Sick of Shadows - M. C. Beaton [64]
“How thrilling. I read about you in the newspapers. So brave! All those people you rescued in that dreadful train crash.” They were sitting together on a sofa. She put her hand on his arm and leaned towards him. She was wearing a heady perfume. Harry thought briefly of his chilly fiancée with a flash of dislike.
“May I speak to Miss Hubbard?” asked Harry. Something seemed to have happened to his voice and it came out as a croak. She gave him a languorous smile and rang a little silver bell on the table in front of her.
After a moment, a mousy little woman entered the room. She was in complete contrast to the amazing beauty of her mistress. Harry wondered whether she had been employed for that very reason.
“You may be seated, Emily,” said Mrs. Losse. “This is Captain Cathcart. He has decided to investigate further the murder of your poor brother.”
Emily sat down on the very edge of a chair and clasped her hands. “Oh, sir,” she said, “I was afraid no one was ever going to find out anything.”
“Tell me about your brother?” asked Harry gently.
“He was good and worked hard. He liked working for the agency because he said there were so many banquets and functions that there was always demand for extra footmen and he didn’t need to be tied to one master like some.”
I wonder whether he was blackmailing the Tremaines, thought Harry. Aloud, he asked, “Did your brother say anything about coming into money?”
She gave a sad little laugh. “He was always dreaming. I met him just before he was killed on my day off. We walked down to London Bridge. He said we would go and buy a little cottage in the country and raise hens and pigs.”
“And was this new?”
She sighed. “Oh, no, it was a dream he’d always had.”
“Did he talk of any rich or influential friends?”
“No, sir. He only talked about other servants he had met on his various jobs.”
Harry promised that if he found out anything, he would let her know immediately. Emily was dismissed. Harry rose to leave.
“You must come back and see me,” said Mrs. Losse as she escorted him to the door. She stood very close to him in the narrow passage, that bewitching face of hers turned up to his own.
“Yes, I will,” said Harry.
“Promise!” Those eyes glinted flirtatiously. Harry laughed. “Of course.”
He went straight to Scotland Yard to find that Kerridge had gone home ages ago and so he said he would return in the morning. When he returned to his home, he told Becket of the latest developments.
“Do you not think you should tell Lady Rose about this?” suggested Becket.
“No, I don’t think so. She will demand again to accompany me to Scotland Yard. I am in enough difficulties there with some of them who regard me as an interfering amateur. Lady Rose is very forceful. With her along, it would look as if I was under some sort of petticoat government and life would be made even more difficult for me. Kerridge is always helpful, but he doesn’t tell me everything just because I am not on the force. I know that Inspector Judd disapproves of me and I have overheard detectives calling me ‘that dilettante.’ I shall call on her after I have talked to Kerridge.”
“It is late,” said Becket. “You were supposed to take dinner with the Hadfields this evening.”
“Now I really am in trouble,” groaned Harry.
“I really think it shameful,” said Lady Polly over dinner that evening. “Captain Cathcart now no longer calls to give his excuses. I am furious with him and so I shall tell him.”
“I hope he is all right,” said Daisy. “I am sure it was something very important.”
Mrs. Barrington-Bruce was one of the guests. She gave a great laugh. “To be sure, for a man it was important.”
“Do you know something?” asked Rose.
“Only that one of my footmen was walking my little doggies round Launceston Place. He told me just before I left to come here that he had seen Captain Cathcart visiting the home of a certain Mrs. Josse.”
“Who is Mrs. Josse?” asked Rose.
“A certain very beautiful member of the demi-monde.”
“Then it must be part of some case the captain was working on,” said Rose.
Mrs. Barrington-Bruce