Then the questions began.
“Why are we gathered here?” Mr. Gordon asked. “My neighbors are welcome, of course, but a little warning would have been nice.”
“Yes, why us, specifically?” Mr. Kinloch asked. “And why did we need to bring along our coats?” He indicated both of his arms, each draped with a winter coat.
“All will be revealed,” Oscar began. “But first, the constables will be searching your coat pockets.”
Once again it was Mr. Gordon and Mr. Kinloch who spoke up, asking why that was necessary. Again, Oscar didn’t answer. He signaled for the constables to start with Mr. Kinloch.
The pockets of both his coats were empty.
When the constable reached Blackburn, the coachman stepped back, refusing. “I got rights. You cannae make me show ye.” He glared at the constable, daring him to attempt to dig through his coat pockets.
“He can’t, but I can, if you want to keep your job,” Mr. Kinloch snapped.
Blackburn’s nostrils flared.
“Just show him and get it over with. If you’re innocent, you have nothing to fear.”
Blackburn hesitated then finally gave in. The constable rummaged through the pockets of the coachman’s greatcoat then shook his head and moved on to Jack.
The footman shouldered the constable out of the way and ran.
“Stop him!” Miss Wheeler cried.
Mr. Gordon and Redmayne both lunged, but Jack was too nimble for them. Their efforts were unnecessary, as Oscar had remained by the door when the constables left their positions there. He stopped the footman with a well-timed kick at Jack’s leg that tripped him, followed by a punch to the gut.
The footman fell to the floor with a thud, howling in pain as he grabbed his leg.
One of the constables stood over him while the other snatched Jack’s coat and rummaged through the pockets. I was more interested in the flash of metal I’d seen in the commotion.
“You won’t find anything,” I told them. “Jack’s not involved.”
Everyone looked at me.
“How do you know?” Mr. Kinloch asked.
“You know who it is, don’t you?” Oscar said. “Go on, Gavin. Who are the kidnappers?”
“I only know one, but I suspect we can easily find out the other two. But first, I need to prove it.”
“How?” Miss Wheeler asked.
I opened the door and spoke quietly to Anderson, the Gordons’ butler, hovering nearby.
Chapter 15
The genuine confusion of our suspects was a clue that my hunch was correct. None knew what we were looking for in their coat pockets, so that meant they hadn’t discovered the wool left there by Juliette during her ordeal. But all the pockets were empty of woolen scraps, even those belonging to Mr. and Mrs. Gordon, which their butler had fetched after I spoke to him. Mrs. Buchanan hadn’t brought a warm winter coat to Edinburgh, but I’d already dismissed her as a suspect. Not only was she not in the city at the time of the abductions, she was genuinely happy and relieved to see her daughter.
The constables confirmed they found no wool scraps after checking all the coats. That meant someone had removed the wool. And if it wasn’t one of our suspects themselves, it had to be someone else. And I knew who.
I was about to explain when Detective Inspector Smith walked in. He’d arrived by carriage with two more constables. He strolled in since the front door wasn’t locked. He was relieved to see Juliette and Mary and immediately peppered them with questions. It was Juliette who put up her hand for him to stop.
“Professor Nash was just about to tell us who one of the three kidnappers is,” she said. “Professor?”
I briefly recounted what we knew about the kidnappers, including the ownership of the building in which the two women were found, and ending by telling D.I. Smith about Juliette’s piece of magic wool. “We’ve searched all the coat pockets of the suspects and not found it. But that doesn’t mean it was never there.”
He pointed in the direction of the suspects, all staring back at us with an air of expectation. “It might not be one of these.”
