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Kitteridge shivered. “Then we’d better hurry up and find it, or Sidney’s going to pay the price. Do you really think he’s innocent?”
“I’m not sure. Is that good enough for you?”
“No.” Kitteridge ate the last of his sandwich.
Daniel drank the rest of his ale and stood up. “I’m going back to see Sidney…”
Kitteridge stared at him. “Tonight?”
“Tomorrow’s too late. He must know something. He’s scared, but not scared enough.”
“Don’t scare him so badly he can’t think,” Kitteridge warned. “Most of us can’t think clearly when we’re really terrified. But you’ve got to tell him about Morley Cross.”
“I will,” Daniel said miserably. He knew there was no escape. “But now your case is finished, will you take over this case?”
“No. I’ll second chair. I know I said I’d never do that again after the last case. But sometimes ‘never’ is less time than you think.”
“Thank you,” Daniel said sincerely.
CHAPTER
Fourteen
THE PRISON AUTHORITIES were not happy about letting Daniel in to see Sidney at that hour of the early evening, but it was not the first time, nor would it be the last, that a trial had turned on an issue that had to be dealt with immediately.
Daniel paced back and forth in the usual gray room and waited. These rooms all looked the same, and regardless of the weather, they always seemed to be cold. Even on an August evening, which was still warm and bathed in the last of the sun, the place had a dead air to it.
Sidney was still dressed in his own clothes from the courtroom. At any other time, it would have been casually elegant. As he came in, he glanced at Daniel’s face and his whole body tightened with apprehension. He opened his mouth as if to speak, then changed his mind, and sat in the chair opposite Daniel. The guard left the room, but they both knew he was just outside the door.
“What is it?” Sidney spoke as if his mouth were dry and he could barely swallow. “Has something happened?”
Daniel wished there were anything at all he could say to lighten this man’s fear, but there was nothing. At the moment, he was accused of petty embezzlement. He would probably serve some time in prison, and it would be hard, but he would survive. It was the disgrace, the future suddenly torn away from him, the loss of friends, of reputation, of the trust and the hope that had driven him all his life. But behind, and dwarfing all the other entanglements in Daniel’s eyes, was the figure of Morley Cross, and the inevitability of his murder being introduced and added to the charge.
Daniel could see anticipation of more bad news in Sidney’s eyes now, even though he tried to hide it, and to smile. Daniel knew he must get all of the other information he could, before he told him of Cross.
He swallowed, wishing he were anywhere but here. “Sidney, the more I think about the whole of this, the more I realize there is something important that we don’t know.”
“I’ve told you everything…” Sidney’s voice cracked. “I…” He shook his head in desperation.
“You haven’t,” Daniel said quietly. “You may not know what it is, but there’s something more. Something that makes sense of this whole thing: the embezzlement, and why it was in your name, why it was only discovered after you left, even though, I presume, the embassy checks its accounts regularly. Either it wasn’t there earlier, or somebody else was covering it up. Why did it come to light at all? Why didn’t they just cover it up and force you to pay it back? Why expose it to the whole world? Junior officer in the British Embassy embezzles money from the accounts! On trial for everybody to read about. Great diplomacy. If I were Foreign Secretary, I’d want the head on a plate of whoever handled it like that, wouldn’t you?”
Sidney thought about it for only a moment. “Yes,” he said. “I didn’t think about that.”
“I know you’re stunned, and scared,” Daniel said more gently. “But you’ve got to think; help yourself. If you don’t, you’re tying my hands. You’re doing their job for them!” He wanted to stop Sidney from being so passive. “If you’re innocent, then fight back!” He allowed all the anger he felt to come through in his voice now. “Stop being such a damn gentleman, and fight! You don’t have to go like a lamb to the slaughter! It’s not heroic, it’s damn stupid! Drink the water and fight!”
“Water?” For a moment, Sidney was lost. Then he remembered the story of Sir Philip Sidney. “Consider it drunk,” he said with something close to a real smile. “About all those things you mentioned relating to the embezzlement, which I did not do. Plus there’s the assault on poor Rebecca Thorwood. I didn’t do that either. I only met her two or three times, but I liked her, and I don’t steal. I certainly don’t break into bedrooms and assault people. Am I supposed to still have this diamond pendant, or did I sell it before I left Washington? I didn’t have time! Even if I knew who to sell it to.” His face tightened. “But I couldn’t prove that in London. Lawton-Smith came with me to the dockside! But he’s still in Washington. He was supposed to see I got safely on the ship.” He gave a tiny shrug. “Maybe for my welfare. But more likely to make sure I really left. I was a considerable embarrassment to the ambassador.”
Daniel could see the shame in his face, but there was no time for sympathy now. “We could send him a wire, I presume,” he said without much hope. “I expect he’ll say whatever he’s told to. And the court will assume the same. The prosecution certainly will. I imagine his job will depend on it. Or they will presume it does anyway. I still want to know why they made the whole thing public. Why did they? It hardly serves the Foreign Office’s agenda.” He looked at Sidney intently. “Have you got some very powerful enemies that you haven’t told me about? Come on, man, I need to know! I can’t save you if you won’t be honest with me.”
“Do you imagine I haven’t been thinking?” For the first time, anger outweighed fear in Sidney’s voice. “I don’t know of anybody. Of course, I’ve got friends, and there are also people who don’t like or respect me, or who think I’m a fool. But everybody knows such people. Nobody pleases everyone. That’s not an enemy. They’re decent enough, just—”
“This is no time for being fair, or saying they’re all honest,” Daniel said tartly. “Someone isn’t. Your career now and in the future depends on believing that and acting on it. Your original Sir Philip Sidney may have given his last drop of water to someone else, but I’ll bet nobody walked over him, and he fought for what he believed in. He fell in battle, didn’t he? He didn’t just sit down and die?”
“Of course…” Sidney took a deep breath. “Do I really seem such a spineless man as that? I don’t shoot because I don’t know where to aim. I haven’t got any idea who did this, or why. If I lash out mindlessly, I might hit the only friend I have, as well as hurting innocent people, and looking like just the sort of self-obsessed dandy they’re making me out to be.”
Daniel felt guilty for a moment. But he had to fire Sidney out of this lethargy, whatever it took. He smiled grimly. “Well, don’t hit me, and you’re off to a good start. Maybe it’s not an enemy in a personal sense? Perhaps you’re in someone’s way of achieving something. If you don’t know what, we’ll have to work it out.”
“Not a promotion anyone else is seeking,” Sidney said ruefully.
