“There are yet doubtless a number of undiscoverable debts to these money-lenders, who operate within the extremely lax system of credit in the less reputable establishments, but the discovery of those debts—and to whom they were owed—is rendered virtually impossible by the extra-legal nature of the establishments themselves. The officers have searched the usual districts where such wagering takes place in an attempt to discover the Viscount’s movements, speaking with their informants in the districts of Whitechapel and Spitalfields, Houndsditch and Ledenhall, Pettycoat Lane, St. Giles, and especially the darker neighbourhoods of Drury Lane and Covent Garden. These latter areas, being just removed from the regularly patrolled streets, are where the money-lenders ply their despicable trade. The regulars chanced to discover a brown gentleman’s glove in a dirty, unlit side-street off Drury Lane, only a mile from the Viscount’s residence in Pall Mall. The glove, having been dropt—by the perpetrators who removed the Viscount’s cloathing, it is assumed—at the side of the street and disfigured by mud and rain, had not been earlier discovered. A cipher was set into the glove, along with a Viscount’s coronet, which the Colonel has subsequently confirmed as belonging to his brother. Upon closer investigation in the immediate area of the discovery, traces of blood were found, and, as the alleyway is close by, the mud adjacent to the buildings still bore the signs of having recently been disturbed by three sets of shoes, and indentations apparently made by a falling body matching Dunfield’s height and weight. The runners conclude that the Viscount was murdered in the alley and transported thence to Whitechapel.”

“They have also discovered witnesses who saw Dunfield returning to the Hallendales’ London residence late on the evening before the discovery of his body. He was observed by the servants to be hastily packing a large valise and setting off in the direction of Piccadilly. Before you ask—no, the bag and its contents have not yet been found. Colonel Fitzwilliam was much against any idea that his brother would have contemplated such a disgraceful breech of honour as quitting the country in order to avoid his debts; we had not mentioned anything about this discovery to the Hallendales—I am truly sorry, Your Ladyship—until there were enough circumstantial details to corroborate the conjecture. That this was most probably the case was evidenced by the valise, as well as the fair-certainty of the Bow Street superior, that Crockford had Dunfield murdered, as he suspected him of flight, and further—in consideration of his being a well-known personage—that his murder would serve as a particularly effective example to those remaining in debt to Crockford, signalling to them that, one way or another, Crockford meant to collect.”

At length, Darcy recovered somewhat and enquired why Dunfield would have been murdered for his debts, instead of pressing his father to pay.