by Kate Parker
I shook my head as I paced the alley.
“Don’t you have anything to say, Miss Gates?”
I stopped pacing and stared into welcoming eyes. “I wish I could trust you.”
“Tell me the truth. I’m not an ogre.”
“You want to lock up my father’s entire family. That makes you a villain.”
“How did you and Matthew enjoy your dinner at your grandparents’ house?” He sounded disappointed.
I sighed, more in aggravation than in sorrow. “We enjoyed it very much. I made peace with my father and met his new wife and their little boy. My little brother. Yes, they live on the wrong side of the law and I disapprove, but they are my family. And Matthew’s family, and they were very nice to him. As nice as you were.” I smiled at the memory.
He crossed his arms. “Did members of your family open the safe?”
“No. Lord Kaldaire did, saying he would leave the room before Mr. Denby stabbed me. They would say he caught me stealing the jewels and I’d be killed trying to escape.”
The inspector looked worried, staring at the cracked bricks beneath his feet. Finally, he looked up with a smile. “Did you or any other Gates touch the lock on the safe?”
I ran the events through my mind. “No one but Lord Kaldaire touched the outside of the safe door. Afterward, it stood wide open. Why?”
“There’s a way we might be able to prove it.”
I stopped him before he hurried down the alley by stepping into his path. “How?”
He grabbed my shoulders to keep from bowling me over and gave me a devilish smile. “We cleared everyone out of the study and sealed it off. We shut the window and locked it, and told the staff they were not to enter the room on pain of imprisonment. We can go in this morning and take fingerprints. It’s not been in use long, but the technique should work since we have specific prints to compare with the ones on the safe.”
I found I was all too aware of his touch on my shoulders. So much so, it took me a moment to find my voice. “Will Lord Kaldaire let you take impressions of his fingerprints?”
“We’ll tell him they are to eliminate him, since it’s his study and his fingerprints should be there. What we won’t say is we’re interested in learning if his are the only prints on the safe.” With a grin, he hurried away.
I spent the morning in the shop trying to work, but all the time, I kept thinking about Inspector Russell and his examination of the safe. Finally, I closed up the shop, sent Jane off to her luncheon, and headed to Lady Kaldaire’s new home.
Lady Kaldaire sat bundled in a lap rug, a cup of tea at hand, entertaining the dowager Lady Linchester and the current Lady Kaldaire in her morning room. Lyle knocked, opened the door for me, and then vanished.
“What are you doing here?” Cecily asked the moment I entered the room.
“The same as you, I would imagine.” Foolish woman. I gave her a raised brow before I faced the lady of the house. “How are you feeling, Lady Kaldaire?”
“Fine and enjoying all the pampering, thanks to you, Emily.”
“No, don’t thank me. Thank Prince Maximilian. He took charge and called the doctor. I’m just glad you’re all right.”
“And I suppose I can thank you for having policemen marching around my house in their heavy boots this morning,” Lady Cecily snapped.
“No, I think that was Mr. Denby’s doing. He was the one who stabbed your husband. The police take a dim view of maiming people.” Inspiration struck and I added, “They must be preparing their case against him.”
“Laurence says he won’t testify against him. It was only an accident.”
“An odd accident, but then, everything about your dinner party last night was odd,” the elder Lady Kaldaire said, pulling her lap rug more tightly around her.
“How long has your husband known Mr. Denby?” I asked.
“I don’t know. He’s one of Laurence’s London friends. I rarely came to London before Horace’s death.”
This was where I had to choose my words carefully. “How soon after you and your husband came to London as the new Lord and Lady Kaldaire did Mr. Denby call at Kaldaire House?”
“Laurence was in London when he became Lord Kaldaire. He told me he and Mr. Denby were to see Horace the evening poor Horace was killed.”
I was amazed at how much Cecily admitted.
My gaze flew to Roberta, Lady Kaldaire. Her face was flushed an unhealthy color and her jaw appeared rigid with anger. “Did Laurence see Horace that night?” she asked, her voice cold.
