Part 2, where we investigate
As I expected, the Yard dispatched a detective with commendable haste when such an upstanding gentleman as our Edward was reported missing. I confess I was not entirely surprised to see none other than Detective Inspector Reginald Smythe-Higgins himself emerge from the carriage. I greeted him with a hearty clap upon the shoulder and laid out the facts of the matter in proper order—only to endure VEXING interjections from that young scoundrel Edmund Nash, who apparently deemed it necessary to embellish proceedings with entirely superfluous particulars! Nevertheless, one of the constables caught wind of the appellation Geoffrey "the Knife" (a more pedestrian alias is difficult to envision!) and showed immediate recognition. This "Knife" fellow is apparently a brute-for-hire, unaffiliated with any particular criminal enterprise, who involves himself in sundry nefarious activities—racketeering being chief among them. A thoroughly unsavory character, as one might well im...