Chapter 23 #2
He had been letting her win rather shamelessly. Saffron grinned and turned to face the inspector. “Why, Inspector, you actually look pleased.”
“I am, Miss Everleigh,” he replied, the hint of satisfaction becoming more evident. “Last night we caught Richard Blake. He was attempting to board a ship to—”
“America?” asked Saffron.
“France,” Alexander countered.
“Morocco, actually,” said the inspector.
Alexander smirked at Saffron.
“That doesn’t count!” she protested. “Inspector?”
He considered them, then shrugged. “You wouldn’t say Canada was England.”
Alexander rolled his eyes and Saffron laughed. “Well then, you’ve caught him. Is he talking, like Dr. Berking?” she asked.
“He hasn’t said a word. We did find something on him that might be of interest to you.”
Saffron sat up in her chair straighter. “The poison? Are your people testing it?”
Inspector Green shook his head. “Not the poison, though he did have a vial on him when they caught up with him. Luckily it smashed before he could do anything with it. Not enough of a sample to test, unfortunately.”
“You think he meant to—” Saffron broke off with a loud exhale. She really ought not to consider all the horrible things Blake might have done with that poison. “But what did Blake have with him, then?”
“The money,” the inspector said, his eyes twinkling for once. “Nearly the entire amount the university had collected for the expedition.”
Before Saffron could exclaim her delight and surprise, Alexander’s disbelieving voice asked, “He had all of it with him?”
“Apparently that’s what delayed him long enough for us to get a hold of him. He was arrested outside a bank,” the inspector said.
Saffron was relieved that the money had been recovered, but too many questions prevented her from being content with that information. “I should like to have known what exactly their mysterious poison was, though. Have you found R. Glass?”
“Yes. Dr. Rupert Glass admitted to collaborating with Dr. Berking but staunchly stands by his claim that he was ignorant of the solution’s purpose.
He professes he had nothing left to hand over and had apparently already destroyed the research he’d accumulated when he grew suspicious after the poisoning. ”
Saffron withheld a snort. “I’m sure the five hundred pounds from Dr. Berking helped. Richard Blake isn’t likely to talk, I think. He didn’t even want to know what Alexander and I had figured out. He hardly showed any expression the entire time he had us. It was frightful how calm he was.”
The inspector shrugged. “Well, some are like that.” He looked at them carefully before adding in a low voice, “The barristers wouldn’t like me telling you this, so you are not to repeat it. Berking confirmed that Mrs. Henry was the target, not Dr. Henry.”
“But why?” Alexander asked.
Saffron had spent long hours in her hospital room considering just this point. “It was the College Committee meeting, wasn’t it, Inspector?”
He nodded, and Saffron suppressed her urge to grin.
Alexander mirrored the inspector with his nod. “She wasn’t going to the Committee about Dr. Henry’s inappropriate relationship with Miss Ermine or his idea for a new branch in the history department. She was going because she found out about the embezzlement.”
Saffron looked to him in surprise, and his expression turned smug.
“According to Mrs. Henry, she noticed irregularities in paperwork she saw on Mr. Blake’s desk during a few of her office visits,” said Inspector Green.
Saffron thought “office visit” was a very tame way to explain a lovers’ rendezvous.
“She became suspicious and she arranged a meeting to report it.”
“Richard Blake realized she’d discovered the embezzlement, and Berking agreed to create a poison to kill her?” Saffron asked. That seemed rather elaborate.
“Or did she discover his true identity and was going to expose him?” Alexander asked.
Saffron turned to him, mouth agape. “Blake’s true identity?”
The inspector’s mouth inclined into a half smile.
“Apparently, Mr. Ashton has discovered it himself.” Alexander shot Saffron a wink, leaving her shocked and not a little charmed.
“It seems the man we know as Richard Blake is, in fact, James Harper. For the past decade, he’s been running small confidence plays, often taking on the role of a philanthropist soliciting donations for scholarships.
This is by far his grandest scheme yet.”
“How did Berking know who Blake really was?” Saffron asked.
“They met at a house party in Lincolnshire, when Blake—Harper—was living under another name and went after the fortune of one of the guests. Berking later recognized him when he took up at the university. When the opportunity came to swindle the university out of thousands of pounds, they put a plan into motion. Dr. Berking had been experimenting with his new breed of aconite for some time. He seemed rather proud of his creation and eager to try it.”
That explained part of it, but she still had unanswered questions. “Dr. Henry was supposed to take the fall for embezzlement, of course, but what about the poisoning? If they meant to have Dr. Henry arrested, they could have chosen a better method. We figured out it wasn’t him right away!”
“Wrong method,” Alexander and the inspector said simultaneously, and they eyed each other with cool surprise.
“Exactly! He’d probably strangle her or throw her down the stairs or—”
“Something else,” Alexander said firmly. “Perhaps their aim was to muddle the field so much that the police would ignore them long enough for the expedition to leave. It would be perfect; they’d get out of the country on a believable pretext and slip away the moment we reached Brazil.”
Saffron frowned. “If their goal was to run off with thousands of pounds, why wait for the expedition at all? Why didn’t they just take the donations and run?”
No one seemed to have an answer to her question.
“I don’t like to think what Mrs. Henry must have felt when she heard her lover tried to kill her,” Saffron mused aloud.
The inspector frowned slightly. “Mr. Blake, or Mr. Harper, wasn’t her lover, according to her testimony.
She was attempting to discover what exactly Dr. Henry did to gain the funding from the Ermine family, and thought Blake would be a good source of information.
She might have mentioned that Dr. Henry suspecting they had a relationship was a bonus. ”
Saffron blinked. She certainly hadn’t considered that possibility.
Inspector Green tapped the top of his hat and moved toward the door.
“You know, Inspector,” Saffron said, “the police poisons expert who came around, he knew nothing about poisons apart from arsenic and strychnine. I’m fairly certain I’d be a better expert than him.”
The inspector smiled, a wry expression that crinkled his eyes. “Maybe you would, Miss Everleigh. I’m glad you’ve both recovered. Mr. Ashton, good luck on your expedition.” He left.
Saffron grinned widely at Inspector Green’s retreating form before turning to Alexander and laughing. “He smiled!”