A House of Mirrors by Liz Hedgecock

Author:Liz Hedgecock [Hedgecock, Liz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: British Detective, Crime, detective fiction, english, london, Mystery, sherlock holmes, Novel, Victorian
Publisher: White Rhino Books
Published: 2016-11-29T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 26

5 St James’s Terrace, Clerkenwell, July 1878

The front parlour was quiet when I entered with the tea tray. I had expected the Inspector and Jack to be talking, but the parlour’s formality had affected them. I poured the tea and handed the cups, glad to have something to do, and the men watched in silence.

‘Your latest report, Mrs Villiers…’ The Inspector looked at me over the rim of his teacup.

‘Yes, Inspector?’

‘It confirmed my suspicions almost exactly. The pattern of the left kneecap —’ he grimaced. ‘It could be the title of a penny dreadful.’

‘Excuse me, Inspector?’ Jack was looking from one to the other of us. ‘The left kneecap?’

The Inspector nodded. ‘One of the cases had stuck in my mind. When I encountered another robbery with violence, and a broken kneecap, I went back through the files. It is an unusual injury; I do not remember more than a handful since I became a policeman. I wondered if I was being fanciful; so I pulled out the cases, along with a selection of others, to see if Mrs Villiers would reach the same conclusion as I did. And she was as fanciful as me.’

‘Can I ask what you made of my previous report, Inspector, where the houses were smashed up?’

‘The connection is perhaps more tenuous but yes, I believe it is related. The cases were more scattered, but the crimes have the same air of deliberation about them. This second batch of cases is more focused, and of course more serious, and I am concerned as to what the next wave of crimes will be.’

‘What’s behind it, Inspector?’ Jack looked a little dazed.

‘In her last report Mrs Villiers suggested that it might be a warning or a punishment. I am inclined towards both. A punishment for those who have transgressed in some way, and a warning for anyone tempted to do so.’ The Inspector pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘For a few months now, I have felt that something strange was in the air. It was just a hunch, no more; but I have learnt that there is often something behind my hunches. When Mrs Villiers’ previous report came in I reread the cases, and requested any files from the preceding three months which might fit the pattern. In three-quarters of the cases a kitchen window had been smashed. Sometimes it was one of many, sometimes the only one, but it was consistent enough to be noticeable. There is organisation behind this, I am certain of it. And now that I am certain, we must move more quickly.’

The Inspector’s eyes darted from Jack to me, and back again. ‘You’ll both work full-time on this. We must progress from piecing together past crimes to understanding the mind behind them, until we can predict his next move. Previously I have assigned you to different cases; I did not think it wise for a husband and wife to share their work and their domestic life. However, in this case I am willing to run the risk, in the hope that two heads are better than one.

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