder sat silent, watching what was playing out before him, clearly also trying to understand what he was witnessing.
“The gang,” Gray said. “It’s believed the members started a new one when their leaders were put in prison.”
“What was the new one called?” Bram asked, but Mungo knew.
“The Baddon Boys,” he said.
Gray nodded.
“I’m sorry, Miss Downing, but I need to ask a question of you,” Alex said then in a voice Mungo rarely heard him use. Timid, almost as if he didn’t want to say the words.
“Of course. I will help in any way I can,” she said after a fortifying gulp of tea.
“A child has been in my head a great deal lately, and I could not work out why, but since you entered this room, my mouth has flooded with the taste of almonds and sugar—marzipan is my guess. Also a name starting with L.” Alex frowned, which he often did when he was trying to relay the information someone from the afterlife was telling him.
“Li—”
“Lizzi,” Eliza said, the name sounding as if she’d forced it through a sieve.
Alex nodded, his smile gentle. “The child, a boy,” he added. “Was he young when he passed? He inhaled something is the feeling I am having.”
“Y-yes.” Eliza’s fingers clenched so tight around the teacup, it flew out of her hand and landed on the floor with a soft thud. “I’m sorry.” She tried to rise, but Bram held out a hand.
“It’s a few drops of tea, no harm done, and if it gets rid of this god-awful carpet, then you’d be doing me a favor.”
Alex moved to crouch before Eliza, face gentle, as it always was when he was speaking to someone of a loved one who had passed.
“This is all excessively unsettling for you, and almost too hard to believe, but then, that is our family. We are clairvoyants, as you know, and when voices come through from the other side, they want to be heard. Do you understand, Miss Downing?”
Mungo didn’t understand, and he’d lived with them for years, but she nodded.
“This boy. I feel his name starts with H. Harry or Henry,” he added.
“H-Henry.”
“Henry.” Alex nodded. “Was he your brother, Miss Downing?”
Her hands were now clenched together in her lap. Alex placed one of his over them.
“I have your father, and a woman, who I believe could be your mother, is also coming through.”
The sob was small, but it slipped from her lips.
