“No. I was afraid there might be someone. I didn’t want to get a pipe to the back of my head. I left and found Pie and put him on the gate, then I roused Mr. Tollar. He had a look, then said we should call for someone from Bow Street.”

“I must say”—Mr. Tollar frowned—“it took much longer than I had hoped for you to arrive. Word has spread through the town. There’s even a rumor that the Hammersmith Ghost has returned, and he’s killing again.”

Landsem muttered to himself and looked at the ceiling, his Adam’s apple bobbing again in his skinny throat.

“The Hammersmith Ghost?” Owen asked. “What’s that?”

Tollar shrugged. “More than ten years ago now it is, but lore said a man from town who took his own life could not rest easily in his grave because he had been buried in the churchyard … consecrated ground. He rose at night and wandered Hammersmith, attacking and scaring the life out of people. It was a bad time. People afraid of their own shadows and men patrolling the streets at night. One innocent fellow was shot to death accidentally, and the man who did it was found guilty of murder. He did a year’s hard labor, though he’s lucky it was only that. He was supposed to hang before the judge altered the sentence. This ghost stirred everyone up, got everyone looking sideways at his neighbor.”

He shook his head. “These new murders are doing the same. Hammersmith is a peaceful town. We don’t have killings and the like here. You need to find out who did this so we can get back to living our lives without fear.”

In half a minute Tollar had gone from storyteller to politician.

“We will find the killer or killers.” Daniel jotted in his notebook. Glancing up, he flicked his finger in Owen’s direction. “Wilkinson, send one of the men outside to London to fetch Dr. Rosebreen to collect the body.”

Mr. Tollar seemed grateful that any responsibility was being taken off his, and thus Hammersmith’s, shoulders.

“Now, Mr. Landsem, tell me again what happened.”

The watchman went through it again. His story didn’t vary, and he finished with a rush. Dabbing his forehead with his handkerchief, he swayed. “Sorry, sir. I’m that tired.”

“I apologize for keeping you here. I’ll try to be quick so you can get home to your bed. Are you certain you’ve never seen this man before?”

“No. I’ve never seen him.”

Daniel looked at the magistrate.

“No. He is unfamiliar to me.”

“Is it possible he is a mill employee?”

“I don’t believe so, but I don’t know every man who toiled here.” Tollar shook his head. “Can we step out into the hallway? The cacophony of that waterwheel is incessant.” He pointed to the gaping windows where the sound of the river rushed in.