Page 55 of Married to the Earl

“The place isn’t that big. If I’d been here, you would have seen me.”

“I don’t know if that’s true,” Henry said. “You do tend to lurk in corners. You don’t socialize. You don’t talk to the patrons. I can imagine you being here and nobody knowing about it.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I don’t want to lie, that’s all,” Henry said. “I’m not saying I think you did anything. I’m just saying…I can’t be sure you weren’t here.”

“If I had been here,” Conor said through his teeth, boiling with anger, “I would have come and found you right away. Come on, Henry, you know that. After you took the trouble to track me down at my home, do you really think I would bother to come into the club and not even let you know I’d done it?”

“Well, that does make sense,” Henry allowed. “I guess it’s not likely that you would have hidden frommeif you were here.”

“Unless he was here to commit a crime,” Officer Fitzroy said. “In that case, he wouldn’t have wanted anybody to see him.”

“What am I being accused of, exactly?” Conor asked.

“You’re not being formally accused of anything yet,” Fitzroy said.

“Formally?”

“Well, it can’t be denied that a man you consider to be a rival was found dead in your club, Lord Middleborough. We would be remiss not to examine that situation carefully.”

“I see,” Conor said coldly, glad in this moment that he had so much experience at holding back his emotions in trying and unpleasant circumstances. His heart was racing, and he could feel his palms beginning to sweat, but he maintained a cool exterior. “Well, unless you are interested in bringing formal charges against me, I’m afraid I can’t permit you to malign my character inside my own establishment any longer.”

Fitzroy inclined his head. “You understand that we have to shut down The Arc and continue with our investigation.”

“Very well.”

“I suggest the two of you return to your respective homes,” Fitzroy said, looking from Conor to Henry. “Expect us to be in touch. I hope you aren’t planning on going anywhere over the next few days?”

“No,” Conor said. Henry shook his head.

“Good,” Fitzroy said. “See to it that you don’t. I’m sure someone will want to speak with you shortly.”

Conor got to his feet and walked to the door, feeling in a daze.

Henry was right on his heels. “Listen, I’m sorry,” he said. “I feel like I might have made things worse back there. I just got spooked. I don’t want Officer Fitzroy to think I was lying to him.”

Conor stopped and looked at his friend. “You don’t really think I could have been involved in a murder, do you?”

“Of course I don’t,” Henry said. “And, hell, even if they do suspect you…you were at home, right? You have plenty of witnesses. Your staff would have seen you.”

“That’s right,” Conor agreed.

But he was remembering, suddenly, that he had shut himself in the parlor with no one but Astrid for company. That after a certain time of night, his staff wouldn’t have seen him at all.

But it’s never going to come to needing an alibi, he assured himself.After all, Ididn’tkill Lord Hayward. Someone else did. And when Fitzroy completes his investigation, he’ll turn up some kind of evidence that will point him away from me and in the right direction.

It was upsetting to be suspected of a crime. But Conor knew that he was innocent, and he would have to trust that the truth would rise to the top.

Poor Lord Hayward. Conor had never liked the man, but he certainly hadn’t wished him dead.Who could have done such a thing?he wondered.Who could the real guilty party be?And why on earth would whoever it was have committed their atrocity inside The Arc, of all places?

For that matter, why would Lord Hayward ever have set foot inside The Arc? Henry was right about that much—Conor didn’t think he’d ever been there before.

There’s got to be a logical explanation behind all this, he thought firmly to himself as he walked back up the sidewalk that would lead him home.There’s got to be some reason for it all.

But Conor had to admit, he couldn’t think of one.

Chapter 22

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