“ ’Eard of?” he questioned.

She smiled with a slight downward curl of her lips. “Men don’t come here.”

“Just women, eh?”

“For medical reasons,” she explained. “Anyway, if a man’s been bitten or scratched by a prostitute, what are we going to do for him?”

“Beyond have a good laugh-nothing,” he agreed. Then his expression became grave again. “But this man’s dead, Mrs. Monk, an’ from the look of the body, ’e got’imself in a fight with a woman, an’ then somehow or other ’e came off worst. ’E’s got cuts an’ gashes in ’is back, an’ so many broken bones it’s hard to know where to begin.”

She was startled. She had imagined a fight between two men ending in tragedy, perhaps the larger or heavier one striking an unlucky blow, or possibly the smaller one resorting to a weapon, probably a knife.

“But you said he was robbed,” she pointed out, thinking now of an attack by several men. “Was he set on by a gang?”

“That don’t ’appen ’round these streets.” Hart dismissed it. “That’s what pimps are for. They make their money out of willing trade. It’s in their interest to keep the customers safe.”

“So why is this one dead?” she said quietly, beginning to understand now why Hart had come there. “Why would one of the women kill him? And how, if he was beaten the way you describe?”

Hart bit his lip. “Actually, more like ’e fell,” he answered.

“Fell?” She did not immediately understand.

“From an ’eight,” he explained. “Like down stairs, mebbe.”

Suddenly it was much clearer. If a man had been caught off balance, not expecting it, a woman could easily have pushed him.

“But what about the cuts and gashes you spoke of?” she asked. “You don’t get those falling down stairs.”

“There was a lot o’ broken glass around,” he replied. “An’ blood-lots of it. Could ’ave smashed a glass, dropped it an’ then fallen on it, I suppose.” He looked miserable as he said it, almost as if it were a personal tragedy. He pushed his hand back through his hair again, a gesture of infinite weariness. “But Abel swears ’e was never at ’is place, an’ knowing the state of it, I believe’im. But ’e went somewhere often enough.”