A Fearsome Doubt Part 30

"I never understood him. Janet claimed I never tried, but he made it too difficult, and I gave up. I thought everything would be better after he'd killed himself. But it wasn't. It killed my wife, too. That and Shaw's hanging. She took that hard. She had airs and graces, my wife did. In some ways she should have married Shaw, not me. I've always been a plain man." He looked up at the brightly lit windows again. "Are you sure they're all right?"

Rutledge would have liked to tell him the truth, but again he stopped himself. "You might call in the morning, and ask if there's anything they need."

Cutter said doubtfully, "I don't know . . ."

Rutledge moved around him to crank the motorcar and then climbed behind the wheel. "No. I don't expect you do," he said in resignation and, after a moment, drove away.

HE STOPPED AT the end of the quiet street, and rubbed his face with his hands. His eyes burned, his very soul felt dry and warped. the end of the quiet street, and rubbed his face with his hands. His eyes burned, his very soul felt dry and warped.

Remembering the question that Brereton asked him-about the secrets he uncovered in people's lives, and how he dealt with them-he thought, I can't pa.s.s judgment on what Nell Shaw wanted to do. I can't pa.s.s judgment on what Nell Shaw wanted to do.

Hamish replied, "Her husband sowed the wind, and she reaped the whirlwind." It was a very black-and-white interpretation of tragedy. And, in its way, true.

Rutledge dropped his hands to the wheel again. "I'll speak to Lawrence Hamilton. He might be able to help her."

"It's no' your business. The murders in Kent are."

The murders in Kent- He ought to be pleased that he hadn't been wrong in his judgment of Ben Shaw. But that was no consolation. Nor did it offer insight into these other deaths, or a sense of purpose and renewed dedication. There was only emptiness.

Judgment had its well of sorrow.

And compa.s.sion had its pitfalls.

All the same, he was glad he hadn't walked away from Nell Shaw, as he might have done. It would have been the coward's way.

For a moment he considered going to his sister's house in the city, and staying the night there. It would offer him peace and a little comfort.

But before the evening was over, he was afraid he'd blurt out Raleigh Masters's accusation about Frances and Richard Mayhew. And that was not to be borne tonight.

Instead he turned toward Kent and his empty hotel room, where only Hamish shared his mind. That was where he ought to be.

IN THE EVENT, there was no sleep to be had. there was no sleep to be had.

Dowling had left a message under his door.

The Chief Constable called tonight after you left, wanting to speak with you. He believes there's sufficient evidence against this Dutchman to charge him with the murders. It's out of our hands- Rutledge read the words again and then crumpled the sheet of paper into a ball.

d.a.m.n them all! he thought.

Five minutes later, instead of trying to sleep in his bed, he was walking to the police station and asking the constable on duty for the key to the prisoner's cell.

If Hauser had been asleep, he showed no signs of it as Rutledge unlocked the door.

"Wait, I'll find the lamp," the German said, and after a moment light bloomed in the dark room, shadows falling across Rutledge's face.

"Good G.o.d, man, you look worse than I do!" Hauser exclaimed.

"I live an exciting life. As you will, shortly. The Chief Constable is preparing to charge you with the murders of three men."

"On your evidence?"

"There's d.a.m.ned little of that. No, on circ.u.mstantial evidence."

"There's wine in the cellars. But there's no laudanum. I poured that out, before I left the house yesterday morning, and threw the bottle into a field on my way into Marling."

Rutledge laughed bitterly. "I never meant for it to convict you."

"No. I know you didn't. I'm beginning to get the measure of you."

"I wish I could say the same for you," Rutledge answered.

"The problem is, you're an honest man. And you know that I am not. I am safe in believing you. But you may find yourself in trouble if you believe me."

"Exactly. Did you kill those men? There are no witnesses here. Not even outside the door. And any confession is your word against mine. A good barrister could claim that I had very good reasons to want to see you convicted."

"Elizabeth? G.o.d, I hope she won't come into this!"

"She has already. Dowling has found out that she lunched with you at the hotel one day and has been seen several times speaking to you."

"They will say I used her, to buy respectability. Yes. All right, if you want me to swear I'm innocent, I shall. On my brother's soul."

His face was sober, the blue eyes intense in the lamplight.

Hamish pressed, "Do you believe him?"

Rutledge answered, "Does it matter?" Aloud, he added, "Tell me, does this cup of yours exist?"

"There are records in my family. Letters. I can probably prove it was with me during the first years of the war, if someone can track down the men serving under me. But that would lead to the truth that my brother died after the cup was taken from me. It gives me a reason for murdering ex-soldiers from Kent who were in the unit that captured me. Better to believe I was here searching my family connection with England."

"You've made a tangle of your life."

"So I have," Hauser answered regretfully. "But then I expected to be gone in a few days. Find Ridger, demand the cup be returned, and home again. It seemed quite simple, when I borrowed my cousin's papers."

Rutledge turned back to the door. "Is there anything-anything at all you can tell me about these dead men?"

Hauser rubbed his jaw with the tips of his fingers, feeling the beard there. "I've thought of little else shut away in here. Elizabeth was right, you know. I should have taken the train to London and the next boat to Holland."

"It would help if you'd seen something suspicious out there wandering around in the dark."

"I couldn't even identify the man who stabbed me! But think about this. If you offer a man a drink that is drugged, a drink he's not accustomed to-this wine of yours-how would you go about it?"

"I'd have a drink first myself. To show the bottle was safe."

