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“There was something that fell beneath the grate,” she mumbled.“A scrap of paper.I completely forgot about it with everything that’s happened!”

Evander rose stiffly, his pulse racing.“Do you still have it?”

“Yes,” Lady Whitley nodded shakily.“I shall go and fetch it.”She disappeared and returned a moment later with a small folded piece of paper that looked to have been torn out of a journal.

Rufus joined Evander as he took the paper and carefully unfolded it.

Though the outside was marked with smoke and stained with ash, the inside was relatively unscathed.Written in a cramped hand was an address on Flower and Dean Street.

Evander lowered his brows.It was a lodging house in one of the poorest areas of Whitechapel.

“I’m so sorry,” Lady Whitley said in a voice full of regret.“I wasn’t sure whether my husband meant to discard it, so I kept it.I was going to ask Walter about it when I next saw him.”She bit her lip.“Do you think it important?”

Evander folded the paper and tucked it inside his coat.“I’m not sure yet.But we will investigate it.”He gave Lady Whitley a kind smile.“Thank you for your cooperation.We’ll do everything in our power to find your husband.”

Lady Whitley’s expression grew mournful.“It’s the least I can do.I pray Walter comes home safe and sound.”

They left the professor’s residence under a downpour and hurried over to the carriage.

“Stepney please,” Evander instructed the constable in the box seat curtly.

Rufus gave him a surprised look as they climbed inside.“Where are we going?”

“To see Viggo,” Evander replied grimly.

Chapter29

Viggo observedthe crumbling tenement from his position in the shadows of an abandoned tannery.The stench of chemicals and rotting hides lingered in the air around them.

Dusk was settling over Whitechapel, the fading light casting long shadows across cobblestones slick with the day’s earlier rainfall.The glow of gas lamps flickered to life in windows, illuminating the squalor of the East End in a sickly yellow haze.

“Are you certain this is the correct address?”Rufus said uneasily.

“Yes.”Viggo shot a look at the inspector and hid a dry smile at his obvious discomfort.“I know this place like the back of my own hand.”

Evander stood still beside him, his ice-blue gaze focused on the lodging house’s entrances.

No one had been more surprised than Viggo when the pair of them had walked intoNightshadethat afternoon and requested to see him.He’d been in the middle of coordinating the team that would discreetly guard Solomon on tonight’s mission.

Much to Finn and Solomon’s amusement, Rufus had stood out like a sore thumb in the middle of the guild’s main office while Evander explained the reason for their presence.

A figure appeared presently at the building’s main entrance.Hawk waited until a cart trundled noisily by before casually crossing the road and strolling into an alley one building over from the tannery.

He joined them in the shadows a moment later.

“There’s a room on the third floor, at the rear,” he reported quietly.“Two women took lodgings there two nights ago.They’ve barely left since and they’ve paid extra for their meals to be delivered to their door.One appears younger, perhaps twenty or so, with auburn hair.Her companion is older, plainer, and carries herself like a servant.The landlady told me they paid for a month in advance with silver coins.”

Evander exchanged a startled look with Rufus.

“The timing coincides with James Thornfield’s disappearance.”

“And silver coins aren’t normally common in these parts,” Viggo murmured.“Thanks, Hawk.You can return to the guild and continue with tonight’s operation.We’ll take it from here.”

Hawk nodded and disappeared as silently as he’d appeared.

Viggo stretched out the kinks in his neck.He was more at ease here, in the familiar territory of the East End, than he’d been during their visit to the Royal Institute.This was his domain, not the pristine streets of London’s wealthier districts.

Though Evander’s expression remained controlled, Viggo had learned to read the subtle signs of excitement in the set of his shoulders and the slight narrowing of his ice-blue eyes.