Murder at Mansfield Park - Lynn Shepherd [88]
‘So what occurred thereafter?’ said Maddox, after a pause. ‘Listening to what you say, one would be led to expect this story to have a happy ending, however inauspicious its commencement. How came it that Mrs Crawford returned here alone?’
Henry got to his feet, and began to pace about the room.
‘I have already endeavoured to explain this once today, but to no avail. The simple answer is that I do not know. I woke one morning to find her gone. There was no note, no explanation, no indication as to her intentions.’
‘And when, precisely, was this?’
‘A week ago. To the day.’
‘I see,’ said Maddox thoughtfully. ‘But what I do not at present see, is why—given that Mrs Crawford arrived here so soon thereafter—you yourself have not seen fit to make an appearance before now.’
‘I had no conception that she would choose to return here, of all places. She abominated this house, and despised most of the people in it. To be frank with you, sir, I find it utterly incomprehensible.’
Maddox took a pinch of snuff, and held his companion’s gaze for a moment. ‘May I ask what you have been doing, in the intervening period?’
Henry threw himself once again into his chair, and Maddox took note that, consciously or not, Crawford had elected a posture that obviated any need for him to meet his questioner’s eye, unless he actively wished to do so.
‘I have been searching for her,’ he said, with a frown. ‘I spent two fruitless days scouring London, before resorting to the dispatch of messengers to Bath and Brighton, and any other place of pleasure that might have offered her similar novelty or enlargement of society. She did not lack money, and could have taken the best house in town, wherever she lighted upon. Nor would she have seen any necessity for the slightest discretion or subterfuge. I calculated that this fact alone would assist me in finding her. But it was hopeless. I could discover nothing.’
‘And you conducted these enquiries where, exactly?’
‘From our lodgings in Portman-square.’
‘So I take it you come directly from London?’
Henry hesitated, and flushed slightly. ‘No. Not directly. I come from my house at Enfield.’
Maddox looked at him more closely; this was an interesting development indeed. ‘Now that, sir, if you will forgive me, strikes me as rather odd. Capricious even.’
‘I do not see why,’ retorted Henry, sharply.‘I had decided to return to Mansfield, and Enfield is in the way from London.’
‘Quite so,’ said Maddox, with a smile. ‘I do not dispute your geography, Mr Crawford. But I do ask myself why a gentleman in your position—a man of means, with horses and grooms at his disposal, and the power to command the finest accommodations in the country—should voluntarily, nay almost wilfully, elect to lodge in a house that, as far as I am aware, is barely larger than the room in which we sit, and has not been inhabited for years. Not, indeed, since the regrettable death of poor Mrs Tranter.’
Henry started up, and stared at his companion. ‘How do you come to know of that?’
Maddox’s countenance retained its expression of impenetrable calmness. ‘You will not be surprised to hear that your delightful sister asked me exactly the same question, Mr Crawford. But it was a brutal and notorious crime, was it not? And not so very far from London.You would surely expect a man in my line of work to have heard tell of such an incident. The gang was never apprehended, I collect.’
Henry shook his head. ‘No, they were not.’
Maddox turned to stir the fire. ‘I gather your sister finds the house so retentive of abhorrent memories that she will not set foot in it.You, by contrast, elect to stay under that very roof, when you might have had your pick of lodgings without stirring a finger.’
He turned to face Crawford