Long Spoon Lane - Anne Perry [138]
“I apologize for my husband’s lack of manners,” she said very clearly to Pitt. “I wish I could think of a reasonable excuse, but I cannot. Would you be good enough, in spite of our lack of grace, to tell us what you have observed. Sheridan, at last, would like to know. He loved Magnus deeply, and did all he could to bring him back from the path of anarchy.”
Pitt found her compassion almost unbearable. It even raced through his mind to wonder if there was any way at all that he could spare her from her own son’s arrest, and almost certainly his trial and death.
“Well?” Cordelia broke the silence.
There was nothing Pitt could do. It was not the first time he had hated catching someone, and many he had understood better than Piers Denoon.
“It is one of the other anarchists,” he said in answer. “I am not sure if I can arrest him, but I am going to do all I can. I regret it, very much. I wish I could say it was Voisey, and put an end to it, but I can’t.”
“Why on earth would you wish that?” Cordelia demanded. “We all want whoever it was! Go and arrest him. Don’t waste time standing here. Tell us when it is done.”
Pitt felt a flicker of anger at her bluntness. It passed in an instant. “I regret it because it was someone Magnus knew and trusted,” he answered. “Possibly even cared for. I am not telling you until I arrest him, because if I do, I may cause unnecessary pain, and make a charge I cannot prove. One way or another, I believe it will be over by this time tomorrow. Good day.”
Landsborough went with him to the door, and just short of it he stopped.
“Is it true, Pitt? Do you know who it was?” he said urgently.
“There seems to be only one possible answer,” Pitt replied.
“But you needed something from us, which is why you came.”
“You went after Magnus and tried to dissuade him?” Pitt made it a question, although he knew the answer.
Landsborough’s face tightened, bleak with misery and a drowning sense of failure. “Yes.”
Pitt felt brutal, as if he were cutting a man apart while he was still alive. Apologizing would only make it worse.
“Did you see two men, one with pale skin and red hair, the other thin with a mass of dark hair, curling?”
“Yes?” Landsborough was confused.
“They said they were friends of Magnus’s. Is that true?”
“Yes. I saw them with him several times. They seemed to be quite…close. Does it matter now?”
“Yes. I want to use them to catch the man who killed him.” Pitt felt guilty that he could not warn Landsborough of the fearful pain to come. But he was so close to his sister that he might very easily betray the truth to her, even if he did not mean to. He might even do it intentionally, to save her some tiny portion of the grief. In fact, Pitt was almost certain he would do so. It was his nature. “Thank you,” he added. “I thought they were telling the truth, but if they were involved, they would lie.”
Landsborough frowned. “You said it was someone he trusted,” he pointed out.
“It was. But it couldn’t have been either of them. We know where they were standing at the time. Thank you, Lord Landsborough. Now I must go and do what I have to.” It seemed absurd to say “good day.” He gave a brief smile and left.
He went straight to the prison where Welling and Carmody were being held. He told the jailer to put them in the same cell, then he went in himself.
Both men stared at him. The change had disconcerted them and they were afraid of what it might mean. It was as he had intended, but only part of his reason for doing it. He had a plan to trick Denoon, and hoped that he could be driven to testify against Wetron in order to save himself. At the very least he might betray himself in a way that would give Pitt a wedge to drive into the smallest crack, and eventually begin Wetron’s destruction.
Welling and Carmody were staring at him and waiting.
“I want you to give a message to Piers Denoon,” he said bluntly.
There was a sneer on Welling’s face. “You mean like, post a letter?” he said sarcastically. “Post it yourself.”
“I mean like go and find him,” Pitt replied.