Midnight at Marble Arch tp-28

by Anne Perry

  CHAPTER 4

  Narraway had dreaded this encounter with Quixwood, yet he felt compelled to come here to the club where he had, very understandably, taken up residence. The servants would have cleared away all possible evidence, but it had been only a couple of days since Catherine’s death. The sight of her sprawled across the floor would remain printed on Quixwood’s memory, perhaps for the rest of his life. The very pattern of the furniture, the way the light fell across the wooden parquet-everything would remind him of it.

  Perhaps in time he would have the hall changed entirely, move all the furniture, hang the pictures in another room. Or would it make no difference?

  The club steward conducted Narraway through the outer lounge with its comfortable, leather-covered chairs and walls decorated with portraits of famous past members. They approached the silent library where Quixwood was sitting. There was a leather-bound volume open in his lap, but his eyes were unfocused and he seemed to be looking far beyond its pages.

  “Lord Narraway to see you, sir,” the steward said gently.

  Quixwood looked up, a sudden light of pleasure in his face.

  “Ah, good of you to come.” He rose to his feet, closing the book and holding out his hand. “Everyone else is avoiding me. I suppose they think I want to be alone, which is not true. Or-more likely-they have no idea what to say to me.” He smiled bleakly. “For which I can hardly blame them.” He gestured toward the other chair, a few feet from him.

  The steward withdrew, closing the door behind him. There was a bell to summon him should either of them wish for anything.

  Narraway grasped Quixwood’s hand for a moment, then sat down. “Sympathy hardly seems enough,” he agreed. “Whatever one says, it still sounds as if you have no idea what the person is suffering and that all you want to do is discharge your duty.”

  “So are you here to tell me that this is the worst, and that time will heal the pain?” Quixwood said wryly.

  Narraway raised his eyebrows. “It would seem a little redundant.”

  “Yes. And it’s a lie anyway, isn’t it?”

  “I don’t know,” Narraway admitted. “I hope not. But I can’t imagine you want to hear that now. Though, I’m afraid you probably aren’t going to like what I have come to say either. Nevertheless I am going to say it.”

  Quixwood looked surprised. “What, for heaven’s sake?”

  “Have you heard anything further from Inspector Knox?”

  Quixwood shrugged. “No, not beyond a polite message to say that he is pursuing every piece of evidence he can find. But I had assumed as much.” He leaned forward earnestly. “Tell me, Narraway, what was your impression of him? Please be honest. I need the truth, something I can rely on so I’ll stop lying awake wondering what is being kept from me, albeit with the best motives. Can you understand that?”

  “Yes,” Narraway replied without hesitation. “Left to imagination we suffer not one ill but all of them.”

  Quixwood searched Narraway’s face feature by feature. “Do you do that too? Have you ever lost anyone to something so … so vile, so bestial?” he asked finally.

  Narraway made a tiny gesture of denial. “You know, at least by title, what my job has been. Do you think I have never experienced disillusion, horror, and then a sense of total helplessness? But this is nothing to do with my situation, Quixwood; it’s about you and your loss.”

  Quixwood lowered his eyes. “I’m sorry. That was a stupid remark. I didn’t mean to be offensive. I feel so inadequate. Everything is slipping out of control and I can’t stop it.”

  Narraway felt an overwhelming pity for the man.

  “I think Knox is a good man, both personally and at his job. He’ll find whatever there is that anyone can know.” He said it with certainty.

  “But you’ll still help him?” Quixwood asked quickly.

  “As long as you wish me to. But I come here to warn you that we might discover details you would prefer not to learn. All facts are open to different interpretations, and your wife is not here to explain anything.” Was he being so delicate as to be incomprehensible?

  Quixwood frowned. “You don’t need to tiptoe around it. You are trying to warn me that I may find out things about Catherine I would prefer not to know? Of course. I’m not entirely stupid or blind. I loved Catherine very much, but she was a complicated woman. She made friends with people I never would have. She tended to see good in them, or at least some value, that I didn’t.” He looked away. “She was always seeking something. I never knew what.

