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Immediately after he had said it, he wished he had not. He had taken all protection off the wound. That was what he was really afraid of. And of losing his own compass in all the mixed loyalties. Was there a real core at the heart of this? More than a minor, grubby theft, perhaps? And a young man, whoever he was, attempting a burglary with more violence than necessary?
He said as much to Miriam, suddenly finding the words with ease.
She was silent for several moments after he finished. He knew she would speak when she was ready.
“We haven’t got it yet,” she said at last. “But I think that is the right place to look. When we know what happened in the Thorwoods’ house that night, and why, we will have at least the beginning of the thread, and perhaps an idea why Cross was shot.”
He smiled in the moment of self-understanding. “We need to be in the middle to find that emotion!” he said. “What is it that matters so much? It’s got to be more than anyone’s hurt pride.”
She smiled. It was gentle, completely honest. “I haven’t the faintest idea.”
CHAPTER
Eighteen
“WHO, EXACTLY, IS Miriam again?” Jemima asked Daniel.
They were standing once more in the garden in Keppel Street, the August sun beginning to lose its heat in the late afternoon. Sophie was having her nap and Cassie was also upstairs asleep, a smile on her face. She had been difficult to settle, so pleased because she had beaten Daniel at a game with sticks and a sand bucket. He had created the rules as they went along and made absolutely certain he had lost in the end, but only just. It had been an exciting victory, with squeals of delight and lots of laughter.
Now Daniel and Jemima were alone and had time to speak for the first time since he had arrived a couple of hours ago, leaving both Hillyer and Kitteridge to keep stringing out the testimony in court as long as possible. Jemima had told him Charlotte and Patrick were at the trial, but in another hour and a half, at the latest, they would be home. They had to be, Jemima told Daniel; she and Patrick were going to dine with the Thorwoods.
“She is Marcus fford Croft’s daughter,” he answered. He had told her that before, but she was not sure what it meant.
“How do you know her?” She watched his face in the light. There was now emotion in it, more than she would have expected.
“She has done all the studying and taken all the exams to be a doctor, or a forensic pathologist, but no one will grant that she knows what she’s doing, because she is a woman,” he replied.
She heard the edge to his voice. There was anger, as well as pity, that burned in him as if he not only shared it but felt it. Why? Because he did not like her? Or because he respected her, and in any kind of fairness there should have been nothing to pity?
“How do you know her?” Jemima repeated, skirting around the painful place, like a cliff edge that might crumble.
“Marcus suggested we ask her help in a very difficult case. She found the fact on which it all turned. I thought she might help in this.”
“Can she?”
“I don’t know. She framed the questions we need to answer. She’s very logical. I was going to say you would like her, but I’m not sure.”
She started to say, “You do…” but changed her mind. Perhaps it did not matter now. Miriam fford Croft sounded interesting and different. Jemima stayed with the subject of the trial. “What do you need to find? I presume I can help, which is why you came to see me.”
He drew his breath in sharply, as if to speak.
“I’m not being petty,” she said quickly. “Time is too short for you to spend it on a social visit. What is it? It’s Rebecca, isn’t it? You need to push further on the attack, and you want me to do it?”
“Not quite,” he answered, this time with an apologetic smile. “But I think Tobias Thorwood might be the key.”
“You mean Miriam does?”
Daniel colored very slightly. “If I didn’t agree, I wouldn’t have come. Tobias is at the center of it, in a way.”
“You mean his identification of Sidney is,” she corrected him. “Or are you working around saying that he had to protect Rebecca? Why? Do you mean it was an assignation? That Tobias found her in bed with Sidney and threw him out? Framing him for robbery and assault so he can’t blacken her name?” It was a very painful thought, but she couldn’t deny it was possible…based on the facts anyway. Was Rebecca so feeble she would let a man she loved be ruined because her father disapproved of him? Was that what really haunted her—shame and guilt?
Daniel was watching her. “Don’t think of yourself, Jem, think of what people do to protect their children, especially if they think they are vulnerable. Rebecca is not you. You would be horrified, but would she? Maybe she feels overprotected, or that she wants to escape.”
“She screamed!” Jemima pointed out. “Fiercely enough to waken him and bring him running. In the middle of the night. That’s some scream.”
“Sidney said he wasn’t there,” Daniel pointed out. “What if that was the truth, and the rest is lies?”
“Are you saying she tore that necklace off herself? That would be difficult. I’ve lost my patience with a necklace I couldn’t undo before, but I’ve never torn it off. Actually, I tried once, and stopped pretty smartly l
