Leeming grimaced. ‘I thought that you might.’
‘Visit all of the slaughterhouses within the London area,’ suggested Colbeck. ‘If Vernon Seymour used to work in one of them, they’ll remember him and might even provide an address.’
‘Regiments and slaughterhouses.’
‘That should keep you busy.’
‘This job never lacks for variety.’
‘The more we can find out about those three men, the better.’
‘What about Jukes? He’s the only one who has a wife and family.’
‘So?’
‘Should we not try to track them down, sir?’
‘No need of that, Victor. You saw the fellow earlier on. The one moment he looked vulnerable was when we touched on his marriage.’
‘Yes,’ recalled Leeming. ‘He obviously cares for his wife.’
‘Then she will doubtless love him in return,’ said Colbeck. ‘When he’s been missing long enough, she’ll become alarmed and turn to us for help. All that we have to do is to wait.’
‘I’ll make a start with those regimental records.’
‘The Superintendent will be able to offer guidance. I daresay that he’ll reel some of the names straight off.’
‘I was banking on that, sir.’ He opened the door. ‘This may take me some time – well into tomorrow, probably. What about you, sir?’
‘Oh, I’ll be here for hours yet. It will be another late night for me.’
‘At least we do not have to spend it underneath a locomotive.’
Colbeck laughed and Leeming went out. Three nights without sleep were starting to take their toll on both of them but the Inspector drove himself on. There was no time to rest on his laurels. The man he was after was still in a position to make further strikes against railways and Colbeck was determined to get to him before he did so. Sitting behind his desk, he took out his notebook and went through all the details he had gathered during his interviews with the three prisoners. What stood out was the similarity of their denials. It was almost as if they had agreed what they were going to say even though they had deliberately been kept in separate cells. Someone had drilled them well.
An hour later, Colbeck was still bent over his desk, working by the light of the gas lamp that shed a golden circle around one end of the room. When there was a tap on the door, he did not at first hear it. A second and much louder knock made him look up.
‘Come in!’ he called. A clerk entered. ‘Yes?’
‘Someone wishes to see you, Inspector.’
Colbeck’s hopes rose. ‘A young lady, by any chance?’
‘No, sir. A man called Gideon Little.’
‘Did he say what he wanted?’
‘Only that it was a matter of the utmost importance.’
‘Show him in.’
The clerk went out and left Colbeck to speculate on the reason for the unexpected visit. He remembered that Little was the suitor whom Madeleine Andrews had chosen to turn down. Colbeck wondered if the man had come to blame him for the fact that he had been rejected, though he could not imagine why. As soon as he saw Gideon Little, however, he realised that his visitor had not come to tax him in any way. The man was hesitant and agitated. Dressed in his work clothes, he stepped into the room and looked nervously around it, patently unused to being in an office. Colbeck introduced himself and offered him a chair but Little refused. Taking a few tentative steps towards the desk, he looked appealingly into Colbeck’s eyes.
‘Where is she, Inspector?’ he bleated.
‘Who?’
‘Madeleine, of course. She came to see you.’
‘When?’
‘This morning.’
‘You are misinformed, Mr Little,’ said Colbeck, pleasantly. ‘The last time that I saw Miss Andrews was yesterday when I called at the house. What gave you the idea that she was here?’
‘You sent for her, sir.’
‘But I had no reason to do so.’
‘Then why did the policeman come to the house?’
‘He was not there on my account, I can promise you.’
‘Caleb swore that he was,’ said Little, anxiously. ‘Madeleine told him that she had to go out for a while to visit you but that she would not be too long. That was the last her father saw of her.’
Colbeck was disturbed. ‘What time would this have been?’
‘Shortly after eight.’
‘Then she’s been gone for the best part of the day.’
‘I only discovered that when I finished work, Inspector,’ said Little. ‘I stopped at the house on my way home and found Caleb in a dreadful state. It’s not like Madeleine to leave him alone for so long.’
‘You say that a policeman called?’ asked Colbeck, on his feet.
‘Yes, sir. A tall man with a dark beard.’
‘Did you actually see him?’
‘Only from the corner of the street,’ explained Little, suppressing the fact that he had been watching the house for the best part of an hour. ‘I was going past on my way to work when I noticed that Madeleine was getting into a cab with a policeman. They went off at quite a gallop as if they were eager to get somewhere, so I was curious.’
‘Is that why you went to the house and spoke to her father?’
‘Yes, I let myself in. The door was on the latch.’
‘And what did Mr Andrews tell you?’
‘That you wanted to see her at Scotland Yard and had sent a cab to bring her here.’ Gideon Little wiped the sweat off his brow with the back of his hand. ‘If he was not a policeman, who could that man be?’
‘I wish that I knew,’ said Colbeck, sharing his concern.
‘Do you think that she could have been kidnapped?’
‘I sincerely hope that that is not the case, Mr Little.’
‘Why else would she disappear for so long?’
‘Could she have visited relatives?’
‘I doubt it.’
‘Or called on friends, perhaps?’
‘Not when her father is stuck in bed all day like that,’ said Little. ‘Madeleine is very dutiful. She would never desert Caleb.’
‘No,’ said Colbeck, his brain spinning as he saw the implications of the news. ‘The only thing that would keep her away from home is that she is being held against her will.’
‘That’s our fear, Inspector. Find her for us – please!’
‘I’ll not rest until I’ve done so, Mr Little.’
‘I know that she’ll never be mine,’ said the other, quivering with apprehension. ‘Madeleine made that obvious. But she’ll always be very dear to me. I cannot bear the thought that she is in danger.’
‘Neither can I,’ admitted Colbeck, worried that he might somehow be responsible for her abduction. ‘Thank you for coming, Mr Little. I only wish that you’d been able to raise the alarm sooner.’
‘So do I, Inspector. What am I to tell Caleb?’
‘That we’ll do everything in our power to find his daughter. I will take personal charge of the search.’ He thought of the injured driver, stranded in his bedroom. ‘Is there anyone to look after him?’
‘A servant who comes in three days a week. She’s agreed to stay.’
‘Good,’ said Colbeck. ‘You get back to Mr Andrews and give him what support you can. I, meanwhile, will institute a search.’ He shook his head in consternation. ‘Taken away in a cab – wherever can she be?’
Madeleine Andrews was stricken with quiet terror. Locked in an attic room at the top of a house, she had no idea where she was or why she was being kept there. It had been a frightening ordeal. When the policeman had called for her, she had looked forward to seeing Robert Colbeck again and was so lost in pleasurable thoughts of him that she was caught off guard. Once inside the cab, she realised that she had been tricked. The man who overpowered her had slipped a bag over her head so that she could not even see where they were going. The last thing she recalled about Camden was the sound of a train steaming over the viaduct.