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“When touching another person, she can divine information that will hopefully assist my investigation.”

“Did you see anything?” Seaton asked, eyes wide, his expression full of eagerness. “Something that will help you find Iris?”

Electra shook her head. “I saw her, I think. Smiling. Holding your hand.”

A bit of the tension in Seaton’s body seemed to melt at that, and a smile flickered again on his mouth. Then he slipped his ring off and offered it to her. “Will this help you? Please touch it if it will.”

Electra glanced at Gideon, who looked as intrigued as Seaton did, and collected the ring into her hand. She enclosed it between her palms, closed her eyes, settled her mind, and waited, hoping for anything to come through.

After a few moments, nothing did. Not even images of Mr. Seaton, who had no doubt touched the ring more often than anyone else.

She glanced at Gideon, shook her head, and returned the ring to Mr. Seaton. The young man placed it back on his finger and looked bereft. All the terror she’d felt upon first meeting him had now been fully overwhelmed by his sorrow, by how much he clearly cared for Iris Delacourt.

“Can you think of anyone we might speak to?” Electra asked. “Anyone she met through her work at the museum, while spending time with Miss Collier?”

He lifted his head. “She mentioned a young man at the museum who fancied Miss Collier and then fell out with her. Frye, I believe his name was. He’s the one Iris feared for Miss Collier’s sake. He sounded like a menace.”

Gideon noted the detail, and Electra could almost feel the excitement at having a new name, even if this was undoubtedly the gentleman who’d already been mentioned by Violet Delacourt.

“You say you spoke to Miss Delacourt the day before she went missing?” Electra asked him softly.

“I did.” Seaton had modulated his voice to a gentle tone too.

“Her family says she departed early for the museum the next morning. Did she mention anything about that on Sunday? An intention to go to the museum?”

Seaton frowned. “No, she did not. I was a bit surprised when her family said that’s where she was heading that morning, as I recall her saying Mr. Kerrigan urged her not to come in, to take time if she required it, since she was so distraught about Miss Collier.”

After a moment of thought, Seaton added, “That’s why I insisted on accompanying her to the inquest. I knew she wouldn’t be dissuaded but did not wish her to face it alone.”

“Can you think of anywhere else she might have been going at eight in the morning?” Gideon asked. He’d softened his tone as well.

Seaton let out a breath and turned to face him. “Oddly, we sometimes met here around that time on occasion before my work at the bank and hers at the museum, but we had no such plans on Monday morning.” He glanced again at that front-window table. “My God, I wish she had met me, and I could have kept her from…whatever occurred.”

Gideon flipped his notebook closed, signaling to Electra that he had no more questions for the young man, though for a few moments, he merely observed Seaton as he nervously sipped another swallow of tea.

“You have my card, Mr. Seaton. If you recall anything else that might aid us, contact me without delay.”

Seaton studied Gideon in return, then nodded.

At that, Gideon stood, and Electra got to her feet as well. Seaton rose and gave each of them a searching look.

“Please find her” was his final plea to them.

Chapter Seven

Their hired carriage stalled for a while in the crush of afternoon traffic as it crossed the scant distance through Bloomsbury to the museum.

“You were rather hard on him,” Electra said.

Gideon had sensed her watching him as he sat across from her in their hired hackney. He liked when they could converse face to face, though he liked the tight confines of a hansom ride, pressed up next to her, as well. Perhaps, he acknowledged, he simply liked her nearness, whatever the scenario.

“I wasn’t sure I believed his excess of emotions.” He finally met her gaze. The sunlight brightened the vivid blue-green of her eyes. “I was losing patience with his prevarication.”

“For what it’s worth,” she said, “I sensed that his emotions were sincere. He was quite fervent, yes, but I can sometimes feel people’s emotions as if they are tangible, something I can sense and read. I could do that with him.”

“But you saw nothing more when you touched his ring?”

“No.”