Chapter 7 #2
“Yes.” Callister ground his teeth again. “I take it a servant overheard us. You’d think they’d afford their master a bit of loyalty.” He waved his hand dismissively. “As you say, we disagreed.”
“You threatened him, Mr. Callister?”
“Balderdash. What I said was meant as hyperbole, Inspector Pierce. Something blurted in a moment of anger.”
“And what topic caused your anger?” Gideon pressed.
“We were both angry.” Callister stood and scooped up his empty glass, striding to the drink cart. “I thought Percival was being reckless. He was infatuated with a lady, who was not free…for such an infatuation.”
“Do you know the name of that lady?”
Callister poured a bit, tipped the liquor back, and then filled his glass with more. “No, I do not. He refused to tell me her name.”
“Then, how did you know his infatuation was inappropriate?”
“He told me she was married. I do not deny there was some genuine feeling between them. I believe Percival met her at a time when she was vulnerable.”
Once Callister had settled into his chair again, he warmed his glass between his palms. “We also argued because I thought he was a fool to throw over a lovely young woman like Miss Beecham.”
“He broke that engagement because of the married lady, I take it.”
“And it was a mistake, and as a result he’d been fighting a lawsuit for months.”
The man’s account did not fully make sense in light of what Miss McGuire had overheard. According to the maid, Callister said he would not allow Pennington to win. That seemed to have far more to do with Callister than Pennington’s liaisons.
“So you were angry with his choices, not on your own behalf?”
A tight smile and Callister sat up a bit taller in his chair. “I did not kill my friend, Inspector. Would your time not be better spent speaking to someone else?”
“I will,” Gideon assured him. “As soon as we’re done here.” Gideon shifted in his chair too. “You were heard threatening Mr. Pennington, saying you would not allow him to win. I would like to understand why.”
Callister heaved a long sigh. “I criticized his choices. He criticized mine. I shouted a heated retort that I regret.” He pinned Gideon with his cool gaze. “Deeply regret now.”
“You critiqued his choices regarding Miss Beecham and the lady he was fond of. Was his critique toward you of a similar nature?”
“How adroit of you, Inspector. It was of a similar nature. The club I mentioned. Less of a club and more of a place where gentlemen can procure company for an evening or for a longer time.”
“A brothel?” Gideon couldn’t help but clarify.
Callister didn’t contradict him, but the look he gave him was arctic.
“No, I wouldn’t characterize it that way.
It was a place where gentlemen could meet ladies they might wish to…
keep for a time. And there was a particular lady I’d grown fond of and provided with lodgings.
Percival did not approve. He suggested I marry again.
Someone appropriate.” He made a sound that was almost a breath of laughter.
“I told him he was a hypocrite. After all, Percival had introduced me to the club, and he himself had broken off an engagement to a respectable young woman.”
“You were heard threatening to put him in the ground, Mr. Callister.”
“As I said, Inspector, it was a bit of hyperbole in the heat of a moment.” He took a long swig of his drink and grimaced. “A man who did have a grudge against Percival is Roderick Beecham. You would do well to question him.”
“I understand Pennington was negotiating with him to prevent the breach-of-promise case from going forward.”
Callister scoffed. “Beecham wanted more than the lawsuit. He wanted to menace Percival. Destroy him for hurting his daughter. The man even came to me to ask if I knew any facts that might compromise Percival’s reputation. He was all but prepared to blackmail Percival into marrying his daughter.”
Gideon added Callister’s claims to his notes.
“Is there anything else, Inspector?”
The man’s eagerness to be rid of him had been palpable almost from the moment Gideon had walked through the door, but he wasn’t finished yet.
“You mentioned your liaison with a lady from the Rosebud Club. Did Mr. Pennington favor a lady he’d met there too?”
Callister nodded. “He did. He favored several for a time. Then others. His tastes were changeable.”
“And the name of the lady he favored most recently?”
