The Silent Cry - Anne Perry [68]
He left feeling he had wasted his time. All he had learned had confirmed his earlier picture of Leighton Duff as a clever, hardworking and eminently, almost boringly, decent man. The side of his character which took him to St. Giles, for whatever reason, was perfectly hidden from his partners in the law. If they suspected anything, they did not allow Evan to see it.
But then if a gentleman took occasional release for his natural carnal appetites, it was certainly not a matter to be displayed before the vulgar and the inquisitive, and Evan knew that in their minds the police would fall into both those categories.
It was after four o’clock and already dusk, with the lamplighters hurrying to the last few before it was too late, when Evan arrived at the home of Joel Kynaston, friend of Leighton Duff and headmaster of the excellent school at which Rhys had obtained his education. He did not live on the school premises but in a fine Georgian house about a quarter of a mile away.
The door was opened by a rather short butler, straightening to stand up to every fraction of his height.
“Yes sir?” He must be used to parents of pupils turning up at unexpected hours. He showed no surprise at all, except perhaps at Evan’s comparative youth as he stepped into the light.
“Good afternoon. My name is John Evan. I would very much appreciate speaking confidentially with Mr. Kynaston. It is in regard to the recent tragic death of Mr. Leighton Duff.” He did not give his rank or occupation.
“Indeed, sir,” the butler said without expression. “I shall enquire if Mr. Kynaston is at home. If you will be so good as to wait.”
It was the customary polite fiction. Kynaston would have expected someone to call. It was surely inevitable. He would be prepared in his mind. If he had anything relevant he was willing to say, he would have sought out Evan himself.
Evan looked around the hallway where he had been left. It was elegant, a trifle cold in its lack of personal touches. The umbrella stand held only sticks and umbrellas of one character, one length. Such ornaments as there were, were all of finely wrought brass, possibly Arabic, beautiful but lacking the variety of objects collected by a family over a period of years. Even the pictures on the walls spoke of one taste. Either Kynaston and his wife were remarkably alike in their choices or one person’s character prevailed over the other’s.
But the man who came out of the double oak doors of the withdrawing room was not more than twenty-two or -three. He was handsome, if a little undershot of jaw, with fair hair which curled attractively and bold, direct blue eyes.
“I’m Duke Kynaston, Mr. Evan,” he said coolly, stopping in the middle of the polished floor. “My father is not at home yet. I am not sure when he will be. Naturally we wish to be of any assistance to the police that we can, but I fear there is nothing we know about the matter. Would you not be better pursuing your enquiries in St. Giles? That is where it happened, is it not?”
“Yes it is,” Evan replied, trying to sum up the young man, make a judgment as to his nature. He wondered how close he had been to Rhys Duff. There was an arrogance in his face, a hint of self-indulgence about the mouth, which made it easy to imagine that if Rhys had indeed gone whoring in St. Giles, Duke Kynaston might well have been his companion. Had he been there that night? At the dark edges of Evan’s mind, something he did not even want to allow into his conscious thought, was the knowledge of Monk’s case, the rapes of poverty-stricken women, amateur prostitutes. But that had been in Seven Dials, beyond Aldwich. Was it just conceivable that Rhys and his companions had been responsible for that, and had this time met their match, a woman who had a brother or a husband who was not as drunk as they had supposed? Possibly even a vigilante group of their own? That would explain the violence of the reprisal. And Leighton Duff had feared as much and had followed