“The water is poisoned,” she said.
David, blinded by the linen over his eyes, tried to pull the glass from his mouth, but Mr. Nelson fought him, attempting to force it up to his lips. Leo shot forward despite knowing she was utterly unqualified to fight a man as large and burly as Mr. Nelson. She only knew she had to help David somehow.
Thankfully, Jasper rushed into the cordoned-off space just then and barreled past her, straight into Mr. Nelson. The impact was enough to dislodge the glass from his hand. Water spilled as the glass fell to the floor, David frantically wiping his lips and face where the water had touched.
Jasper tackled Mr. Nelson, but the brawny man pushed back, punching Jasper in the abdomen, then the side of the head. Their arms locked, they staggered into the freestanding framed curtain, crashed through it, and tumbled into the neighboring bed space. The frame tipped over, and Jasper and Mr. Nelson fell to the floor with it. Mr. Nelson, however, rolled to his side and leapt up with more agility than he looked to possess. His escape route was clear, and the frightened doctors and nurses gathering in the hall didn’t look to be interested in stopping him.
Next to Leo, a steel cart on wheels held scissors, gauze, and other medical instruments. She grabbed the edge of it and launched it in front of him just as he started running. The cart and its contents went sailing, but after an initial stumble, Mr. Nelson stayed on his feet. The obstacle had provided enough of a delay, however, for Jasper to get to his feet and tackle him again, throwing Mr. Nelson forward and off-balance. He fell to the floor with a thud, and Jasper delivered two blows to the side of the ironmonger’s head before digging his knee into the middle of his back. It wouldn’t matter how large or powerful Mr. Nelson was—with enough acute pressure to his lumbar region, he’d be paralyzed by pain.
“Cuffs, Leo! My coat,” Jasper shouted.
Running back to the curtained space where he’d been receiving treatment felt more like she was wading through a river of honey. But when she picked up Jasper’s coat and holster strap, the Webley still in place, and hurried back to the commotion in the corridor, she found Mr. Nelson still pinned to the floor. She pulled the handcuffs from a coat pocket.
“Terrence Nelson, you’re under arrest for the murders of Regina Morris, Gabriela Carter, and Evelyn Nelson,” Jasper said, gasping for air, his own pain evident. He closed the cuffs around the man’s wrists, then sat back on his haunches, breathing heavily.
“I’m poisoned!” David cried from his bed, still wiping madly at his mouth.
“If you did swallow some water, it was a trace amount, not nearly enough to poison you,” Leo assured him, but then stepped aside as a nurse broke from the hovering hospital staff members, all of whom were wide-eyed with shock, and came forward to calm him.
“Guv,” Sergeant Lewis called as he staggered through the commotion to join them. “Bloody hell. Is that?—”
“Yes.” Jasper got to his feet with a deep groan. Leo’s heart squeezed at the sight of him, his shirt panels still undone, fresh blood dripping from his collarbone. He looked utterly ragged, but triumphant.
Terrence Nelson lay moaning on the tiled floor in shame and defeat, his forehead and nose pressed against it. Jasper peered down at him in disgust as he resumed buttoning his shirt.
“Doctor, is there a side exit we can take this man through?” Jasper asked once Leo had handed him his holster and coat. “I think we’ve caused enough of a scene for your other patients.”
The doctor readily agreed and gave directions to the hospital’s little-used side door. After Jasper and Lewis hoisted Mr. Nelson to his feet, the detective sergeant left to fetch the wagon and horse.
Jasper urged Mr. Nelson forward, but the larger man thrashed his shoulders as if to throw him off.
“Enough, Nelson, it’s over,” he warned.
“He deserves to die. He killed them!” he shouted, directing a hateful glare toward David Henderson, who was now gagging on a spoonful of syrup being administered to him. Ipecac, Leo presumed.
“He did not kill your children, Mr. Nelson,” she said as Jasper kept him moving. “Wallpaper colored with a poisonous green pigment did. Greed and negligence did. Your wife knew that.”
Mr. Nelson swung his head, his face glistening with sweat. “She went soft on me. She gave up.” He bared his teeth in a grimace. “She forgot what they did to our children.”
“No, she didn’t forget. She just knew killing two innocent people wouldn’t bring them back.”
“Innocent!” he roared as Jasper urged him down another corridor. “Do you know how many people, how many babies, their poisoned wallpaper has killed?”
He’d lost his mind to bitter grief, but he spoke honestly. Jack Henderson’s file of complaints and settlements contained proof of that.
“Your wife wanted to destroy the factory, but that wasn’t enough for you,” Leo said as Jasper led him to another turn, then down a flight of steps. “You wanted to inflict pain upon the man you blamed for your children’s deaths. The same pain you felt as a father.”
Recalling the names Mrs. Nelson had written in her letter, she added, “Do you think Timothy and Greta would have wanted their father to become a murderer, Mr. Nelson?”
He grated out an anguished bellow as they came to the exit. His plan, the only thing he’d likely been living for, had been thwarted. And now, he might be seeing clearly for the first time what he had truly done and how far he had truly fallen.
Leo opened the door and stood aside as Jasper pushed Mr. Nelson through and into the alley that ran alongside the hospital. The narrow lane was bordered by a tall brick wall. Lewis had not yet arrived, but Jasper took his prisoner further along the lane to wait.
Leo moved to close the exit door—but stumbled aside as it was punted open again. Alarm blared through her as Andrew Carter snatched her arm and tugged her hard against him. She struggled in his grasp, but only until the cold tip of a blade kissed the delicate skin underneath her eye.
Leo froze. From where he stood in the lane several feet away, Jasper swore.
“Let him go, Inspector,” Mr. Carter ordered, his voice a dead calm. One of his hired men exited the hospital. It was just the two of them, and apparently, they had been following them to this side exit. Leo clenched her back teeth. She and Jasper had been so intent on Mr. Nelson, they’d not even noticed their presence.
