Slaves of Obsession (10 page)

“Except that it can’t have been there long,” Monk pointed out. “If it had been in a corner, it might have lain there for days.”

Lanyon eyed him curiously. “You doubt it was Breeland?”

“No,” Monk was honest. “We went to his rooms. He’s cleared everything out, almost an hour or less before they must have come here, judging by how long it would take to load the crates and how long since the men were killed.”

“Yes. Mr. Casbolt told me. That’s what brought you here. And it seems Miss Alberton has disappeared from home as well.” He did not add any conclusion.

“Yes.”

Casbolt moved forward.

“Sergeant, Mrs. Alberton doesn’t yet know anything except that her daughter is missing. She doesn’t know about …” He gestured towards the bodies, but did not look at them. “May we … may Monk and I go and tell her, rather than … I mean …” He swallowed convulsively. “Can you leave her at
least until tomorrow? She will find this … she will be devastated. They were devoted … both her husband and her daughter … and by a man who had been a guest in her home.”

Lanyon hesitated only a moment. “Yes, sir. I know of no reason why not. Poor lady. It looks pretty plain this was a robbery carried out in a particularly vicious manner.” He shook his head. “Though why they did this to them I don’t know. Seems as if Breeland felt he’d been betrayed, but from what you say the Confederate got there first. Maybe there was something in the deal we don’t know about. We’ll look into it, but it doesn’t make any difference to the murders. People get cheated in business every day. Yes, Mr. Casbolt, you and Mr. Monk go and tell Mrs. Alberton the news, and stay there and look after her. But I shall need to speak to you again, later in the day.”

“Thank you,” Casbolt said with profound emotion.

Outside in the street Monk turned to him. “I don’t know why you said I should go with you, but you should tell Mrs. Alberton alone. You’re her cousin. I am almost a stranger. And anyway I would be more use here than anywhere else.” He had already stopped as he spoke. Casbolt’s carriage was still waiting, the driver peering anxiously up and down. The street was busy with laborers, dockers and other workmen arriving for their duties. A cart laden with bricks passed one way, a heavy wagon of coal the other.

Casbolt shook his head impatiently. “We can’t help Daniel now.” His voice was hoarse. His eyes looked as if he had seen hell and the image of it was stamped on him forever. “We must think of Judith, and of Merrit. The police may believe she went willingly with Breeland, or they may think she is a hostage.” He shook his head minutely. “But if they have already left England, there is nothing they can do. America is consumed in its own civil war. There will be little or no point in anyone here making representations to Washington to have Breeland deported to face a charge of triple murder. He will be the hero of the hour. He has just taken the Union enough guns to arm nearly five regiments. They will simply refuse to believe he obtained them by murder.”
He licked dry lips. “And there is still the matter of the blackmail. Please … come with me. See what Judith would like. Isn’t that the least we can do?”

“Yes,” Monk said softly, more moved than he wished to be. He dreaded going to tell Judith Alberton that her husband was dead. He had been filled with relief that this time it was not his task. He understood only too well why Lanyon was willing to allow Casbolt to do it. And now it was inescapable. He could alter nothing about what had happened, but Casbolt was right, he might be able to help with Merrit in a way the police could not, and it was impossible to refuse. It did not even seriously occur to him to try.

They rode in silence from the warehouse through the morning streets away from the heavy industrial area with its traffic and smoke, the grime-stained shirts and cravats of men in grays and browns moving towards other yards, factories and offices. Still without speaking, they entered the smarter city streets with men in dark suits, traders, clerks, and paperboys calling the morning news.

Too soon they arrived at Tavistock Square. Monk was not ready yet to face Judith, but he knew delaying would not help. He got out of the carriage behind Casbolt and followed him up the steps.

The front door opened before Casbolt could touch the bell. The butler, pale-faced, ushered them in.

“Mrs. Alberton is in the withdrawing room, sir,” he said to Casbolt, barely acknowledging Monk’s presence. He must have seen from Casbolt’s face the nature of the news he brought. “Shall I fetch her maid, sir?”

“Yes, please.” Casbolt’s voice was little above a whisper. “I am afraid the news is … terrible. You might also send word for Dr. Gray.”

