Chapter Fourteen #2
She found herself at a loss for words. She owed him her life… “I don’t know quite what to say. Thank you seems too rudimentary.”
He shrugged. “I was just doing my job.”
“No, you weren’t. You were one of only two officers out of a dozen who went into the building trying to save people, despite the flames and smoke.”
“I took an oath to save lives.” He shrugged. “When I give my word, I keep it.”
She believed him. “I owe you my life, Inspector. For that I do thank you, greatly.”
Though many times in the years after the fire, while she’d been fending for herself on the streets, picking pockets just to survive, she’d often wished she’d been taken along with her father.
But then as she’d gotten older and had started helping other women to regain their power from those who were trying to take advantage of them, she’d realized how lucky she’d been to survive and be able to help others.
“You’re welcome, Miss Maguire.”
“So, you believe me now, that my father was James Maguire?”
“You couldn’t have known I saved a girl from the fire, unless you were in fact that girl I saved.
So yes, I believe you’re James Maguire’s daughter.
Though I will make some enquiries to confirm that.
However, if you are his daughter, it goes a long way to explaining what you were able to do to me with my own cuffs, though it still doesn’t quite explain your involvement in all this. ”
“I’m still trying to work that out myself,” she replied. “And I am sorry about what happened, Inspector—”
“Tobias,” he interrupted. “My name is Tobias Flint, and given you’re entwined in my current investigation, I have a feeling we shall be getting to know each other rather well over the course of the next few weeks, so you might as well call me ‘Tobias.’”
“Wouldn’t ‘Lord Tobias’ be more appropriate, though?
” She’d gotten one of her agents to ask around about him, and they’d discovered that the inspector was the younger son of the Earl of Arlington.
Though given the fierce frown now sweeping over his face, clearly, he didn’t like the title being used.
“You know of my background. However, it’s not Lord Tobias, as I’m the younger son. Earls’ younger sons don’t get the courtesy lord added before their names. We only get ‘the honorable,’ and even that is only added on paper, not in speech. We certainly don’t get called ‘lord.’”
“You aristocrats have odd rules.” She nodded. “But to answer your questions, yes, I had my own agents make enquiries about who’s in charge of the investigation, given there’s a killer using my father’s illusion to perpetrate the most horrific acts.”
“Your own agents?” he queried, his frown replaced with a raised brow.
“I am the owner of the Hart Investigation Agency.”
“You’re that Jack Hart? You’ve got to be joking… I thought Jack Hart was a man.”
“Everyone does, Inspector, and it’s a common belief that I started. But it’s no joke. I am that Jack Hart, and I’m glad to see my reputation has preceded me even at the Yard.”
She smiled across at him. Police were notorious in disliking private investigators’ agencies in general, but they most especially did not like her agency, given they’d solved a great many cases that the police had been unable to, and often liked to bend the law as much as they could when doing so.
To say the police didn’t like Jack’s agency, as much as Jack and her agents didn’t like the police, was an accurate assessment.
“God help me.”
“Oh, but he has, Inspector,” Jack purred. “He’s sent you me. And I am just what you need to help solve this case.”
“You are, are you?” Slowly, he walked over towards her and stood about two feet away, the corner of his mouth quirking up at the corners.
Jack was annoyed at how that simple, little action made her belly flip.
A feeling she hadn’t experienced since that bounder Caleb.
Well, she wouldn’t let any man, let alone a police officer, ever have that sort of an effect on her again.
Even if Cordy’s assessment of his delicious handsomeness was annoyingly accurate.
“I thought you said you’d never get close to me again, Inspector? ”
“Tobias,” he corrected, and from this close, she could see the twinkling of amusement in his eyes.
The man seemed to know the odd effect he was having on her, and she didn’t like it.
Not one bit. Defiantly, she took a step closer to him and was glad to see the amusement quickly replaced by wariness.
Good. He should be wary of her. “I will call you ‘Inspector’ until I feel I can trust you enough to call you ‘Tobias.’”
He merely shrugged, and there was an expression of amusement in his gaze, which for some reason annoyed her.
She wasn’t an amusement for any man, most especially not him.
“Now as I was saying, Inspector, I know magic, and I know the secrets behind my father’s illusions.
Skills and knowledge that this killer has in some form.
Skills that you will need for your investigation if you want to have a hope of catching this bastard. ”
“There are many other magicians in London, Miss Maguire,” he replied.
“There might be, but good luck getting any of them to tell you anything, for they won’t. Magicians have a code to not reveal any of the tricks to their illusions to anyone outside the circle of magic.” She instantly saw the confirmation in his eyes. “Which clearly you’ve already experienced.”
He gave a sharp nod. “My men have had no luck so far. But you will reveal these secrets to me, will you?”
“I have no love of magic, given it took my parents from me,” Jack told him, swallowing down the old hurt that always arose when she thought of them. “And apart from using it to enhance my own skills for my investigations—”
“For skirting the law, don’t you mean?”
Her mouth curved into a smile. “Skirting the law is not breaking the law. An important distinction, I think you’d agree?”
“There’s a very fine line, Miss Maguire, between skirting the law and breaking it. In fact, one could argue, it’s all a matter of opinion.”
She shrugged. “Perhaps so, but in any event, I have no love for the world of magic. What I do have is love for my father and his legacy. A legacy that some monster is trying to destroy with his own perverse interpretation of my father’s illusions, while murdering a man akin to an uncle to me.
That, I cannot let stand. So yes, Inspector, I will help you.
And you will need my help in the face of these illusions, which are designed to not only distract, but to baffle those trying to catch the trick, because there is never just one trick.
There are always tricks within tricks, and without my help, Inspector, once this Coffin Conjurer is finished with his macabre performances, he’ll most likely disappear just like the Ripper did. And that, I will not allow.”
No. She would get justice for her father, and for Jeremiah and that poor young woman who had been so defiled.
She might not have loved magic, but she wouldn’t allow anyone to destroy the wonder of it for others.
And if it was magic that this killer thought he excelled in, then magic would be his undoing because Jack was better at it than most.