A False Mirror - Charles Todd [83]
Putnam, looking stricken, said only, “I think we should all have a little sherry. None of us has felt like eating any lunch, I daresay. It will do us good.” And he left them there, walking into the rectory parlor to find the tray with decanter and glasses.
Bennett called after the rector that they had no time for sherry, thank you very much, and nodded to Dr. Granville as he took his leave. Rutledge noted as they closed the door behind them that Granville seemed to shrink inside himself, as if it had taken all the strength he possessed to keep up appearances.
Bennett was saying, “You were a little hard on him.”
“He had to identify what I’d found. And it was important to know who might have slipped into that back room out of concern for Hamilton or even to scout in broad daylight how difficult it would be to come again at night. I’m beginning to think no one turned a lamp on. He or she may have had a shielded torch. Mrs. Granville must have been awake, waiting for her husband, and either an unguarded flash of light or some sound from the surgery attracted her attention. It was she who reached for the office lamp, and before she could light it, she had to be stopped. I’ll wager you that’s precisely what happened.”
“Dr. Granville wouldn’t have used a torch, he’d have felt free to turn up the lamp. On the other hand, he might well have left a lamp burning, and it went out. And she came down to see why. Yes, that’s bound to be what happened. But why take Hamilton away? Why not simply finish him there and be done with it?”
“Because without Hamilton, we can’t clear up what took place by the sea on Monday. And without Hamilton we don’t know what happened last night. If we’d been able to broaden our search for him before the cottage vanished, would we have found Hamilton there, dead of his wounds or exposure? Or only this bit of bandage to make us think he’s still alive somewhere?”
“You make it far more complicated than it needs to be,” Bennett complained as the motorcar began to roll. “Someone wanted Hamilton out of the way, and that someone also wants his wife. Add those facts together and we’re back to where we were when you arrived. And in my view, if we don’t arrest Mallory, we’re derelict in our duty now.”
“Where is the proof, other than walking into that house and holding Mrs. Hamilton at gunpoint? You can’t support trial on that alone. You went out after him, Bennett, and put the wind up. He could very well be telling the truth, that he believed he would hang if you had your way. And he went to the one person who mattered to him, to tell her not to believe the police. Or turn it another way—he was desperately afraid that it was Felicity Hamilton who’d attacked her husband.”
“You’ve taken his side. I say again, it was bound to happen. You were in the war, and that’s a tie hard to break—”
“The war has precious little to do with this! I’d have gladly seen Stephen Mallory die in the trenches instead of—”
He stopped. But the words were spoken even if not finished. “—instead of Hamish, who had no bishop uncle to pull him out before he broke. Who had had to go on fighting because he wasn’t an officer, and men in the British Army did their duty to God and King, dying if need be without complaint. Instead of all the others I couldn’t save, better men, better soldiers, who deserved a chance to live to see their children and their children’s children.”
He tried desperately to cover his blunder, ending lamely even to his own ears, “—instead of being accused of murder today, and a dishonor to his uniform.”
But Bennett said nothing, staring down the road, his face shadowed in the uncertain light inside the motorcar as the sun came and went. Something in his stillness was different now, as if a sudden thought had occurred to him. Or as if he’d read into Rutledge’s short, sharp silence and unsuccessful recovery a revelation that shifted the relationship between