Chapter 26
“All of them deny it?” I asked in shock. “That can’t be.”
“I’m afraid so.” Daniel idly turned his teacup in its saucer. “None of them are trustworthy, no, but I’ve noted that a villain will most indignantly protest he did not do a crime he is truly innocent of, even when he’s guilty of so many others.”
“Oh, dear.” I deflated. “I was certain Mr. Draper had him killed. Mr. Banks must have known about the smuggling ring, but as he seemed an honest man, he was murdered to keep his silence.”
“A very good theory.” Daniel nodded. “But until we can find the evidence of it, we must unfortunately discard it.”
“At least Mr. Naismith will be pleased.” I rested my elbows on the table and lifted my teacup for a disgruntled sip. “You’ve rid him of a problem so that he can continue his own criminal ventures unimpeded.”
“I did not do this to help him,” Daniel said easily. “We just happened to have the same ambition at the same moment. Now that I have done him a favor, he will owe me one, which is how I prefer things to be.”
Of course. Daniel would never have agreed to assist Mr. Naismith, even to save himself or me or his friends, without somehow turning the situation to his advantage.
“If he will uphold his end of the bargain,” I said darkly.
“He will.”
Daniel’s grim conviction was chilling.
I set down my cup. “Then I think we should look more closely at Mr. Ramsay,” I said, to return to our main topic.
I told him what Albie had reported, that Ramsay too had probably lost in Mr. Draper’s gaming house.
“Ramsay might have had a quarrel with Mr. Banks, followed him that day—or lured him down to the docks—and killed him. Or killed him to get his hands on the medal, which could fetch some money. It might be about nothing more than theft, after all.”
“A man at the wrong place at the wrong time.” Daniel became thoughtful. “The question remains, why was Banks in that wrong place? Grimes said he went across the bridge, heading for the pub, but then diverted into the lanes leading to the docks and disappeared.”
An awful thought occurred to me. “You don’t suppose Mr. Grimes had anything to do with it? I shouldn’t like to think so, but we only have his word that Mr. Banks vanished among the warehouses and then turned up dead.”
The cheerful Mr. Grimes, who’d saved my life earlier this year, and had spirited me away from the scene of the crime before the constables could arrest me, was, in fact, a hardened criminal himself.
I never asked him why he avoided police stations as adamantly as he did, but presumably because inspectors would wish to interrogate him about some past crime or other.
“I do hope not,” Daniel said. “Though I’m certain if he did, he’d have made himself very scarce.
I feared that was why I couldn’t lay hands on him a week or so ago, but it turned out Errol had commandeered him.
” He heaved a sigh. “I really don’t know.
I don’t think he did, but I would have to ask him point-blank. ”
“Mr. Grimes had no reason to kill him.” I tried to cheer myself up with that point. “I can’t think of any, that is.”
“They were both from South London. Who knows what sort of connection they might have had? As I say, all I can do is ask him.”
“Please don’t,” I said quickly. “I don’t want to offend him. Mr. Grimes is a good man, and we are only speculating, because we don’t have another solution.”
“I agree. I owe him much.” Daniel reached for my hand. “We will not bother him about it unless we can find no other answer. I prefer the culprit to be Ramsay. He is hiding something, though it might simply be money he owed Banks that he doesn’t want the heirs collecting. But I don’t trust him.”
“He did not seem as grieved as he made out to be,” I said. “We might wrong him, but perhaps Acting Inspector Scott could have a word with him.”
Daniel’s lips twitched. “That would send a cold wind down Ramsay’s spine, wouldn’t it? I will do more poking around in Banks’s old haunts and see what I can turn up.”
“Good.” I released his hand to slide my notebook over to me. “While you were busy chasing criminals—thank you very much for not getting hurt while doing so—I have been thinking over our other mystery. The mystery of you, I mean.”
Color eased into Daniel’s cheeks. “I’ve decided to forget about it.
We know Banks meant to tell me about Mrs. Kerr, but whether or not I was one of her strays, there is no way of knowing.
Your idea of the picture book I think won’t help either.
Too many random pieces of information, not enough specific ones.
Besides, we don’t know for certain exactly what Banks was going to tell us. We only have Ramsay’s guess.”
I sent Daniel an impatient frown. “Well, if you are going to simply give up, clear off so the rest of us can work on the problem.”
