A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem (A Lady's Guide #1)(8)

Ashamed and degraded, he left the superintendent’s office. The closing of the door sounded eerily like the click of imaginary leg irons, holding him in place while the investigation went on without him.

*



“This is the last one, my lady.” Flora hoisted the third and final mail bag of the day onto Kate’s desk at the newspaper.

In the week since the inaugural run of Kate and Caro’s A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem and their subsequent interview with Lizzie Grainger, letters had poured into the newspaper offices from all over the country with suggestions as to the identity of the mystery man with whom Betsy Creamer was last seen.

And much to both Kate and Caro’s delight, they’d also received any number of notes from women thanking them for offering a feminine perspective on not only the Commandments killings themselves, but also crime in general. For make no mistake, even when we aren’t the ones what gets murdered, one Sussex woman had written, we sure be the ones what has to clean up the mess.

If the accolades had been peppered with other, not so pleasant, missives whose authors objected to the very notion of women writing about such dark subjects, well, neither Kate nor Caro had been surprised. There were still a great many in England—male and female—who would never look kindly upon progress. Even when it contributed to the public good.

“Thank you so much, Flora,” Kate told the bespectacled young woman. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“I daresay you’d disappear beneath a collapsed pile of newspapers,” Flora said wryly.

Glancing around at her office, which was piled high with the last week’s editions of various competing newspapers, Kate had to admit her assistant had a point.

“Will you be taking these to Miss Hardcastle’s now?” Kate straightened a pile of letters she’d set aside for Caro to look at. “I’ll have the next lot ready to go in the morning.”

Before Flora could reply, Caro herself burst through the office door, an enormous Siamese cat clutched in her arms.

“I’m sorry to barge in,” she said, looking flustered. “But I was walking Ludwig when I heard the news and I came right over.”

Upon closer inspection, the cat appeared to be wearing a diamond-studded collar with a leash attached. As if sensing the attention, he began to struggle in his mistress’s arms and leapt to the ground.

Turning back to Caro, Kate asked, “What’s happened?”

“There’s been an arrest in the Commandments case.” Caro’s brown eyes, which were already large, were positively enormous with excitement. “I saw it on the front of the afternoon edition of The Times.”

Whatever Kate had been expecting, it wasn’t that. “Are you sure?”

Caro reached into the large embroidered bag she used to carry Ludwig when he wasn’t on a leash and pulled out a folded newspaper. “Here,” she said, “see for yourself.”

Taking the paper, Kate saw that just as Caro had declared, one John Clark had been arrested for the murders of Nate Slade, Martha Peters, Leo Burke, and Betsy Creamer. Clark fit the description of the man last seen with Betsy Creamer at The White Hart on the night before her body had been found. There was no further information on how he had been linked to the other murders, but Mr. Adolphus Wargrove of Scotland Yard would be available to take questions that evening at six.

“We did it,” Caro said emphatically. “Our interview of Lizzie Grainger led to the arrest of a killer.”

But Kate would need to see the man for herself before she would be able to rest easy.

The news that Detective Inspector Eversham had been replaced on the case by Adolphus Wargrove, thanks to their column, had been welcome, but from what Kate had been able to glean from the crime reporters in The Gazette’s newsroom, Wargrove wasn’t known for his investigative skills. And Kate found it suspicious that Wargrove had made an arrest only a week after he’d taken over the reins of the investigation.

“Maybe.” Seeing her friend’s frown, she added, “I hope our work led the police to John Clark, but I must admit I won’t believe it until I hear more from Inspector Wargrove.”

Caro patted her arm. “One of us has to be the skeptical one, I suppose.”

Kate laughed in spite of herself. If only Caro had known her before her marriage, when she’d taken everyone at face value. The loss of her naivete had not been easy or painless. But she wouldn’t dare go back for anything. She liked to think that her eye wasn’t so much jaundiced as discerning.

Even so, she wouldn’t be the one to rob Caro of her innocence.

“Come,” she said. “Let’s go and see what Mr. Wargrove has to say for himself.”

She moved to gather her things, and when she turned back around, it was to see that Ludwig was now sleeping peacefully in Flora’s lap.

“How extraordinary.” Caro shook her head. “Ludwig dislikes most people. But he adores you, Miss Morrison.”

“I have this effect on most animals.” The young woman shrugged. “I’ve become so used to it, I forgot to warn you.”

“Warn me?” Caro asked. “I’m thrilled. You have no notion how difficult it is to find someone to take care of him when I’m away.”

“Are you attempting to abscond with my secretary, Caro?” Kate demanded with amusement.