Joe gently squeezed her hand "'ow about I walk ye 'ome after ye speak to the police?"

She nodded softly. "Take me to the constable... I want to be done with it and go tell papa. He has to know." He was going to be devastated, she thought morosely, his eldest boy was dead and there would be no 5th in the line of Magnus unless his new widow had a boy and decided to name him Magnus.

Gareth found a clean handkerchief in his pocket and handed it to the crying courtesan. "That must have been been hard. Did the Carringtons know anything of this business?"

"The only one I told was his brother Darius and he tried to help me... I haven't seen him in some time though and I am worried about him." She took the offered hanky and cried into it. It seemed she was more enamored with Darius than she had been with her husband by far. She heaved a great sigh and she said, "Magnus Carrington was a monster."

Gareth made a mental note to research this Darius Carrington. "Did you meet him here?"

Nodding at Pearl's request, Joe accompanied Pearl back out to talk to the police.

"I don't remember," she said honestly. She wasn't about to explain that before her time in the brothel, she had no idea who she really was; if Sonia was her name to begin with.

She followed Joe out of the room they were alone in and lifted her chin a little in determination. She worried that her family was going to hate her for having brought this to light...

PC Neil's pencil scratched hurriedly across his notebook as he took the statement from Joe. He was going to need a new notebook after tonight. Neil's tone was that official, flat, formal police monotone, designed to impart an air of officialdom.

Question: Why brought you here tonight?

Answer: To ensure her safety

Question: Whose?

Answer: Miss Carrington's

Question: What is your relationship to Miss Carrington?

Answer: A friend

Neil didn't answer that one, he just kept scribbling. Joe would have sworn he saw an eyebrow raise.

And the questions continued

She was starting to shake some with the adrenaline pumping through her. Pearl was on edge, her eyes bright with tears but she managed to stop them from flowing anymore. Just as long as she didn't look in the direction of her brother, that is. She felt sick to her stomach; bile sitting uncomfortably at her throat in a terrible lump, or so it felt. She did her best to answer questions, though her replies were wooden and heavy with grief.