The landlady shook her head. “But it were backward.Shefetchedhimin a hired hansom and dropped him off again a short while later.”
“Did you see her?” Leo asked.
Mrs. Beardsley lifted her shoulder. “I were at the window when she dropped him off. Seen her then, sittin’ in the cab. Pretty and young. Dark hair. Dressed too fine for the likes of him. Now, right, I got rooms need doin’. Is that all?”
“Thank you, Mrs. Beardsley,” Leo said, and the woman departed with haste. Leo then turned to Jasper, her chin raised, her hands clasped behind her back.
“You’re about to ask for something,” he said.
She affected a look of injury. “I was merely going to offer my time looking through prisoner albums, searching for our John Doe here.”
“Out of the question,” he replied.
“But you summoned me?—”
“To give a positive identification,” he cut in. “I need to move swiftly, and I don’t dispute that you can assist, but not at the Yard.”
“Detective Chief Inspector Coughlan’s orders, I take it.” Her lips pursed with indignation. Jasper’s attention lingered on them an extra moment before confirming with a nod.
“Very well.” Leo pushed down her shoulders and started for the exit. “I’ll return to the morgue to await the body.”
She was unhappy, certainly, though for once, her displeasure didn’t feel directed toward him. Letting her go was for the best. She should return to Spring Street and to Connor Quinn, where they would work together just as efficiently and as affably as she used to work with Claude.
Christ, he loathed the idea of it.
“Esther Goodwin.”
The name was off his tongue before he knew what he was doing. Regret instantly followed. Leo paused at the threshold, her dark sable brows pinching together.
“Who is Esther Goodwin?” she asked.
He fell mute for a moment. What the bloody hell was he thinking? He’d only known he wanted to stop her. Keep her from going back to Quinn.
It was too late to reverse course now.
“Martha Seabright’s sister. Gavin’s aunt, though from what Sir Eamon said, he and Martha hadn’t been on speaking terms with Esther for some time. She lives on Gray’s Inn Road, at Gunnerson’s Rest Home.”
Leo squinted at him. “Why are you telling me about her?”
The truth was humiliating, so he reached for another reason—one that wasn’t entirely a lie. “I think it would be safe and helpful for you to pay her a visit. She, along with Gavin and Martha’s daughter, Paula Blickson, were invited to the dinner, but none of them attended. Initially, Gavin accepted but then changed his mind. I’d like to know why.”
It was a rare thing to see Leo truly startled. A softness stole over her brow and released the tension in her jaw. For several seconds, the vulnerability she kept well-hidden shone through. It made him want to reach for her as she gazed at him, circumspect.
“And I’m to inform her that her sister is dead?” she asked.
“You may.” The task wouldn’t bother Leo. She was more experienced than even he was in telling families the worst of news. “Find out what you can about Martha and her children, and their experience with the orphanage. You should know that one of the children died there. An infant.”
Leo’s wonderment snapped off, her lashes fluttering as she blinked. “How awful.” She then cocked her head. “I don’t know if it has anything to do with the death, but I found a letter in Mrs. Seabright’s handbag. A letter dated from 1871, giving Mrs. Seabright an agreed-upon sum of money and saying she’d done the right thing. It was only signed N. C. R.”
“Nothing more was written?” he asked.
She shook her head. Jasper would see the letter when it arrived at the Yard with Mrs. Seabright’s other personal possessions, which would all be logged as evidence. How it could relate to the death of her baby, however, wasn’t clear.
“I’ll see what Esther Goodwin knows,” Leo said and then disappeared into the hall.
He followed. “Remember, Leo, you are going in an unofficial capacity. I don’t want anyone at the Yard to learn of it.”
He would be skewered, not just by Coughlan but by the superintendent and the police commissioner, should word of it get out.
