AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When the court adjourned, there was no time for private conversation. Monk excused himself from Hester and caught up with Rathbone in the corridor outside. “I need to speak with Sixsmith,” he said urgently. “Can you manage it? Persuade him to see me.”
“How?” Rathbone looked tired, in spite of the victory with Melisande Ewart, such as it was. “I’ve already gone over every argument I can think of with Sixsmith. The man is desperate and numb with what has happened to him. He has worked for Argyll for years and feels totally betrayed.”
“So he should,” Monk answered, matching his stride with Rathbone’s. “And if we prove it was murder, but not that Argyll’s the one who hired the assassin, then Sixsmith will pay for it on the end of a rope!”
“All right,” Rathbone said quickly. “You don’t need to labor the point. But don’t give him false hope, Monk.” There was warning in his eyes, even fear.
“I don’t intend to,” Monk replied, hoping he could keep his promise.
“Exactly the opposite.”
It took Rathbone half an hour to arrange the meeting in a room off the corridor leading away from the court itself. Sixsmith looked somehow smaller than he had in the tunnel when Monk had seen him before. Dressed in an ordinary suit, he was broad-shouldered and solid, but not so tall. His hair was neatly barbered, his shirt white, his hands clean. His nails were unbroken—remarkably so, considering the surroundings in which he usually worked.
He sat in the chair opposite Monk, putting his hands on the table between them. His skin was pale, and he had cut himself shaving. A tiny muscle twitched in his temple on the left side. “What is it?” he said bluntly. “Haven’t you done enough?”
There was no time for Monk to soften any of what he must say, however harsh it sounded. “Sir Oliver Rathbone can tie every detail of the money all the way from Argyll’s bank to you passing it to the man who murdered Havilland.”
“If you think I’m going to plead guilty, you are wasting your time,” Sixsmith said angrily. “And more to the point, you’re wasting mine as well. I never denied that I paid the money! I thought it was to bribe a bunch of ruffians to see off some of the toshers who were giving us a hard time and spreading rumors about uncharted underground rivers and scaring the hell out of some of the navvies.”
“Then say so!” Monk challenged him.
Sixsmith’s heavy lip curled. “Admit to bribing thugs to knock around a few men who are no more than a nuisance? They’ll have me in jail so fast, I’ll barely see the ground. Are you a fool?”
“No, but you are!” Monk responded. “Rathbone will prove it anyway. If you want to come out of this alive, you’ll admit to the attempt to bribe. It didn’t work, so there was no crime actually committed—”
“There was murder!” Sixsmith said savagely, his face dark with emotion. “If that’s not a crime, what in God’s name is?”
“Did you know it was going to be murder?”
“No, of course I didn’t!” Sixsmith’s voice was harsh, desperate. “I know beating the toshers was illegal, though. But what the hell do the men in Parliament know about the real world? Would they bend their backs to a day’s labor hacking and piling earth and rocks, winching them up to the surface? Or living all the daylight hours in some stinking, dripping, ratinfested hole, burrowing like a damn rat yourself, so the sewers can run clean?” He took a deep breath, his chest heaving. “We’ve got to get rid of the toshers who are spreading fear just to keep their old beats in the sewers that are left. Do you know what a tosher’s beat is worth?”
“Yes,” Monk said tartly. “And I know they hate change. So tell the court that! Tell them that Argyll knew it, too, and couldn’t afford to let it go on.”
Sixsmith looked exhausted, as if he had been battling the same arguments in his head for weeks.
Monk felt an intense pity for him. “I’m sorry,” he said gently. “To be betrayed by someone you trusted is one of the worst pains a man can know. But you have no time now to dwell on it. You must save yourself by telling not just the truth, but all of it.”
Sixsmith raised his head and gave him a smile that was more a baring of the teeth. “Argyll will simply say that he gave me the money to buy off the toshers so they would leave the navvies alone, and I am the one who used it to have Havilland killed.”
“Why would you do that?”
Sixsmith hesitated a moment.
“Why?” Monk repeated. “It’s Argyll’s company, not yours. Your reputation is excellent. If he went under, you could find a new position in days.”
“You know my reputation?” Sixsmith sounded surprised.
“Of course. Argyll couldn’t afford to have Havilland sabotage his tunnel. He must have contacted the assassin, but got you to hand the money to him. Why would he do that, except to incriminate you if anyone ever discovered Havilland’s death was murder? It was deliberate!”
Sixsmith blinked rapidly, his face a mask of pain, still fighting not to believe it.
“Were you the first to speak to the assassin?” Monk pressed. He hated forcing Sixsmith to see it, but his life could depend on it. “Or did Argyll set up the meeting, give you the money, and tell you to pass it over?”
“Of course he did,” Sixsmith said in a whisper.
“Do you know who the assassin was? Do you know where to find him now? Or anything about him at all?” Monk asked.
“No.” Sixsmith stared at him. “No…I don’t.”