“Well, he must have, mustn’t he, since Horace turned Laurence down. Wait, what…” Cecily looked from one of us to the other, a puzzled expression on her face. We all stared at her.
“Turned him down?” the widowed Lady Kaldaire repeated. I was impressed with her control. She kept her voice even and very quiet.
Lady Cecily looked away before facing her sister-in-law with a blush. “For a loan.”
They were there to ask Lord Kaldaire for money, but he didn’t have any. And Lady Kaldaire couldn’t figure out where his funds were going. Could he have been giving the bulk of his money to his brother? Why would he? “When did your husband tell you about Lord Kaldaire’s death?”
“He sent a telegram the next morning, early, telling me to come to London straight away. I was the new Lady Kaldaire.” She puffed up when she spoke those words.
“Then when did he say the former Lord Kaldaire turned him down?” I asked.
“That can’t possibly be important.” She swiveled her body away from me in her chair.
“It is.” The ice in the recent widow’s tone could have frozen the Thames.
“When I arrived. He said Horace’s death had saved his life.” Cecily glanced at each of us in turn. “I think Mr. Denby was draining Laurence of cash.”
“It sounds very much like Laurence needs to have a long talk with that nice policeman if he wants to avoid hanging for another’s crime,” Lady Linchester said in a mild voice.
“What are you talking about?” Cecily looked panicked.
“The police will find out about this, and then they’re going to think Laurence killed Horace for money and the title to get Mr. Denby off his back.” Lady Kaldaire looked up as Lyle knocked and entered the room. “Yes?”
“A message has come from Kaldaire House for her ladyship.”
Good luck figuring out who he meant. I was the only commoner in the room.
Roberta, Lady Kaldaire, held out her hand.
“It’s for the present Lady Kaldaire. Sent from her husband,” Lyle told her.
Cecily took the note, read it, and paled.
“What’s wrong?” Lady Linchester asked.
“Inspector Russell is interrogating Laurence about Horace’s murder. He thinks Laurence killed him.” She turned to me. “This is all your fault.”
“No, but even Lady Linchester warned you of this very thing. If you’d like, I could go with you and see if I can help.” I’d take any excuse to see James Russell, despite my family’s larcenous ways.
“That’s a good idea, Emily. We’ll all go. We’ll save the inspector a trip to speak to us.” The recent widow tossed aside her lap rug, showing she was fully dressed.
After much fussing with putting on hats and gloves, we paraded out to the waiting Kaldaire coach and rode to the house. When we entered, we found a bobby stationed on the front door with the footman.
“Where’s Inspector Russell?” I asked.
“Inside with his lordship. Hey, you can’t go in there,” the bobby said as we marched past him. I couldn’t tell if it was his assignment to stay at the front door or his fear of four determined-looking women that held him in place.
I noticed another bobby standing guard on the study door before I followed Rawlings and the other three women in the other direction. The men were in the large formal parlor. Lord Kaldaire sat in a wing chair, his bandaged arm in a sling. Inspector Russell stood in the center of the room, his sergeant in the co
rner taking notes.
Cecily slid over a side chair to sit next to her husband. Roberta, Lady Kaldaire, sat in a chair on the opposite side but close to Lord Kaldaire. Why was Lady Kaldaire showing support for her brother-in-law when he might have killed her husband?
I hoped this wasn’t an example of the aristocracy sticking together or family loyalty. Lady Kaldaire struck me as more intelligent than that. Perhaps she was making certain she was in position to throttle him if she was given an excuse.
Both the inspector and Lord Kaldaire glared when they saw me enter the room, but neither told me to leave. I joined Lady Linchester, where I stood near her chair and kept my distance from the others.
“We know you were the one who opened your safe last night. Yours are the only fingerprints on the lock. We know Jonathan Denby is a blackmailer and a murderer. With your help we can put him away,” the inspector said.
“I have nothing to say.” Lord Kaldaire didn’t look well, but whether it was because of his injury or his fear, I couldn’t guess.
