Scotland Yard sent its best man - Detective-Inspector Jonathan Whicher - to investigate the murder at Road Hill. The ideal Victorian detective, Whicher could turn brutal crimes into intellectual puzzles and find order in chaos, and ultimately inspired characters in fiction such as Sgt. Cuff in Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone. In this case, Whicher quickly believed the unbelievable - that someone within the family was responsible for the murder. Without sufficient evidence or a confession, however, his case was circumstantial, and by the time he returned to London he was the object of national scorn.