“There’s a fellow I saw on the street a couple of weeks ago,” he said. “He came by later that day claiming illness but was perfectly healthy. He didn’t tell me what it was he wanted. I’d wager that’s the man you’re seeing.”

“Any hunches what he might be about?” Fletcher asked.

“None,” Barnabus said.

Murmurs of confusion and worry rumbled through the room, though Fletcher didn’t allow it to last.

“Brogan received a letter from his father-in-law, and it seems it ought to be shared with us.” Fletcher motioned to Brogan.

Barnabus’s ears perked up. Hearing from Mr. Sorokin might very well be the same as hearing from the Dread Master. That warranted all the attention he could give.

Their resident Irishman stood, unfolded a sheet of parchment, and read aloud.

Brogan,

I know of someone who works in Lord Chelmsford’s home. It seems the efforts to do him harm have not ceased since the blackmail plot was foiled a couple of months ago. Whomever it was you worked with to untangle that scheme needs to know it has not ended. Chelmsford is part of this, somehow. Whispers on the street connect the Mastiff to him, not as allies, not even as foes, but as predator and prey.

Keep Vera safe.

—Sorokin

The room sat in silence for a drawn-out moment. The DPS had recently extricated Lord Chelmsford from a blackmail scheme. The Mastiff, employing members of his criminal enterprise and forcing the hand of Mr. Sorokin himself had threatened the Russian ambassador into lying about Lord Chelmsford’s career as a barrister, most specifically his work on the Radlett murder forty years earlier. They’d not managed to sort out why that particular case had been chosen.

“The Mastiff used the Russian ambassador to try to bring down Chelmsford, yeah?” Martin said. “And the resurrection men the Mastiff’s using now left a mark on the walls of the Russian Embassy chapel, yeah?”

Nods around the room.

“Maybe he hasn’t given up on blackmailing the ambassador either,” Martin said.

“His blackmailing of the ambassador was entirely meant to bring down Lord Chelmsford,” Elizabeth said. “But why? Lord Chelmsford isn’t active in government right now. Had this happened six years ago, I might understand. He was Lord Chancellor then.”

“If we knew what the Mastiff’s end goal was in regard to Chelmsford,” Stone said, “that’d tell us a lot about why he might be targeting the fella.”

“It’s something to do with the Radlett murder,” Barnabus said. “That was the focus of the blackmail before.”

“That case was important to Chelmsford’s career,” Hollis said, “but it’s hardly the entirety of it. It’s not even the bulk of it. He was granted his barony on account of many other things. That case, while well-known, is likely of very little importance to Chelmsford.”