Paragon Walk - Anne Perry [48]
“Find out whose carriage left the Walk that evening, or the following morning,” he ordered waspishly. “Fulbert was not a very big man. Anyone could have carried him if they had needed to—except perhaps Algernon—especially if he were already unconscious or dead.”
“I intend to, Mr. Nash,” Pitt answered him. “And to question cabbies, errand boys and send out a directive to every other police station in the force, also a description of him to all the railway stations and especially the cross-channel ferry. But I shall be surprized if we turn up anything of use. I have already begun a search of hospitals and morgues.”
“Well, good God, man, he’s got to be somewhere!” Afton exploded. “It’s not as if he could have been eaten by wild animals in the middle of London! Do all those things, by all means—I suppose they are necessary—but you’d get furthest by asking a few damned awkward questions right here! Whatever’s happened to him has to do with Fanny. And much as I would like to imagine it was some drunken coachman from the Dilbridges’ party, it would be straining credulity a little too far. If it were, Fulbert would not know of it, and so it could be of no conceivable danger to the man.”
“Unless he saw something,” Pitt pointed out.
Afton looked at him with icy amusement.
“Hardly, Mr. Pitt. Fulbert was with me all that evening, playing billiards, as I believe I told you when you first asked.”
Pitt met his eyes perfectly calmly.
“As I understand, sir, from both of you, Mr. Fulbert did leave the billiard room on at least one occasion. Is it not possible that while passing a window he observed something unusual, which afterward he realized to be of significance?”
Dull anger crept up Afton’s face. He hated to be in the wrong.
“Coachmen are not significant, Inspector. They are about the street all the time. If you had one, you would know. I suggest you press a little more closely on the Frenchman, for a start. He said he was at home all evening. Perhaps he was not, and it was he whom Fulbert saw? One lie springs from another! Find out what he was really doing. He’s far too easy with women. He’s managed to seduce the minds of nearly every woman in the Walk. I think he is a great deal older than he pretends. Spends all his time inside, or going out at night—but see his face in the daylight.
“One expects women to be frail, to look no further than a man’s features or his manners. Perhaps Monsieur Alaric’s tastes run to something young and innocent like Fanny. But she was not duped by his charm. Maybe the loose and sophisticated women like Selena Montague bored him. If Fulbert sensed that, and was rash enough to let Alaric know he had seen him out—” He sniffed savagely and choked. “If he did,” he added.
Pitt listened. The flow was poisonous, but there might be some germ of truth in it, even so.
Afton continued.
“Selena always was a—a strumpet. Even when her husband was alive, she did not know how to conduct herself. Lately she has sought after George Ashworth, and he’s been fool enough to dally with her! I find it disgusting. Perhaps it does not offend you?” He glared at Pitt with curled lip. “Nevertheless, it is true.”
It was what Pitt had been fearing. He had already read it through Charlotte’s words, although of course he had not told her. Perhaps he could still keep it from Emily. He said nothing to Afton, just looked at him, his face attentive, as he struggled to keep expression out of it.
“And you should take a good deal closer look at Freddie Dilbridge’s party,” Afton went on. “Not only coachmen drink more than they can hold. He has some very strange guests. I don’t know how Grace puts up with it, except of course it is her place to obey him, and, good woman that she is, she abides by it. But, good God, do you know his daughter is keeping company with some Jew, and Freddie allows it, just because the man has money! I ask you, some money-grubbing little Jew, with Albertine Dilbridge!” He turned around sharply, his eyes narrowed. “Or perhaps you don’t understand that? Although even the lower classes don’t usually mix their