Traitors Gate - Anne Perry [139]
“You gave this man correct information for him to distort it?”
“Precisely.”
Pitt sighed. “And how do you know he did that?”
“What?”
“How do you know that he distorted it before he passed it on?”
“I have his word….” He stopped, his eyes sick with sudden comprehension. “You don’t believe me….”
“I think the kindest thing I can say for you, Mr. Soames,” Pitt said wearily, “is that you are naive.” Soames pushed backwards into the chair behind him.
“Who is it?” Pitt asked.
“I … I can’t believe it.” Soames made one last effort to cling to his innocence. “He … was …”
“Plausible,” Pitt finished for him. “I find it hard to credit that you were so easily duped.” Although even as he said it, it became a lie. Looking at Soames’s face, ashen and wretched, he thought he was indeed naive.
“His reasons were …” Soames began again, still struggling. “His reasoning was so logical. They are not fools, the Germans.” He brushed his hand across his sweating lip. “The information had to be very close to accurate. Inventions would not do.”
“That I can easily accept,” Pitt agreed. “Even the need to give misinformation is understandable. They are acutely involved with East Africa, Zambezia, Zanzibar especially, and I know we are in negotiations with them over a major treaty.”
Soames’s face brightened a little.
“But we have a secret service for that kind of thing,” Pitt went on.
“Which works through the Foreign and Colonial offices!” Soames sat forward, his eyes brighter. “Really, Superintendent, I think you have misjudged the affair.”
“No I have not, Mr. Soames,” Pitt replied sharply. “If that kind of information were required of you, for that purpose, then you would have been asked for it by either Mr. Chancellor or Lord Salisbury. You would not have been required to do it covertly, and to be afraid of my enquiries. In fact I would have had no enquiries, because they were instigated by the Foreign Office, as you must recall, and assisted by the Colonial Office, who were most worried by the information passing to the Germans, and quite unaware that it is not correct.”
Soames sat on the edge of the chair, his body slack in a moment’s despair. Then he straightened up and shot to his feet, lunging at the telephone, and picked it out of its cradle, staring at Pitt defiantly. “I can explain!” He spoke to the operator and asked to be connected with Lord Salisbury’s home, giving the number. All the time his eyes were on Pitt.
A part of Pitt felt pity for him. He was arrogant and gullible, but he was not an intentional traitor.
There was a crackle at the other end of the line.
Soames drew in his breath to speak, then realized the futility of it.
Slowly he replaced the receiver.
There was no need for Pitt to make a comment. Soames looked as if his knees would buckle under him.
“Who did you give the information to?” Pitt asked again.
“Jeremiah Thorne,” Soames replied with stiff lips. “I gave it to Jeremiah Thorne.”
Before Pitt had time to respond, even to wonder if it were the truth, the door opened and Harriet Soames stood in the entrance, her face pale, her eyes wide and ready to accuse. She looked first at her father and saw his extreme distress, bordering on the edge of collapse, and then she glared at Pitt.
“Papa, you look ill. What has happened? Mr. Pitt, why have you come here, and at this hour of the day? Is it to do with Mrs. Chancellor’s death?” She came in and closed the door.
“No, Miss Soames,” Pitt answered her. “It is a matter, so far as I know, quite unconnected. I think it would be better if you were to permit us to conclude it privately, and then Mr. Soames can tell you afterwards, as seems good to him.”
She moved closer to her father, her eyes blazing, in spite of the alarm in her which was rapidly turning to fear.
“No. I will not leave until I know what has happened. Papa, what is wrong?” Her voice was rising with fear. He looked so desperate, so drained of all the buoyancy and confidence he had had only an hour ago. It was as if the vitality had bled out of him.
“My dear … I …” He attempted some explanation,