‘Certainly not. I did not have the correct papers. They were with the East India Company headquarters and would not be available to me until the Monday at the earliest.’ He frowned. ‘Surely the servants do not say that I came back?’
‘No, but it is possible to approach the study from the rear garden. You possibly noticed that the window was ajar.’
‘So, I climb over walls, I sneak through gardens, I enter through the window and I stab my cousin dead?’
‘Well?’ James asked. ‘Did you?’
There was a flurry of movement and Inish was on his feet, the flash of a blade weaving in the air in front of him.
‘Oh for goodness sake!’ (That was not quite what I said, but you get the gist). I stood, hitched up my skirts and kicked him hard in the back of the knee which sent him to the ground. To be fair, I do not think that he imagined for a moment that a woman would attack him.
James went for his knife hand, got him by the wrist and pivoted until Inish gasped in pain and dropped the knife. I pounced on it and James wrestled him into a chair.
‘Are you going to stay there or do I have to tie you to it?’ James kept one hand hard on his shoulder and frisked him for more weapons with great efficiency. ‘This is becoming somewhat monotonous,’ he remarked to me when he straightened up, empty-handed.
I looked at the knife I was holding, then held it up for James to see. The blade was shaped with wavy edges. ‘Too wide. And look at the design of it. Surely the doctor would have noticed the difference between this and a wound from an ordinary European weapon?’
‘If he has one knife he may own others.’ James turned on the tight-lipped man. ‘I asked you a question. Did you kill Tillingham?’
‘You doubt my word, my honour! Is it because I am Indian or because I am base born?’ He did not appear in the slightest bit intimidated by James.
‘No, it is because you lose your temper and then produce a knife,’ James drawled.
There was a fraught pause while I braced myself for an explosion, then Kumar took a shuddering breath and said, ‘I did not go back. I did not kill him. I was angry but I knew he would give me my inheritance when I produced all the papers. I had made enquiries,’ he said with a wry smile. ‘Everyone said he was a man of honour, a man with good intentions, but that he was a picker-over of trifles, someone who must have every detail correct. Admirable,’ he added. ‘But infuriating. He made me very angry, but what would have been the point of attacking him?’
‘So what did you do after that meeting?’ I asked.
‘I went to gather every last thing that he demanded that was in my possession. On Monday I asked my employers at the Company if someone would vouch for me in person if need be, and told myself to be patient until Tuesday when we had agreed to meet again. Then I heard that he was dead. My colleagues at the offices told me about the English custom of reading the will, so I resolved to attend that.’
‘How could they vouch for you at the Company headquarters in London if you were a stranger to them?’ James was still suspicious.
‘I had considered that most carefully. Before I left Calcutta I asked the priest at the cathedral who had baptised me all those years ago to come with me to the offices there. I showed them this.’ He took off his coat and rolled back his shirt sleeve to expose the inside of his right forearm. Two dark birthmarks forming the shape of an exclamation mark stood out on the paler skin – a circle with, above it, a longer oval. ‘He vouched for me and they wrote to the London office. The letter was sealed and handed to the captain of the ship and was never in my hands.’
I thought this was as conclusive proof as anyone could hope for in an age before photography or the electronic transmission of images.
From James’s expression, he too was convinced that Kumar was who he said he was, but he did not let that soften his tone. ‘In that case I suggest that you keep a rein on your temper and your impatience. Legal matters move slowly, but they will go faster without you making it more difficult.’
‘Your English is very good,’ I said, curious now. ‘Where were you educated?’
‘I had a tutor. An Englishman. I lived with my father, I mixed with English society once I was old enough.’ My thoughts must have shown because he added, ‘You wonder why my parents did not marry? My mother refused, said that my father would one day be a great general, an important man in England, and an Indian wife would be a hindrance to him.’ He shrugged, a bitter twist to his mouth now. ‘Perhaps he agreed with her.’
There wasn’t much to say to that. ‘What will you do once you have the deeds?’
‘Visit the estate, see whether I want to live there or sell it or rent it out. Decide whether to stay in the employ of the Company. The man of law says it is a good property, that there is coal. I will see how good for myself.’
We wished him luck and went to collect our horses.
‘What is your verdict?’ I asked James once we were clear of the inn.
‘I believe him.’
‘Me too. I can see that Tillingham might have had a motive for disposing of Kumar, if, say, the Durham land has rich coal seams,’ I mused. ‘Or that Alexander, or Marcus, his heir, might feel the same way – but only if they were already plotting to kill Tillingham. But I cannot see that Kumar himself has a motive.’
We rode in silence for a mile after that. I don’t know what James was brooding about, but I was running through suspects in my head.
‘I’m thinking that things do not look too good for Adrien’s father or eldest brother. Or even the eldest brother’s wife, if she is of a Lady Macbeth-like disposition,’ I said after a bit. ‘One does not have to shin over gates oneself to gain access to a house. From what I have learned from our previous investigations it is all too easy to hire criminals who will do just about anything if paid enough.’
‘You have eliminated the mistress? The same arguments about hired killers apply to her.’