Chapter 10 The Widow Under Suspicion #2
Carver's expression altered slightly. Not sympathy exactly. Recognition perhaps. "Did Lord Dacre strike you, Lady Dacre?"
"My husband's death is under inquiry, not my marriage."
"Your marriage may be relevant to his death."
"Then many marriages in England are one bad night away from becoming evidence.
I do not say that to be clever. I say it because women know how much law can be hidden inside ordinary rooms. If you ask whether I was hurt, you already have eyes.
If you ask whether I killed him because I was hurt, the answer is no. "
The word no stood plainly in the room. It was the first direct denial Constance had heard from Helena, and its plainness moved her more than any protestation could have done.
Carver wrote. "You understand that the blood on your glove and sleeve must be considered."
"I understand that blood is obedient to the story people want from it. I touched him. I have said so. If the stain proves that I touched him, then it proves what I have already admitted. If you wish it to prove more, you must find more inside it than my husband's body could give by bleeding."
"That is a strong answer."
"It is the only one I have."
Carver looked at Bell. "Doctor, you were first medical man present?"
"I was summoned shortly after midnight," Bell said. "His lordship was dead when I arrived. I gave preliminary instruction that the room be disturbed as little as possible."
"Cause?"
Bell hesitated. "A head wound is present at the right temple, severe enough to be significant.
There is blood loss, though perhaps not enough alone to explain immediate death without further examination.
It is possible he struck the desk, the lamp, or another hard object in falling.
It is also possible he was struck. I am not prepared to state which. "
"Time?"
"Difficult. The body retained some warmth. Rigor had not established itself. I would place death not long before discovery, perhaps within the hour, but I will not be held to precision until I have completed a proper examination."
Carver's pencil paused. "Within the hour. Lady Dacre says she heard disturbance after eleven. Household bell was rung close to midnight. That leaves a narrow space."
"It does," Bell said.
"And if he was injured before the final fall?"
Bell looked up sharply. "I did not say that."
"No. I did. I am asking whether you exclude it."
The doctor's throat moved. "I cannot exclude everything in a room where I have barely begun. There may be signs not visible without examination. There may be no such signs. Medicine does not become more honest because a policeman dislikes uncertainty."
"Nor does it become less useful because a doctor fears certainty," Carver said mildly.
Bell flushed. Marianne intervened with smooth coldness.
"Inspector, I appreciate thoroughness, but my brother lies dead in his own house, and his wife has been questioned in front of servants, relatives, and a hired cataloguer lingering in the doorway.
Surely some distinction between investigation and indecency remains possible. "
Carver turned and saw Constance fully for the first time. She had not meant to be caught so visibly. His gaze took in her plain dress, the ink at her finger, the satchel held too tightly in both hands.
"Your name?"
"Miss Constance Brown."
"Position in the house?"
"I was hired by Lord Dacre to catalogue his rare books and family papers."
"You were in or near the study last night?"
"I was in the library earlier. Later I was in my room. At one point I heard voices and stepped into the corridor. I saw a figure crossing the lower hall, but I could not identify the person."
Marianne's eyes sharpened. "Miss Brown did not mention this earlier."
"No one asked me earlier in a room where the answer would be useful," Constance said.
"I also saw, before the body was discovered, that the private cabinet in the study was later open.
I cannot say whether it was open before the death.
I can say that a volume already missing from the main library may connect to Lord Dacre's private notes. "
Roland turned on her. "A book? My brother is dead, and you are speaking of a book?"
"Lord Dacre cared enough about the book to conceal its movement.
Someone watched the library last night. Someone argued with him in language that may have concerned a document or volume.
If he was killed in his study beside an open catalogue, then yes, my lord, I am speaking of a book.
Dead men do not become less dead because the cause of their death is paper. "
The sentence shocked even her. Carver's eyebrows lifted slightly. Marianne's face became unreadable.
"Miss Brown," Carver said, "you will give me a separate account. Not now. Soon. Until then, touch none of the papers in this room or elsewhere."