“Kat—”
“Your friends are being very diligent for you,” I said with vigor. “Do not dismiss them. I know that you pretend to be resigned because you don’t want to be disappointed.”
“Yes, because I have been disappointed so often,” Daniel returned.
“When I was a lad, I believed Carter was my father. I imagined he’d lost track of me, and that’s when Compton picked me up.
When I got away from Compton, and Carter found me, all was well.
I nursed that version of my life for years before accepting that it wasn’t true. ”
“The truth might not be as exciting as all that.” I tried to gentle my voice. “It might even be distressing, but at least you would know.”
“Will that be better?” Daniel asked in some despair.
“I think, for you, it will,” I answered. “You always seek answers, and the truth. You make people own up to who they are and what they do. I think you will never be satisfied with not knowing.” I softened. “Cheer up. You might be the son of a duke, after all.”
Daniel leaned closer to me. “If I proved to be a duke’s son, would you still love me, Kat?”
“Of course.” I loved Daniel for himself, no matter who he turned out to be. “I couldn’t marry you, of course, but I’d still love you from afar.”
“Couldn’t?” Daniel asked, brows rising. “Or wouldn’t?”
“My dear Daniel, a duke cannot marry a cook.”
“If I am a duke I’ll marry whomever I please,” Daniel said, his good humor returning. “Then you can live in my manor house, put your feet up, and criticize your own cook, because none will ever reach your standard.”
I did not let myself laugh. “Now you are being absurd. But it is no matter. I have reasoned you are probably not an aristocrat, because that family would have turned over every stone to find you. Or their solicitors would have, if you were indeed the next heir. But that does not mean you didn’t belong to a family who treasured you. ”
“I would like to think I did,” Daniel said softly.
I opened my notebook and flipped to the relevant pages.
“While you have been assisting the police, I have come up with a list of people who bought books for children about the seaside thirty or so years ago. Mr. Thanos and Cynthia are combing through it and lists of people who either perished or reported a missing child, to see if any match. I copied out the ones I thought most likely. Do you think any of these are good possibilities?”
I turned the notebook so he could read what I’d written. I’d focused on those with addresses in the center of London, places close enough to the East End where someone in the household might have heard of Mrs. Kerr, but also within easy distance of Mrs. Davies’s shop.
I did include a few from the western part of London, reasoning that if a maid or nurse had taken Daniel to Mrs. Kerr, she might be familiar with the East End even if Daniel’s family didn’t live there.
The addresses ranged from Whitechapel to Hammersmith, though I reasoned that the possibilities were less likely the farther afield I went.
Daniel gazed down at my notebook for some time, then he lifted his head, a bit dazed.
“How did you find out all this?”
“I have my methods,” I said mysteriously. “Truth to tell, I paid a visit to a bookshop. I do know it is only one shop out of many, but please tell me what you think.”
Daniel’s eyes had warmed. “I think I was the wisest man on earth to deliver goods to your kitchen that day.”
I flushed, not an unpleasant sensation. He referred to the time he’d come breezing into a kitchen I’d worked in five years ago, laid down his sack, and smiled at me. I’d fallen for his blue eyes and engaging ways and hadn’t lost my fascination for him since.
I slid my chair over so I could lean my shoulder against his.
“Never mind the flattery,” I said softly. “And let us decide which is the best possibility.”
* * *
Before Daniel departed, he did agree that three of the names were worth investigating, including the one in Hammersmith.
Once he focused, he was able to reason out why those names had more possibilities.
For one, all three had purchased more than one book that would be of interest to a small boy.
Next, they lived in neighborhoods of people who could likely afford the expense of a few secondhand books, and last, the houses were handy for either a walk to Victoria Park or to the direct train lines there.
Now to discover if any of those people still lived at these addresses, and if they had reported a missing child or had died themselves.
By the time Daniel left, he’d regained interest in the puzzle, I was pleased to see. I’d rarely encountered Daniel dejected and hadn’t realized how deeply he could sink into himself.
In the morning, as I readied myself to go to Joanna’s to bake for my market stall, Cynthia passed through the kitchen on her way out the back door.
“Can you stop by Thanos’s flat this morning?” she asked. “We have much to say.”
With that, she floated out, her well-tailored skirt barely fluttering.
I hurried through preparations, gave instructions to Tess for the day’s meals, changed my frock, and departed.
I found Cynthia at Mr. Thanos’s flat in Regent Street, and also Miss Townsend.