‘Some of the signs illustrated are very elegant, and one might almost guess what they are as they mime their subject so well. But I was wondering if you could tell me what this one is? I observed it recently.’ She made the sign placing her fingers and thumbs together then drawing her hands apart in a curve.

‘Silence.’

‘Ah, of course, it indicates a closed mouth. I see it now. And what of this one?’ She mimed the motion with clawed hands at her shoulders.

Dr Goodwin looked astonished.

‘Perhaps I am not performing it correctly. It looks like the action of a monkey, but I can’t see why that would be.’

‘Ah, yes, indeed, it can depict a monkey, but so many signs have more than one meaning – this one might also be taken to mean a scamp or a scallywag.’ He frowned. ‘Where did you see this conversation?’

‘I am not at liberty to say.’

When she left him he looked puzzled and very worried.

The following morning’s post brought a letter from Matthew Ryan, the Bristol detective, which was so startling that Frances entirely forgot her breakfast, and when Sarah saw it she almost forgot hers too.

Dear Miss Doughty

I have some new information for you, but I don’t know what use you can put it to since the informant came to me under a veil of anonymity, refused to give me her name and is most reluctant to appear in court. The best I could do was to suggest that I should put a notice in the newspaper if I wished to speak to her again.

The lady concerned saw the advertisement I placed very recently for any further information relating to the disappearance of Mr Edwin Antrobus. She confessed that in the past, whenever Mr Antrobus was in Bristol on business, he was in the habit of paying her a visit. The lady was at the time married to a sea captain who was often from home. She did not come forward in 1877 for reasons that must be obvious. She has, however, recently been widowed and therefore felt able to reveal what she knows, if with some reservations.

The last time she saw Mr Antrobus is an occasion she remembers well. She had gone to the railway station to meet her sister, who was visiting with her new baby, an event which was eagerly anticipated and which she made a note of in her diary. It was 13 October 1877. She had just arrived at the station when she saw Mr Antrobus, although she did not think it appropriate to greet him. He presented his ticket to the Inspector and passed onto the platform, and she is quite sure it was the platform from which the Paddington train departed. He was not alone but in the company of another man. They were talking, and while not actually quarrelling, they did not appear to be on good terms. The only description she can offer as to the identity of the other man was that he walked with a very pronounced limp.

I am continuing my investigations and will write again if I have anything further to report.

Matthew Ryan

For a few moments Frances was puzzled. The clerk at the George Railway Hotel had not mentioned Edwin Antrobus’ mysterious companion walking with a limp. Was this the same man or another? She checked through Mr Ryan’s original report and saw that the clerk had seen the men standing talking to each other but had not seen them walk away, so had not had the opportunity to note any unusual gait.

There was only one limping man known to Edwin Antrobus and that was Mr Luckhurst. Had he followed his partner to Bristol and had an altercation with him there? Frances could hardly think he had not been questioned about his movements during the week between his partner’s departure and last journey, but a train ride from Paddington to Bristol and back was not a lengthy expedition thanks to Mr Brunel’s wonderful railway. Frances was also obliged to consider what credence could now be attached to Mr Luckhurst’s important evidence at the inquest if he had in some way been involved in Edwin Antrobus’ disappearance. Had he lied to ensure that the remains found in the brickyard were not identified as Edwin Antrobus? And if so, why?

Mr Wylie had lied too, apparently to assist Harriett Antrobus’ case, but Frances was obliged to wonder if she had been duped into thinking there was no more sinister motive.

Another possibility was that the skeleton found in the brickyard was that of the limping man last seen with Edwin Antrobus. The witness questioned by Matthew Ryan had stated that the two men had not been on good terms. Supposing they had quarrelled and Edwin Antrobus had murdered his companion and then been obliged to disappear? A man who devoted his life to the wellbeing of his sons might have chosen to leave them fatherless in preference to their suffering the disgrace of their father being hanged for murder. Frances looked at the inquest report but all she could glean was that the dead man had once suffered a leg injury that had healed, which from the description was probably insufficient to produce a noticeable limp.

The obvious thing to do with the new information was take it to Inspector Sharrock.

The Inspector was available, and he readily agreed to see Frances when he saw she was bringing information. She sat facing him across his tumbled desk, resisting the urge to tidy the papers and discover and polish the wood beneath, a surface that had probably not seen daylight in many years.

Judging by the length of time he spent perusing the letter Sharrock must have read it through several times, sniffing and grunting and nodding to himself. He jutted his head forward and squinted at the date. ‘Do you mean to say you didn’t hold onto this until it was old news? Didn’t rush off to Bristol and look into it yourself?’

‘I received it this morning and brought it here at once.’ Frances might have felt insulted at the suggestion that she sometimes concealed information from the police, if it had not, for excellent reasons, occasionally been true. ‘I was thinking —’

‘Ladies thinking is a dangerous thing,’ interrupted Sharrock, ‘and twice as dangerous when you do it.’

‘I was thinking,’ Frances repeated, ‘that there is only one man who matches the description of the man who was seen with Mr Antrobus at Bristol.’

‘I got eyes in my head, same as you, but you don’t think we forgot to ask Mr Luckhurst to account for his movements do you?’

‘I am sure you did ask him, but I have seen Mr Antrobus’ will, and it included a legacy of two thousand pounds to Mr Luckhurst. Men have been killed for far less.’

‘You have a wicked mind,’ growled Sharrock. ‘When I was young and innocent I never thought of such things. Took me twenty years to get as cynical as you are now. What will you be like when you’re forty? It doesn’t bear thinking about.’

‘I just wanted —’

‘Won’t get a husband like that, you know.’

‘I’m not looking for a husband,’ declared Frances, irritably.

‘I was going to introduce you to my brother, but he’s just taken up with a widow so you’ve missed your chance there.’

‘Inspector —’

‘What about that Mr Lionel Antrobus? He’s rich and single. Bit old perhaps, but you could do a lot worse.’

‘All I would like to know,’ said Frances through gritted teeth, ‘is whether Mr Luckhurst had an alibi for when his partner went missing.’

Sharrock leaned back in his chair, which creaked in protest. ‘Yes Miss Doughty, he did.’ He dived forward abruptly, burrowed under a disorganised pile of papers, and brought out a folder, which he opened. ‘At the very moment when Mr Antrobus was leaving his hotel in Bristol, Mr Luckhurst was in the company of two – er – persons. An hour later he was in his office where he attended to business assisted by his clerk, and an hour after that he met a customer by appointment. Four independent witnesses who place him in London for the whole morning. He was not in Bristol when Antrobus left and neither could he have met him at Paddington Station.’