But Dr. John Lachley . . .
Dr. Lachley was a most accomplished mesmerist. Oh, indeed he was.
He would have to do something about that drugged cotton merchant down the hall, of course. It wouldn’t do to leave a homicidal maniac running about who could be associated with him, however innocently; but the man had mentioned an incriminating diary, so Lachley might well be able to rid himself of that problem fairly easily. A man could be hanged even for murdering a whore, if he were foolish enough to leave proof of the crime lying about. And James Maybrick was certainly a fool. John Lachley had no intention of being even half so careless when he rid the world of Eddy’s blackmailing little Morgan.
His smile deepened as Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward leaned back in his chair, eyes closing as the drug that would leave him clay in Lachley’s hands took hold, allowing him to erase all memory of that frightened, desperate plea:
Make him pay . . . !
Oh, yes. He would most assuredly make young Morgan pay.
No one threatened John Lachley’s future and lived to tell the tale.
* * *
Senator John Paul Caddrick was a man accustomed to power. When he gave an order, whether to a senatorial aide or to one of the many faceless, nameless denizens of the world he’d once inhabited, he expected that order to be executed with flawless efficiency. Incompetence, he simply did not tolerate. So, when word that the hit he’d helped engineer at New York’s exclusive Luigi’s restaurant had failed to accomplish its primary objective, John Paul Caddrick backhanded the messenger hard enough to break cartilage in his nose.