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“Lord, no,” she said affably. “How are you, inspector? Sergeant Flynn. Do I need to introduce you to Miss Lloyd and Captain Tybalt?”

“We’re very glad to see you,” Solomon said. “Because we have found the treasure and, we think, the murderer of Mr. Clarke. Perhaps you would care to join us in breakfast?”

“I would not,” Harris said bitterly. “But I have the nasty feeling I’m going to need all my strength to deal with the next couple of hours.”

*

Fortunately, the policemen had brought their own rickety carriage, so although they all traveled in caravan, they had room to pick up Ben Devine on the way.

“Why him?” Constance asked in clear surprise.

“Why not?” Solomon replied. “I feel everyone concerned should be in at the—er…final act.”

Constance was no fool. She continued to hold his gaze until his lips quirked without permission.

“And because I am not yet entirely convinced,” he admitted. “If Barnabas murdered Clarke, why wait until now to do it?”

“Because we had just told him Clarke was Samuels and he guessed the man had stolen his treasure?” Constance suggested. “Or because he guessed Miss Lloyd was involved with him once more? Or the combination was too much for him.”

Audrey said, “He is the sort of man who believes he is different from the rest of us who must follow the law or be punished. Barnabas is above all that.”

“But he is not violent, is he?” Solomon said. “He has subtler means of getting his own way, of bullying. You may well be right that something simply snapped inside him. Everyone has a breaking point, after all. I’m just not convinced quite yet that this was his.”

“It’s never easy to suspect a client,” said Constance, who had fought for a long time against suspecting their last employer. “And we certainly need to talk to him. To all of them, I suppose.”

To his visible outrage, Ben Devine was more or less forced to travel with the policemen. Constance smiled out of the window at him.

Although it was full daylight by the time they drew up to the Lloyds’ Mayfair house, it was still ridiculously early for a morning call.

Garrick admitted them with some consternation, for there were far too many of them to stuff into the usual small salon near the front door.

Then Audrey stepped out from behind Captain Tybalt and said, “Don’t worry, Garrick.

I’ll take everyone up to the drawing room.

You had best tell Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd that their presence is requested. ”

“Also Mr. Sydney,” Solomon said, “and the young ladies.”

“Ladies?” Garrick repeated in clear dismay. “You want Miss Rachel there too?”

“If possible. She is the most observant of the household, I have found.”

“Yes, but—”

“Don’t worry, Garrick, I shall look after her,” Audrey said.

“Very good, miss.” He bowed. “And may I say how very good it is to see you back home?”

Audrey looked more dismayed than charmed by this accolade, though she nodded polite acknowledgment and led the way upstairs to the drawing room.

Here, even before everyone had sat down, they were joined by Barnabas Lloyd himself, who strode in like a whirlwind, his gaze sweeping around until it landed on Audrey, who alone did not rise from the sofa.

Beside her, Tybalt stood, though with more intent to guard, Solomon felt, than submit.

“Audrey, thank God!” Lloyd exclaimed, starting toward her with his arms held wide. “Have you any idea how worried we were? What on earth were you thinking about to disappear like that without a word?”

“You mean behave like you?” Audrey said, her voice level and dispassionate.

He closed his mouth, apparently stunned by her answer, or perhaps only by the fact that she chose to give one rather than apologize. His arms dropped back to his sides. Then, as though seeing the captain for the first time, he blinked.

“Tybalt? What are you doing here at this hour? Is all well with the ship?”

“I assume so, although I have no knowledge of it. I merely accompany Miss Lloyd.”

An ugly look sprang into Lloyd’s eyes and quickly vanished again, possibly because he had already noticed the policemen, to say nothing of Devine, Solomon, and Constance. Still, it was enough to make Solomon think again.

He had begun to doubt Lloyd as the murderer, but the man was certainly capable of uncontrollable temper. He had torn the house apart on first discovering the loss of his treasure, scaring everyone from family to kitchen maid.

“You have learned something new?” Lloyd flung at Solomon.

“A great deal,” Solomon returned, “though I think we should wait for the rest of your family before we discuss it.”

“Where did you find my sister?” Lloyd demanded. “With this—”

“We found her alone in a respectably run boarding house,” Solomon said curtly. “Beyond that, you may, of course, ask Miss Lloyd for clarification.”

Lloyd did not ask at that moment, possibly because all three of his children had entered the room, conferring and arguing together.

