“Was the door still locked this morning when you arrived?” Jasper asked the foreman, who nodded.
“What does any of this matter?” Mr. Henderson turned to Constable Harding. “Call for a wagon. We need to remove her from the premises.”
“It matters,” Jasper replied, raising his voice and stopping the constable in his tracks as he prepared to do as told, “becausea woman has been murdered. A second secretary employed by your business has been bludgeoned to death, and that in no way can be a coincidence, Mr. Henderson.”
Leo bit back a grin of satisfaction to see the blustering old man cowed. She returned to taking in the state of Miss Geary’s body and the details it might provide. Blood had leached into the high, ivory lace collar of her blouse, where a brooch had been pinned at the notch of her throat. Enclosed within the rectangular frame of white enamel, the brooch displayed a pattern of what appeared to be two different colors of thread. The threads had been expertly woven together to create a checked pattern. Leo crouched again for a closer look as Mr. Henderson accused Jasper of inciting a vicious rumor that someone was killing secretaries at Henderson & Son.
Strung on a long chain around her neck, and now lying on the cobblestone, was a thin, circular gold band. A lady’s wedding ring?
“Does Miss Geary have family?” Leo asked, presuming the ring might have belonged to someone special, like her mother.
“Not that I am aware of,” David Henderson replied. “Father?”
But Mr. Henderson only grumbled and said the information might be within the employee records in Miss Geary’s desk. He then drew away to speak to the foreman and shouted at two of the other constables on hand to go block anyone, especially reporters, from entering the work yard.
“Constable Harding, summon a wagon and have the body delivered to the Spring Street Morgue,” Jasper said, then turned to David Henderson. “What is Miss Geary’s given name?”
“Andrea,” he answered, his voice rough and rasping.
Leo stood from her crouch, pleased that the body—Andrea—would be sent to Claude rather than a deadhouse in Wapping. Jasper must have wanted confirmation that the death blows tothe skulls of Andrea Geary and Regina Morris were inflicted by the same weapon, and thus, the same killer.
“Lewis.” Jasper turned to the detective sergeant. “You’re in charge here. Speak to the other employees and see if you can find anything that links Miss Morris and Miss Geary. Find her address within the employee files and pay it a visit. If she has no family, it’s likely a boardinghouse. Speak to the landlady, her roommate, whomever you can. Find out what she could have been doing here at such a late hour.”
Lewis’s forehead crinkled with surprise. It was, Leo thought, quite a lot to put upon his shoulders. Jasper leaned toward Lewis and said something else inaudible. She tried to listen but couldn’t hear a word, and with his mouth turned from her vision, she couldn’t read his lips either. Lewis nodded tightly.
“Where will you be, guv?” he asked.
Jasper glanced toward Leo before answering, his mouth a grim slash. “I need to pay a call on the Nelsons. I’ve no proof yet that they were involved, but they had a legitimate grievance with Henderson & Son, and now three women connected to the company are dead. I need to speak to them.”
Sergeant Lewis nodded before sending Leo a suspicious look, evidently still curious about what she was doing here with them. As he cut away to follow David Henderson into the building, Jasper took another searching look at the body on the cobbles. He then started back for the street. Leo stayed with him.
“Am I going with you, then?” she asked.
“Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“Yes, but I expected you to tell me I’m not part of this investigation.”
They reached the street, where the carts, drays, and horse traffic had thickened with the addition of curious onlookers. Mr. Henderson had been correct; reporters would soon be flocking to the factory.
“You aren’t,” Jasper replied, signaling one of the black cabs within traffic. “But as you would go there on your own?—"
“I wouldn’t have,” she confessed. “I was only tricking you into believing I’d go so that you might take me here with you.”
His jaw loosened as he scowled at her this time. “You’re impossible.”
The driver pulled along the pavement, and Jasper gave him the Nelsons’ address. Then, he extended his hand. “Get in.”
Leo slid her fingers into his palm. “With pleasure.”
Chapter Fifteen
After several minutes of being stuck in the congestion building up outside Henderson & Son, the cabbie started for London Bridge and across the river, their destination Wake Street in Lambeth. Jasper felt the scowl on his face as he stared out the window but, try as he did, he could not erase the expression.
Andrea Geary had been killed in the same manner as her fellow secretary. Leo was almost certainly correct—the two skull wounds would prove identical. As Miss Geary had just confessed the previous day that she believed David Henderson and Regina Morris had been having an affair, the younger Henderson had a strong motive for both murders—to prevent the truth from reaching his wife. He also possessed keys to the premises and might have opened the gate for Miss Geary, leading her into the deserted factory yard. They could have struggled. He might have dropped his keys. But then, why leave her body to be found? As much as Jasper had wanted to stay to question David, he needed to abide the chief’s directive and focus on Gabriela’s poisoning. Right then, the Nelsons were of greater interest.
So, he had quietly instructed Lewis to ask David questions and to get his alibi for last night through this morning. But to go lightly. Pressing too hard might tip him off that he was a suspect, and before he placed David under arrest, he wanted more proof. Andrea Geary may have shared her concerns about the affair with a roommate or friend. She might have even told someone why she was going to the factory so late at night. David had looked powerfully affected while standing over her body, but it was a toss-up whether it was from sorrow, shock, or guilt.
How David Henderson could be connected to his sister’s poisoning remained unclear. There was a possibility he wasn’t involved at all and that Gabriela’s murder was isolated from the two bludgeoning deaths. Regina’s former relationship with Andrew Carter could merely be coincidental.
