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“There are always kidnappings,” Monk replied, his voice gentle, as if he did not want to make Exeter’s grief even worse. “Not like Mrs. Exeter’s. Not as…brutal. Hers was unique in that. And usually we get the victims back. It is self-defeating not to return the victim, or next time no one will pay. They trade on hope.” The contempt in his voice was lacerating.
Exeter must have heard it, too. “Then why Kate? Did they not believe I would pay? I had the money.” His face was anguished. “I was there! With it all! Did they think I couldn’t get it, do you think? I could! I did!” He seemed desperate that they should believe him.
“It was an enormous amount, Mr. Exeter, but I don’t think they would have asked for more than they thought you could get. It would be pointless. Some men would not even try…”
“But I did!” Exeter protested again. “I did everything exactly as they asked. They could not expect me to come alone! I don’t know the damned area! I could only get to it, where they asked, by river. I needed you to guide me, and they had to know that.” He looked at Hooper for understanding, perhaps reassurance, that it was not his error that was responsible for the disaster.
Hooper tried to convey by his expression that nothing better or different could have been done.
“You had the money,” Monk said quietly. “You gave it to them as they asked.”
“But they did kill her…because I made some kind of mistake?” Exeter forced the words out, as if he had been trying to find the courage to ask himself that question since the night it had happened. He looked at Monk, pleading for the answer he needed.
“What could you have done differently?” Monk asked. “You followed their instructions to the letter. They must have intended to kill her all along. They did it as you got there. Nothing could have prevented it. They knew you would find the money and that you would come. Which means they knew you.”
Exeter closed his eyes tightly, and shook his head. “That’s too horrible to think of. Do you believe they knew Kate as well?” Suddenly his eyes were wide, searching Monk’s face. “Did they? And could still do that to her?”
Monk put the thought they all had into words. “If they knew her, perhaps she knew them also, and they dared not let her go?” If that was so, Kate would surely have realized it, too! He could not imagine what terror or pain she had suffered.
“Tell me it wasn’t someone I know!” Exeter said between his teeth. “Will the law blame me if I kill them?” He stared at Monk, as if seriously trying to judge if he could do it or not. It was possible he really was toying with the idea.
“Don’t,” Monk said quietly. “Please…”
Exeter’s whole body was taut with knotted muscles, as if he would attack someo
ne this moment, if only he knew whom.
“Have you ever seen a man hang?” Monk asked, his voice still soft.
“What?” Exeter was startled. “No, of course not. Why?”
“It’s not a nice way to go,” Monk answered him. “Especially if it’s done judicially. It’s quite barbaric, actually. You are probably awake all night. They’ll send a priest or chaplain to you, for you to have the last rites, confess and all that. Maybe at that point you realize in a few hours you’re going to cease to exist. Or worse, you are going to face judgment, everlasting punishment, from whatever deity there is. And you can sit and watch the hands go round on the clock, ticking your life away, and it won’t be as if anyone believed you were going to heaven!”
Exeter shuddered. “What’s your point?” He gave the ghost of a smile. “Although I realize hanging would be a very civilized refinement of torture that killing him myself would not be. A slow sort…of pavane of death. Right. I’ll settle for that. You’ve convinced me. Is that what you were going to say?” He opened his eyes wide.
“No, I came to tell you we found a man behaving extravagantly and we think he could be connected with the other kidnappings.”
“Why didn’t you arrest him? Do you think he’s going to lead you to the others?”
“We were going to arrest him,” Hooper replied, before Monk could speak again. “We were following him. He encountered a couple of other men, who may have intended to rob him. Then someone else came and attacked them all, tried to kill one man…”
“They killed him? Now you’ll never know.”
“No, we rescued him. But while we were fighting off the others, he escaped,” Hooper corrected him. “But we’ll find him again. And next time, we’ll arrest him.”
“But he’ll have the others after him,” Exeter said. “Won’t he be safer in custody? Oh! I see. Of course, if you try him and convict him, he’ll hang, and he would probably rather be murdered on the dockside.”
“Exactly,” Monk agreed. “But we’ll find him. We know the dockside, too, and we have informers.”
“And you think he’ll tell you who the others are?” Exeter asked eagerly. “Can you offer him any leniency to do that? God, I want to know! There’s nothing left for me now, except justice. I want them to suffer as much as Kate did. And don’t tell me that’s wrong! It may be. I don’t give a damn.”
“I think most people would understand that,” Monk nodded. “And as long as you don’t kill them yourself, the law has no problem with you.”
There was a moment’s silence. A log settled in the fire with a shower of sparks.
Exeter looked up at Monk. “Thank you. If you…if you have the chance to speak to them, ask them why. Why did they do that to her? If it was someone who knew her, and not just the money, I want to know!”
“I don’t think you do.” Monk shook his head slowly. “But it was a hell of a lot of money, and if it was just about that, then I think you do want to know. That would mean it was not an enemy of yours, choosing that way to hurt you, and it was in no way your fault.”
