Lady Juliette was already on her feet and moving toward the door. “Perhaps you should come too, Mr. Swann. She may have some information related to her father’s murder.”

Daniel looked to Sir Bertrand, who waved toward the door. “Go. I will see you at the rally.”

He remained behind as Daniel gathered the report on the latest victim and followed Juliette down the dark, secret staircase to the hallway on the second floor.

“How will you explain my presence in your house?” he asked as they reached the entrance hall.

She stopped, her eyes widening but her mind clearly working behind them. “I will say I left my gloves at your office in Bow Street and you were returning them to me since you were in the area on another matter.”

He didn’t know whether to admire or regret her ability to come up with a lie on the spot.

They entered the morning room and found Agatha Montgomery in a puddle of tears. Juliette immediately went to her, drawing her away from the window to the settee, keeping her arm around her friend.

“What is it, dear?” Juliette looked at Daniel as she spoke, her dark-brown eyes bewildered.

Daniel rounded a high-backed chair and rested his arms across the back. This level of distress in a woman made him feel powerless. He wanted to do something to alleviate her emotional discomfort, but he had no idea what. And he feared doing or saying the wrong thing and making the situation worse.

“It’s Alonzo.” Agatha choked out the name. “He’s gone. I cannot find him.”

“Perhaps he is only very busy?” Juliette asked. “He is overseeing his grandfather’s business dealings now, is he not?”

“Yes, he was, but no one has seen him for several days. When he did not call at my home for an expected meeting, I’m afraid I did a brash thing.” Agatha held her handkerchief over her face, a sob fluttering the fabric.

“What did you do?”

“I went to his place of lodging. He has rooms in Lambeth, across the river.”

A brash thing indeed for a lady to pursue a man to his boardinghouse.

“His family does not have a house in London?” Daniel asked.

She shook her red head. “They do, in Westminster, but the entire house is under renovation. Alonzo took rooms in Lambeth to be near the office where the family’s interests are overseen.”

“What happened at his lodgings?”

Agatha didn’t answer right away, as the housekeeper had entered with a tea tray.

A twist hit Daniel’s gut. The same one he felt every time he thought of the Thorndike housekeeper.

His estranged mother.

Estranged through her own choice, and after many years, Daniel’s.

When Mrs. Dunstan had removed herself, Juliette poured three cups.

“He’s gone. His belongings are removed, his bill paid, and the rooms empty.” Agatha’s cup rattled in the saucer as she received it.