Jean was pleased to be asked to join Lucien and Harry and Ruth in investigating Carr's shop. She appreciated being valued for the assistance she could provide, but more than that, she was happier than she had any right to be to just be included in the things Lucien did. So often she was relegated to being just a wife or just a housekeeper or just a woman. Left at home to cook and clean and tend the garden while the men went off and did more interesting things. She had never been wealthy enough to have much importance, nor was she educated enough to have a career like Joy McDonald or like Ruth Evershed. But Lucien wanted Jean with him for this, and that meant more to her than she could ever tell him.

And so the four found themselves wandering around the salon. It was set off from the street a fair bit and hidden partially by a few trees. Jean had never been to this salon before, but the building had been here a long time. Before it was a salon, she recalled, it had been a very rough sort of pub, and the council had worked very hard to run it out of town and repurpose the building for something else. Jean recalled that her Christopher once got arrested out of that pub many years before. Some of the city men had insulted the farmworkers and Christopher, always quick to defend and prove himself, had jumped into the fray and earned himself a broken nose and black eye. Jean was fairly certain that it was police surgeon Thomas Blake who had set that broken nose.

But that was a long time ago. Funny how things brought back such odd memories.

"Jean, do you know if there's any way into the building?" Ruth asked her. "The front is obviously locked."

"There's an alley around the back," Jean said. That much about the building she knew. In the old days, it was through the back that the drunkards would be thrown out.

Sure enough, there was an unlocked door in the back. Lucien insisted on going in first with Harry protecting the rear. Jean let Ruth, who was practically vibrating with anxious excitement of the investigation, go in front of her.

They carefully wandered through the labyrinthine halls in the back of the salon. They found the infamous 'backroom' where illegal gambling had quite obviously been taking place. Cards and dice and betting slips were littered all over. But they hadn't yet found anything that linked Carr to procurement or to Michael Nesbit.

"Over here," Harry called from around the corner. The rest of them all followed him.

Harry had found an office. An office with file cabinets all open and things strewn about. As though someone had left in quite a hurry.

"Oh I think this proves it," Ruth said, looking at some papers in one of the files.

Lucien came to look over her shoulder. "I think it does, yes," he agreed.

Jean, meanwhile, was in another corner of the office, looking at the pages of a notebook on the floor. It was not unlike the notebook of Michael Nesbit's that she and Ruth had decoded. Only Carr's notebook was not encoded at all. And it made Jean nearly sick to read what it said.

Harry must have noticed the appalled expression on her face. He came over and gently took the notebook away. "I think we should leave that one for the police."

She nodded. Her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth and she could not seem to make any sound.

"Who the bloody hell are you!?"

Everyone turned to the doorway. Only Jean knew the identity of the man standing there shouting at them. It was Lester Carr. And he had a gun.

There was a roaring in Harry's ears when he saw that gun pointed in Ruth's direction. Something visceral snapped inside of him, as it always did, when she was threatened. But he need to keep focused and keep his wits about him. Carr was not pointing the gun at Ruth, he was pointing it at Lucien. But Ruth was standing right beside him and across the room from Harry, which distressed him a great deal.

Jean must have sensed the tension in him. She put a kind hand on his arm which did succeed in keeping him tethered to reality.

"Lester Carr, I presume."

Carr's attention was on Lucien, so it made sense that Lucien was the one to speak. Harry was more than happy to just watch and wait for an opportunity of his own.

"I said, who the bloody hell are you!?" Carr shouted again.

"I'm Doctor Blake, and these are my friends, Ruth, Harry, and Jean. And I believe you knew a man called Michael Nesbit."

Harry silently commended Lucien on his calm demeanor. This was obviously not the first time he'd spoken to a man pointing a gun at him. But Lucien had always done well under pressure, Harry recalled.

"You can't pin Nesbit on me. I don't have anything to do with that," Carr snarled, pointing the gun a bit more intently.

"Yes you do," Ruth interjected, causing Harry's blood pressure to skyrocket. "All these files you're obviously trying to get rid of, they all show your involvement in procurement. What happened, did Nesbit cheat you in some way? Is that why you killed him?"

Jean squeezed Harry's arm a bit tighter, obviously knowing that Ruth's taunting of the gunman might lead him to do something stupid.

"Nesbit got what he deserved! You don't do that to Lester Carr. Not in my town!"

Harry had underestimated Carr's utter stupidity. The man had practically confessed right then and there. Though men who believe they're about to get away with something do have an inflated sense of confidence.

"The police are looking for you," Ruth told him. "They knew they'd already arrested the wrong man, and they're coming after you. You won't be able to run."

"And who's gonna stop me?" Carr threatened, taking a step toward Ruth. "You, girlie?"

"I think you'll find that you'd be more successful with this," Harry offered, desperate to get that man and his gun away from Ruth. He held up the very incriminating notebook. When Carr looked to him, Harry continued, "The police already found one just like this from Nesbit. They know what he was part of. And this shows you were part of it, too. Hosting gambling is one thing, but this is quite another. And murder on top of that…"

Carr's attention had thankfully shifted away from Ruth and onto Harry now. "You give me that," Carr demanded.

"Or what?" Harry goaded.

Glancing over at Lucien, there was a wild look in his eyes. Probably the same one Harry had when Carr was too close to Ruth. Because Jean was standing right next to Harry, and Carr was getting closer.

"I didn't bother with a gun against Nesbit, but I think it'll be easy to take you down, old man."

Harry knew from quite a lot of experience what it looked like when a man was ready to fire a gun. And Lester Carr was ready and he was serious. Harry did not think twice before turning to grab Jean and throw her to the ground, protecting her with his great bulk.

And when the gun went off, all hell broke loose.