“You’d rather hang from the gallows than bring trouble to Denby. You really are afraid of him, aren’t you?” I said.
“Miss Gates,” the inspector began.
I put up one hand to silence him. “The police must know by now you were in London and visited Lord Kaldaire on the night of his death. Was Mr. Denby with you? Did he see you murder your brother? Is that what he’s holding over you?”
Lord Kaldaire turned to the inspector. “I won’t put up with this.”
“What did you and the former Lord Kaldaire talk about the night he died?” the inspector asked.
“It was a private matter.”
“Oh, tell him, Laurence. I refuse to be known as the wife of a criminal just as we finally reach the title.”
I felt my eyes widen at Cecily’s outburst. Both Roberta, Lady Kaldaire, and the inspector hid their surprise before the inspector made use of her words. “Private enough to die for?”
“All right,” Kaldaire said in a gruff voice. “Denby found out I made money on the DMLR railway collapse and was blackmailing me. I could no longer afford his demands and borrowed money from my brother to pay him. He’d already lent me money for the children’s schooling. When he learned why Denby was blackmailing me, he turned down my latest request. I came to town to make my plea in person.”
“How in the world did you make money on the DMLR railway when everyone else lost?” I might not understand, but I knew my grandfather would want to hear his answer.
“I bought in early. Then when more people wanted to invest, I sold my shares.” He reddened and mumbled, “Three times.”
“Which no one realized since it went bankrupt.” Grandfather would think it was brilliant. The inspector shot me a look that said I’d better warn my relatives not to try this.
“What happened when you came here to make your request?” the inspector asked.
“I found the door unlocked, so we just walked in. Horace was furious that we’d called so late in the evening without an appointment. I begged him, we quarreled, and then I stormed out.”
“Who opened the safe?” I asked.
Lord Kaldaire glowered at me. “The safe was locked when I left.”
“No. Your brother wouldn’t have opened the safe for Mr. Denby. He might for you. Or you could have opened it yourself.”
Lord Kaldaire turned his head away, but the inspector stepped into his line of sight. I decided I’d overstepped my place and kept silent, no matter how much I wanted to keep questioning Lord Kaldaire.
After a minute, the wounded man banged his uninjured arm on the wing of the chair. “Denby had just learned Horace received a note meant for Lord Wyatt. Denby was most insistent on getting it back. I told him I’d open the safe if he quit blackmailing me. He agreed. I opened the safe, found the note, and gave it to him.”
Lord Kaldaire continued to face the inspector rather than any of the women in the room. “Denby insisted on coming into the study with me. Horace was furious. He tried to stop me from opening the safe. I told him if he wouldn’t lend me the money to get Denby off my back, I’d get rid of the man and his blackmailing this way.”
Shaking his head, Lord Kaldaire continued. “We argued. The old fool wanted to show the note to Lord Wyatt and demand he control his daughter in a less lethal manner. Denby told him it was too late for Pruitt as he took the note from me. Horace told us both to leave and never return. I left.”
“And Denby?” the inspector asked.
“I thought he followed me, but he didn’t. I paced up and down the pavement waiting for him out front. He came out a minute later.”
“Didn’t you wonder why Mr. Denby took so long?” Lady Kaldaire asked.
Kaldaire gave a dry chuckle. “Denby handles people by saying a few words to them in private. Who knows what secrets of Horace’s he might have possessed?”
“Horace didn’t have secrets,” Lady Kaldaire said.
“Don’t bet on that,” his brother replied.
Cecily reached over and took Kaldaire’s uninjured hand. He clasped her hand and gave her a smile. I realized then that they loved each other. To my way of thinking, they deserved each other.
“What time were you at Kaldaire House?” the inspector asked.
Kaldaire seemed to have told us the difficult part of his story. Now he appeared more relaxed, crossing his legs and swinging his free foot. “We arrived a little before eleven and left a few minutes after.”
“What time did you meet Mr. Denby?” I asked.
“Perhaps ten minutes before we arrived at the house. We met in front of the church down the street.”
