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“Yes. That, too, I suppose.”
“And wounded pride?”
“That would lead to the motive of revenge.”
Her eyes widened. “Rebecca Thorwood rebuffed Philip Sidney and he broke in and attacked her, stealing the pendant in revenge? Does he seem like a man who would do that? If he is, then he will have done it before. She can’t be the first one who ever turned him down. And is the embezzlement somehow to be connected with this?” She did not say that she did not believe it, but it was plain on her face.
“Doesn’t work, does it?” Daniel said with a grimace.
Miriam relaxed just a little bit. He saw it in a sudden ease in her fingers, where they rested in her lap. “Not even a little bit. I’m assuming you have traced her behavior in the past, and asked if Miss Thorwood ever rebuffed him?”
“Of course,” he agreed.
“Then it is something else. Daniel, do you like him?”
He was about to argue that that was irrelevant. Then he realized she was asking for a reason. Did it affect his judgment? Was he looking for a way out of admitting Sidney was guilty? No! He was looking for a way out of finding that Patrick was guilty of framing a man he believed had committed a particularly intricate and spiteful crime.
“Yes,” he said quietly. “But that isn’t my biggest problem.” He told her about his dilemma, and why it mattered so much.
She listened to him without interrupting.
“But even if he is guilty,” he finished, “I want to convict him genuinely, not…”
“I know.” She nodded. “But let us look at it from another direction, at least for a moment. The worst thing for you would be if Sidney really is not guilty, and Patrick helped in constructing a case to find him guilty. If Tobias Thorwood saw Sidney in his house, then at least he is telling the truth, or part of it.”
“All of it!” Daniel said. “That’s all he said!”
“That’s not all he implied,” she corrected him. “Thorwood came because Rebecca screamed. That was what he said. And Sidney was running out of the bedroom onto the landing. Did he go down the stairs? Or into another upstairs room and out of a window? Is that even possible? How high up would that be? For that matter, did Thorwood try to stop him? Did he call the police that night? Immediately? Or perhaps after he made sure that Rebecca was all right? And in his place, I would have asked for the account of how Sidney got in. And how did he get in? Did he break in?”
Daniel realized he had not asked Patrick any of these things. It had not seemed to matter at the time.
Thorwood had seen Sidney in the house. He certainly knew him well enough to recognize him. Rebecca had sworn she had not invited him, or let him in. It probably made no difference, but Miriam was right to ask. “I don’t know, to all of those things,” he said. “But Sidney ran away. He claimed diplomatic immunity and left the country. That’s at the core of it.”
“No, it isn’t.” Miriam shook her head. “It’s one fact that’s unarguable. That’s all. At the core of it is the thing you are looking for. The emotion. The reason for it all. Somebody who cares so deeply they are following through with all this. Why did Sidney break in, if he did? If he didn’t, did anyone? Is Thorwood lying about any part of it? Could he be protecting someone? He has sworn the intruder was Sidney, so he can’t go back on that. But if that is so, then why not let it all blow over? Why on earth follow Sidney to London and keep up the pursuit? I assume you must have asked Sidney if he knew?”
“Yes. And he says he doesn’t.”
“You believe him? Apart from the fact that you like him, do you believe him?”
Daniel thought for only a moment. “Yes, I do. About this anyway.”
“Then if we take that as truth, Thorwood is lying, or mistaken. Who is he covering for, and why? Does Rebecca know the truth?”
“She says not, according to Jemima.”
“What about Tobias Thorwood himself?”
“Why? What has he to gain?” He was puzzled.
“I have no idea. But he seems, from what you say, to be the one who’s keeping the whole case alive.” She hesitated a moment. “What is really troubling you? Is it the Morley Cross murder? Or Patrick’s part in the whole thing?”
How had she read him so easily? Was it all written in his face? It was uncomfortable to be so obvious to anyone. And yet it would be ridiculous to lie, even to evade. “I suppose it is Patrick,” he admitted. “This is the first time I’ve met him, though Jemima has been married to him for four years. But they lived in New York, and then Washington. I was more than fully occupied with exams…I couldn’t go to the wedding.”
She smiled, although there was pain in it. “I understand. You can’t take that time out, three weeks at least with traveling, and to pass law or medicine…”
He remembered that she had sat and passed all the exams with honors to qualify her as a forensic pathologist, but they would not take her seriously, because she was a woman.
“I like Patrick.” He sat back. “But the real thing is, I don’t want Jemima to be hurt. She probably knows him very well, but how well do we ever know anyone? Especially if we are in love with them?”
