of London’s most eligible bachelors, Miss Abbot is now confronted with tragedy in the form of a missing fiancé, Flight Lieutenant Barnaby Ellhurst.” The article described how, on a flight mission over France, both he and his plane had disappeared without a trace. It was presumed that he had been shot down, but whether he was dead or merely captured was unknown.
The article was accompanied by a photograph of Miss Abbot looking appropriately distraught in a tailored black suit, the veil of her hat angled just so.
There wasn’t much else of interest to be found about her, though her name was scattered often enough throughout notices of society events, plays and parties, and the like. It was a bit surprising to me that she hadn’t left London now that things were so uncertain. But perhaps that was because she had been ordered by her spymasters to stay.
The auction house director, Leslie Turner-Hill, appeared here and there in the papers, always in connection with Bothingham’s. He seemed to be the sort of man who lived on the fringes of high society, moving around in that world but not really a part of it. It might be the ideal situation for creating antipathy and even resentment. If he couldn’t be a part of the world he wanted to be in, then maybe he was hoping to make his way in a different sort of society.
There was an advertisement for Chinese porcelain and an upcoming auction. “Several fine specimens recently acquired from European collectors.” I wondered who these collectors were and if they might have any bearing on the party tonight. I supposed there was no way to know.
Despite much searching, I didn’t find a picture of Turner-Hill, so I would have to have the major point him out to me.
I didn’t find anything about society man and aspiring poet Matthew Winthrop at all, not a word. I would have thought there would at least be a society column mention of him if he was in with Sir Nigel and his crowd, but I supposed that he had been interested in staying out of the papers, especially if he was the ringleader of some sort of underground political group. Could a small group of fascist university students really be involved in something that might endanger the entire country? Small stones cause big ripples, as Uncle Mick always said.
“Finding everything you need?” the young lady asked me, pulling my mind back to the present.
“Thank you, yes,” I said, looking up, feeling a bit as though I was coming up from a deep dive underwater.
The way I’ve told it makes it sound like it was a matter of minutes to find these articles, but a glance at my watch confirmed I’d been sitting in the reading room for more than four hours. As it was when I was working on a safe, I’d lost track of time. I felt I had accomplished my goal; I had discovered what I could about the backgrounds of Sir Nigel, Jocelyn Abbot, and Leslie Turner-Hill. Matthew Winthrop and Jerome Curtis, Sir Nigel’s henchman, both remained something of an enigma, but I intended to keep an eye on them at the party. I didn’t think there was much more information to be gleaned today.
I rose from my seat, stretching my neck as I stood. It had been a long day, but I felt that now I was ready to face whatever—and whoever—the evening had in store.
It was at that moment that I suddenly remembered where I had seen the dead man, Thomas Harden, before. And I knew who it was that might be able to help me.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Maudie Johnson and I had grown up on the same street, and we had remained casual friends. Toby had always had a bit of a crush on her, which was why I had noticed when I saw her out with a dapper gentleman one evening a few months before. Now I knew who that gentleman had been: Thomas Harden.
It was just possible that she knew some of what was going on in his life. At the very least, she might have noticed if he was interacting with any suspicious-looking characters. It certainly couldn’t hurt to ask.
Her flat was on my route home from the Newspaper Library, so I took a chance and knocked on her door.
“Oh! Hello, Ellie,” she said, smiling brightly. She had always been one of the prettiest girls in the neighborhood, with her heart-shaped face, glossy blond hair, and big