Page 31 of A Silence in Belgrave Square (Below Stairs #8)

“He never did,” I stated at once, earning Inspector McGregor’s glare. ““I know full well that Mr.McAdam is not capable of throwing a weak and impaired gentleman down a flight of stairs.”

Inspector McGregor did not appear to be as convinced. “I’ll need a statement from you as to your whereabouts at ten o’clock last evening,” he said to Daniel.

That must have been the time the examining surgeon had decided the man had died. If his neck had been broken it would have been very quick, which was a mercy.

“I can answer that easily,” Daniel said, the least tense of the three of us.

“I was with Monaghan. He was explaining to me, as he has been for the past few days, what a poor excuse for an investigating officer I am and how the little evidence I’ve gathered wouldn’t convict a beggar of loitering.

I was in his office, which is above yours, by the way, while he harangued me.

He let me go about midnight, but only because he wanted a meal before crawling back to the hole he lives in. ”

“And you went home?” McGregor demanded.

Daniel nodded. “I slunk to Southampton Street and my rooms there and slept heavily. Plenty of constables saw me leave the Yard—and plenty heard Monaghan going on at me before that, I’m certain.

My landlady greeted me when I went in, with disapproval of the late hour.

She prepared me a fine breakfast this morning, however, so all must be forgiven. ”

Inspector McGregor listened with his usual surliness. “Monaghan will have to confirm your story.”

Daniel shrugged. “He will. I suppose he might try to deny I was with him for the amusement of watching me be dragged to Newgate, but as I said, there were witnesses, and not all of them fear Monaghan. Sergeant Scott, for example. He was there.”

“Scott is an upstanding fellow,” Inspector McGregor conceded. “I’ll ask him, if Monaghan tries to play a game.” He turned his scowl on me. “My advice to the pair of you is to go home and stay there. Avoid Monaghan as much as you can until this blows over.”

Daniel sent him a wry smile. “Monaghan will blame me for everything, even though I can prove I was far from Belgrave Square when the man died. My fault he was killed, or fell, or whatever happened, in his view.”

“No sign Lord Peyton was pushed,” McGregor said. “No bruising on his back, chest, or arms, except what he got from the stairs. No convenient handprint the exact size of his killer’s.”

“Then how did he fall?” I could not stop myself from asking. “Where was his manservant?”

“Fagan was in his bed, sleeping the sleep of the just, according to everyone in the household,” McGregor surprised me by answering. “He seems broken up about Lord Peyton’s death, though the sister is furious at him for not being by his master’s side all hours.”

“He usually was,” Daniel said. “Odd that he went to bed last night.”

“I asked him why,” Inspector McGregor said. “Fagan claimed he was exhausted, but now is saying someone put something in his tea to make him sleep. There was no sign of that though, or remains of any substance in his teacup. He still had it on his bedside table.”

“Convenient for any killer,” Daniel said.

“But it might not have been in the tea. Fagan was known to have a nip of gin when he thought no one was looking. But if you say there’s no sign of anyone pushing the man, we might have to conclude it was an accident.

Lord Peyton wheeled himself to the top of the stairs for whatever reason, stood up, and fell. ”

“Both the manservant and that Lady Fontaine are insisting it was murder,” Inspector McGregor said. “Lady Fontaine is already starting to be like a burr under my skin.”

From the way Hannah described her, I believed him.

“Did you find any evidence of the blackmailing letters I told you of, Inspector?” I asked.

This was news to Daniel, who blinked, but Inspector McGregor shook his head.

“Lady Fontaine has a diary of tittle-tattle gossip, according to the housekeeper, which her ladyship refused to let us see, though I can insist if necessary. But no letters of the sort you mean. The only correspondence we found was the usual—notes to a man of business, orders to buy or sell shares of stock, instructions to the viscount’s land steward about the estate’s farm.

Most written by McAdam here, who logged them neatly into a ledger. ”

“As a good secretary would,” Daniel said with a modest nod. “I saw nothing of the kind you are talking about while I was there either.” He regarded me in bewilderment.

“Lord Peyton bought the ink they were written with,” I continued, making both men stare at me. “A tutor at the Polytechnic did experiments on the paper and ink, and the ink proved to be rare and expensive. Lord Peyton bought bottles of it from a shop in the Burlington Arcade.”

Inspector McGregor’s breath gurgled in his throat. “Mrs.Holloway—”

“I have given you a place to start, Inspector,” I continued.