  “I want justice for her,” Quixwood continued with sudden vehemence. “She deserves that, even if I learn a few things that perhaps are not comfortable for me. I didn’t save her from this. I wasn’t there. Allow me at least to do what I can now. I am not so squeamish or self-regarding that I need to hide from the truth.”

  “I’m sorry,” Narraway apologized sincerely. “I meant that when they have sufficient evidence to charge the man, whoever he is, don’t look beyond that. Leave the details to Knox. Don’t press him to tell you more than will be made public at the trial anyway.”

  “The trial …” Quixwood’s face tightened and his hands, resting easily on his lap till this point, now clenched. “I admit I hadn’t thought of that. Will they need to say any more than that she was killed?”

  “I don’t know. I imagine the man will put up a defense.”

  “Surely they won’t allow-”

  “If they find him guilty he may be hanged,” Narraway pointed out. “He must be allowed to fight for his life.”

  Quixwood looked down at the floor. “Do you think … Catherine fought for her life?”

  Narraway said nothing to that. Quixwood would know his wife’s courage better than he. “I’ll do everything I can,” Narraway promised again. “To hang a man is a sickening thing, but this is one case where I would have few qualms about it.”

  “Thank you.” Quixwood took a deep breath. “Thank you,” he said again.

  Narraway went first to the local police station to find Knox and was informed that he was at Lyall Street, so he followed him there. He approached Quixwood’s house with an odd mixture of familiarity and complete strangeness. The only time he had been here before was at night, in Quixwood’s company, and with the terrible knowledge of Catherine’s death. The shock of seeing her body had sharpened his senses so he could remember every detail of the corpse with awful clarity. And yet he could recall only foggy impressions of anything else.

  Now, in the daylight, it looked as ordinary as any other wealthy and elegant house in the better parts of London. An open carriage passed by, then another in the opposite direction, coming toward him. The second was a landau, bodywork dark, brass gleaming in the sun. The liveried coachman sat bolt upright, the reins held tightly in his gloved hands.

  In the back two women sat talking to each other, pink and yellow embroidered muslins fluttering in the breeze. One of them laughed. It was jarring, a waking nightmare, to think of Catherine lying obscenely flung like a broken doll on the floor of one of these quiet, sedate houses with their exquisite façades, life proceeding on outside as if her death was of no importance.

  Narraway’s hansom came to a halt. He alighted, paid the driver, and walked toward the front door. Flickering in his mind was the memory of Pitt telling him how, in his early days, he used to be sent to the servants’ entrance. No one wished to have the police enter through the front part of the house, as though they were equal to the owners. Now Narraway was doing what had essentially been Pitt’s job, and he planned to use every privilege and artifice he could to obtain information, whether it was intended to be shared with him or not.

  The door was opened by a footman whose face was appropriately polite and blank, as if everything in the household was normal.

  “Yes, sir? May I help you?” He clearly did not recognize Narraway from the night of the murder. Narraway recalled him, but it was his profession to remember faces.

  “Good morning.” He
produced a card out of the silver case in his pocket. “If you would be so good as to ask Inspector Knox if he can spare me a few moments?”

  The footman was about to refuse him when training took over from instinct and he looked at the card. The name was unfamiliar but the title impressed him.

  “Certainly my lord. If you would care to follow me to the morning room, I shall inform the inspector.”

  It was a full ten minutes before Knox appeared, walking straight in without knocking, and closing the door behind him. He looked tired; his shoulders drooped and his tie was slightly askew. There were lines of anxiety etched deep in his face.

  “Morning, sir,” he said with a sigh. “Sorry, but I really don’t have any news that’ll help Mr. Quixwood. Only bits and pieces, and nothing’s for certain yet.”

  Narraway remained standing rather stiffly by the mantel shelf.