Inspector Russell looked at me. “It matches the timeline we’ve already heard from the servants.”
I nodded. “Giving Mr. Denby time to murder Mr. Pruitt a few blocks away before meeting with the soon-to-be Lord Kaldaire. Denby killed Mr. Pruitt with his sharp blade, a blade like the one used by the Central Line killer.”
Chapter Thirty-three
The inspector gave me a startled look. “You believe Denby killed Jeremiah Pruitt? Why?”
I tried to look innocent. “You need to ask Roberta, Lady Kaldaire, about the note.”
“Really, Inspector, it’s very simple.” Lady Kaldaire commanded his gaze. “I had a long talk with Miss Annabelle Wyatt, a young friend of Mr. Pruitt. Her father feared Mr. Pruitt would lead his only daughter to ruin. He stated in the Imperial Club that he wanted Mr. Pruitt dead. Sometimes, parents say extraordinary things when they are frustrated by their children.”
Russell watched her uncertainly. “You believe the note your husband received in error was an offer by Mr. Denby to kill Mr. Pruitt for Lord Wyatt for a sum of money. Where’s the proof? And where is the note?”
“Denby took it from me when I opened the safe. I never saw the contents,” Lord Kaldaire said.
“And neither has anyone else. Your guess is useless. A dead end.” Russell studied the carpet. His voice faded, as if his mind was elsewhere trying to untangle this case.
“Meanwhile, Newton languishes in jail for something he didn’t do.” That seemed unfair. I walked over to stand between the two men. “It was you, Lord Kaldaire, whom Newton saw out front that night while you waited for Mr. Denby. Meanwhile, Denby was inside killing your brother. No wonder you had to frame Newton for theft and have him thrown in prison. You were afraid he’d identify you to the police.” I was finding Lord Kaldaire more annoying by the moment.
“I didn’t know Denby was going to kill Horace. And after he saw me outside, I was afraid Newton would blackmail me, too,” Lord Kaldaire grumbled, “for something that had nothing to do with me.”
“‘Too’?” Russell asked.
Kaldaire glowered at the inspector.
“All we need now is to find out who threw Gregson out the window.” I smiled at Inspector Russell when he glanced at me and then turned to Lord Kaldaire. “And it sounds like you just gave us the reason.”
He ignore
d me, leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes.
“My lord, I think you saw Mr. Denby throw your butler out the upstairs window. Then you hustled him out of the house, and when you returned, I caught you sneaking back in as I telephoned the police.”
Kaldaire opened his eyes and glared at me. “Why would Denby do that?”
“Because Mr. Gregson saw everything that happened the night Lord Kaldaire was killed. Or at least enough to know you and Mr. Denby were in the house and involved in his death. He decided to blackmail both of you. That was the sort of thing he did. But one of you killed him rather than pay.” I’d paced around the room while I spoke and found myself next to the inspector.
“Nonsense.”
“That’s the real reason he decided to stay as butler at Kaldaire House. He knew you’d never fire him, my lord. In fact, his wages and working conditions would improve.”
“He would have been better off taking my offer of employment after all. I was even willing to raise his wages.” Lady Kaldaire stared at her brother-in-law. I couldn’t tell if I saw anger or hurt feelings in her expression.
When Lord Kaldaire glanced around and saw we were all staring at him, he snapped, “Oh, all right. All Gregson demanded of me was continued employment and an increase in his wages. Denby was his main target. I never expected Denby to strike him and throw him out the window.”
Swiveling around to glance at us all, he said, “Denby surprised me. It happened so fast I couldn’t stop him. You have to believe me!”
“So you witnessed Mr. Denby kill your butler and you didn’t report it,” the inspector said.
“I’m frightened of the man. He’s a blackmailer and a killer.” Kaldaire shrank into his chair.
“Will you testify against him in open court?”
His lordship’s eyelids drooped to slits. “Do I have a choice?”
“Not really. We’ll take your statement as evidence and then leave you to recover from your wound. And the truth about that wound needs to be mentioned in your statement.”