“Someone is sending letters all over Mayfair, intimidating highborn ladies into influencing their gentlemen to act in the letter writer’s favor.

The letters ask only to use their powers of persuasion now, but what if the victims are soon requested to do other things, such as deliver packages to government leaders or perhaps leave an innocuous parcel at a railway station? ”

“Ones that might detonate,” Daniel said grimly. “She has a point, McGregor.”

“I am looking into it,” McGregor said in exasperation. “Heed what I’ve told you, Mrs.Holloway. Go home. Stay there. Forget about Lord Peyton, blackmailers, and Fenians, and bake pies, or whatever it is you do.”

I fixed him with an admonishing gaze. “You need a wife, Inspector, one who will chide you when you say silly things about cooks. And to make certain you are properly dressed each day. Your collar is half twisted inside out, you know.”

Inspector McGregor put a self-conscious hand to the offending collar, while Daniel chuckled.

“You’d probably eat better as well,” he said.

“Enough.” Inspector McGregor cut us off. “McAdam, I will quiz Monaghan about your alibi. But I suggest you lie low for a few days, or an enterprising constable will try to haul you in. Good evening to you both.”

He tipped his hat with a stiff hand, turned on his heel, and marched away to Cheapside, snarling at small boys who dared dart across his path.

“I agree with the inspector,” I said before Daniel could speak. “I’d feel better knowing you were home, with Mrs.Williams to look after you.”

“Not until I see you safely to Mount Street.” Daniel did his sharp whistle again, and a hansom turned to halt for us. This time, the cabbie at the reins was Lewis, Daniel’s friend, as though he’d been dogging our steps.

I let Daniel assist me into the cab. “I am glad you are seeing me home, because we have much more to discuss. Much, much more.”

Daniel scrambled in beside me and closed the doors on us. “I am happy to continue talking about what we did on our ride here.”

His smile sent a frisson of pleasure through me, but I felt a bit fragile after confessing such feelings.

“I am afraid it is something more serious.” I turned in my seat to face Daniel squarely, so I could watch his expression when I asked my question. “Does a secret branch of the police exist, and are you and Monaghan a part of it?”

Daniel was very good at masking his true reactions, but I’d caught him off guard. His surprise and dismay told me I’d guessed correctly.

“I see,” I said.

“ Secret means just that,” Daniel said in a quiet voice.

I did not relent. “Inspector McGregor more or less admitted that such a thing was true. It was mentioned in the blackmail letters Miss Townsend received. I asked her about it, and she pretended to not know what the writer meant. But I could see that it rattled her.”

Daniel let out a breath and briefly covered his eyes with his gloved hand. When he looked up at me again, it was with unhappiness and resignation.

“I never meant to lie to you, Kat. I was compelled to say nothing to anyone, on threat of being tried for treason. Though as time passes, many more know, or suspect, the truth.”

My throat was tight. “I did not want to be correct.”

“It hardly matters now. You understood right away that Monaghan was a hard man who didn’t seem to be under anyone’s control.

Now blackmailers are writing about us in letters.

The home secretary instigated this project a few years ago, and as I said, Miss Townsend’s father is his right-hand man.

As the cabinet comes and goes, so does the home secretary, but Mr.Townsend stays.

We more or less answer to Townsend and him alone.

Miss Townsend is a clever young woman. She either inferred this new branch’s existence or her father trusted her enough to tell her. ”

“The goal is to chase Fenians?”

My chest felt tight, my fears rising. A branch of the police ruled only by the Home Office would be powerful but also vulnerable. Inspector McGregor had said that Daniel could command any constables he wished, but that those men didn’t necessarily have to help him when he called.

Who knew when the secretary would decide to shut the project down, and what if he did it at the very moment Daniel had infiltrated a group of dangerous bombers? Leaving him without recourse?

“More or less,” Daniel answered me. “The branch was formed in response to the assassination attempts on the queen and for the incendiary devices left hither and yon, injuring and killing people. The Metropolitan Police alone don’t have the resources to fight both the bombers and the more usual criminals, so the Special Irish Branch was formed.

There is talk of removing ‘Irish’ from the name, as more people than Irishmen are disgruntled at the British Crown and seek vengeance. ”

“So you will chase men of all nationalities who wield dynamite,” I said faintly. “That does not make me feel better.”