"That's because you're aware that it's drugged. No. You would offer him the wine to keep out the cold. You may have driven these roads, but you haven't walked them long after dark, as I did. At first the exercise warms you, and then you begin to feel tired. Your shoulders ache, and then your face grows cold, and your hands. The feet last. You'd be glad of a drink by and by. I cursed myself for not bringing a flask with me."

It was an interesting approach.

"All right. Anything else?"

Hauser yawned. "You're the policeman. You'll think of something."

RUTLEDGE SLEPT HARD. When he awoke to a cold and raw Thursday morning, he lay in his bed, trying to bring his mind to bear on the day's work ahead.

As he shaved he sorted through all the possible motives that he had uncovered-Hauser's revenge for Ridger's actions; guilt; compa.s.sion; and a pure and callous evil. Not the work of a madman, nor of a pa.s.sionate man, but of a wary one.

What drove ordinary people to the point of murder?

He considered the three women who had been married to the victims.

Had there been some collusion among them? To rid themselves of a husband who had become a stranger and a burden they hadn't bargained for in the glamorous, exciting days of sending a soldier off to fight the Hun?

If so, they had concealed it very well.

And yet Mrs. Taylor had called her husband a stranger. Mrs. Webber had confessed to Rutledge that her husband had been unfaithful in France. Mrs. Bartlett spoke of being afraid to be alone, but perhaps she preferred it in some objective and well-disguised corner of her mind.

How easy would it be to kill your own husband? Or had they drawn lots, each taking on the responsibility for a man not their own?

Was that why the deaths had occurred on a dark road at night? Was the wine a gamble that had sucked the victim into conspiring at his own death?

"Ye're avoiding yon Crawford woman-"

"I'm doing what I have been sent here to do-"

"Oh, aye-"

"Then I'll talk to Mrs. Crawford. I won't destroy a friendship on a whim."

AS IT HAPPENED, Rutledge's first item of business was a brief encounter with Lawrence Hamilton. Rutledge's first item of business was a brief encounter with Lawrence Hamilton.

They had met in the triangular square within touching distance of the Cavalier's broad back.

"What brings you to Marling at this hour?" Rutledge asked after greeting him.

Hamilton shrugged. "An errand of mercy, I expect. Elizabeth has asked me to act for this man Dowling is holding for the murders."

"Indeed!"

"I'm not happy about it. But Elizabeth was adamant. And distraught. Do you know what this is all about? Lydia is very worried, I can tell you!"

"It's Elizabeth's place to answer that, not mine. The man Dowling is holding is trying to keep her out of it." He carefully avoided giving Hauser a name.

"What's between them? How serious is it?" Hamilton prodded.

"There's nothing between them as far as I know. I think Elizabeth is-infatuated."

"Yes, I gathered that. And the man?"

"He's not what you expect. In other circ.u.mstances-who knows?"

"Well. d.a.m.n the war, anyway! If Richard had come home, this wouldn't have happened."

As he started to drive on toward the station, Rutledge laid a hand on the car. "I've a favor of my own to ask."

"What's that?"

"A Mrs. Shaw. London, Sansom Street. She's got no money, and probably no hope of any. It's about a will. She needs someone to act on her behalf, to protect her children's interests."

Hamilton chuckled. "You're a dangerous man, Rutledge, do you realize that? I haven't known you a month, and now I'm dragged into a murder case and asked to take on a questionable will."

Rutledge smiled, and it touched his eyes, lighting them from within. "Yes, well, we're neither of us in the law for peace of mind."

"Richard always said you were a philosopher." With that he drove on, leaving his motorcar in the hotel yard.

AS HE WALKED through the gate up to the Webbers' door, Rutledge found himself thinking of Peter and his younger sister. What would become of them if their mother was a murderess? through the gate up to the Webbers' door, Rutledge found himself thinking of Peter and his younger sister. What would become of them if their mother was a murderess?

Would they suffer as the Shaw children had done? Or were there relatives to take them in and give them comfort?

This was the distasteful part of his work. On the other hand, who had spoken up for the dead men? Who had heard their voices? Dowling was more concerned with a killer on his patch than he was with men who had slipped into oblivion. They were a blot on his record, and one to be removed. . . .

Rutledge knocked lightly on the door.

It was Monday morning, and Susan Webber, sleeves rolled up, was elbow deep in her tubs. She greeted him with surprise, and said, drying her arms on her ap.r.o.n, "I'm just finishing the wash."

"I'm sorry to interrupt. I must ask a few more questions."

She led him into the room where they had talked before, sitting stiffly in a chair facing him.

Hamish said, "You'd think she had a guilty conscience. . . ."

But Rutledge put her nervousness down to talking to the police at all.

"You told me you couldn't think of anyone who might harm them, your husband or the other men. And you were not prepared to believe your husband had killed himself."

"Yes, that's right. What for? Kenny knew we had little enough, with him alive!"

"You'd managed throughout the war without him. Perhaps it would be easier to go on that way."

She stared at him. "Bringing up two children, without a man? Go and speak with Bobby Nester's wife! He died of the gas, and she's making do as best she can. She'd dreaded the day when he was gone, and she'd got nothing. And n.o.body! Or try talking with my Peter, when he wants to leave school and help me. And I'm telling him him that schooling is his only way out of this life. People have been good to us, and I'm not denying it. Kenny would have been proud of that. But it's not the same. It'll never be the same again. Who'll marry a woman with two growing children, and take on that burden?" that schooling is his only way out of this life. People have been good to us, and I'm not denying it. Kenny would have been proud of that. But it's not the same. It'll never be the same again. Who'll marry a woman with two growing children, and take on that burden?"