Free A Particular Eye for Villainy: (Inspector Ben Ross 4) by Granger Ann

eyes. ‘Find that letter, Ross! It was the only bona fide piece of recommendation the fellow had. If he’d ever intended to move to new lodgings he’d have need of it again. He’d have kept it, mark my word. We must trace his former landlady in Hampshire. She may be our only lead.’
    ‘I’ll be taking Morris with me to the house shortly, sir, to search Tapley’s two rooms again,’ I said. ‘Before we leave I’ll arrange for the report of the murder to appear in this evening’s newspapers. I will tell the pressmen that we are anxious to confirm the identity of the corpse; and that there is a possibility the victim lived briefly in Southampton. That may spark some interest. If we can find the coffee house he was in the habit of frequenting, he may have chatted more freely to someone there. I’ll get Biddle on to that when he reports back on duty again. The youngster did very well last night, sir.’
    Dunn squinted at me, the grey iris of his eyes almost invisible. ‘Experience tells me, Ross, that this nice old gentleman, who wouldn’t hurt a fly and collected books, was on the run from something or someone!’
    It wasn’t the first occasion when Dunn had abandoned a fixed point of view and taken up another. The speed with which he’d changed his mind this time was still disconcerting. So, from seeking known housebreakers, I was now to chase down Tapley’s history and seek a reason for murder. The next step would be for Dunn to decide this had been his idea from the first.
    ‘Yes, sir,’ I said.
    I sent a man out to go round the newspaper offices and make sure the murder made the late editions. Morris and I then returned to the Jameson house where we found the locksmith busy at his trade, and Mrs Jameson standing over him. She looked unhappy, as well she might, because removing the old lock had made a sorry mess of the front door, leaving an unsightly gap around the newly fitted replacement. The next person to be called to the house would be a carpenter, I guessed.
    I explained to the lady that, as soon as the work was finished, it would help us if she would go and stay with my wife – or perhaps with some other acquaintance – for a few hours so that we could search the house.
    ‘It’s better you are not here, ma’am,’ I told her. ‘It gives us a free hand and we’ll be moving about a great deal in the two rooms rented by Tapley. That might upset you. But I am glad of a chance of a word with you. When Tapley dined with you, did he speak much of himself?’
    Mrs Jameson took her eyes reluctantly from the locksmith. ‘Oh, well, no, he didn’t, Inspector. Now that you come to mention it, he hardly told me a thing. I didn’t pry , naturally.’
    ‘Naturally. So, if I may ask, what did you talk about?’
    She looked vaguely up and down the street as if something there might jolt her memory. ‘He read the newspapers, every day without fail. He must have read them in coffee houses or public libraries because he never brought one into the house. I should have noticed, or Jenny would have done. I don’t allow a newspaper into the house, you see, Inspector. The papers are full of all kinds of unsuitable reports of people misbehaving in every way. I wouldn’t wish a young person like Jenny to find one and read of it. Having a young person in the house is a great responsibility, Inspector, as I expect you find with your maid.’
    She didn’t know Bessie, I thought. Banning newspapers from the house wouldn’t have kept Bessie from hearing the gossip and any shocking news in particular. Maidservants operate a sort of telegraph system of their own by which anything like that runs round like wildfire. No doubt Jenny, too, would gather this sort of intelligence. Morris was right. There was a kind of innocence of the world about Mrs Jameson. Jenny would be much more alert to its pitfalls.
    ‘So,’ Mrs Jameson was saying, ‘of an evening, if he came down and dined with me, he told me of any current events