By the mid-1850s, however, the Yard’s reputation with the public was heading in a positive direction, due in large part to the efforts of a lawyer leading Scotland Yard at that time, Richard Mayne, whom the Times thought was intelligent and sensible. His assistant, a stocky, some said “squarish man,” bearded and known for a no-nonsense manner, was Edward Harranby. From the start Scotland Yard kept its methods mysterious, often ascribing arrests to an anonymous complaint, information from a spurned wife or mistress, or, when nothing would do, “just a lucky break.” This approach complemented its modest public persona, even if arrests arose out of meticulous, often careful work. However, segments of the public began to believe the “accidental” nature by which investigations started or even the modesty which the Yard maintained in its relations with the public, were mere pretenses. Rumors abounded that the Yard relied on numerous plainclothesmen and informants in and around London who’d infiltrated various criminal networks and gangs to support its policework. Edward was in charge of these plainclothesmen and informants.

Information from one such informant led to a fateful meeting one evening in early May in the mid-1850s. Edward arranged to meet with a close friend of his from university, Captain John Alderbrook, in the mid-section of John Raines’ London Bridge. The Captain was a brave, heady man who had been knighted by the Queen for his military exploits. After the wars and his knighthood, Captain Alderbrook retired from the service and went into various trades, quickly expanding an inheritance into a fabled fortune, joining the ranks of wealthy London residents that formed the upper crust of the most prosperous city in the world.

Over the years, despite the vastly different trajectories their lives had taken, he and Edward had kept in touch. This evening, they’d agreed to meet near the middle of London Bridge.

John extended his hand in greeting as he approached Edward, who’d arrived before he had at the agreed meeting spot, with a big smile on his face as he shook Edward’s hand warmly.

“Captain,” Edward greeted him with a smile of his own. “Or should I say Sir John?”

John smirked, and clasped the side of the arm of the hand he shook with a firm shake. “John will do, I should think.”