Penelope decided she couldn’t have put it better and turned her attention down the table, leaving Jordan and Ruth to their own devices.
After the meal, Roscoe, Miranda, Mudd, and Rawlings, along with the Glendowers and Montagues, departed for their respective homes.
“A lovely little interlude filled with excitement and satisfaction,” Thomas said with a smile. “But now, it’s back to real life and the daily grind of investments calling my name.”
The others all laughed, and those leaving waved and walked off to find hackneys to ferry them to their destinations.
With Stokes and his men, Barnaby, Penelope, Jordan, and Ruth returned to Scotland Yard.
Barnaby had never seen that venerable institution so abuzz with excitement. The speculation and expectations generatedby the impending arrests of four major crime bosses flooded the corridors with an atmosphere of enthusiasm, hope, and determination.
Their party settled in Stokes’s office and waited to hear the news as the arrests were carried out.
It wasn’t long before the inspectors who had taken on the connected cases started to drop by with verbal reports for Stokes.
The first to look in was Mann. He paused in the doorway and beamed at them all. “We got the whole crew. All those at the factory who had decided to indulge in a little dealing on the side. One of the supervisors was involved, too. Getting all the rotten ones out, more or less in one fell swoop, is a major feather in our caps. Those higher up the management ladder had no idea they were losing guns, and the commendations are flowing freely.”
Stokes grinned. “Excellent. A good result for the Yard.”
Mann nodded. “The Commissioner is more delighted than I’ve ever seen him, but I hear that might have even more to do with the other unexpected outcomes of your case.”
“One can only hope,” Stokes replied. “However, not all our foxes have as yet been caught.”
But they were. One after another, the reports from the other inspectors came in. London’s underworld was reeling with not just the four bosses taken up but quite a few of their underlings as well. The praise freely heaped on Stokes’s head and directed at his team was unstinting.
The inspector who’d overseen the arrest of Toby Mavenpick observed, “I never thought they’d trip themselves up in such a way—through an account ledger!” He leveled a look at Stokes. “Not but that they weren’t very clever, setting up that business as they did. Just lucky for us that the one weak link in their chain happened to fall into your hands for another reason entirely.”
Penelope smiled at the inspector. “Fate moves in mysterious ways.”
“It does, indeed, ma’am.” The inspector bowed to her, then saluted Stokes. “I’m off to interview Mavenpick, who, apparently, is spitting chips. I’ll let you know how it goes.”
Eventually, they received confirmation that all four crime bosses had been incarcerated in the cells below the building.
Penelope, Barnaby, Ruth, and Jordan were about to leave Stokes to wind up his highly successful day when the Commissioner arrived.
“Stokes, well done!” The Commissioner bowed to Penelope, then shook hands with Barnaby. They were acquainted socially through Barnaby’s father, who remained one of the peers overseeing the Metropolitan Police. “Excellent work all around.”
Stokes introduced Jordan and Ruth, and the Commissioner grew serious and shook their hands and asked Ruth to convey his best wishes to her family and his condolences on Thomas’s death.
Then the Commissioner swung to face Stokes, Barnaby, and Penelope. “I understand that finding the needle in the haystack of Keeble’s accounts and, even more, understanding what the critical account actually meant was a group effort. Please pass on my sincere thanks to all those who helped.”
Penelope hid a smile while Barnaby assured the Commissioner that his approbation would be conveyed to all the appropriate quarters.
“Now, I must away!” The Commissioner clapped his hands together and beamed upon them all. “Thanks to you all, I’ve an untold number of charge sheets to authorize before evening.”
Once he was gone, Penelope looked at Jordan. “‘All appropriate quarters’ includes the crew from Dolphin Square.”
Grinning, Jordan nodded. “And I can guarantee that Roscoe will flaunt that commendation like a feather in his cap for years to come.”
Everyone was laughing as they made for the door.
Following them to the stairs, Stokes observed, “Today has been one of those rare days that’s been an unrelieved good day all around.”
Jordan escorted Ruth home to Finsbury Circus. After descending from the hackney, she took his hand, and he made no demur when she led him to the house and inside.
There, Ruth called not just her mother, Bobby, and Gibson to the drawing room but all the staff as well. “You all knew Thomas,” she told them. “You all valued him, in your own way, so you should all hear the truth of what happened.”
She told them the story, all of it, simply and without any undue embellishment.
