4/4
It was in that very moment that Sir John must have struck for, when I next looked, Mr Peterson was gone!

Even then I had hope, as I had stationed George and Bertha's young henchmen at the building's entrance.

And yet, when I reached them, they claimed they'd seen nothing.

2/4
The Diorama, across from the Zoological Gardens, was surprisingly busy for a Wednesday afternoon.

Mr Peterson stood in front of a tableau of the pyramids at Giza, stiff and ill at ease.

Mr Bruff and I lingered at the side of the next exhibit, entitled, "Let Them Eat Cake."

3/3
After revealing it was her own husband who was the culprit, Mr Bruff became thorny.

"All this on the say-so of criminals?"

"On the say-so of the same criminals you have relied on in the past," I countered. "I cannot prove it, but I know it for a fact."

"Then what are we to do?"

2/3
"Who do you represent, sir?" I asked. "The late Lady Geeson or her husband?"

Mr Bruff's brow furrowed. "Adelaide Geeson, of course. Her parents were clients of mine before they passed."

"Then you would want to know who it was who struck her down? Who eventually murdered her?"

2/2
"More?" The man peered down his cadaverous nose at me.

"If I am correct in my thinking, I beg you to help me put an end to Sir John Geeson."

A moment of perfect understanding seemed to pass between us.

Then Mr Death raised his hands and smiled. "Young man, I am but a humble clerk."

3/3
"I managed to track them down, sir." I replied.

"Ah! Where are they?"

"In the city of Hull...though I doubt they are there any longer."

"Hull?" Sergeant Gray's lips pursed.

There are fools in this world, and people you can easily fool, but Sergeant Gray is not among them.

2/3
Explaining my situation would have gone considerably quicker without his constant interjections. And yet he finally took me seriously.

"How is it you know that these escaped housebreakers did not attack Lady Geeson?" he asked.

It was the question I had dreaded.

2/2
In the end even Bertha believed him.

Within hours of freeing his mates from Pentonville, they were on a train to Glasgow.

While admitting to breaking into Sir John's originally, he denied ever seeing the man's wife.

"It weren't one of us what struck 'er down, and that's h'a fact!"

4/4
Charley was soon followed by Alex. Bertha, who'd never travelled by train, breathed a sigh of relief.

"Least they're blinkin' safe," she said.

"Who's that?" asked George, as Alex pulled a third man from the carriage.

I squinted. It was the man I'd seen releasing the pigeons!

3/4
"Where the bleedin' 'ell are they?" asked Bertha. Porters and passengers alike swarmed about us in the smokey, gaslit gloom.

Then from one of the very last carriages emerged the unmistakable figure of Charley.

"Trust them to travel first class," muttered George.

2/4
My employer, Mr Bruff, happened to be descending the stairs from his office as we three were taking our leave of the building.

"Mrs Guy!" he called out to Bertha, and raised his hand in a wave.

Bertha grunted and waved back, as George, pale-faced, bundled her out of the door.