‘So you didn’t report him as missing,’ guessed Frances. Mrs Eves nodded. ‘And did he walk with a limp?’

‘Yes he did. He told me he had broken his leg in an accident with a carriage.’

‘Do you recall when you last saw him?’

Mrs Eves dug into a pocket and produced a small and very worn book. ‘It’s all here in my rent book. He came to stay on 3 October 1877 and the last rent I had off him was 14 November. A week after that he was gone.’

‘What name did he give?’

‘John Roberts’

‘You had no proof that it was his real name?’

‘No, not like actual papers or anything, but I never ask as long as they give me a week’s money in advance.’

‘Can you describe him to me? His age? His height? How was he dressed? Did he have a travelling bag?’

‘Well, as to age, it’s always so hard to tell with gentlemen, what with all their whiskers, but he wasn’t above forty, I would say. And not specially tall or very short neither. And he wasn’t dressed like a labouring man, more like a clerk. When he came he had no bag, just a few things wrapped in paper, but after about a week or two he got himself a nice leather bag, what must have cost a lot. I remember mentioning it and he said business had been good.’

‘Did he wear any jewellery?’

‘Yes, he’d got himself a nice ring, as well. That’s why I didn’t expect him to run off, when he had that ring, it showed he had some means, didn’t it?’

‘Did he get the ring at the same time as the bag or was he wearing it when he first arrived?’

She pulled a face. ‘I can’t rightly remember. I know the first time I noticed it was after he had got the bag.’

‘Can you describe the ring?’

‘Gent’s signet ring with a stone. I didn’t look close.’

Frances went to get the portrait of Edwin Antrobus that Mr Wylie had supplied and showed it to Mrs Eves. ‘Is this he?’

She looked at the portrait for a long while. ‘I’m not sure. It was a long while back. I’m not so good on faces.’

‘Did he ever complain of toothache? Did he visit a dentist and have a tooth out?’

‘Not as far as I know. But all my gentlemen have a key and they come and go as they please.’

‘Well Mrs Eves, I think you may have some very valuable information, and I suggest you take it to the police at once.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘I am, and you may even find there is a reward involved.’

Mrs Eves cheered up at the prospect of money, as people usually did. ‘All right, I’ll go and tell them now.’

‘Well,’ said Frances when the visitor had gone, ‘what can we make of that? On the 3rd of October the limping man did not have a bag. Mr Antrobus went to Bristol on the 8th with his bag and returned carrying it on the 13th. After that the limping man was seen with a new bag and a ring.’

‘If he was the man Mr Antrobus was with in Bristol, he must have killed him and taken his bag and ring,’ said Sarah.

‘Or he could have been Mr Antrobus all along,’ suggested Frances. ‘Supposing he wanted to disappear and rented the lodgings as a hiding place until he could get away? Then he went to Bristol as himself, met up with the limping man, killed him and then masqueraded as him to throw people off the scent?’

‘Hmm.’ Sarah looked dubious. ‘I can see why he would have kept the bag, as that didn’t have any initials on it, but what about the ring?’

‘Perhaps he couldn’t take it off. Mrs Antrobus said it had been getting very tight.’

‘If he couldn’t take it off himself then a thief wouldn’t have been able to take it off either, unless he cut it off.’ Sarah made a gesture like a pair of scissors. ‘Did the skeleton in Queens Road have all its finger bones?’

‘I’m not sure. There were small bones missing. It would be very unpleasant to steal a ring in that way, but I suppose a desperate man might have done it.’ Frances wondered what the world had come to when she and Sarah could sit and talk calmly about people’s fingers being cut off.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The vigilance of Tom Smith and the pawnbroker finally bore fruit several days later, and Tom arrived at Frances’ apartments in a state of breathless excitement. ‘We’ve got the woman who pawned the ring!’ he announced. ‘I was keeping my eye on things up Portobello Road an’ Dunnock was watching the pawnshop when Mr Taylorson come out and said somethin’ to a poor woman what was lookin’ in the window, and ’e must have offered her a good price for somethin’ because she went in very eager like, an’ then next moment, out come ’is assistant, runnin’ as ’ard as ’e could, like Old Scratch isself was arter ’im, to get a constable, only I c’n run quicker, an’ I arst ’im an ’e said it was the woman ’oo pawned the ring, so I tole Dunnock to watch the shop an’ foller the woman ’ome if she went out, and then I went and tole Mr Antrobus an’ I come straight ’ere.’

‘Well done!’ said Frances. ‘Is Dunnock a new man?’

‘’E is, an’ a good ’un. ‘Is father’s bin in prison lots so ’e really knows all the tricks.’

It was an unusual recommendation, but it clearly impressed Tom.

‘Where’s Sarah?’ Tom looked about him as she usually had some baked treat on hand.

‘She is teaching the ladies of Bayswater how to make their husbands more respectful.’ Sarah had thoughtfully arranged the ladies’ classes to take place during those hours when their menfolk were out and older children at school. Those with infants took it in turns to mind each other’s to allow busy mothers to benefit from classes too. Frances had not so far dared to attend the classes although she had several times taken Sarah’s advice and gone out for a brisk walk, which had been very beneficial.

‘There’ll be blood and guts before the day’s out then,’ said Tom with a grin. ‘You’ll be wantin’ to go up to the station? I got a cab waitin’ outside.’

Frances threw on a light wrap and a bonnet, and handed him a shilling.

She arrived at Paddington Green before the prisoner, and when she explained to the sergeant why she had come he sent a constable to go and fetch Inspector Sharrock. ‘I suppose there’s no point in my telling you to go home now you’ve carried the message?’

‘None at all.’

‘I’ve half a mind to put you in the cells,’ he grumbled.

‘On what pretext?’

‘I’ve a list of them if you want to see it. There’s women serving life done less than you get away with.’

Sharrock bustled in. ‘Oh, it’s you is it, setting the world to rights again, I see.’

‘Only Bayswater,’ said Frances with a smile. ‘Tell me, did you receive a visit from a Mrs Eves?’

‘I did indeed, about the limping man. I’m not so sure about her. We showed her the ring and she thinks it’s the same one, but who’s to know after all that time? There’s another old wife in Redan Place who swears there was a man with a limp and a bad case of toothache lodging with her, only there was no ring and no fancy bag, and he was dressed rough like a man down on his luck.’

‘Was this before Mrs Eves’ lodger arrived or after?’

‘Before.’

Frances thought of the transformation a change of costume could bring. ‘It could have been the same man.’

A carriage drew up outside and discharged Lionel Antrobus, a police constable, Mr Taylorson the pawnbroker and a sullen-looking woman.

‘Now this might prove interesting,’ said Sharrock, rubbing his hands together. ‘And before you even try it, Miss Doughty, this time I want to speak to our visitors myself without you poking your nose in.’

The woman was hurried protesting into the cells to consider her position while Sharrock beckoned Mr Taylorson into his room and shut the door.

There was a wooden bench and Frances sat on it. After a moment’s hesitation, Lionel Antrobus availed himself of it too.