‘Dark hair,’ James admitted. ‘Medium height and build.’
‘That’s what the porters’ notes say.’
‘What about J. Potter?’
James shook his head. ‘Never heard of him.’ He bit the end of his pen. ‘If we are dealing with blackmail then Albright might be responsible – he’d know the secrets.’
‘Wouldn’t he be equally vulnerable? Surely his victim would simply turn around and threaten to expose him too?’
‘And Coates was the one with money we can’t account for,’ Luc pointed out. ‘If he was being blackmailed, that doesn’t make sense.’
‘He was blackmailing Albright and then had an attack of conscience?’ I suggested.
‘No, not George,’ James said, without a shadow of doubt in his voice.
‘What about Talbot? Listen – this might make sense. Talbot knows Albright through Coates, knows he’s particularly vulnerable because of his government work, blackmails him, Coates finds out and hangs himself in horror at what his lover’s done.’
‘Possibly.’ Luc frowned over it for a moment. ‘But that doesn’t make sense with the note – What have I done. And Talbot doesn’t seem to have needed the money.’
‘Often the people who commit the crimes to get money are the people who don’t really need it,’ I said, remembering some of the white collar crime I’d encountered in training.
Garrick came back in looking harassed. ‘Yes, that was Elliott Reece. The porters remember him because they don’t like him. He was offensively rude when they asked his name the first time he called on Trelway and he stuck in their mind.’
‘He sounds as though he has an overdeveloped sense of entitlement,’ I said. ‘Which probably means he isn’t as bright as he thinks he is. Do we know whether he is interested in women?’
‘If he isn’t, I don’t know about it,’ James said. ‘Why, are you thinking of seducing the truth out of him?’
Luc sat bolt upright in his chair and said something exceedingly ungentlemanly, ending up with, ‘Over my dead body.’
‘I was merely thinking of talking to him and looking admiring, not seducing him,’ I said mildly. ‘He probably can’t resist the opportunity to show off and he could well let something slip, especially if he doesn’t know who I am. That type is usually very unobservant – unless I’ve been specifically pointed out to him as being close to you, he’ll not know.’
Luc didn’t look convinced.
‘Look, if we go to the garden party tomorrow and move about as a trio with our backs to the wall we will never learn anything. It will be broad daylight in a controlled space, which has to be pretty safe, surely?’ Oh for bugs and smart phones…
‘Then we need to keep an eye on each other,’ Luc said. ‘And we need a list of all the Home Office men so we can talk to as many as possible and make notes against each.’
‘Good idea. I’ll take Elliott Reece and the Count and also talk about Doctor Talbot and see if any of the ladies respond, but I’ll have the list as well in case I encounter anyone on it.’
James eventually took himself off back to his own lodgings and a card game that had been arranged days before. Garrick shut himself in the kitchen, hopefully to cook up a storm, because I’d reached the stage of needing to either drag Luc off to bed – which was clearly unwise – or eat, preferably thoroughly unhealthy things like ice cream and chips.
I curled up on the floor and leaned against Luc’s leg, which was comforting and even better when he reached out and began to stroke my hair. It took a minute or two of enjoying that before I realised that his fingers were stiff, the leg I was leaning against was tense.
‘What is it? Does your head hurt badly?’ I twisted round to look up at him, then came up on my knees and rested my elbows on the arms of the chair so not to put any pressure on his bruised ribs.
‘No.’
‘What’s wrong? Other than the fact that someone tried to kill you, we’ve a murder and a suicide to solve and James is at risk if the reason he knows the victims comes out.’
‘No, none of those things. Nothing.’ He was avoiding my eyes, I realised, so I didn’t move, just stayed there, caging him into the chair, watching his face while he rolled his shoulders, shifted about and generally pretended that everything was fine and he had no idea what I was going on about.
Eventually I won, although by that time I was beginning to wish I hadn’t started this. What if he told me that what he felt for me had simply been a passing attraction, that we shouldn’t be lovers any longer, that I was an unwanted complication in his life? I wasn’t sure I could cope with that because now I was very much afraid that I was in love with Lucian Franklin.
‘What brings you here, to this time?’ he asked, startling me out of my gloomy thoughts.
‘The miniature of you seems to be the mechanism.’
‘But why? Both times you have come when I was facing a puzzle, a serious problem.’