“Yes, sir. Is there anything else I can do?”

“I could use a brandy, and I daresay Mr. Monk could also. It has been the worst morning of my life.”

“Did you find Mr. Alberton, sir?”

“Yes, I am afraid he is dead.”

The butler drew in his breath and swayed for a moment,
then regained his self-control. “Was it the American gentleman, sir, over the guns?”

“It looks like it, but say nothing to anyone yet. Now I must go and—”

He got no further. Judith opened the withdrawing room door and stood staring at them. She read in Casbolt’s agonized face what she must already have dreaded.

He stepped forward as if to catch her should she fall, but with an effort so intense it was plain to see, she steadied herself and remained upright.

“Is he … dead?”

Casbolt seemed to be beyond words. He merely nodded.

She breathed out very slowly, her face ashen. “And Merrit?” Her voice cracked.

“No sign of her.” He took her by the arm, gently, but almost supporting her weight. “There is no reason to suppose any harm has come to her,” he said clearly. “That is why I brought Monk. He may be able to help us. Come in and sit down. Hallows will send for Dr. Gray and bring us some brandy. Please … come in.…” He turned her as he spoke, half leading her into the room, and Monk followed after, closing the door. He felt like an intruder in an intensely private grief. Casbolt was family, perhaps all she had left now. They had known each other since childhood. Monk was an outsider.

Judith stood in the middle of the floor, and it was not until Casbolt guided her to a chair that she finally sank into it. She looked devastated, hollow-eyed, her skin bloodless, but she did not weep.

“What happened?” she asked, looking at Casbolt as if to lose sight of him would somehow be to abandon all help or hope.

“We don’t know,” he answered. “Daniel and the two guards at the warehouse were shot. It was probably very quick. There will have been no pain.” He did not say anything about the extraordinary positions they had been in, or the T-shaped cuts in their flesh. Monk was glad. He would not have told her either. If she did not ever have to know, so
much the better. If it became public, it would be later, when she was stronger.

“And the guns and ammunition were all gone,” Casbolt added.

“Breeland?” she whispered, searching his face. He was sitting close to her and she reached toward him instinctively.

“It looks like it,” he replied. “We went to his rooms first, looking for him,” he went on. “For Merrit, really, and he was gone, all his belongings, everything. He received a message and packed and left within a matter of minutes, according to the doorman.”

“And Merrit?” There was terror in her voice, in her eyes, the slender hands clenched in her lap.

He reached out and rested his fingers over hers. “We don’t know. She was at his rooms and left with him.”

Judith started to rock sideways, shaking her head in denial. “She wouldn’t! She can’t have known! She would never …”

“Of course not,” he said softly, tightening his hand on hers. “She won’t have had the faintest idea of what he intended to do, and it may be he will never tell her. Don’t think the worst; there is no occasion to. Merrit is young, full of hotheaded ideals, and she was certainly swept off her feet by Breeland, but she is still at heart the girl you know, and she loved her father, in spite of the stupid quarrel.”

“What will he do to her?” There was agony in her eyes. “She’ll ask him how he got the guns. She knows her father refused to sell them to him.”

“He’ll lie,” Casbolt said simply. “He’ll say Daniel changed his mind after all, or that he stole them … she wouldn’t mind that because she believes the cause is above ordinary morality. But she wouldn’t ever countenance violence.” His voice rang with conviction, and for a moment there was a flicker of hope in Judith’s face. For the first time she turned to Monk.

“He obviously had allies,” Monk said to her. “Someone came to his rooms with a message. He could not have moved the guns by himself. There must have been at least
two of them, more likely three.” He did not mention the forced help at gunpoint he believed had been the case. “Merrit may have been looked after by someone else during that time.”

“Could …” She swallowed and took a moment to regain her composure. “Could she just have eloped with Breeland, and neither of them had anything to do with the … the guns?” She could not bring herself to say “murder.” “Could that have been the blackmailer?”

Casbolt was startled. He glanced questioningly at Monk and then back at Judith.

“He didn’t tell me,” she said quickly. “Daniel did. I knew there was something wrong, and I asked him. I don’t believe he ever kept secrets from me.” The tears welled in her eyes and spilled over.

