“Caroline. I still need to talk to him. I need to see if he has any answers for any of this.”
“I won’t tell anyone. You can trust me. Who would I tell anyways? My grandmother has been feeling unwell lately and my father is at university most of the time.”
“I’m sorry I burdened you. You shouldn’t be involved in this.”
“You didn’t burden me, Val, and I am involved.”
He smiled at his name on her lips. “All of the families deserve justice. I will give you that. I swear I will.”
???
Once Val had made certain Caroline was safe inside her house, he met up with Felix outside Pratt’s. But though Felix had been inside the club and spoken to the steward, Charles was not there.
“So, he’s not home and not at the club, where would he have gone?” Felix asked puzzled.
Val looked outside and then smiled. He knocked twice on the cab’s roof and placed his pipe inside his jacket.
???
The streets were covered with water and the rain poured from the sky as the cab made its way to the opium den. Val had no reason to expect that Charles Lyttleton would be there. He knew the den figured into the puzzle of the murders. Odean Barton had last been seen inside the opium den, it was owned by a mysterious group and the primrose left behind was a taunt to Val himself.
He wanted to be inside the old building once more and see if anything came to him. He and Felix went through the small alley and gained entrance once more through the small door that gave way fairly easily when pressed upon. The large glass windows set high above, more than ten feet from the floor, gave little light into the rooms.
Slowly, Val’s eyes adjusted to the rooms and he looked about himself where polite Victorian society had come to give coin to have their pipes filled with opium. Opium seemed to be like a serpent making its way into everyone’s lives and stealing their coins and their minds.
Even Odean Barton’s miracle tonic had been nothing but alcohol and opium meant to dull and deaden the senses. He stumbled upon a makeshift camp with newspapers, empty cans of food and a few blankets. Some vagrant was using the building as a home and he very much doubted it was Charles Lyttleton.
Charles could take his family’s money and go anywhe
re on the continent and sleep in fine hotels and cotton sheets, never mind this gypsy camp in an opium den. Besides, unless his mother or the club was hiding him, Charles wasn’t even aware that the Inspector needed to speak to him.
He crossed into another dark room looking high up into the ceiling. This case wasn’t just puzzling. It was odd. He felt as if he was being moved about like a chess piece on a polished wood set. Always something or someone seemed to be out of reach. Always he felt like he was being deliberately played in a way so that the real issues would not be seen.
It was frustrating and the more time he spent following these false leads, the more it made him look incompetent. He already knew that Superintendent Osgood was looking for any excuse to take him off the case and that annoyed him. He hadn’t worked this hard and spent this time trying to track down the killer to be removed from the case.
“Come, Felix. Let’s go stake out the Lyttleton House. He’s bound to show there eventually,” he told his sergeant.
???
Val gave Felix the opportunity to leave and return home to rest, but the sergeant refused. Instead they settled the hansom cab in an alleyway near the Lyttleton Manor home and waited. Val suspected they might be in for a long night, but it did not matter.
Charles Lyttleton was in possession of a watch that had been seen at Pratt’s by the steward. The group at Pratt’s had been there the night Prudie’s body was found. He might be tied to this somehow.
In the wee hours of the morning, Val heard the sounds of a cab coming down the street. The rain had stopped and there was no one about so the horses’ hooves seemed to echo upon the cobbled streets.
“Look sharp,” he told Felix who was already peering about to see which direction the cab was coming.
The two men exited the hansom cab and the driver, whom they used often, knew to sit tight and wait until they returned.
Felix and Val watched as the carriage slowed and stopped outside the Lyttleton home. Charles staggered out of the carriage and even before he took a step, they were at his side. The carriage had begun once more and moved along the street.
“Charles Lyttleton?” Val asked knowing it was him.
“I’m Charles. I say, what’s this about?” He looked into their faces and already Val knew he was still quite drunk.
“I’m Detective Chief Inspector Pierce, this is Detective Sergeant Felix. You are to come with us,” Val said coldly.
Charles shrugged out of their grip. “Unhand me! I’m Charles Lyttleton. Don’t you know who I am? I’m not some common criminal to be manhandled.” He said indignantly.