by Anne Perry
“Thank you,” Daniel said sincerely.
CHAPTER
Fourteen
THE PRISON AUTHORITIES were not happy about letting Daniel in to see Sidney at that hour of the early evening, but it was not the first time, nor would it be the last, that a trial had turned on an issue that had to be dealt with immediately.
Daniel paced back and forth in the usual gray room and waited. These rooms all looked the same, and regardless of the weather, they always seemed to be cold. Even on an August evening, which was still warm and bathed in the last of the sun, the place had a dead air to it.
Sidney was still dressed in his own clothes from the courtroom. At any other time, it would have been casually elegant. As he came in, he glanced at Daniel’s face and his whole body tightened with apprehension. He opened his mouth as if to speak, then changed his mind, and sat in the chair opposite Daniel. The guard left the room, but they both knew he was just outside the door.
“What is it?” Sidney spoke as if his mouth were dry and he could barely swallow. “Has something happened?”
Daniel wished there were anything at all he could say to lighten this man’s fear, but there was nothing. At the moment, he was accused of petty embezzlement. He would probably serve some time in prison, and it would be hard, but he would survive. It was the disgrace, the future suddenly torn away from him, the loss of friends, of reputation, of the trust and the hope that had driven him all his life. But behind, and dwarfing all the other entanglements in Daniel’s eyes, was the figure of Morley Cross, and the inevitability of his murder being introduced and added to the charge.
Daniel could see anticipation of more bad news in Sidney’s eyes now, even though he tried to hide it, and to smile. Daniel knew he must get all of the other information he could, before he told him of Cross.
He swallowed, wishing he were anywhere but here. “Sidney, the more I think about the whole of this, the more I realize there is something important that we don’t know.”
“I’ve told you everything…” Sidney’s voice cracked. “I…” He shook his head in desperation.
“You haven’t,” Daniel said quietly. “You may not know what it is, but there’s something more. Something that makes sense of this whole thing: the embezzlement, and why it was in your name, why it was only discovered after you left, even though, I presume, the embassy checks its accounts regularly. Either it wasn’t there earlier, or somebody else was covering it up. Why did it come to light at all? Why didn’t they just cover it up and force you to pay it back? Why expose it to the whole world? Junior officer in the British Embassy embezzles money from the accounts! On trial for everybody to read about. Great diplomacy. If I were Foreign Secretary, I’d want the head on a plate of whoever handled it like that, wouldn’t you?”
Sidney thought about it for only a moment. “Yes,” he said. “I didn’t think about that.”
“I know you’re stunned, and scared,” Daniel said more gently. “But you’ve got to think; help yourself. If you don’t, you’re tying my hands. You’re doing their job for them!” He wanted to stop Sidney from being so passive. “If you’re innocent, then fight back!” He allowed all the anger he felt to come through in his voice now. “Stop being such a damn gentleman, and fight! You don’t have to go like a lamb to the slaughter! It’s not heroic, it’s damn stupid! Drink the water and fight!”
“Water?” For a moment, Sidney was lost. Then he remembered the story of Sir Philip Sidney. “Consider it drunk,” he said with something close to a real smile. “About all those things you mentioned relating to the embezzlement, which I did not do. Plus there’s the assault on poor Rebecca Thorwood. I didn’t do that either. I only met her two or three times, but I liked her, and I don’t steal. I certainly don’t break into bedrooms and assault people. Am I supposed to still have this diamond pendant, or did I sell it before I left Washington? I didn’t have time! Even if I knew who to sell it to.” His face tightened. “But I couldn’t prove that in London. Lawton-Smith came with me to the dockside! But he’s still in Washington. He was supposed to see I got safely on the ship.” He gave a tiny shrug. “Maybe for my welfare. But more likely to make sure I really left. I was a considerable embarrassment to the ambassador.”
