AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No—” She did not think of prevaricating. “It is full of incompetence, unnecessary suffering, ridiculous ways of doing things which could so easily be reorganized, if only they would give up their petty self-importances and think of the end and not the means.” She warmed to the subject and his interest. “A great deal of the trouble lies with their whole belief of nursing and the nature of people who should work in it. They pay only six shillings a week, and some of that is given in small beer. Many of the nurses are drunk half the time. But now the hospital provides their food, which is better than their eating the patients’ food, which they used to. You may imagine what type of men and women it attracts! Most of them can neither read nor write.” She shrugged expressively. “They sleep just off the wards, there are far too few basins or towels for them, and nothing more than a little Conde’s fluid and now and again soap to wash themselves—even their hands after cleaning up waste.”
His smile became wider and thinner, but there was a gleam of sympathy in his eyes.
“And you?” she asked. “Are you still working for Mr. Runcorn?” She did not ask if he had remembered more about himself, that was too sensitive and she would not probe. The subject of Runcorn was raw enough.
“Yes.” He pulled a face.
“And with Sergeant Evan?” She found herself smiling.
“Yes, Evan too.” He hesitated. He seemed about to add something when Oliver Rathbone came down the steps dressed for the street and without his wig and robes. He looked very trim and well pleased.
Monk’s eyes narrowed, but he refused to comment.
“Do you think we may be hopeful, Mr. Rathbone?” Hester asked eagerly.
“Hopeful, Miss Latterly,” he replied guardedly. “But still far from certain.”
“Don’t forget it is the judge you are playing to, Rathbone,” Monk said tartly, buttoning his jacket higher. “And not Miss Latterly, or the gallery—or even the jury. Your performance before them may be brilliant, but it is dressing and not substance.” And before Rathbone could reply he bowed fractionally to Hester, turned on his heel, and strode off down the darkening street.
“A man somewhat lacking in charm,” Rathbone said sourly. “But I suppose his calling requires little enough. May I take you somewhere in my carriage, Miss Latterly?”
“I think charm is a very dubious quality,” she said with deliberation. “The Grey case is surely the finest example of excessive charm we are likely ever to see!”
“I can well believe that you do not rate it highly, Miss Latterly,” he retorted, his eyes perfectly steady but gleaming with laughter.
“Oh—” She longed to be equally barbed, as subtly rude, and could think of nothing whatsoever to say. She was completely unsure whether the amusement in him was at her, at himself, or at Monk—or even whether it contained unkindness or not. “No—” She fumbled for words. “No. I find it unworthy of trust, a spurious quality, all show and no substance, glitter without warmth. No thank you; I am returning with Lady Callandra—but it is most courteous of you to offer. Good day, Mr. Rathbone.”
“Good day, Miss Latterly.” He bowed, still smiling.
3
SIR BASIL MOIDORE stared at Monk across the carpeted expanse of the morning room floor. His face was pale but there was no vacillation in it, no lack of composure, only amazement and disbelief.
“I beg your pardon?” he said coldly.
“No one broke into your house on Monday night, sir,” Monk repeated. “The street was well observed all night long, at both ends—”
“By whom?” Moidore’s dark eyebrows rose, making his eyes the more startlingly sharp.
Monk could feel his temper prickling already. He resented being disbelieved more than almost anything else. It suggested he was incompetent. He controlled his voice with considerable effort.
“By the policeman on the beat, Sir Basil, a householder who was up half the night with a sick wife, the doctor who visited him.” He did not mention Chinese Paddy; he did not think Moidore would be inclined to take his evidence well. “And by a large number of liveried footmen and coachmen waiting on their employers to leave a party at the corner of Chandos Street.”
“Then obviously the man came from the mews,” Basil responded irritably.
“Your own groom and coachmen sleep above your stables, sir,” Monk pointed out. “And anyone climbing over there would be highly unlikely to get across that roof without disturbing at least the horses. Then he would have to get right over the house roof and down the other side. Almost impossible to do, unless he was a mountaineer with ropes and climbing equipment, and—”
“There is no call to be sarcastic,” Basil snapped. “I take your point. Then he must have come in the front some time between your policeman’s patrols. There is no other answer. He certainly was not hiding in the house all evening! And neither did he leave after the servants were up.”
Monk was forced to mention Chinese Paddy.
“I am sorry, but that is not so. We also found a housebreaker who was watching the Harley Street end all night, hoping to get a chance to break in farther along. He got no opportunity because there were people about who would have observed him if he had. But he was watching all night from eleven until four—which covers the relevant time. I am sorry.”
Sir Basil swung around from the table he had been facing, his eyes black, his mouth drawn down in anger. “Then why in God’s name haven’t you arrested him? He must be the one! On his own admission he is a housebreaker. What more do you want?” He glared at Monk. “He broke in here and poor Octavia heard him—and he killed her. What is the matter with you, standing here like a fool?”
Monk felt his body tighten with fury, the more biting because it was impotent. He needed to succeed in his profession, and he would fail completely if he were as rude as he wished, and were thrown out. How Runcorn would love that! It would be not only professional disgrace but social as well.
“Because his story is true,” he replied with a level, harsh voice. “Substantiated by Mr. Bentley, his doctor and a maid who has no interest in the matter and no idea what her testimony means.” He did not meet Sir Basil’s eyes because he dared not let him see the anger in them, and he hated the submission of it. “The housebreaker did not pass along the street,” he went on. “He did not rob anyone, because he did not have the chance, and he can prove it. I wish it were so simple; we should be very pleased to solve the case as neatly—sir.”
