A cold treachery - Charles Todd [115]
Twenty-four hours, he told himself. It was not long enough to finish what had to be done.
As he fell into a deep sleep, Rutledge heard Hamish's voice.
You havena' found the key!
It seemed to echo around the room.
Greeley was thunderstruck. “You can't believe Paul Elcott killed his brother! I know you've considered him from the start, on the spiteful word of Miss Ashton, but I never dreamt it would come to this!”
“No? Then perhaps you've got a better solution to these murders?”
“Miss Ashton. I've never been completely satisfied why she was on the road to Urskdale in such a storm. For my money, she was on her way back to Carlisle when you found her in a ditch! But you refuse to consider that.”
“I haven't refused. I've slowly come to the conclusion that she's been lying from the start.” For according to the farmer Jim Follet, Janet Ashton had been crying inconsolably even before she'd been told that her sister was dead. But had she reached the Elcott house? If she hadn't, what was it that frightened her away? Aloud he said only, “But we can't prove that at the moment.”
“Speaking of proof, where's Theo's revolver? If that's what Paul was supposed to have used.”
“Truthfully? I don't know. Out in the snow somewhere. Flung there by the killer or dropped there by the child. Or still hidden in the barn to keep it out of the hands of an inquisitive boy. Elcott may well have taken it off to war with him, for all we know.”
“Well, then, you have precious little reason to take Paul Elcott into custody.” Greeley got up from his desk and began to pace the small office, studying the thin, tired face of the man seated in his extra chair. “I tell you, I don't understand you. It's all very well to come here from London and give assistance. I grant you, I needed your help to see beyond this crime. But to judge a man on so little evidence—it smacks of desperation! Is there something you've been keeping from me?”
“Just do as I ask, if you will.”
Greeley's mouth tightened. “Then you're grasping at straws.”
“It's true. But if I don't have better answers for you in twenty-four hours, you have my permission to release Elcott.”
And with that Greeley had to be satisfied.
News swept through Urskdale with the speed of wildfire. Belfors was one of the first to storm into the police station and engage in a shouting match with Greeley.
Janet Ashton, on the other hand, was irritatingly quiet when Rutledge told her the news. He had expected her to be smug.
“I'm glad it's over with,” was all she said. “Grace and the children can rest in peace.”
“And Gerald?”
“Gerald.” She said the name with sadness. “I did love him, you know. I never understood why he couldn't have loved me as well. It broke my heart. And I was very foolish to think I could change his mind.”
He said, “It could be that you were too strong for him. Grace was vulnerable. He may have found that attractive. Many men do.”
“Yes. I've watched you fall under the spell of Elizabeth Fraser. She's stronger than you think. The difference is, she knows how to conceal it.” It was a bitter admission.
He tried to disregard her accusation. “What was your first thought, when you saw they were all dead? That Paul had killed them?”
Stunned, she stared at him. “When I saw— What are you saying!”
“I think you knew what had happened. Before Jarvis told you.”
“Be damned to you!” She got up swiftly and swept from the room, slamming the door behind her.
Paul Elcott's rooms were an indication of his condition. A man on the brink of failure, with nothing to show for years of hard work while his brother was in the war, nothing to show for his attempt to strike out on his own.
Rutledge went through his possessions with distaste. How envious had Elcott been of his brother? he wondered as he searched.
Hamish said, “It's in the nature of a child to be envious.”
Had Henry Elcott, the father of the two boys, always found Paul lacking, and had his mother always made excuses for him, protecting him? The incident with Theo Elcott's revolver, when a young and rebellious