Chapter 22

Blathers went into the gin shop to ask if Hugh Conway had seen Joe. He hadn’t.

I went down the street to the house that was the scene of the original murder. Could Joe have gone back for a second look at the place where he received his first injury? The front door was unlocked. Joe was there in the front room. Additional blows to the lad’s head had finished the job started the day before. He was dead at my feet.

When Blathers entered the building, he found me slumped to the floor, wiping my eyes. Blathers yelled out through the door, “Barbary, get them Peelers. There’s been another murder in this here house.” He reached out and put his hand on my arm. “I’m sorry, Duff. I knows how ya felt about the lad. Come now. We has some jewelry and a bastard murderer ta find.”