“At the club, they’re all named after flowers. She was known as Dahlia, but I knew her no further than that.”
Gideon had a name and a place to seek Pennington’s mistress, and that alone made the conversation worthwhile.
“And the name of the lady who you visited last evening?”
“Must my paramour be named, Inspector? It is a private matter.”
Gideon gave Callister a look that he hoped conveyed his determination to find answers, regardless of the delicacy of the gentlemen’s affairs.
“The lady can attest to where you were last evening, Mr. Callister, and since you overheard threatening Mr. Pennington only days before he died, perhaps you can understand why I must speak with her.”
Callister drained his snifter. “Her name is Eleanor Mahoney, and I was with her at the lodgings I provide for her on Charlotte Street in Fitzrovia.”
“Which number on Charlotte Street?”
“Number twenty-two.” Callister coughed, pressing a fist to his mouth, then edged forward in his chair. “I’m feeling rather poorly. May we draw this interview to a close, Inspector?”
It seemed even the question itself cost him something. Callister scowled and pursed his lips. Gideon suspected he was a man who was used to having things ordered to his wishes.
“What can you tell me about The Seven Stars, Mr. Callister?”
The man stood from his chair and all the blood seemed to seep from his face. “Who told…? That was…” Callister shook his head. “That was an accident. Youthful foolishness.”
Gideon stood. “Tell me about the accident, Mr. Callister.”
“We were on Michaelmas holiday from university, at The Seven Stars pub in Holborn, drunk and unruly. Somehow…” The older man pressed a hand to his mouth and then lowered it.
“We were being foolish with our penknives and devised a trial of nerves, if you will, and during the course of that nonsense…I stabbed him.”
Gideon’s muscles tensed. “Do you still possess that knife?”
Blinking, Callister looked at him as if he’d been somewhere far off in his memories and only then recalled that Gideon remained in the room with him.
“No, of course not,” he barked. “That was over two decades ago. It has no bearing on what happened to Percival last night.” He notched his chin up. “I regretted that incident for years. Apologized to Percival until he insisted I never speak of it again.”
A rasping laugh escaped and then a tear slid down the man’s face before he reached up to swipe it away. “It is unthinkable that he is gone.”
Callister turned his back on him to hide his emotional display.
Gideon stood and collected his coat, slipping the garment on and then returning his notebook to his pocket. His fingers brushed against Electra’s calling card, and he cleared his throat.
“Have you ever consulted a psychic, Mr. Callister?”
Swinging around, Callister grimaced at Gideon as if he’d spoken the most ludicrous words he’d ever heard.
“Why in God’s name would you ask me such a question?”
“I have reason for the inquiry.”
“No, of course not. I’m a man of logic and sense and have no interest in the faddle of soothsayers.” Even after all but spitting the words, Callister wore a sour expression as if the very topic horrified him.
Gideon tried not to allow his own emotions to cloud any interaction with a witness, only logic and deduction. But Callister’s distaste felt suddenly personal when he considered how the man might view Electra.
“Thank you, Mr. Callister. Those are all the questions I have for now.”
At that, Callister coughed and dropped heavily into his chair. “Forgive me if I ask you to see yourself out. I feel quite ill. Only my cook and a housemaid remain in service at the moment, and I suspect both are engaged in the kitchen.”
“Of course.”
Callister hung his head and pressed a fist to his forehead.
“There will be an inquest tomorrow,” Gideon told him. “You may be called, as you were the last person known to speak to Percival Pennington.”
Callister lifted his head with an affronted inhale. “Do you know for certain I will be called?”
“No, but a summons will come by day’s end if your testimony is required.”
The man frowned but said nothing more, so Gideon made his way out the front door.
As with everyone he’d spoken to during the course of the investigation, barring Electra, Gideon’s instinct told him that Callister had not been entirely forthright. Yet even with an overheard threat and a history of having stabbed Pennington, he had no evidence for calling the man a viable suspect.
At least, not yet.