‘Well done!’ said Frances. ‘Is Dunnock a new man?’
‘’E is, an’ a good ’un. ‘Is father’s bin in prison lots so ’e really knows all the tricks.’
It was an unusual recommendation, but it clearly impressed Tom.
‘Where’s Sarah?’ Tom looked about him as she usually had some baked treat on hand.
‘She is teaching the ladies of Bayswater how to make their husbands more respectful.’ Sarah had thoughtfully arranged the ladies’ classes to take place during those hours when their menfolk were out and older children at school. Those with infants took it in turns to mind each other’s to allow busy mothers to benefit from classes too. Frances had not so far dared to attend the classes although she had several times taken Sarah’s advice and gone out for a brisk walk, which had been very beneficial.
‘There’ll be blood and guts before the day’s out then,’ said Tom with a grin. ‘You’ll be wantin’ to go up to the station? I got a cab waitin’ outside.’
Frances threw on a light wrap and a bonnet, and handed him a shilling.
She arrived at Paddington Green before the prisoner, and when she explained to the sergeant why she had come he sent a constable to go and fetch Inspector Sharrock. ‘I suppose there’s no point in my telling you to go home now you’ve carried the message?’
‘None at all.’
‘I’ve half a mind to put you in the cells,’ he grumbled.
‘On what pretext?’
‘I’ve a list of them if you want to see it. There’s women serving life done less than you get away with.’
Sharrock bustled in. ‘Oh, it’s you is it, setting the world to rights again, I see.’
‘Only Bayswater,’ said Frances with a smile. ‘Tell me, did you receive a visit from a Mrs Eves?’
‘I did indeed, about the limping man. I’m not so sure about her. We showed her the ring and she thinks it’s the same one, but who’s to know after all that time? There’s another old wife in Redan Place who swears there was a man with a limp and a bad case of toothache lodging with her, only there was no ring and no fancy bag, and he was dressed rough like a man down on his luck.’
‘Was this before Mrs Eves’ lodger arrived or after?’
‘Before.’
Frances thought of the transformation a change of costume could bring. ‘It could have been the same man.’
A carriage drew up outside and discharged Lionel Antrobus, a police constable, Mr Taylorson the pawnbroker and a sullen-looking woman.
‘Now this might prove interesting,’ said Sharrock, rubbing his hands together. ‘And before you even try it, Miss Doughty, this time I want to speak to our visitors myself without you poking your nose in.’
The woman was hurried protesting into the cells to consider her position while Sharrock beckoned Mr Taylorson into his room and shut the door.
There was a wooden bench and Frances sat on it. After a moment’s hesitation, Lionel Antrobus availed himself of it too.
There was a long silence. ‘I believe,’ he said at last, ‘that due to the present troubled circumstances I failed to adequately thank you for your assistance to my daughter-in-law.’
‘Really, no thanks are necessary,’ replied Frances. ‘I hope she is well?’
‘She is, and she adheres to your sound advice.’
‘I am happy to hear it.’
There was another long silence.
‘Are you intending to remain here to learn how the ring came to be in the pawnshop?’ he asked.
‘I shall not leave until I do. What is the name of the woman you brought here? Did she say anything?’
‘Mrs Unwin, and she said only that she had done nothing wrong. I assume that is usual under such circumstances.’
‘Almost invariably.’
‘She is a charwoman and goes to many houses to do her work. I imagine that she stole the ring.’ There was another brief silence. ‘Have you learned any more about the man seen at Bristol railway station with my brother? Are you quite sure he was not Mr Luckhurst?’
‘Yes, he has an alibi. There are two landladies who provided lodgings in Bayswater to a limping man at the time of your brother’s disappearance. The police are looking into it.’
‘So I have been informed. I was told he gave the name John Roberts. Probably false.’
Frances stole a glance at him and thought that behind the stony expression there was sadness and strain. He was not after all unfeeling, but his emotions were so securely locked away as to be unreachable. ‘One question I have been asking everyone concerns your brother’s state of mind and health at the time he disappeared. Mr Luckhurst told me the circumstances of Mr Charles Henderson’s death and I have read the report of the inquest. He said that your brother was greatly affected by it, and though it was many years ago that sorrow remained.’
‘I believe that to be true. Edwin never said it in so many words, but he felt a certain guilt about his uncle’s death. Perhaps he thought that with the right words at the right time he might have prevented it.’
‘Do you believe it was an accident?’
‘Yes. Carelessness with a gun. Surprising how many men suffering from headaches are careless with guns.’
The door of Inspector Sharrock’s office opened and he emerged, shaking hands with Mr Taylorson. Once the pawnbroker had departed Sharrock ordered a constable to fetch the charwoman from the cells. ‘You’ll be pleased to know that Mr Taylorson is in no doubt that the woman we have in custody is the one who pawned the ring.’
Lionel Antrobus rose. ‘The ring is part of my brother’s estate of which I have guardianship. If it has been stolen then it was stolen from me. I am prepared not to press charges against the prisoner if she will reveal where she obtained it.’
‘I shall bear that in mind,’ replied Sharrock. He paused. ‘You have nothing to say, Miss Doughty?’
‘Not at present.’
‘Then there really is a first time for everything.’ The woman was brought from the cells, a constable gripping her firmly by the arm. Sharrock waved them to the dingy side room where he preferred to interview some of the more malodorous prisoners, and hurried in after them.
It took him fifteen minutes to get the information he wanted. The woman was snivelling as she was taken back to the cells.
‘Well?’ demanded Antrobus. Sharrock beckoned them both into his office.
‘Here’s a pretty thing. Woman says she found it at one of the places where she cleans and carries coal. Strangely enough it’s a place Miss Doughty might have come across recently. The Bayswater School for the Deaf.’
Both Frances and Lionel Antrobus were suitably astonished.
‘Whereabouts in the school?’ asked Frances.
‘In the coal cellar. Now then Mr Antrobus, might I ask if your brother ever had occasion to visit the school?’
‘None at all, so far as I am aware.’
‘Perhaps Mr Antrobus went to the school for a meeting with Dr Goodwin?’
‘It is possible, I suppose. But even if he did, that doesn’t explain how his ring, the ring he was unable to remove from his finger, was in the cellar. Was there anything else suspicious found there?’
‘I’ve sent two constables to look into that. But the woman swears blind she saw nothing unusual during the four months she has been working there. No dead bodies, no skeletons, nothing.’