  “Regardless of its apparent lack of meaning, what have you found?” he asked. “You must know how the assailant got in by now, and have an excellent idea of what, if anything, is missing. Have you found any witnesses, if not nearby, then within a block of here? Has any missing jewelry or artifacts, or whatever, turned up at a pawnshop or with a receiver of such things? Have there been any similar crimes reported? Other break-ins or attacks on women?”

  Knox looked down at the ground, his lips pursed in sadness rather than thought.

  “There’s no sign of a break-in anywhere, Lord Narraway,” he answered. “We’ve searched every door and window. We’ve looked at the downpipes, ledges, everywhere a man could climb, and a few where he couldn’t. We even had a lad up in the chimney to look.” He saw Narraway’s expression of irritation. “Some of the houses in this part have big chimneys. You’d be surprised how a skinny little lad can come down one o’ these an’ open a door.”

  Narraway acknowledged his error. “Yes, of course. I didn’t think of that. I assume you are not saying the attacker was here all the time? One of the servants? Please God, you are not saying that! We’ll have every household in London in a panic.”

  “No, sir.” Knox gave a twisted little smile. “The servants are all very well accounted for.”

  Narraway felt a chill. “Then you are saying there’s no doubt she let him in herself? That seems the only alternative left.”

  Knox looked even more crumpled.

  “Yes, sir, I am. Nothing was damaged, nothing torn or broken except what you already saw in the room where we found her. This leaves us with the conclusion that he was someone with whom she was comfortable, at least enough so that she let him in herself.”

  Narraway started. “But it’s possible she was tricked somehow? Maybe he pretended he was a friend, a messenger from her husband, or the husband of a friend. Perhaps he gave a false name?”

  Knox did all he could to keep his face expressionless, but failed. “No, my lord, I’m saying he was someone she knew, and she felt no apprehension about allowing him into the house without having a servant present. Someone she opened the door to herself rather than waiting until one of the servants answered the bell. She might have even expected him.”

  Narraway breathed in and out deeply, slowly. He had done all he could to avoid facing this, even in his mind. His chest and stomach were tight. “You mean he was her lover?”

  Knox chewed his lip, profoundly unhappy. “I’m sorry, sir, but that does seem probable. I’ll be most obliged if you can think up a more agreeable alternative.”

  Narraway forced himself to picture again the inner hallway where they had found Catherine. She had fought hard for her life, but only there, not closer to the front door. She had allowed her attacker inside the house, beyond the vestibule.

  “How did none of the servants hear her?” he demanded. “She must have cried out. A woman doesn’t submit to rape without a sound. Didn’t she scream, at the very least?”

  “The servants had been excused for the night,” Knox replied. “The baize door to their quarters is pretty heavy. Sound-proof, if you take my meaning? If she’d wanted anything she’d have rung one of the bells and someone would have come, but a shout, especially from the front of the house, no one would have heard.”

  Narraway imagined it. The baize door gave such privacy, locked you off from intrusion-or help. Perhaps one stifled cry, then a hand over your mouth, and only a muffled choking after that. If a servant heard anything at all, she would take it for a quarrel, and the last thing she would want would be to intrude on such a scene.

  What were they used to, the well-trained servants in this outwardly respectable house? Did they recognize a mistress’s dismissal for the evening as a tacit command not to return?

  He looked at Knox.

  “Sorry, sir,” Knox said quietly. “This man may have stolen things, but the servants don’t recognize anything gone. And there’s very definitely been no break-in. The bolts across the front doors were undone. The butler and the footman have both sworn, without any hesitation, that the doors where she was found were closed only with the type of latch that shuts itself.”

  “But the butler was alone when he found her; he wasn’t with the footman,” Narraway pointed out. It was a foolish observation. He knew it as he said the words, just as he knew what Knox would say in reply.

  “Yes, sir,” Knox answered wearily. “He found her then he called the footman. Couldn’t really call one of the women. I’m sorry, but I don’t think there’s a way around it, my lord. We can conclude only that she knew him and let him in.”

  “Then we’d better find out who he was,” Narraway said grimly. “Any ideas?”

