An exodus was underway at the wallpaper factory when Jasper and Lewis arrived. Employees spilled from the factory yard into the street, their workday completed. There were no constables present to keep out reporters, but from the look of it, no reporters were angling to get in either. A woman’s body had been found that morning, and yet, time had already marched on.
The front door was locked, so they went into the factory yard, moving against the tide of employees. The foreman, Mr. Bridges, was conversing with a few lingering men but waved them off when he noticed him and his detective sergeant approaching.
“Is there something more, detectives?” he asked. “As you can see, the workers are dispersing. If you want to speak to them, they won’t be back until the start of next week.”
“We’d like another word with David Henderson,” Jasper said.
The foreman waved them into the factory with a nod. “He’s in his office, as far as I know.”
Jasper and Lewis passed through a storage room that was chock-full of cylindrical containers prepared for shipping and delivery.
“My wife says she wants new coverings for our walls,” Lewis remarked as they moved out of the room into a long corridor.
“So long as you avoid those papers with Scheele’s green pigment in them,” Jasper warned, passing the canteen and turning up a set of stairs toward the office where he’d spoken to David Henderson the previous day.
“Too posh for my purse anyhow,” Lewis replied. “And after all that about the poisoned kiddies, I wouldn’t trust the wall coverings around my own little ones.”
On the way to Wapping, Jasper had informed the detective sergeant about the Nelsons and their possible connection to Gabriela Carter’s murder. Possibly because the idea had originated with Leo, Lewis seemed less convinced that Miss Geary was, in fact, Mrs. Nelson. But he agreed that the Nelsons had strong motive to avenge their children’s deaths.
Briefly, he and Lewis had stopped in the telegraph room at Scotland Yard before leaving for Henderson & Son to send out notice to all divisions to be on the lookout for Terrence Nelson; now that Jasper had seen him, he’d been able to provide a description of the suspect as well.
“I’ll stick to a clean limewash,” Lewis went on. “Nothing wrong with?—”
At the sound of a thud, then a muffled cry, Jasper held up a hand. Lewis went silent.
“Stop! I’m telling you, that’s not how it is!”
David’s panicked voice reached through the door to his office just ahead. Jasper rushed toward it while reaching for his revolver holstered at his ribs. Without knocking, he barged in.
Andrew Carter was leaning against David’s desk, his arms and ankles crossed, while one of the men he’d bought toScotland Yard for his questioning pinned David’s arms behind his back. The second hired man whirled toward Jasper and Lewis, his meaty fist clenched and streaked with blood. David’s lip had been split, as had his brow.
“Inspector!” he wheezed, as though trying to recover from a punch to the gut. “Thank God, Inspector, tell them. Tell them I had nothing to do with it!”
“Release him,” Jasper ordered, his palm on his police-issued weapon. He watched for any movement from Andrew or his muscle men, but all the East Rip did was grin and snap his fingers.
David collapsed to the floor, landing on his knees as the man holding him backed away.
“What in hell are you doing, Carter?” Jasper asked, not yet convinced it was safe to remove his hand from his Webley.
Andrew pushed off the desk to stand tall. “Just some family business with my brother-in-law. Nothing to concern yourself with, Inspector Reid.”
“I am concerned just the same, so explain yourself,” he said.
David staggered to his feet and scurried to the other side of his office. “He has it in his warped mind that I had something to do with my sister’s murder.”
“Why would he think that?” Jasper asked.
Andrew ambled toward his two men, joining them perhaps to have their protection. “It’s simple,” he said smoothly. “Gabriela told me her brother was having an affair with his secretary and that she’d threatened to tell his wife unless he put an end to it. Now I hear his secretary is dead.”
“Is this true?” Lewis asked David. His hand was also still resting on his weapon, which he kept holstered at his hip.
David’s expression folded. “Yes. Gabby knew, and she did say I needed to end things, or she would tell Celia, but I would never have killed my sister?—”
“No, just your mistress when she revealed she was carrying your child,” Jasper said.
Slowly, he took his hand from his revolver. He didn’t trust Andrew Carter or his men, but they were here on the same task, it seemed.
“Never! I didn’t kill Regina!” He gripped the edge of his desk, leaning upon it for support. “And I didn’t know she was carrying my child. She left a note on my desk, which said she could no longer work at her position here, and I never saw or heard from her again. I certainly had no idea she was dead!”
