Betrayal at Lisson Grove - Anne Perry [105]
Pitt did not need to pretend his ignorance, nor the growing fear inside him, chilling his body.
Croxdale shook his head minutely, his face clouded with unhappiness. ‘Narraway used one of their own against them, a woman named Kate O’Neil. The details I don’t know, and I prefer to be able to claim ignorance. The end of it was that the woman’s husband killed her, rather messily, and was tried and hanged for it.’
Pitt was stunned. He tried to imagine the grief and the guilt of it, whoever was involved, whatever had happened. Was Narraway really as ruthless as that implied? He pictured Narraway’s face in all the circumstances they had known each other, through success and failure, exhaustion, fear, disappointment, the final conclusion of dozens of battles, won or lost. Reading him defied reason: it was instinct, the trust that had grown up over time in all sorts of ways. It took Pitt a painful and uncertain effort to conceal his feelings. He tried to look confused.
‘If all this happened twenty years ago, what is it that has changed now?’ he asked.
Croxdale was only momentarily taken aback. ‘We don’t know,’ he replied. ‘Presumably something in O’Neil’s own situation.’
‘I thought you said he was hanged?’
‘Oh, yes, the husband was: that was Sean O’Neil. But his brother, Cormac, is still very much alive. They were unusually close, even for an Irish family,’ Croxdale explained.
‘Then why did Cormac wait twenty years for his revenge? I assume you are saying that Narraway took the money in some way because of O’Neil?’
Croxdale hesitated, then looked at Pitt guardedly. ‘You know, I have no idea. Clearly we need to know a good deal more than we do at present. I assume it is to do with O’Neil because Narraway went almost immediately to Ireland. He either has many enemies there, and is in grave danger, or he has made new allies and, by exposing Mulhare as a traitor, has turned to them and intends to work against us there.’
Pitt felt as if he had been sandbagged. He struggled to keep any sense of proportion, even of reality. He stared at Croxdale, seeing his face waver and the room seem to swim in and out of his focus.
‘I’m sorry,’ Croxdale said gravely. ‘It has already come as a terrible shock to you. You could have had no idea of this side of Narraway, and I admit, neither had I. I feel remiss to have had such a man in charge of our most sensitive service during my period of office. His extraordinary skill completely masked this darker, and clearly very duplicitous side of his nature.’
Pitt refused to believe it, partly because he could not bear it. Charlotte was in Ireland with Narraway. What had happened to her? How could he ask Croxdale without admitting that he knew this? He would not draw Vespasia into it. She was one element he had in his favour, perhaps the only one.
Croxdale spoke very quietly now, as if he feared some waiting servant might hear him.
‘Pitt, this is very grave indeed. I’m glad you see the depth of it so immediately. We have to regroup our forces to meet this appalling situation. There seem to be plots on all sides. I’m sure what you and Gower were witness to is part of some larger, and possibly very dangerous plan. The socialist tide has been rising for some time in Europe, as we are all aware. I can no longer have Narraway in charge, obviously. I need the very best I can find, a man I can trust morally and intellectually, whose loyalty is beyond question and who has no ghosts from the past to sabotage our present attempts to safeguard our country, and all it stands for.’
Pitt blinked. ‘Of course.’ Did that mean that Croxdale knew Austwick was the traitor? Pitt had been avoiding the issue, waiting, judging pointlessly. It was a relief. Croxdale was clever, more reliable than he had thought. Then how could he think such things of Narraway?
But what was Pitt’s judgement