AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Daniel stiffened, then saw Kitteridge’s face and realised he was teasing him, and also very seriously offering to help. ‘Yes, please,’ he accepted. ‘Find the bloody publisher.’
Daniel went back to the prison and, after the briefest of questioning by the guard, was again permitted to see Graves alone. As they locked the door behind him, he sat down in the chair at the other side of the warped table, and looked at Graves. Daniel had the sudden, awful feeling that he had a glimpse of the corpse he could so soon become.
Hope flared for a second in Graves’ eyes, then he looked at Daniel, and it died again.
Daniel wished that he could have brought better news. He even felt guilty that there was not much pity inside him.
‘What do you want?’ Graves asked. His voice was strained, as if lack of use had left his throat dry.
‘I have looked further into the possibility that someone else is creating evidence against you, as you suggested . . .’ Daniel began.
Suddenly Graves’ body was rigid. ‘Who? Who is it? What proof do you have?’
‘I don’t have proof who it is,’ Daniel answered levelly. ‘But I believe you that it is possible. The reasons are powerful enough to be believable. I will be able to prove more when I know where you got your information for the book on Lord Narraway. I imagine you kept the sources for all, because it might be necessary to consult them again? And you must have been aware that there were those who would try to stop you – up to and including causing your disgrace, and death.’
‘A believer,’ Graves said sarcastically. ‘I’d applaud you – if I weren’t in chains!’
Daniel ignored his tone. ‘Why didn’t you mention it earlier? It would have given us more time.’
‘Because I didn’t kill her! I thought you had enough skill to get me off before the court,’ Graves said accusingly.
‘That was nearly a week ago,’ Daniel snapped.
‘I thought Kitteridge would find some legal loophole. Has fford Croft got up off his arse and done anything? He owes me, and he’s going to walk away and let me hang!’ The hatred was so deep in him, he all but choked on it. ‘You’ve still got two weeks left.’ His look at Daniel was torn between loathing for his mention of having to beg, and the conviction that he was in the right.
Daniel disliked him even more, were it possible. He also believed him more. It was a ragged, powerful feeling inside him.
Was it worth wasting time answering? Probably not.
‘Where did you get your information?’ He went back to the original question. ‘Papers? Letters? Face-to-face interviews? Confessions? You think someone betrayed you? Who?’
‘Start with your own father!’ Graves snarled. He looked straight into Daniel’s eyes and, for a moment, all that was there was hatred.
‘I did,’ Daniel replied. It was almost the truth. In his own mind, he had refused to believe his father had a part in this. But that was an act, and they both knew it. Graves would have expected Pitt to order a junior to do the deed, never that Pitt would have done it himself. He was morally guilty, not stupid.
‘You can’t be as big a fool as you act,’ Graves retorted. ‘Look at his right-hand man. Whom would he trust enough with his dirty work? Someone who wouldn’t betray him. Someone who couldn’t afford to! With the secrets he knows, there must be a good few of those.’
‘A lot of secrets,’ Daniel agreed. ‘Why not some of those people who have actually got evidence stacked up against them, not just a note in a book somewhere?’
Graves faltered for a moment, the absolute certainty drained out of his eyes.
Daniel realised his own failure to get names from Graves would jeopardise any chance of saving him, and of saving Pitt as well. Innuendo would not do much harm in the court of law, but it certainly would in the area of public opinion. If Pitt lost the confidence of the Home Office, he could not do his job.
‘Give me your chief sources,’ Daniel said. ‘Give me the ones you will ruin.’
Graves hesitated and then slowly listed half a dozen names to Daniel, who wrote them down. They were all public figures. The damage would be enormous.
‘It is just word of mouth – where is there proof?’ he asked.
Graves sneered at him. ‘So, you can go and destroy it? There’s proof. What will you do? Sell it back to them? Give it to your father? Or use it yourself to steal my book?’
Daniel allowed his disgust into his voice. ‘There’ll be no book if you’re dead. I want to find the one who killed your wife, you fool. Whoever did that to her deserves to—’ He bit off the end of the sentence. He faced Graves squarely. ‘Names!’
‘You’ll give them to your father, and do you imagine he’s going to go through them and give you the killer? He’ll probably give you some men all right, but are you sure that it’ll be the right ones? God! You’re such a child!’
‘Do you care, as long as you are not hanged?’ Daniel made it sound like a new question.
For a moment, Graves’ face was blank.
