Free Otherwise Engaged by Amanda Quick

killer did not seem at all extraordinary to him.
    “Are you certain of his social rank, Miss Doncaster?” Logan asked.
    “It’s not the sort of thing that is easy to conceal,” she said. “A good actor could affect the speech and mannerisms, I suppose, but I doubt if he could have afforded the expensive interiors of that carriage or the fine clothes that the killer wore.”
    Logan tapped his pencil against the notebook. He looked at Penny with an odd expression and then just as swiftly shifted his attention back to Amity.
    “You are correct,” he said. “It is difficult to imitate great wealth. What else, Miss Doncaster?”
    She hesitated and then another memory flashed into her head. “He smokes cigarettes scented with some sort of spice. I could smell the stale smoke on him.”
    Benedict looked at Amity. “Did you see a family crest or some other indication of his identity?”
    “No,” she said. “He wore gloves—very good leather gloves, I might add. Everything I saw and touched in that carriage was expensive and in the most elegant taste. Except for the thick wooden shutters.”
    Benedict frowned. “There were shutters on the windows?”
    “Heavy wooden ones,” Amity said. “They were closed so that no one on the street could see what was happening.”
    “And perhaps designed so that you could not get out if the door was locked from the outside,” Benedict said, very grim now.
    Amity shivered. “I think you are correct.”
    There was a moment of silence while they all considered the implications.
    “A private carriage, then,” Logan said. He made a note and looked up. “But you did not identify it as such from the outside?”
    “No. I assure you, the vehicle looked like any other ordinary cab. There was nothing unusual about the driver, either.”
    “Yes, of course,” Logan said. “The coachman.” He made another note. “We must look into that aspect.”
    Benedict nodded in silent approval.
    “Can you tell me anything else about him?” Logan said.
    Amity shook her head. “I’m afraid not. The one time he spoke, he sounded exactly as you would expect a cab driver to sound. Working-class. A bit rough around the edges. But he was certainly skilled with the reins. And he made no move to catch me when I escaped.”
    Logan wrote something down in his notebook and looked up again. “What did the killer say to you?”
    Amity glanced at Benedict and then turned back to Logan. She took a breath. “He informed me that he had chosen me because I had deliberately compromised myself with Mr. Stanbridge. He seemed to believe that I had set a trap for Mr. Stanbridge.”
    Logan glanced at Benedict, who gave him a cool smile.
    “Evidently the killer was not aware that Miss Doncaster and I are engaged to be married,” Benedict said.
    “I see.” Logan made another note and looked at Amity. “I must ask you if the killer made any reference to photography.”
    “Why, yes,” Amity said. “I was just about to mention that. He said he intended to take my bridal portrait. How did you know?”
    “I asked because there is one significant detail that we have not divulged to the press,” Logan said. He lowered his notebook. “Each victim was found in a different alley. Each one had her throat cut by an extremely sharp blade. The wounds appeared almost surgical in nature.”
    “A scalpel,” Amity said suddenly. “He held a scalpel to my throat.”
    “Did he?” Logan jotted down another note. “That is very interesting. To continue, the victims were all dressed in the clothes in which they had last been seen. And each was wearing a gold wedding ring.”
    “That much has appeared in the press,” Penny said. “The wedding rings are the reason the papers labeled the killer the Bridegroom.”
    “Yes,” Logan said. “But what we have managed to keep out of the papers is the fact that in addition to the rings, the women were all wearing lockets. Inside each locket there was a small bridal portrait of