Amanda Quick - The River Knows

Louisa looked at him. “I just thought of something. Perhaps one of the elderly women hired someone to murder Grantley and Thurlow.”

Corvus looked amused. “Hiring a killer to murder two seemingly respectable men is somewhat more complicated than you appear to think, Mrs. Bryce. Trust me when I tell you that inquiries of that nature would have been brought to my attention.”

A little shiver shot down her spine. “I see.”

“I’m inclined to agree with Mr. Stalbridge,” Corvus said slowly. “I doubt that any of the blackmail victims killed Grantley and Thurlow or paid someone else to murder them. The thing is, intelligent blackmailers usually don’t attempt to extort money from victims who might prove dangerous. You must look elsewhere.”

“One more question if you don’t mind,” Anthony said quietly.

Corvus waited politely.

“How many people, aside from you, would have known that both Grantley and Thurlow worked for Hastings?”

Corvus gave that a long moment’s deliberation. “I made it my business to learn as much as possible about Hastings before I did business with him. I was aware of Grantley from the start because he handled the details of the investment consortium. But I knew nothing of Thurlow. If you had not asked Miranda about the possibility of Hastings having other employees and provided a rough description, I doubt I would have ever stumbled onto him. As it was, I had to dig quite deeply to discover that there was some connection between Thurlow and Hastings.”

“In other words,” Anthony said, “the link between Grantley, Thurlow, and Hastings was not common knowledge.”

“No,” Corvus said with grave assurance. “Not common knowledge at all.”

A short time later Anthony handed Louisa up into the hired carriage. She sat down, arranged her skirts, and watched him lower himself onto the seat across from her. In the glow of the interior lamp his face was set in forbidding lines.

“What are you thinking?” she asked quietly.

“Whoever murdered Grantley and Thurlow must have known of their connection to Hastings,” he said.

“Yes. Obviously Hastings has concluded that as well because he fears that he is in danger.” She hesitated. “Perhaps the murderer is someone he cheated in a business deal.”

“In which case the killer might well have known about Grantley, but what are the odds he also knew about Thurlow? Even Corvus wasn’t aware of Thurlow’s link to Hastings, and he says he thoroughly researched the man at the start of their business dealings.”

She sighed. “And why kill them anyway? Wouldn’t the person who had been cheated go directly after Hastings?”

“The murder of a gentleman of Hastings’s rank would create a huge sensation. It would be in the press for weeks. Even if the killer managed to make it look like another suicide there would be a great deal of attention paid. He might not want to risk that.”

“True.” She hesitated. “The murders simply make no sense.”

“I’m not so sure of that.” Anthony folded his arms and stretched out his legs. “It strikes me that by killing Grantley and Thurlow, the killer got rid of the two people who knew the most about Hastings’s illicit business arrangements.”

“Hmm.”

He smiled faintly. “What are you thinking?”

“That if I were to set out to destroy a man and not want to take the risk of murdering him, I might consider getting rid of the people he relied on to handle his business affairs.”

“But you would not stop there,” Anthony said softly. “Not if you intended to destroy him. If you are right, Hastings is still very much in danger.”

“All right. Let’s take another approach to this problem,” she said crisply. “How many people would know his business affairs quite intimately and also have a reason to want to destroy him?”

“You mean, aside from myself?” he said dryly.

She flushed. “Well, yes. Aside from you, sir. And aside from the elderly blackmail victims.”

He considered that for a moment. “As you said, perhaps someone he once cheated is out for revenge.”

She should stop right now. If she had any sense she would not say another word, but she could not seem to help herself. Anthony was hungry for answers. She wanted them, too. She had to take the risk.

“Our list of suspects,” she said, choosing her words with great care, “would include only those who were both intimately acquainted with Hastings’s illicit business affairs and those who would also have a reason to want to murder the two men who aided him in his secret activities.”

“Likely a very short list, as you say, but if Clement Corvus could not offer any suggestions for suspects, I doubt that we’ll be able to come up with some.”

