Long Spoon Lane - Anne Perry [136]
“I think I’ll go and tell the Landsboroughs that we know who murdered their son,” he said, standing up slowly. “They have a right to know that. I can’t arrest him until I know where he is.”
“If you tell Lord Landsborough, they may warn Enid Denoon,” Vespasia said reluctantly. There was intense pity in her face. “Or is that what you intend, Thomas?”
Charlotte looked from Pitt to Vespasia, and back again.
“I can’t let him go, Aunt Vespasia,” he spoke gently. The whole idea hurt him. “He raped a girl, he’s been organizing the money for the anarchists who blew up Myrdle Street, and very probably Scarborough Street as well, but mostly he killed Magnus. And arresting him for that so his father knows how Wetron used him is the only way I have to trap Wetron himself at last.”
“I see,” she agreed. “I can think of no other way either.”
He found himself almost choked with overwhelming sadness as he said it. “First mistakes are often not so big, and certainly not irreparable, if you pay for them at the time. He kept on making more, trying to avoid paying for the first. Until they became too big to pay for. I’m sorry.”
Charlotte leaned forward and slid her hand over Vespasia’s. It was a gesture of an intimacy she made without thinking. Had she thought, perhaps she would not have dared.
“Of course.” Vespasia nodded almost imperceptibly. “My remark was made without consideration. How do you intend to arrest him, since according to Voisey he was planning to escape the country by sea?”
“There was no proof that that was true,” Pitt pointed out, embarrassed still with how easily he had believed it. “I think I shall have some idea from Denoon’s behavior whether his son has gone or not. I don’t know for certain, but I believe Edward Denoon was providing at least some of the money Piers gave the genuine anarchists, either from his own sources or from Wetron’s. Wetron probably allowed Grover to keep enough from his extortion to finance the Scarborough Street bombs.”
“I see. You wish Denoon to be at Lord Landsborough’s house when you tell him?” Vespasia made it a question, almost an offer.
He felt a tightening inside himself. “Yes…please.”
“I see that you have a telephone in the hall. Perhaps I had better use it.”
He offered her his hand.
She rose without it, giving him a dry, chilly look, but not without amusement. “I am grieved, Thomas, not incapable!”
Pitt turned to Gracie. “Thank you,” he said sincerely. “I think Wetron may have a vulnerability after all, just a slight one.”
Gracie blushed with pleasure.
Pitt looked at Charlotte. He did not say anything or offer explanations, simply met her eyes for a moment. Then he followed Vespasia out into the hall.
Vespasia’s carriage took Pitt to the Landsborough house before going on to take her back to her own. They did not say anything further on the subject along the short ride, but sat in a companionable silence. Pitt was still thinking about Voisey lying on the floor of his office, drained of the anger and greed, the wit and the hunger that had made him so alive. He did not know what she was thinking, but probably of Sheridan Landsborough and the grief that must fill him, and of Enid and the pain that so soon awaited her.
At no time had he asked Vespasia not to warn them. Such an idea was unthinkable, and to speak of it would be insulting to a degree she might forgive, but she would not forget.
“Thank you, Aunt Vespasia,” he said quietly when the carriage stopped.
She did not answer, but smiled at him very slightly, her face filled with pity.
He wished there were something he could say or do, even a gesture, but he did not know what, and ended simply bidding his good-bye as he alighted, and closing the carriage door behind him.
The footman received him without surprise, or even needing to ask his name. Sheridan and Cordelia were waiting