Daniel could see the shame in his face, but there was no time for sympathy now. “We could send him a wire, I presume,” he said without much hope. “I expect he’ll say whatever he’s told to. And the court will assume the same. The prosecution certainly will. I imagine his job will depend on it. Or they will presume it does anyway. I still want to know why they made the whole thing public. Why did they? It hardly serves the Foreign Office’s agenda.” He looked at Sidney intently. “Have you got some very powerful enemies that you haven’t told me about? Come on, man, I need to know! I can’t save you if you won’t be honest with me.”
“Do you imagine I haven’t been thinking?” For the first time, anger outweighed fear in Sidney’s voice. “I don’t know of anybody. Of course, I’ve got friends, and there are also people who don’t like or respect me, or who think I’m a fool. But everybody knows such people. Nobody pleases everyone. That’s not an enemy. They’re decent enough, just—”
“This is no time for being fair, or saying they’re all honest,” Daniel said tartly. “Someone isn’t. Your career now and in the future depends on believing that and acting on it. Your original Sir Philip Sidney may have given his last drop of water to someone else, but I’ll bet nobody walked over him, and he fought for what he believed in. He fell in battle, didn’t he? He didn’t just sit down and die?”
“Of course…” Sidney took a deep breath. “Do I really seem such a spineless man as that? I don’t shoot because I don’t know where to aim. I haven’t got any idea who did this, or why. If I lash out mindlessly, I might hit the only friend I have, as well as hurting innocent people, and looking like just the sort of self-obsessed dandy they’re making me out to be.”
Daniel felt guilty for a moment. But he had to fire Sidney out of this lethargy, whatever it took. He smiled grimly. “Well, don’t hit me, and you’re off to a good start. Maybe it’s not an enemy in a personal sense? Perhaps you’re in someone’s way of achieving something. If you don’t know what, we’ll have to work it out.”
“Not a promotion anyone else is seeking,” Sidney said ruefully.
“So far as you know.”
“I’m not likely to be promoted to anything that’s worth lying and stealing for,” he said with certainty. “Could have been one day, maybe. But it’s not in sight yet…or ever now.”
“Do you know anything dangerous? And don’t deny it without thinking. We’re running out of options.”
Sidney hesitated, making a concentrated effort. “I don’t know anything damaging about anyone. The little things, like who keeps a bottle of brandy in his desk drawer, who visits a lady of the night now and again and isn’t always discreet about it, who pads his expenses once in a while, nobody with any sense is going to ‘notice’ things like that.”
Daniel thought for a while. “Sounds dreary, and rather predictable,” he said after a moment.
Some of the light drained out of Sidney’s face. “I’ve thought about it. Believe me, I’ve turned over every stupid or thoughtless thing I’ve done, and nothing matters a damn in the scheme of things. I’ve even thought whether I could have witnessed anything I shouldn’t have. But I can’t think what. I don’t know of any thefts, or affairs.”
“Then it’s two or three things added together,” Daniel said. “You’re a danger to somebody, and it could be a man or a woman.”
This time Sidney actually laughed. “I’m not about to steal the affections of anybody’s wife or daughter; I’m hardly a glowing prospect.”
“Not even Rebecca Thorwood?”
“No! I like her, but as I’ve said, I’ve only met her a few times, and always in public! And if I were courtin
g her, why the hell would I ruin everything by breaking into her bedroom and apparently ripping a pendant from her neck? That’s just stupid.”
“Where did you meet? The first time?” Daniel asked.
“At a party at the embassy in Washington. I was there on duty, more or less. She came because we were showing a display of Waterford crystal, which she admires. We got into conversation. It seemed so…easy, and comfortable.”
“Was the diamond in her pendant worth a lot?”
Sidney was startled by the change in subject, but not disconcerted. “I’ve never seen it, so I don’t know. But I wouldn’t expect to find her wearing it in bed anyway. Look, I didn’t break into the Thorwood house. I don’t know anything of the layout of it. I wouldn’t know which is her bedroom, and even if I knew all of that, I wouldn’t go and break in. You can’t have it both ways! Either I am courting the girl and hope to marry the Thorwood money—in that case, it would be an idiotic thing to do—or I am a petty thief and just happen to pick her and get lucky finding the right room, and very unlucky in running into her father on the landing, or wherever.”
