"A gift from her lover?" Thompson asked, echoing my thoughts.

"Must have been," Pomeroy said. "Think he did her in?"

"No way of knowing." Thompson picked up the ring, held it close to his eyes.

Pomeroy went on. "The lady and her lover quarrel, he hits her or knocks her down. She falls, strikes her head, dies. He panics when he sees he's killed her, drags her down the steps at the Temple Gardens, drops her into the river."

"Possibly," I said. "But if that were the case, why would the paramour not remove his ring and take it home with him?"

"He didn't know she had it on. She's wearing gloves."

Thompson turned the bright circlet in his fingers. "If the man were her lover, he'd have known she'd wear it, and look under the glove."

"Or, she was with a second lover," Pomeroy speculated. "A gent jealous of the gent what gave her the ring. They quarrel about the first gent, he kills her-accidentally or on purpose-but doesn't know she's wearing the ring."

"Could be," Thompson said.

Thompson did not sound interested in nebulous lovers. He was interested in the ring, a concrete link to a man, whoever he might be-husband, lover, father. No middle-class man had purchased that ring; it had a patina to it, was possibly part of a family collection. Jewelers served families for decades. If Thompson could identify who'd made the ring, he'd be closer to finding the man who owned it.

The boatman gazed silently at the ring, looking a bit irritated that he hadn't found it before he'd reported the body to Thompson.

Thompson closed his hand around it. "We could put out a notice about the ring, but that would likely only bring us a flood of people who want to take home a pretty gewgaw. The killer will probably be wise enough to let the ring go. Or we could inquire at jewelers."

He looked at Pomeroy, whose face fell. I knew he was hating the thought of walking up and down London calling on every jeweler from the river to Islington. Pomeroy preferred chasing known thieves and tackling them instead of slow, painstaking investigation.