Traitors Gate (56 page)
Authors: Anne Perry
“No sir, as you just pointed out, he did not even know him in any personal sense. It was an execution, and we can prove it.” He hesitated only an instant. Please God he could trust Tellman. But if there were any man in the police force he would stake his life on as not being a member of the Inner Circle, it was Tellman. He took precisely that chance now, facing Farnsworth squarely. “But it will all come out in the trial.”
“If the society were what you say, Pitt, then Hathaway would die without telling anyone what you charge,” Farnsworth said with certainty and faint derision.
“Oh, I don’t expect Hathaway to admit it,” Pitt replied with the shadow of a smile. “I am sure you are right. He will go to the gallows without betraying his fellow members. We may never know who they are,” he said slowly, meeting Farnsworth’s eyes. “But every man and woman in London who can read a newspaper will know what they are! That we can prove, and we will do, in open court.”
“I see.” Farnsworth took a very deep breath and let it out. He looked at Pitt with something like surprise, as if he had done more than he had foreseen. “I would like to speak to him myself for a few moments, alone, if you don’t mind.” It was delivered with courtesy, but it was an order. “I find all this … distressing … hard to believe.”
“Yes sir, of course. I’ve got to go back to the Morton Club anyway, and make sure of the steward’s evidence, and see what happened to the other witnesses.”
“Yes, by all means do that.” And without waiting any further, Farnsworth went out of Tellman’s room and back along the passage to Pitt’s office. A moment later Tellman came out and looked questioningly at Pitt.
Pitt held his finger to his lips, walked noisily down the stairs half a dozen steps, then crept back up to stand motionless beside Tellman.
They waited for what seemed an endless five minutes, ears straining, hearts thumping so violently Pitt could feel his body shake.
Then the faint murmuring of voices ceased from behind the office door and there was a very soft thud.
Pitt flung the door open, Tellman barely a step behind him.
Farnsworth was on the floor almost astride the prone figure of Hathaway. The paper knife from Pitt’s desk was protruding from Hathaway’s chest and his manacled hands were just below it, but it was Farnsworth’s fingers which were now clenched around it, and his body’s weight behind the blow.
Tellman gasped.
Farnsworth looked up, his face slack with disbelief for an instant, then horror. He started to speak.
“He … he took the paper knife….” he began. “I tried to stop him….”
Pitt stepped a little aside.
“You murdered him!” Tellman said with amazement and fury. “I can see it!”
Farnsworth turned from Pitt to Tellman, and recognized the incorruptible outrage in his eyes. He looked back at Pitt.
“Giles Farnsworth,” Pitt said with satisfaction he had seldom felt in the solution of any case, “I arrest you for the murder of Ian Hathaway. I must warn you that anything
you say will be taken down, and may be given in evidence at your trial … which I will make very sure you live long enough to face, for Arthur Desmond’s sake.”
Don’t miss this novel
featuring Charlotte and Thomas Pitt
SEVEN DIALS
by Anne Perry
“An Anne Perry novel is a delight to read.”
—Chicago Tribune
“A master of crime fiction.”
—The Baltimore Sun
Thomas Pitt, mainstay of Her Majesty’s Special Branch, is summoned to Connaught Square mansion where the body of a junior diplomat lies huddled in a wheelbarrow. Nearby stands the tenant of the house, the beautiful and notorious Egyptian woman Ayesha Zakhari, who falls under the shadow of suspicion. Pitt’s journey to uncover the truth takes him from Egyptian cotton fields to the insidious London slum called Seven Dials, to a packed London courtroom where shocking secrets will at last be revealed….
Published by Ballantine Books.
Available wherever books are sold.
Don’t miss this
New York Times
bestselling
novel featuring Charlotte and Thomas Pitt
SOUTHAMPTON ROW
by Anne Perry
“COMPELLING AND PROVOCATIVE … VINTAGE PERRY: A GRAND, SWEEPING MYSTERY OF MANNERS.”
—Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
In Victorian England, a divisive election is fast approaching. Passions are so enflamed that Thomas Pitt, shrewd mainstay of the London police, has been ordered to prevent a national disaster. The Liberal candidate is Aubrey Serracold, whose wife’s dalliance with spiritualism threatens his chances. Indeed, she is one of the participants in a late-night séance that leads to a brutal murder on Southampton Row. Meanwhile, Pitt’s wife, Charlotte, and their children are enjoying a country vacation—unaware that they, too, are deeply endangered by the same fanatical forces hovering over the steadfast Pitt….
Published by Ballantine Books.
Available wherever books are sold.
THE HYDE PARK
HEADSMAN
by Anne Perry
“A corking good story …
Anne Perry continues at the top of her form as
a pre-eminent writer of Victorian mysteries.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
Not since the bloody deeds of Jack the Ripper have Londoners felt such terror as that aroused by the gruesome beheadings in Hyde Park. And if newly promoted Police Superintendent Thomas Pitt does not quickly apprehend the perpetrator, he is likely to lose his own head, professionally speaking. Yet even with the help of Charlotte Pitt’s subtle investigation, the sinister violence continues unchecked. And in a shocking turn of events that nearly convinces the pair of sleuths that they have met their match, the case proves to be Pitt’s toughest ever….
Published by Fawcett Books.
Available wherever books are sold.
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