Like his magistrate, he is becoming frustrated with this case. There seem to be countless threads, but they tangle themselves in his hands. He has still to interview the gardeners in Kew, and had intended to travel there today, before this new interruption. He believes there is more, a lot more, to discover about Peter Nott’s involvement in the affair. He has tried to speak again with Jeremiah Critchley, who lives at the Pear Tree in Wapping. He has walked past that place dozens of times since it formed a central part of the previous year’s Ratcliffe Highway investigations, but he has never once gone in before now. Reacquainting himself with the house—and its landlady, Mrs. Vermiloe, a key witness in the 1811 inquiries—was uncomfortable and frustrating. He has knocked on Critchley’s door four times now, and has received no response. The door is always locked and Mrs. Vermiloe, now a legal expert, has refused him entry without a warrant from his magistrate. Harriott has now promised this, but not before Horton looks into whatever new horror has been perpetrated in Ratcliffe.