  “Not yet. The servants are either very loyal or else they truly don’t know.” Again unhappiness filled Knox’s tired face. Narraway wondered if he was thinking of his own family. He had said he had a wife and daughters. His voice had altered when he spoke of them: there was a gentleness, even a pride in it. Narraway had liked him for that.

  “Have you looked at Mrs. Quixwood’s diary?” Narraway asked. “Or spoken to her maid?”

  “Yes. The diary doesn’t tell me anything,” Knox replied. “She was busy, lots of engagements, but very few names mentioned, none of them outside of what you’d expect.” He frowned. “Do you want to see it? Maybe …” He left the idea hanging in the air, on the edge of asking Narraway something, but clearly not quite certain if he wanted to, or how to word it.

  “Yes,” Narraway answered. “I’d like to look. I may know some of the names, at least.”

  Knox frowned. “Do you think … I mean …” His expression was bleak. “A secret acquaintance? If it’s true, then it’s going to be very hard to prove.”

  “Rape?” Narraway said the word with distaste. “If that ends up being the case, then I’ll settle for proving it’s murder.”

  Knox smiled at him, as if they had reached some kind of understanding. “I suppose you’d like to speak to the lady’s maid as well. Read the diary first. It won’t take you long. Then I’ll send for her.”

  Narraway thanked him and went into the garden room to wait while a constable fetched Catherine’s diary.

  The room was sunny and warm in the morning light, a curious sense of peace in it, in such a troubled house. It was surprisingly feminine, greens and whites, white woodwork around the windows. The curtains were patterned, but only with leaves, echoing the potted plants, none of them with flowers. It was at the same time both bright and restful.

  He was just sitting down on one of the rattan chairs when the constable brought the diary. He thanked him and settled down to read it.

  He started in January. At first it was not very interesting, just the usual brief comments on the weather as it affected her daily life. “Very cold, streets slippery with ice.” “Ground quite hard, all very clear and glittering. Very beautiful.” “So wet today I really would rather not go out-I’ll get drenched no matter how careful I am.”

  Then as the days lengthened and the weather became milder she commented on the first buds in the trees, the snowdrops, the birds.
She saw a starling with twigs in its beak and wrote a short paragraph on the faith of building a nest when the days were still so dark. “How can such a small creature, who knows nothing, be so sure of a good future? Or is it only a blind and exquisite courage?”

  The comments on the weather continued, with notes as to the flowers that had pleased her. Her botanical interest was written with acute observation, but mostly it was the beauty of the plants that moved her.

  Narraway put the book down and wondered what Catherine Quixwood had thought as she had written those words. Was the loneliness he felt within the pages, the sense of confusion, hers or his own? Unwillingly he pictured her again, but lying on the floor. There had been such possibility of passion in her face, such turbulence, even in death. Or was he imagining that too?

  He picked up the diary again and resumed reading it, paying more attention to where she had been and, when she had noted it, with whom.

  As the weather grew more clement she had attended lectures at the Royal Geographical Society. After one on Egypt she had made a note of its excellence. Reading on, he saw that she had then gone to an exhibition of paintings of the Nile by various watercolorists, and then to the library to find books on Egyptian history.

  In May she had gone to a lecture on astronomy. This time it was not the night sky that drew her most enthusiastic comments, but the sublime order of the stars in their courses, from the most random comet or meteor to the most immense galaxies. There was too little room on the page for all she wanted to say to remind herself of her emotions, and her writing eventually became so small he could not read it.

  Then she went back to the library and searched for other books on astronomy, and more lectures she might attend. In the following weeks she even went by train to both Birmingham and Manchester to learn more.

  But, as Knox had said, there were very few names in the diary. Those that were present all seemed exactly the acquaintances one might have expected: other married women in Society of her own age and station, a couple of distant cousins, one unmarried and apparently of considerable means. Catherine seemed to enjoy her company when it was available. There were also two aunts mentioned, the vicar and his wife and business associates of Quixwood’s and their wives.