“She screamed and he came running,” Daniel put in.
“So, I ran straight back to the embassy, drew everybody’s attention to the account ledgers, and whatever I embezzled for three years without anybody noticing, and then, when Armitage advised me to flee because Thorwood would see to me never getting a fair trial in America, I came home where they would find me. I should be locked up in a place for the feebleminded!” There was real anger in him now. “However did I qualify to get into the Foreign Office and the British Embassy abroad? Somebody should lose his stripes for that.”
Daniel felt a surge of hope. Sidney was galvanized at last. He was beginning to think and was getting angry enough to look for answers, even unpleasant ones. “If you didn’t do it…” he held up his hand to stop Sidney from interrupting him, “…and you hadn’t seen anything you shouldn’t, courted anyone you shouldn’t, learned any dangerous facts about anyone, or edged anyone out of a promotion, there’s only one thing left that I can think of: you don’t realize it, but you know something you shouldn’t. Not necessarily one thing, perhaps several, but if you put them together, they add up to something very ugly indeed.”
“Such as what?”
“I don’t know,” Daniel said, hope leaking away as if he had only just thought of all this. “But I think you know it all, if you can just bring it to the front of your mind. Someone needs you out of the way—silenced.” He looked directly into Sidney’s eyes. “Are you going to go willingly, like an animal led by the nose? Or are you going to find out where the pieces fit, and who’s putting them there around you? We’re doing our best to work out what shape this thing is, so we know which pieces are part of it and which are not.”
“How can…?” Sidney bent his head and stared at the tabletop. Then suddenly he looked up. “What do you want to know? I’ll tell you anything. Maybe you can work out what has meaning.”
Daniel tried to catch hold of something that would help him begin. “Who do you know in this whole mess? To do with any of it.”
Sidney thought for a moment. “Mr. and Mrs. Thorwood, slightly—”
“How?” Daniel interrupted. “How do you know them? Mr. Thorwood recognized you, or said he did. He must have seen you several times.”
“He did. I met them maybe half a dozen times. At receptions and so on. I dined at their house. I escorted Rebecca to a dinner—once. He must have known something reassuring about me, because he wouldn’t have let me take her if he didn’t. He’s very protective. I imagine that, as an only child, Rebecca would be heir to quite a lot. But she’s actually very nice. She doesn’t use it…if you know what I mean.”
“I assume you mean she doesn’t trade on it. Except that Thorwood couldn’t recognize you if you weren’t there that night. So why is he lying?”
“No. I…I don’t know whether that was an error or…”
“Deliberate?” Daniel said curiously.
“I don’t know.”
“Well, go on with who else you know.”
“Armitage, of course. He helped me get out of America. He thought I wouldn’t get a fair trial. That all sorts of things would be said that I wouldn’t be able to prove were lies, or mistakes, or assumptions. I’m not sure now that he was right, but I thought so at the time. I went. I escaped. I still don’t know what would have been better.”
“How long have you known him?”
“He knew my mother, only slightly. He has connections in the West Country, where I come from, and I believe they had acquaintances in common. He was kind to me when I started at the Foreign Office. I think that was a courtesy to her, but I might be mistaken.”
“He was a friend to you?”
“Not as much as that, just gracious.”
“Does he know the Thorwoods?”
“Most people at the top of Washington society know each other, more or less. The Thorwoods have a great deal of money. Armitage is a senior diplomat and a gentleman. They were gracious to him. I don’t think it was any more than that. Mrs. Thorwood participates in several charities, as most wives of wealthy men do, and they included Armitage in several formal events. Not very helpful, is it?”
“Not yet,” Daniel admitted. “Keep on. We can’t give up.”
Sidney started again patiently, going over everything he could think of, revealing a quiet sense of humor, a man of more acute judgment of other people than Daniel would have expected, a depth of emotion he concealed almost all the time.