Casbolt looked wretched and helpless. He was gaunt with shock and exhaustion himself. Suddenly, Monk felt an overwhelming sympathy for him. He had lost his closest friend, and with the theft of the guns, also a great deal of money. He had seen the bodies themselves in all their grotesque horror, and now he had to try to support the widow who had lost not only her husband but also her child. It would be days before she even thought of her share of the financial loss, if she ever did.

“I’m sorry you had to know.” Casbolt found his voice. “It was all very silly. Daniel befriended the young man because the poor creature was ill and alone. He paid his bills, nothing more.”

“I know …” she said quickly.

“It is just a matter of reputation,” he went on. “He wanted to protect you from the distress, but he would never have sold guns to the blackmailers because of where they would be used.” His eyes were gentle, full of understood pain. After all, her brother had been his cousin and friend also. “And I don’t believe he would have paid anything,” he added bitterly. “Once you pay a blackmailer you have tacitly admitted that you have something to hide. It never stops. That’s why
I brought Mr. Monk now. Perhaps we could still use his help.…” He left it hanging, for her to answer.

“Yes,” she said, shaking. “Yes, I suppose we still need to find them. I’m afraid I … I hardly thought of it.” She turned to Monk.

“I’ll do whatever you want, Mrs. Alberton,” he promised. “But now I’d like to go with the police and see what’s happening in their investigation. That is the first thing to know.”

“Yes …” Again the hope flashed in her eyes. “Maybe … Merrit …” She did not dare to put it into words.

It was plain in Casbolt’s face that he held no such illusion, but he could not bring himself to tell her so.

“Yes,” he added, nodding to Monk. “I’ll stay here. You should see what Lanyon has found. Go with him. Please consider yourself still on retainer to do that. Help us in any way you can. Make your own judgments … anything at all. Just keep us informed … please?”

“Of course.” Monk rose to his feet and excused himself. He was immensely relieved to escape the house of tragedy. Judith’s grief was painful to be so close to, even though he would carry the knowledge of it with him wherever he went. Even so, to involve himself in some physical action was a kind of relief, and he strode towards Gower Street, where he could find a hansom and go back to the warehouse. From there he would start to look for Lanyon.

He began in Tooley Street with the constable who had been posted outside the warehouse gates and was perfectly willing to tell him that Lanyon had questioned people closely. Then he set off in the direction of Hayes Dock, which was the closest point on the river with a crane at hand from which they could transfer the guns to barges.

Of course it was possible they could have gone instead to the railway terminus, or across London Bridge back to the north side of the river. But movement by water seemed the obvious choice, and Monk followed the policeman’s directions to the dock, although he did not expect to find Lanyon still there.

The place bustled with life now, teeming with carts and wagons laden with all kinds of goods. The shops were open for business and men and women carried bundles in and out. They seemed to be of every possible nature, groceries, ships’ supplies, ropes, candles, clothes for all weather, both on land and at sea.

He walked quickly along the waterfront, traveling south, downriver. Gulls wheeled and circled, their harsh cries clear above the sound of the incoming tide against the stones, the wash of passing barges, lighters and the occasional heavier ship, and the shouts of men to each other as they worked at loading and hauling. The smells of salt, fish and tar were thick in his nostrils and with them came sudden memory of the distant past, of being a boy on the quayside in Northumberland. There he was by the sea, not a river, looking out at an endless horizon, a small stone pier, and hearing the lilt of country voices.

Then it was gone again, and he was at Hayes Dock, and the tall, thin figure of Lanyon was unmistakable, his straight, fairish hair standing up like a brush in the wind. He was talking to a heavyset man with a dark, grimy face and hands almost black. Monk knew without asking that he was a coal backer, carrying sacks up the twenty-foot ladders from the holds of ships, across as many as half a dozen barges to the shore, and up or down more ladders, depending on the tide and the loading of the ship. It was a backbreaking job. Usually a man was past doing it anymore by the time he was forty. Often injury had taken its toll long before that. Monk could not remember how he knew. It was another of the many things lost in the past.