Mr. Blickson brightened a little. “Ah, yes, Felix. A nice fellow, if a bit of a flatterer. I find thespians usually are.”
“Thespian?” Leo echoed. “He is an actor?”
“He no longer takes to the stage, to my knowledge, but he manages a theatre. The Epoch on Whitfield Street.”
She knew of the Epoch. It wasn’t one of the acclaimed theatres of the West End, but it was known to produce affordable entertainment for the middle class. She and Dita had once attended a production ofDalilahthere.
“Miss Spencer, I can assure you, Paula doesn’t have a thing to do with Stanley’s missing boy,” Mr. Blickson said beseechingly as Leo started for the study door. “My wife would never harm a child.”
“I don’t believe she intends to harm George,” Leo said, impatient to leave. The Epoch wasn’t too far away. “On the contrary, I think she cares for him a great deal. I’ll be in touch, Mr. Blickson.”
She left through the front door, not waiting for the maid to see her out.
Chapter Nineteen
Jasper’s body buzzed with impatience the entire train ride back to Westminster. The cars cut along the tracks with more speed than any horse-drawn coach could have done, but it still felt as if they were curling through the countryside no faster than a stream of honey.
“You’re driving me barmy with that leg bobbing, guv,” Lewis said more than once as they traveled.
The detective sergeant pointing it out had not cured him of fidgeting, however, and when, at last, their train pulled into Charing Cross Station, Lewis leapt to his feet to disembark almost as quickly as Jasper. Once they were outside the station, they easily spotted DS Warnock and PC Drake. They stood with Oliver Hayes, next to one of the waiting carriages lining the street. Before leaving Twickenham, Jasper had asked PC Landry to telegraph the Yard with their train’s expected time of arrival and a request for Oliver, Warnock, and Drake to meet it.
“What has happened since last night?” Jasper asked as soon as he and Lewis reached them.
Usually, Oliver was well put together, his collar starched, his clothing creaseless, his dark hair perfectly combed and pomaded. But not today.
“Nothing promising,” the rumpled viscount answered. “The Hampshire County Constabulary says George has not arrived at Beechwood. My aunt has been made aware of what is happening and is returning to London today.”
Stanley Hayes stepped out of the carriage, and if possible, he appeared even more haggard than his nephew. “I must have George back before my wife arrives in London, Inspector. I fear for her health.”
Jasper suppressed a growl of annoyance. “Don’t you mean Edward Seabright, Mr. Hayes?”
The man did not even have the decency to look ashamed. With an impatient wave of his hand, he dismissed the truth about George as a trifling fact. “Yes, yes, I have confessed it all, thanks to bloody Miss Spencer. What happened back then is in the past, and it does not change the fact that I need you to find my sonnow.”
Jasper’s tolerance for the arrogant man had already been wearing thin, but at the mention of Leo, it deteriorated entirely. As if sensing it, Lewis interrupted.
“Guv, you still want me to head over to the Blicksons’ home?”
On the train, they had planned for Lewis to go with Constable Drake to Park Crescent. Somehow, Paula had learned that Edward had been given to Stanley and Melanie Hayes to raise as their own son. How she’d come to know, Jasper wasn’t sure, but as George was now missing, and Paula had always believed Edward was still alive, she was almost certainly involved in his disappearance. Lewis was to take her into custody, should she be at home. If not, he was to track her down.
Meanwhile, Jasper and Warnock would go to Gunnerson’s Rest Home. When he’d sent Leo to interview Esther Goodwin,he’d considered it a relatively simple and safe task. He’d regretted his decision, of course, because he’d led Leo to believe she might assist him in future inquiries. But her report detailing the interview gained in magnitude as he’d traveled back to London.
It was plausible Paula had shared her theory about Edward being alive with the two people whom she vastly seemed to prefer to her mother and who had taken her in after she’d aged out of the orphanage. During Jasper’s interview with her, Felix had expressed his clear dislike for Martha Seabright. The fact that he’d come with Paula to the Yard rather than Paula’s own husband had also been curious. The two cousins were undoubtedly close. If Paula had something to do with George’s disappearance, there was a good chance her aunt and cousin knew about it.
However, before he could instruct Lewis and Drake to set out for Marylebone, Stanley inquired, “Blickson? Not Archibald Blickson, surely?”
Jasper turned sharply toward him. “Yes. How do you know him?”
“How is Archie involved?” Stanley asked.
“Answer my question, Mr. Hayes,” he barked, drawing the attention of multiple passersby. He did not care. “How are you connected to Blickson?”
Stanley glowered at him. “The man is my property insurer.”
The link tolled through him, clear and palpable. This was it. “Paula Blickson’s maiden name is Seabright,” he supplied. The color drained from Stanley’s face. “She is Edward’s sister.”
The older man clutched the edge of the open carriage door. “That is… No. Impossible. I had them to dinner last month. How could I have known?”
He couldn’t have, and Jasper was willing to wager the chance meeting had been the catalyst for everything involved with this case.