Daniel learned nothing that he thought of use. But he had discovered one thing by the time the guard returned to show him out. He did not think Sidney capable of anything as shabby or self-serving, as ill thought out, as the crimes with which he was charged. He hoped it was a lawyer’s judgment, and not just that he liked the man.
CHAPTER
Fifteen
JEMIMA HAD ACHIEVED a minor domestic victory. She had been playing with Cassie in the sandpit in the back garden, and had tired her out. Cassie was not only willing to sleep, she couldn’t help it. Jemima looked at the peaceful, happy face of her elder child, then closed the door silently and went downstairs. To her surprise, she found Daniel waiting for her in the hall.
“I didn’t know you were here,” she said apologetically.
“I’ve only just arrived,” he answered. “The maid offered me tea, but I said I’d wait for you.”
She looked closely at his face, trying to read it. He was concealing his emotions well. For anyone else it might have worked, but she had known him for a quarter of a century. “What is it? Is it the trial? Sidney, the Thorwoods…Patrick…?”
“Let’s just say I would far rather have played in the sand with you and Cassie.” He gave a half smile.
“So you came here to see me,” she responded. “I can see it in your face—it has to be the trial of Philip Sidney. It’s not going well?” She led the way to the end of the sitting room, next to the French doors into the garden. The sandpit was just visible. She would tidy it up later. She sat down in one of the comfortable old chairs, full of cushions, and he took the one opposite her. Twenty years could have slipped away and taken them back to childhood. The same flowers were in bloom in the garden: snapdragons, marigolds, nasturtiums, pansies always out. The same flowering chestnut towered over the neighbor’s garden in the parallel street, its flambeau cast, spring long over for this year.
“It’s incredibly busy,” he replied. “Loads of unnecessary details and character witnesses who say exactly what you expect them to.” He smiled ruefully. “I keep looking for the hidden bombshell to go off, after we have passed it by.”
“Morley Cross?” Jemima said quietly.
Patrick had told her! But he should have expected that.
“Hillyer hasn’t mentioned him yet. He’s probably waiti
ng to see if it can be proved that he died before Sidney left Washington, or at least that it wasn’t after.” He leaned forward a little, resting his elbows on his knees. “Jem, there has to be something else big that we don’t know. Or it doesn’t make sense. This is certainly not over five or ten pounds, or even who knew about it. Or about the attack on Rebecca. Morley Cross had nothing to do with that! Did he? Did he know something?”
“Do cases always make sense?” she asked, not trying to argue, but to find the truth. “I do things that don’t make sense sometimes, and then wonder how to get myself out of the mess I’ve made. Could Sidney just be someone who doesn’t think ahead? Doesn’t realize what the results of his behavior will be, and then makes it worse by lying?”
“It could be, but even so…it doesn’t help. When you argue a case to a jury, you have to answer all the reasonable questions they would ask. Like…why? How did he know that? Who else knew? What if he isn’t lying? What does he want? Things like that. It really matters.You know the Thorwoods, particularly Rebecca. You know how long and how well Patrick knows them, don’t you?” he asked.
“I think so.” Just as quickly as that, they could pass from the general to the personal, which was full of doubt and perhaps pain. “I know what he told me, and I have never had reason to doubt him, over anything at all.” She said that last phrase with emphasis he could not mistake. She was defensive already! Did she think Patrick was so very vulnerable?
“Nobody tells everything, Jem. Especially if they haven’t been asked.”
“Clever,” she said, trying to keep the sharpness out of her voice. “But isn’t that what you’re asking?” She had no doubt that it was. It was the question he did not want to approach, and the one she was afraid of. What did she think Patrick had done? The answer was too easy. Somehow, he had created a net and slipped it over Philip Sidney to convict him for the crime he really had committed. It did not matter if he was found guilty of embezzlement or not. It was Patrick’s idea of justice. Or a favor to people he liked, or owed for their favors to him. The thought was repulsive! It was against the law, and worse than that, it was supremely arrogant to appoint yourself judge and executioner.