Larkin said, “A-U-R is a very specific combination of letters in a name.And since this brooch is mid-nineteenth century in origin—” He paused for clarification.
“Based not only on the oxidation, but that mourning jewelry really took off after the Civil War, yeah.”
“Laura was one of the top fifty most common female names throughout the latter decades of the nineteenth century,” Larkin explained.“In comparison, the name Maura never even hit the top two hundred since the Social Security Administration began logging names in 1879.And since the A is lowercase, we can presume it’s not Aurora—which is one, too many letters for the space available, but two, has only in the last decade seen a considerable uptick in popularity.”
“This is what I love about you.”
“My willingness to trawl the archives of government websites?”Larkin asked with a noted inflection.
Doyle smiled to himself while he filled in the missing letters.“Your dedication.”
“Don’t be mistaken.It’s thinly veiled, unmitigated obsession.”Larkin went back to the worktable where Doyle had deposited his suit coat on one of the stools.Over his shoulder, he said, “I can’t outright claim there’s a pattern when we’ve not yet had three examples in which to build upon, but given our established history with Adam Worth cases, I’m reluctantly willing to admit the brooch and earring are from the same set.”Larkin retrieved the plastic evidence bag from the pocket of Doyle’s suit.He returned to the drafting desk with the earring.
“The rest of the inscription is a death date,” Doyle stated, tapping his pencil against the pad.
B Se 2 880 AE 13
Larkin stared at the jumble of letters and numbers Doyle had copied from the brooch.He said, “Even taking into account that portions of this inscription are missing, I don’t see a date with the available information.”
“Death dates on jewelry were written in a form of shorthand,” Doyle replied.“There’d have been an O here—OB.That’s short for obit, which is derived from the Latin obitus, or death.‘S e’ was likely ‘Sepr,’ which was how they abbreviated September.”
“Date of death, September 2, 1880,” Larkin suggested.
“That’d be my guess,” Doyle answered.“As for AE—”
“Aetat,” Larkin interrupted.“Or aetatis, at age of.Yes, the shorthand makes perfect sense now, thank you.”
“Next, recite all of the declensions of ‘man.’”
“You just want me to sayhomo.”
Doyle grinned.
“You’re thirty-nine years old, Ira.”
“It’s still funny.”
“Jesus Christ.”
Doyle accepted the bag, opened it, and held the two pieces side-by-side under the magnifying lens.He turned them this way and that, studying details that’d have been lost on Larkin.“Same maker’s mark,” Doyle said suddenly.“I’m pretty confident these pieces belonged to the mother of this thirteen-year-old girl.But I guess this doesn’t really tell us much without restoring her name.”
Larkin stepped away from the desk again and crossed back and forth in front of it as he began to pace the width of the room.“Of the mementos found so far—death mask, post-mortem photography, mourning veil—one was not like the others.”
Doyle said, “The mask was of Andrew Gorman’s own likeness and the veil had personally belonged to Esther Haycox.But the photograph found on Niederman was more like… proof of his crimes.”
“They were trophies.And Worth had plenty in which to blackmail Niederman simply due to their content,” Larkin ruminated.
“Earlier you weren’t so sure this jewelry was a trophy.”
“No.”
“But now you are?”
“The earring in Wagner’s home is proof she had a set of mourning jewelry—C.L.F.’s, to be specific—in her possession until only a few weeks ago, the same time she tried to make a run for it.Now, one of these pieces has been presented on her body so blatantly, so boldly, as to be comparable to how the postmortem photograph was found on Niederman.It’s a clue I can’t ignore, even if it’s not in alignment with her established pattern of taking a cut from the victim’s clothing.”Larkin stopped, looked at Doyle, and concluded, “It pains me to admit, but Iamwrong on occasion.”
“A wise man once told me that some serial killers experiment with their signature and ritual as they gain experience.”
“I told you that.”
