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She searched in her pocket for a handkerchief. He handed her his. It gave him a ridiculous feeling of pleasure that she might keep it.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “I…I have some idea of what that might be.”
He felt a sharp stab of interest. “What?”
“She knew there was something wrong with the inheritance money.”
“What inheritance?” He had no idea what she was referring to.
“Kate’s inheritance. It is a very great amount. She would have received it in a year and a half, approximately.”
“And where is it now?”
“In a trust, in Mr. Doyle’s bank. The trustee is our cousin, Kate’s and mine, Mr. Maurice Latham. He manages it. But it is not there now. Naturally both he and I were willing to use it to pay the ransom. It was Kate’s money anyhow. It is only a technicality, a temporary one, that Maurice has charge of it.”
Hooper was stunned. Seeing the house, Celia’s obvious restrictions in the spending of money, he had never considered the possibility of her being an heiress. It was vaguely troubling. The past lay over him like an iron cage. He would never have asked her to marry him. But he realized that, but for his own emotional imprisonment, he would have. But if she were an heiress, that would be absurd. She would not even imagine him in such a way.
He looked down, avoiding her eyes. He forced his mind to consider the case.
“It would have been Kate’s very soon,” she interrupted his thoughts.
“And who inherits it, now that she is…dead?” he asked, although he thought he had already guessed the answer.
“No one,” she said a little briskly. “The kidnappers have it. Maurice came to ask me only as a matter of courtesy. Of course, I gladly agreed to give it to Harry to pay them. As I say, it was Kate’s money anyway.” There was an edge of anger in her tone that he even had to question it.
Suddenly the pieces fell into a pattern in Hooper’s head. So that was where the ransom had come from—Kate’s own money. “Why would Doyle hate that?” he asked. “I can see why pride might make Exeter hate it, but what reason could there be for Doyle, or anyone, to prevent the police from knowing that? It is what any decent person would do.”
“I don’t know,” Celia said quietly. “But one thought comes to mind—and may God pardon me if I am wrong—but perhaps it was the accounts of the trust that Bella Franken was bringing, and…and they were not in order.”
“You mean sums were embezzled from it?” he asked very quietly.
Her face was flushed with shame. “Perhaps. I am so sorry. It is a terrible thought. I do not like Maurice, but I would not wish that guilt upon anyone at all.”
“I am sorry, too. But I must tell Monk tomorrow. Perhaps from the papers that were saved from the river, he will be able to tell if that is so. I’m sorry to ask, but could Exeter have taken anything from the trust?”
“No. Maurice is the sole trustee. I believed the money had been invested through Mr. Doyle’s bank, on their advice. I was not told the details. It is not really my concern.”
He stood up. “I’m sorry…Miss Darwin.”
She smiled. “Please…do not feel uncomfortable. You had to tell me. Just find…find some sort of peace for Kate. No, I don’t mean that. Of course there is peace for Kate. To deny that would be to deny God. Find some ease of heart for the rest of us. Then at least we can stop suspecting the wrong people.”
“I will,” he promised. “I will.”
She stood up and went with him to the door, but they did not speak again. He waited for a moment, seeing her standing in the light, tears brimming in her eyes. Then he turned and walked out into the chill of the night.
CHAPTER
15
MONK BEGAN THE DAY hearing from Hooper the news that Katherine Exeter’s inheritance, held in trust until her thirty-third birthday, was to be passed to her cousins, Maurice Latham and Celia Darwin, should Kate die before inheriting. However, they had both willingly granted access to it to Exeter, for the purpose of paying the ransom for her life.
“Does that mean the kidnapper has to be someone who knew of the legacy?” Hooper asked miserably. “That could be Doyle.”
“Yes, it could,” Monk agreed. “Or someone who had no idea about it, but knew that Exeter was a very rich man.”
Hooper said nothing.
* * *
