West Street is the point in the account of Father Gorman’s murder where a supposed witness’s story is exposed as a lie: Inspector Lejeune says that Zachariah Osborne followed the priest there and killed him himself.

Setting and Route

West Street appears in the account of events in the London district where Father Gorman served as a parish priest and Osborne had his shop. Osborne initially told Mark Easterbrook that he had seen Father Gorman pass his shop and noticed an unusual-looking man following at a short distance. He said that he later described this man to the police.

The Turn into West Street

Inspector Lejeune reverses Osborne’s account. Osborne had not been standing outside his shop observing a pursuer; he had been across the street, following Father Gorman. When the priest turned into West Street, Osborne caught up with him and killed him. The street thus marks the transition in Lejeune’s reconstruction from pursuit to murder.

Role in the Revelation

West Street’s importance rests on the contradiction it helps uncover. Osborne had presented himself as a helpful witness whose memory and description assisted the police, but Lejeune identifies that account as a disguise for his own actions. The turn into West Street anchors the revelation in a specific part of the route and exposes Osborne’s fabricated version of what happened.