Page 44 of Method of Revenge
“Stop worrying, Inspector. I will be the epitome of proper protocol,” she promised, and with good intentions too. She knew the potential wrath he could suffer if she were to do or say something that made its way back to Chief Coughlan. She wouldn’t risk that.
They met uniformed constables posted at the entrance to the cobble-surfaced work yard, and only after Jasper and Sergeant Lewis had shown them their warrant cards were they permitted into the area. A uniformed officer saw them and came forward swiftly.
“Constable Harding,” he said, introducing himself. “My superior suggested we call you, in case this is related to the Carter poisoning.”
Constable Harding led them into the yard, where the discovery of a body had not kept the employees from their work.Men were still unloading and loading drays, and inside the open doors to the building, Leo heard the steady hum of machinery.
“What can you tell me, Constable?” Jasper asked as the senior Mr. Henderson spotted their approach.
He stood at the opening to a recess between buildings. Overhead, a covered passageway connected the two buildings. A handful of workers had gathered there, smoking cigarettes as they leaned over the railing to view the commotion below.
“The body’s that of a woman,” Constable Harding provided. “The foreman, name of Stephen Bridges, found her first thing this morning.”
Several more uniformed constables gathered around a blanket-covered figure. Another man stood close by, his eyes red, his mouth fixed in a tight grimace. He looked like a much younger version of Jack Henderson. Leo presumed this was his son, David.
Her hopes began to sink as a premonition crawled through her, and when they joined the group, they dropped completely.
“It is my secretary, Miss Geary,” Jack Henderson announced, a wave of his arm toward the covered figure.
Shock stilled Leo completely. She stared at the blanket. It didn’t fully cover Miss Geary’s feet. The worn soles of a pair of brown shoes were visible, and from their positioning, Leo ascertained she was lying on her front.
Right then, a memory, sharp and vibrant, burst into her mind, unbidden: another sheeted body, although smaller in size. Leo’s perspective had been from over Inspector Gregory Reid’s shoulder as he carried her past her sister’s bedroom, the door ajar. It could have been no more than a half-second glimpse, but it was as though time had stood still, allowing her brain to imprint everything she saw in that breath of a moment: Agnes, in bed, her arms raised by her head as she lay on her stomach—it was the only way she had ever been able to fall sleep. Herblanket had been drawn up high to cover her, but her forearms and hands were still visible. Her fingers, so little and still.
Leo dragged in a breath and blinked hard. Her head went dizzy.
Leaning toward her, Jasper whispered, “Are you all right?”
Mr. Henderson noticed.
“What is this woman doing here again? You aren’t from the press, are you? No reporters are allowed back here. Constable, what did I tell you? No reporters!” he barked as he rounded on Constable Harding.
“I’m not a reporter,” Leo was quick to say, though her breathing wasn’t yet normal. Perhaps it was the momentary lack of oxygen that made her then add, “I assist the coroner at the Spring Street Morgue.”
Mr. Henderson goggled. “A woman, assisting a coroner? That is insupportable.”
“Many would agree with you,” Leo said tightly. “Be that as it may, it is what I do. Might we see the victim?”
She regretted the request instantly. Jasper had just finished telling her to follow protocol, to avoid doing or saying anything that might get back to Chief Coughlan. This most certainly would.
After a concise glare of reproof, Jasper signaled a much younger constable to pull aside the blanket. The young man crouched to do so. Leo felt a pang of sadness at seeing the corpse of someone she’d known, however briefly, but tried not to let it show on her expression. A moment ago, she’d been gripped out of the blue by a staggering memory involving her little sister. It had likely been revived thanks to the Inspector’s file on her family’s unsolved case. Dormant memories had been coming to the surface ever since.
“You’re that lady in the paper,” the young constable said. “The deadhouse lady.”
Leo felt all eyes snap onto her.
“Concentrate on the victim, Constable,” Jasper said, without a flicker of confusion over the policeman’s comment. His dusky green eyes met hers, then skidded away.
So, hehadread it after all.
Leo let it go for the moment and moved to the side to view Miss Geary’s head more closely. Bone fragments and blood darkened the back of her skull, matting her ashy blonde hair.
“When was she found?” Jasper asked.
“Five-thirty this morning,” a man in a gray cap answered. “I open the factory every morning at that hour. I find the occasional vagrant passed out by the gate, but never here,” he said, gesturing to the green-painted double doors Miss Geary had fallen beside. “Haven’t ever found something like this.”
“Has the body been moved since you found it?”
“No, Inspector.”