“I can think of one,” she said quietly.

“Who?”

“His dead wife.”

To her amazement, Anthony did not dismiss the notion out of hand. Instead he regarded her, somberly intrigued.

“What makes you think that Victoria Hastings might be involved in this affair?” he asked neutrally.

“I do not know it for certain, of course,” Louisa said hastily. “It is a vague hunch that has been gradually forming in my mind. I meant to tell you about it when we returned to Arden Square after tea with your family this afternoon, but we got distracted, if you will recall.”

His smile was slow and wicked. “Rest assured, Louisa, I recall every detail of that very delightful distraction.”

She blushed and pressed on valiantly. “I am wondering if perhaps we should investigate the possibility that Victoria Hastings is still alive.”

“Very well. Let us consider your theory. First, assuming that she is alive, why would she murder Grantley and Thurlow?”

“I do not know.” Louisa spread her gloved hands. “But you will admit that she is one of the few people who might have been aware that both men were important to Hastings.”

Anthony was silent for a moment. Then he inclined his head. “Go on. I’m listening.”

She reached into her muff and took out her small notebook. Opening it to the pages headed VH she ran through the few facts that she had jotted down.

“The thing that caught my attention at the start of this affair was that Victoria’s body was never recovered.”

“That is sometimes the case with drownings.”

“Yes, I know, but you will admit that fact does leave open the possibility that she survived.”

“She would have to have been incredibly lucky, and she would have to have known how to swim. Women rarely learn that skill.”

Louisa met his eyes. “Victoria Hastings knew how to swim.”

Anthony watched her with growing curiosity. “How the devil did you discover that?”

“Emma told me. I had a long talk with her about Victoria. Emma knows how to swim, you see. She mentioned, in passing, that Victoria Hastings was the only other woman she had ever met in Society who also possessed the skill.”

“Interesting. Nevertheless, even if Victoria could swim, one would think that the weight of her gown and underclothes would have dragged her under.”

“You are assuming that Hastings threw her into the river, but what if she staged her own suicide?”

That gave him pause. “What put that notion into your head?”

She had to be very cautious here. She could hardly tell him that she had come up with the possibility because she herself had faked her own death, and that her inspiration had come from the account of Victoria Hastings’s suicide primarily because the body was never recovered.

She made what she hoped was a very casual gesture. “Oh, I suppose it is all those novels and plays about missing wives and husbands who always show up at the end of the story claiming to have miraculously survived a watery grave or some other catastrophe.”

“Thereby ruining the possibility of a happy ending for the couple involved in the illicit tryst,” Anthony observed.

She flushed and looked down at her notes. “Yes, well, to continue, one of the people I interviewed before I joined forces with you was Victoria’s lady’s maid. Elwin dismissed her after Victoria disappeared.”

“You tracked down the maid? I’m impressed. That was very resourceful of you.”

“Thank you.” She consulted her notes. “I was only interested in information concerning Mr. Hastings at the time, of course, but I did jot down some of the things the maid said about her former mistress.”

“What did she tell you?”

“The maid’s name is Sally. After she lost her position in the Hastings mansion she was hired by Lady Mounthaven, who allowed me to speak with her. Sally told me that her last task before leaving Hastings’s employ was to pack up Victoria’s clothes and possessions and send them to charity. She mentioned that the only thing missing from Victoria’s wardrobe was a nightgown.”

“That would seem to work against your theory that she staged her own death. Surely a woman intent on disappearing would be unlikely to go off into the night in only a nightgown.”

“But what if she had planned the so-called suicide well in advance? She would have had time to acquire a gown without her maid’s knowledge. She could have concealed it until she needed it. When she disappeared, leaving her entire wardrobe behind, her husband would be more likely to believe that she really had suffered a nervous breakdown, wandered down to the river, and jumped.”

“You’ve given this a lot of thought, haven’t you?”

She hesitated, once again selecting each word with great care. “You and Emma both agreed that Victoria Hastings did not seem the type to commit suicide.”