"These letters have to mean something!" Mary said, snatching the sheet away from her sister again.

"Well, there's no code that I can think of." Edith mulled over the letters again, trying to find some meaning in them.

Anna rolled her eyes as the sisters began to bicker again. It had been nearly an hour of listening to them. The sound of the sheet of paper being snatched back and forth followed by an annoyed sigh. She wasn't sure how much more of this she would be able to put up with. Her own children weren't this petulant and they were 7 and 9.

"Maybe it isn't a code, maybe it's the way you're looking at it." Anna suggested, rendering both sisters quiet. She stood, taking the paper from Mary and looking it over. "How were the letters written on the floor? In a row across like this?"

"No, they were written like this." Edith took out a clean sheet and wrote the letters as William had.

E

B H

O O

B M

E

"There, that makes more sense. E for Edith. Bob and Home."

"Makes a little sense anyway." Mary muttered looking at the two words they were left with. "Who is Bob?"

"Haven't the faintest." Edith paced the length of the office for a few moments, running her index finger across her lips as she tried to think. "Wait… wait…"

Edith returned to her desk, pulling out the files that she had been so desperate for after Matthew told them about the man with one glove. Flipping through pages she finally found what she was looking for, sinking slowly into her chair. She turned the information to Mary and Anna who had been watching her movements in confusion.

"It isn't Bob, it's B.O.B. it's an acronym. What did William mean by home…"

"Edith, we have to go now." Mary said suddenly, closing the folder and pulling on her jacket.

"Where?" Her sister asked, following suit.

"The last place in the world you would want to go."


"I wish they made those will a little more thought towards decoration." Cora commented, eyeing the gas heater with displeasure.

"Well until the chimney in this room is cleaned you'll have to make do with an eyesore." Robert answered from behind his paper.

"When will the sweep be coming?"

"Mr. Barrow was going to see to it."

The lapsed into silence, neither aware of the defective heater slowly filling their front sitting room with an odorless gas.


"You must be joking." Edith called breathlessly as she and Mary hurried down the streets towards their parents' home.

"I'm really not!" She replied over her shoulder, focusing more on avoiding the people on the sidewalk.


"Are you quite all right, dear?" Robert asked as Cora covered her mouth to cough again.

"I… I just feel so dizzy…" Her eyes fluttering briefly before she slipped from the chair to the floor.

"Cora? Cora…" Robert stood in a hurry to get to his wife only to find himself taken by the same wave, collapsing near her.

A knock came from the door before opening a crack. With a handkerchief pressed to his face, Mr. Barrow strolled into the room, simply observing the scene.

"Oh dear, Miss O'Brien. It would seem that the Lord and Lady of the house purchased a faulty heating unit." He called to the woman who was lingering in the doorway.

"What a shame. Money doesn't always ensure quality."

"One more after this and we'll be ready for retirement, my friend." He laughed.

"I wouldn't count on that, sir."

Just behind Miss O'Brien stood Inspector Molesley along with two uniformed officers. The front door flung open as Mary and Edith ran in, pausing as they came to the scene.

"See to your parents." Molesley instructed as the uniformed officers handcuffed Mr. Barrow and Miss O'Brien.

Edith unplugged the heater, quickly throwing one of the windows open.

"Mary, get another window open." Edith ordered, moving towards her mother and struggling to get her to her feet. Slowly she moved Cora to the window seat, propping her up against the window frame so that her face was pointed towards the outside.

"Help me, Edith." Mary called as she attempted to get Robert to the other window. Between the two girls, they moved their father before Edith returned to their mother.

"You need to breathe, mama." Edith coaxed, urging her mother to inhale the fresh air. It took a few minutes, but both Robert and Cora slowly began to come around, coughing and slightly disoriented, but very much alive.

"Edith?" Cora questioned, unsure if she could trust her eyes. "Oh… my child…"


"Hired killers?" Robert repeated as he took another sip of his tea.

"Yes, when we figured out the message Edith showed me the file on the people she suspected in Sybil's murder." Mary explained, showing her father the page. "The sketches, I recognized them instantly after I was here yesterday."

"Mr. Barrow, the one-gloved man. He purposely injured himself, shot his own hand to keep from going to war. Took up with Miss O'Brien who had been his nurse. The two had knack for murder, making it look accidental. He has no feeling left in the injured hand so often forgets to put a glove on it. A detail that Matthew noticed the night they found Sybil." Edith explained, keeping her business as usual tone.

"Who would want to kill us?" Cora questioned, still trying to wrap her head around what they were being told.

"No one in this room has any notion?" Edith scoffed, "Parents dead, siblings dead, who would benefit from that?"

"There was an attempt on your life, Edith?" Robert asked.

"They shot at both of us." Mary corrected.

"They shot at me, you got in the way." Edith reminded her.

"Very clever, Edith." Came a voice from the doorway. "You know, you really ought to lock that front door. Dangerous men roam these streets."

"Richard." Edith nodded in greeting, unfazed by the revolver pointed at her. "It really was an ingenious plan."

"I thought so. Then you had to go and get involved. I was going to let you live, the consolation prize for getting away from them. But no, you had to let Mary drag you into this little investigation."

"How do you know I wouldn't have come forward for my inheritance?"

"Because you're infected with that nobility, just like Sir Strallan." Edith paled at his words. "Poor man, going to return in a few weeks as a war hero, only to discover that his fiancé went mad while he was gone. You and Mary forced my hand, a bit of reworking of the plan. The tabloids will of course be thrilled, middle daughter of an Earl loses her mind, murders her parents then herself. Such a shame."

"No one will believe that." Edith laughed, circling the room, moving closer to Richard, staring down the barrel of the gun.

"The bullet in your head will be difficult to ignore." His tone was smug as he cocked the gun.

The next few minutes passed in a flurry. But when everything stopped Mary couldn't believe what she saw; three bodies on the floor and a revolver dropped at her feet.