Long Spoon Lane - Anne Perry [142]
They pushed past him just as the shot rung out. Vespasia gave a cry and turned to the morning room just as Wetron appeared at the door. He looked gray-faced, his hair tousled, and there was a small pistol in his hand.
“She’s insane!” he gasped, staring wildly first at Vespasia, then at Pitt. “She came at me like a…a…a mad woman! I had no choice. It’s…” He looked at the gun in his hand as if he were almost surprised to see it there. “This was hers. She was going to shoot me! Her son has been arrested. It…it unhinged her mind…poor creature.”
Vespasia pushed past him as if he had been a servant in the way, and went into the morning room, leaving the door wide open behind her.
Even from where he stood Pitt could see Enid on the floor, lying on her back, blood welling scarlet from a wound in her lower chest.
Vespasia bent to her, cradling her in her arms, oblivious to the blood now covering her also.
Pitt took the gun from Wetron. It was surprisingly small, a woman’s weapon.
Enid was still alive, just.
“She’s mad!” Wetron said again, his voice thin and high. “I had no choice!”
Vespasia looked up from where she was kneeling, her arm now around Enid’s shoulders. “Rubbish!” she said with savage, glittering triumph. “The bullet is in the carpet under her!” she shouted hoarsely. “She was lying on the floor when you shot her. You struck her and she fell and dropped the gun. You picked it up and used it in cold blood. The police surgeon will be able to prove that. You’ve made your one final mistake, Mr. Wetron. You destroyed her nephew, and her son. But she has destroyed you. It is the end of the Police Bill, and I think at last it is also the end of the Inner Circle. Voisey is dead and Edward Denoon will be ruined.”
She looked down at Enid and the tears filled her eyes. “I hope she knew what she had achieved,” she whispered, letting go of her at last. “You had better use the telephone to have someone come and take the wretched man away, Thomas. You must have people for such things. I will then tell Lord Landsborough what is lost, and what is gained.”
Pitt remembered that among all the collected things in his pocket he had a set of manacles. He took them out and locked Wetron to one of the brass posts on the magnificent club fender around the fireplace, obliging him to sit on the floor a yard from Enid’s body.
“Yes, of course,” he said. “I’m…sorry.”
Vespasia looked at him, ignoring her tears. “Don’t be, my dear. This was what she chose, and I think perhaps there was no other way.”
“Thank you, Aunt Vespasia,” he said, swallowing hard, and went to obey.
BY ANNE PERRY
Published by The Random House Publishing Group
FEATURING WILLIAM MONK
The Face of a Stranger
A Dangerous Mourning
Defend and Betray
A Sudden, Fearful Death
The Sins of the Wolf
Cain His Brother
Weighed in the Balance
The Silent Cry
A Breach of Promise
The Twisted Root
Slaves of Obsession
Funeral in Blue
Death of a Stranger
The Shifting Tide
Dark Assassin
FEATURING CHARLOTTE AND THOMAS PITT
The Cater Street Hangman
Callander Square
Paragon Walk
Resurrection Row
Bluegate Fields
Rutland Place
Death in the Devil’s Acre
Cardington Crescent
Silence in Hanover Close
Bethlehem Road
Highgate Rise
Belgrave Square
Farriers’ Lane
The Hyde Park Headsman
Traitors Gate
Pentecost Alley
Ashworth Hall
Brunswick Gardens
Bedford Square
Half Moon Street
The Whitechapel Conspiracy
Southampton Row
Seven Dials
Long Spoon Lane
THE WORLD WAR I NOVELS
No Graves As Yet
Angels in the Gloom
Shoulder the Sky
THE CHRISTMAS NOVELS
A Christmas Journey
A Christmas Guest
A Christmas Visitor
Praise for
Long Spoon Lane
“One can always count on Anne Perry’s elegant Victorian mysteries.”
—New York Times Book Review
“[Readers] will appreciate the cleverly orchestrated political machinations as much as the personal agendas—both of which come fully into play when it comes to solving the mystery.”
—Booklist
“Carnage comes early in Perry’s engrossing Victorian historical…. A convincing historical backdrop