‘She’s very weak. We can’t be asking her questions of that nature right now.’
‘I have no intention of doing so. I was merely speculating.’ Riley sighed. ‘Did you find anything useful in Wendall’s papers?’
‘Possibly. Ain’t had a proper chance to look yet.’ He produced a sheath of letters from the inside pocket of his coat and plonked them on Riley’s desk. ‘Mrs Wendall said she hadn’t set foot in his library since his death and I have to say it didn’t look as though anything had been disturbed. These are letters her husband received from Verity over recent months, and as you can see, they became increasingly aggressive.’
‘Excellent!’ Riley flipped through them, starting with the oldest. ‘She knew how to complain, and how to invoke her brother’s guilt,’ he remarked, shuddering at the level of her vitriol. ‘So she goes on about their childhood and how she always looked out for him at great sacrifice to her own pleasures.’
‘What pleasures?’ Salter grunted. ‘She don’t know how to enjoy herself.’
‘It gets far more threatening after that,’ Riley said, rapidly reading through the letters. ‘She reminds her brother about what he did to someone called Jason. Sounds like a threat to me.’
‘Quite the blackmailer, ain’t she, sir?’
‘Yes, but it doesn’t look as if it worked. We don’t know how her brother responded, or if he ever did, but I’m glad he didn’t throw these letters away.’ Riley paused. ‘Do we know how Carter and Soames got on at Wendall’s factory?’
‘I left them in Clapham to carry on searching Wendall’s library, in case I’d missed anything, but they should be back by now.’
‘Right. Call them in if they are please, Jack.’
‘We didn’t find anything else to help at Wendall’s house, sir, but we found out something interesting at Wendall’s business premises,’ Carter said when he entered Riley’s room. ‘We spoke to the manager, a Mr Rutherford. He’s been there thirty years, going back to Wendall’s father’s day, and knows the business backwards. He was right glad to have us asking questions. Seems he’s always been suspicious of the way Wendall met his end. Said they take special measures in the workshop to secure the barrels in their stacks, given that they’re so heavy and that accidents could be fatal, like.’
‘He didn’t think it was an accident, I take it,’ Riley said, glancing at Salter.
‘No, sir, he did not. He said he tried to make that point when Wendall’s body was found but no one wanted to know. It was ruled an accident and that was that, but it’s been playing on Rutherford’s conscience. If it was an accident then security is his responsibility and he failed his boss.’
‘Was he there at the time?’ Riley asked.
‘It happened at the end of the working day. All the men had gone and Rutherford was closing up. He says Wendall didn’t need to be there all the time but he had the same drive to succeed as his father. He always wanted to make sure they were working to capacity and that the order books were full.’
‘Highly commendable,’ Riley remarked, ‘but it doesn’t help us much.’
‘Actually it does, sir, because Rutherford said that on the evening in question, a man came round insisting upon seeing Wendall in person. Rutherford said he was a rough looking cove who it wouldn’t have been wise to refuse. He said he was there to check on his master’s order, which was overdue. Rutherford thought it was odd because he wouldn’t give his master’s name and anyway, there were no overdue orders. Wendall heard the ruckus, came out of his office to see what it was about and then send Rutherford home. He said that he would deal with the man and clear up the misunderstanding. Rutherford never saw Wendall alive again.’
‘Do we have a description of the man?’
‘Sounds like it could have been one of the Dawson boys, guv’nor,’ Soames said. ‘Rutherford described him as a tough man with a handsome face and a bad attitude.’
‘Seems you were right, sir,’ Salter said. ‘The guv’nor was just now telling me that he thinks Verity Randall arranged to have both her brother and Ezra murdered,’ he explained to the constables.
‘Indeed, Jack, but a good lawyer will argue that the man could just as easily have been Ezra. All three brothers look alike but Ezra had the most pressing need to be rid of Wendall. His wife wouldn’t even agree to share Ezra’s bed while her husband still lived. They only decided upon a future together after Wendall’s all too convenient death.’
‘You think Wendall knew of his wife’s friendship with Ezra and had decided to have it out with him?’ Salter asked. ‘Perhaps even sent for him, and things got out of hand?’
‘Not for a minute, but a jury might well believe it. They will not approve of Ezra’s philandering, especially if his brothers paint themselves as hard working pillars of society.’
Salter harrumphed. ‘I will be happy to disabuse them of that notion, especially where Sam is concerned.’
‘We need to discover the date of Wendall’s death and try to ascertain where Ezra was at the time. I will ask Ida Randall if she can recall. Anyway, can Rutherford identify the man?’ Riley asked, sitting forward.
‘He reckons he can, sir,’ Carter replied. ‘And he’d be more than willing to do so, is my guess, but given that Sam and Ezra look so similar…’
‘But they didn’t dress in the same way. From what I have heard,’ Salter said, ‘Ezra had started wearing fancy clothing. Not that of a footman but of a gentleman, which further angered his detractors.’
‘She’s one calculating female, that Mrs Randall,’ Carter said. ‘What do you want to do about her, sir?’
‘I want you and Soames to take a couple of conspicuous uniformed constables with you,