“Aunt Aud!” Rachel exclaimed, rushing over to her aunt, who this time did not repel the embrace. In fact, a tear stood out in her eye and she hastily wiped it away. Jemimah went to her other side and touched her shoulder. Sydney grinned and saluted her from where he stood next to his father.

Then he noticed Constance and definitely flushed, though whether with shame or outrage was hard to gauge. He glanced at Devine, raising his eyebrows. Devine merely shrugged.

“Can we get on with this?” Lloyd said impatiently. “I have appointments this morning.”

“We still await Mrs. Lloyd,” Solomon pointed out.

“What on earth can she have to say about any of this?” Lloyd demanded.

It came to Solomon only then how little they knew about Christine Lloyd, who appeared such the devoted wife, delivering up her dowry to her husband’s adventures, waving him off and welcoming him home with wifely happiness.

Only she probably enjoyed herself more when he was away.

She held dinner parties, called on friends, took her daughter into Society.

Solomon suspected it was a much more relaxed household when its master was absent.

Had this submissive worm had enough, like Audrey, and turned?

Did she know about her sister-in-law’s renewed liaison with Joshua Clarke? Had she been the one to guess who had stolen the treasure and gone looking on her own?

“Audrey, go and hurry her up,” Lloyd snapped. “She’ll be all morning otherwise. She probably doesn’t realize you are even home.”

“I’m not,” Audrey said. “I suggest you go yourself for greatest effect. Otherwise, there are servants to convey messages.”

Lloyd looked at her as though she had grown horns. Constance wore an expression of approval. The silence was tense.

Perhaps it was fortunate that Christine Lloyd sailed through the door at that point, saying, “Barnabas, what is all this about? Is Audrey…?” She caught sight of her sister-in-law and her eyebrows flew up. “I see you are. What on earth were you about? Do we not have enough to worry about?”

“Are you worried?” Had Audrey’s voice been less vague, she might have sounded surprised. As it was, she merely seemed to puzzle Christine, as she was already puzzling Lloyd.

“Sit down, my dear, sit down,” Lloyd said impatiently, as his wife began acknowledging her odd variety of visitors, who had all, apart from Audrey, stood up at her entrance. There followed something of a flurry as she chose her chair and everyone else sat down again too.

“Well?” she said.

Inspector Harris rose with one of the bags into which they had piled the treasure at Clarke’s house. Sergeant Flynn had brought another two, and Solomon the last. They set them all on the table near the center of the room, and Lloyd’s eyes widened with both hope and shock.

“You found it!” he exclaimed. “My treasure?”

He strode up to the table, almost ripping open the straps of the nearest bag and forcing it wide open. His breath caught and he began to smile.

“Thank God.” He dragged his gaze from the glittering contents of the bag and met Solomon’s watchful eyes. “Did you find it? Or the police?”

“Strictly speaking, Miss Lloyd found it, in my presence and that of Mrs. Silver and Captain Tybalt. Since it is connected to a murder, we have handed it over to Inspector Harris here.”

“Murder?” Lloyd said quickly. “You mean the carpenter’s murder? Then he did take it! I must say, I never thought he had it in him.”

“But then, you underestimate many people,” Audrey said. “He took it from under your nose, and we hid it together beneath the floorboards of his front parlor. You couldn’t even find it after you shot him and ransacked his house.”

“What?”

Lloyd clearly acted most of his life—the perfect and generous head of his family, the joker, the great adventurer and explorer. But Solomon could almost swear the bafflement in his eyes was genuine.

Lloyd’s gaze flickered from his sister to Solomon, then to the policemen who still stood by the treasure on the table. “You think I killed Clarke?”

“Did you?” Solomon asked steadily.

“Of course I didn’t!” The words all but exploded out of Lloyd. “What would I want with such a nobody, a failure at everything he tried, from carpentry to seamanship to fortune hunting for a bride!”

“You’re wrong.” Triumph blazed out of Audrey’s eyes, startling in its contrast to the dull numbness of grief that was all she had displayed up until now.

“Joshua Clarke had a thriving business that made him a very decent living. He and I would have lived happily on that, but I chose to punish you for what you did to him and his family, to us , for all these years apart. He signed on to the crew of the Queen of the Sea , and you didn’t even notice! ”

“Of course I noticed,” Lloyd said. “I chose to ignore him. The coward didn’t even use his own name.”

“But he still stole your precious treasure from under your nose.”

“How?” Sydney demanded, leaning forward. “How exactly did he do that?”

Solomon explained it succinctly and without emotion.