"Inspector," Jasper's sister said, "Miss Brown's employment was under my brother's authority. With his death, the family must determine whether her continued access to private materials is appropriate."
Carver closed his notebook. "Until I determine whether those materials bear on a death inquiry, the family will determine nothing of the kind without informing me.
Locks, cabinets, desks, catalogues, letters, ledgers, and books are to remain as they are.
If anything is moved, burned, altered, corrected, or made conveniently respectable, I shall consider the person responsible either foolish or involved.
I do not recommend appearing either in my presence. "
For the first time since he had arrived, Marianne seemed truly displeased. It was a small expression, almost elegant in its restraint, but Constance saw it and stored it beside the shadow in the corridor.
Helena was allowed to leave the study only after Carver had examined the blood on her sleeve under Bell's reluctant supervision.
A constable noted the glove, the cuff, and the absence of obvious blood on the outer palm except where she said she had touched Jasper.
Constance watched Carver look longer than the others expected at the stain near the seam.
He did not announce what he thought. That gave her more confidence in him than any declaration of fairness would have done.
In the hall, Agnes came at once to Helena's side. "My lady, sit before you fall."
"Do not fuss. If I fall, Inspector Carver will mark the direction and ask whether I intended it."
Agnes's mouth trembled. "Then let him mark that you have had no food, no sleep, and no kindness. Those are facts too, though gentlemen rarely call them evidence."
"Agnes," Helena said softly.
"No, my lady. I have held my tongue through many mornings because a maid's tongue is worth less than a gentleman's temper.
But he is dead now, and still we stand here arranging your sleeve as if his comfort matters.
I will not say what harms you. I know my place.
But do not ask me to pretend grief is the only decent feeling in this house. It is not."
Constance stepped back, giving them a privacy that the hall did not truly allow. Helena lifted her unstained hand and touched Agnes's wrist for one brief second. It was the smallest gesture, and perhaps the most intimate Constance had seen from her. Agnes lowered her head and mastered herself.
Then Carver called Agnes in.
The maid lied within three questions.
Constance knew it not because the lie was clumsy, but because it was too carefully plain.
Agnes said Lady Dacre had remained in her rooms after ten.
Agnes said she herself had been near enough to know.
Agnes said she heard no voices before the bell.
She said Helena had gone downstairs only after a servant cried out.
Each statement was delivered with the same steady loyalty, and each added a stone to the wall Agnes was trying to build around her mistress.
Carver let her finish. "You understand, Miss Flint, that if Lady Dacre herself says she went down earlier, your account cannot stand beside hers without one of you being mistaken or untruthful."
Agnes looked at him with servant humility arranged over iron.
"Her ladyship was distressed. A lady may think she went somewhere because a shock has thrown the house about in her memory.
I am accustomed to knowing where her ladyship is because it is my work to know what she requires.
I say she was upstairs. If that does not fit another account, perhaps another account has been damaged by fear. "
"Or by loyalty."
"Loyalty is not yet a crime, sir. If it becomes one, servants will be the first hanged for having too much of the only virtue our betters praise in us."
Carver looked at her for a long moment. "You are sharper than you wish me to think."
"No, sir. I am exactly as sharp as women become when they handle pins, stains, hot irons, and gentlemen's tempers for wages."
Constance, waiting in the hall, closed her eyes briefly. Agnes's lie had helped no one. It had also told Carver precisely where to look: at Helena's movements, at the time between eleven and midnight, at the question of why a maid would contradict her mistress to protect her.
Roland's interview followed and was loud enough in places to pass through the door.
He insisted Jasper had enemies, then named none.
He admitted debt only after Carver pressed him, then called it temporary inconvenience.
He objected to any implication that inheritance interested him, then asked whether the estate would be sealed during investigation.
He accused servants of gossip, then remembered a quarrel he had overheard involving Jasper and an unnamed woman.
He did not know whether the woman had been Helena, Marianne, or someone from outside because, as he said twice, he had not wished to pry.
"A noble restraint," Carver answered, so dryly that even through the door Constance heard the contempt.