‘Skeletons!’ exclaimed Frances, suddenly.
The two men looked at her. ‘I have had an idea, but – oh dear! It must mean – of course! The Milan conference! It all started with that.’
‘Now I don’t pretend to understand what goes on in your head, Miss Doughty,’ sighed Sharrock, ‘all I know is it causes a lot of upset and work, and usually someone ends up in prison. They hanged one only last week, all down to you.’
‘Then we must mind our manners,’ said Antrobus. He rose. ‘I will leave you to your enquiries Inspector. Miss Doughty, if you are not too preoccupied in arranging another hanging I will see you safely home.’
‘I will go part of the way – I need to call at Pembridge Villas.’
‘There’s another poor criminal for it, I can tell,’ cried Sharrock. ‘Send him along here when you’re done.’
Antrobus frowned. ‘This is too dangerous a trade for a woman.’
The Inspector gave a short bark of a laugh. ‘Don’t argue with her, I’ve tried, it’s a fool’s game.’
‘Where is your servant? Can she not go with you?’ Antrobus suggested. ‘I’ll warrant she is the equal of any male.’
Frances smiled. ‘Sarah is my assistant and she is teaching classes in ladies’ calisthenics at Professor Pounder’s academy.’
Sharrock rolled his eyes. ‘Well that’s very peculiar, I must say. I wouldn’t let my wife do anything like that. She does normal, respectable things at this time of day, like taking the children to see her sister.’
Frances decided it was time to make a very quick departure. She was just out of the door when she heard Sharrock utter a loud roar.
‘Who are you going to see?’ demanded Antrobus, as if it was some business of his. He hailed a cab and they boarded it.
‘I mean to speak to Dr Goodwin on the subject of sign language for the deaf.’ She stared down at her hands, spreading the fingers out wide, then brought them together and curved her fingers in so the tips touched. She had seen Dr Collin make a gesture with the fingers of both hands over the picture of the canal remains. Looking down at her hands now she could see how they resembled a ribcage in miniature.
Her companion looked slightly alarmed, as if it was not Frances but Dr Goodwin who should be concerned about personal safety. ‘I will accompany you,’ he announced.
‘You will not,’ retorted Frances.
There was a brief argument until he saw that protest was useless, and she descended from the carriage alone.
Dr Goodwin was at home, and after a short wait Frances was conducted into his study. He looked weary, as if sleep had been eluding him for some time, but he made an effort to be both courteous and helpful. ‘How may I assist you, Miss Doughty?’ he asked.
‘It is a question of sign language. During our last conversation I described the sign which you said denoted a monkey or some sort of rascal, but I now think I did not perform it correctly and it was something quite different. Not only that but you knew it at the time; I could see it in your expression, you recognised it, and yet you said nothing.’
He heaved a deep breath. ‘This is all surmise. I have nothing to say.’
She pressed on relentlessly. ‘I have a reliable witness to a conversation that took place between your son and some pupils of the school. He was in a very agitated state and he made this sign to them.’ Frances placed her clawed fingers to her chest, the tips resting together on the breastbone, and drew her hands apart. ‘It means skeleton, doesn’t it? That conversation took place very soon after the skeleton was discovered in Queens Road. It is not too much of a surmise to conclude that that was the subject of the conversation. He swore them to silence – that much I am sure of, because you yourself told me what the sign meant – and they responded and agreed. And he did this,’ Frances made the signs for doctor and the letter G. ‘So you were somehow involved.’
Goodwin said nothing but stared at Frances as if looking on the face of doom.
‘When your son worked as a caretaker at the school, was it a part of his duties to fetch coal from the cellar?’
Goodwin hesitated as if composing a suitable reply.
‘Do not dissemble,’ she warned. ‘If you do not answer the question, I am sure I can find others who will.’
Reluctantly, Goodwin nodded.
‘What did he find there? Or perhaps I should be asking another question. What did he put there?’
As Frances waited for a response she studied the doctor’s face. ‘I have seen that look before when I ask a question and the person I am asking thinks about how they might manage to tell me as little as possible. I am then obliged to come back again for the information they have been concealing. Why not save us both some time and tell me all?’
Goodwin gave a wry smile. ‘Ah, you are very persuasive, Miss Doughty. I can see how you have achieved your reputation.’
‘I understand that you feel the need to protect your son; he undoubtedly also feels the need to protect you. You know that he made a confession to the murder of Mr Eckley when you were arrested? Fortunately the police were able to establish very quickly that he knew nothing of the matter. Such efforts are always misguided. I beg you not to attempt the same.’
He gave in. ‘You are correct of course, I did recognise that the sign was that for a skeleton. And since I knew you had been looking into Isaac’s activities on behalf of Mr Eckley I guessed that it was his conversation you had seen. I spoke to him, and he admitted what had occurred. About three or four years ago there was a visitor to the school, a man who had difficulty walking. He took a wrong turn by chance, stumbled, and fell down the steps of the cellar. His neck was broken and there was nothing Isaac could do. I know he should have gone for help, but he was afraid he would be blamed and so he concealed the body under some wood. Isaac was the only person who went into the cellar, to fetch things from the stores or carry coal. There was some disinfectant he used for the drains and he scattered it on the stairs so no smells would penetrate into the hallway when the door was opened.’
‘When did this happen?’
‘Isaac can’t recall the exact date, but it was towards the end of the year.’
‘November 1877?’ asked Frances, recalling that Mrs Eves had last seen her limping tenant in that month.
‘Possibly.’
‘And I suppose the body might have remained there forever if he had not been dismissed from his post as a result of the school’s banning of sign language.’
‘True. As you may imagine when Isaac realised that another person would be replacing him and going into the cellar, he had to do something quickly. The body had made a meal for flies and vermin, which Isaac had chosen not to discourage, and was by now a skeleton. He burnt most of the clothes in the kitchen range and got a scolding from the cook for his efforts because of the smell. He dared not try to burn the shoes and bones.’
‘So he put them in a coal sack and then –’ Frances paused. ‘But when did this happen? I can guess that these are the remains that were found in the empty house in Queens Road, but if it was after your son knew he had been dismissed the house was boarded up and he could never have got inside.’ She thought again. ‘Oh, yes of course, I am very unobservant. He asked the children to dispose of the sack.’
‘Not asked, precisely. They saw him with it, and he confessed what had happened. He was thinking of putting it in the ash bin, but they persuaded him that it was better concealed somewhere far from the school so if it was found there would be no connection.’
Frances had been quickly leafing through her notes to find the reports she had obtained from Ratty and Tom. ‘The boys who walked to and from school would have passed by the house on their way and known about it. And there was some damage done to the hoardings at that time, enough so a child could get through but not an adult.’