Page 50 of Murder of a Dead Man

“I have a few questions for the earl. Has the doctor been out to see him? I left you enough money, didn’t I?” James asked, though he was certain he had been more than generous. “Does he have everything he needs?”

“Yes sar, and the doctor has tended to his injury.”

“May I see him, please?”

“Yes, I got my keys right here,” he said, unhooking a large ring from an oversized belt at his side. He jingled it as he walked over to the debtor-prison half of the building and unlocked the door.

“Has anyone been to see him?” James asked.

“Squire Eccleston came by this morning. Didn’t stay long and was in a temper when he left, muttering something to himself, though I didn’t catch what it be. I mentioned you’d visited his lordship. He said he knew that and said a few choice words about yourself.”

Sir James laughed. “I’m sure he did,” he said wryly as they stepped into the hallway.

The warden looked at him sideways. “Called him to order, eh?”

“I provided him with some observations,” James said mildly.

The warden grunted deep in his chest. He pounded on the heavy wood door of the small room occupied by Soothcoor.“Company, my lord,” he said as he unlocked that door. “A half- hour?” he asked Sir James.

“Yes, a half-hour is fine, thank you,” James said as he passed the warden into the room.

The warden closed the door and locked him in.

Soothcoor looked better. He wore different, cleaner clothes and it appeared he’d been able to avail himself of at least a washbowl for his face and hands, and a comb for his hair. No razor for his face and Soothcoor was typically a clean-shaven man. He’d have to see what he could do about getting a barber for him.

A clean bandage wrapped his leg, and a crutch leaned against the bed.

“How’s the leg,” James asked. He walked up to the table and pulled the chair out to sit down.

Soothcoor shrugged. “Painful. When the worst heals, I’ll need a cane.”

“I see you did get a crutch.”

“Yes, but since I have nowhere to go anyway, I’ve managed without it.”

“You will need it when we get you out of here.”

“Do you think I will?”

“Yes.”

Soothcoor shrugged. “Magistrate came by earlier today.”

“So the warden told me. What did he want?”

“Ask me some questions about my relationship with Malcolm, how long I’d known him, why did I come to see him, basically everything I knew Mr. Ratcliffe had told him the morning he arrested me.”

“Trying to see if your answers matched?”

“I suppose, but nothing of substance—except for one thing. He asked me where the clothes were that I’d worn to Camden House.”

“And you told him?”

“The jacket, pants, and vest were the same as I wore the day he arrested me. I put on clean linens that morning, so the previous day’s linens were in my valise.”

“I’ll bet he didn’t like the answer.”

“No, he didn’t seem to. Why did he ask? Do you know?”