Page 70 of The Murder of Thomas Cardwell
Jordan was nodding. “The staff struck me as pragmatic people and not the sort to be blindly loyal.”
“I don’t think Keeble Senior is the sort to inspire blind loyalty,” Penelope observed.
Jordan said to Ruth, “There are four staff members all told. A cook, a maid, a tweeny, and one footman.”
Stokes sat back. “I think we can agree that those two avenues—identifying Keeble as the man who followed Chesterton fromthe Fox on Monday night and confirming that he possessed the required style of coat and hat—are the most viable paths for us to pursue tomorrow.”
No one argued.
After a moment, Jordan ventured, “I’ve been trying to work out why Keeble killed Thomas. What drove him to such an act?” He looked at the others. “It doesn’t seem to fit with his character.”
Barnaby frowned. “I think we have to start by assuming that, like Thomas, Keeble learned about the guns.”
“That was on Monday night,” Penelope pointed out. “He couldn’t, at that point, have known that Thomas knew about the guns, much less that Thomas planned to alert the authorities to the scheme.”
“No, he couldn’t have known,” Stokes said. “But what if that’s why he went to see Thomas? To find out if Thomas—like Keeble himself—had grown suspicious enough to follow Gibson and had subsequently learned about the guns. Remember, Keeble—if our unknown gentlemen is he—was waiting impatiently outside Thomas’s door that morning. For some reason, Keeble felt he had to learn the answer right away—and that sort of reaction does fit his character.”
Barnaby narrowed his eyes, as if imagining the scene in Thomas’s office. “So Keeble goes to see Thomas to find out if Thomas knows of the guns?—”
“And Thomas told him he did and also that he, Thomas, planned to go to the authorities.” Penelope looked around the circle of faces. “Thus far, I can see all that happening.”
“So can I,” Jordan said, “but what I can’t see is why Keeble then seizes the letter knife and stabs Thomas.”
Everyone frowned as they tried to work out a plausible motive to account for that event.
Eventually, Stokes said, “We know that Thomas would have recognized Keeble and not balked at having Keeble come into his office.”
He cocked a brow at Ruth, and she nodded. “Thomas would have recognized Keeble Senior and wouldn’t have seen him as any threat.”
“And,” Penelope stated, “we already know, because Keeble told us so, that given he was in a similar business, he had no need of Thomas’s services, so there was no professional connection between them.”
When Penelope also looked to Ruth for confirmation, Ruth stated, “Thomas never mentioned having any dealings with Keeble, and he most definitely would have if such an interaction had occurred.”
Penelope nodded. “So there was no business connection, and the only reason Keeble could have had for killing Thomas was the guns…or rather, the threat of the gun-running scheme being brought to the attention of the authorities.” She tipped her head and regarded Stokes, then looked at Barnaby and Jordan. “So the question is, was there a reason that Keeble saw Thomas notifying the authorities of the gun-running scheme as a fundamental threat?”
Frowning, Ruth admitted, “I, too, can’t imagine why, on learning that Thomas knew about the guns and was about to contact the authorities, Keeble wouldn’t have agreed and worked with Thomas to mitigate the effects of any revelation on Josh, as well as Gibson and Harrison. That was surely Thomas’s intention. That had to be what drove him to write to Roscoe.”
Stokes nodded. “I agree. Both Keeble and Thomas had the same reason for attempting to approach the authorities in the best way, namely to protect their son and their brother respectively. And given Keeble’s dedication to climbing society’sladder, doing the right and proper thing and notifying the authorities is exactly what one would have expected him to do.”
“That’s why Thomas was so surprised.” Jordan glanced at Ruth. “I’m sorry if speaking of Thomas distresses you, but…”
Ruth shook her head. “Better to speak of him and find his murderer. Trust me, that’s what the family wants.”
Jordan nodded and looked at Stokes. “Let’s try the sequence of events again. Keeble learns about the guns, and as soon as he possibly can, he goes to see if Thomas knows, too. He learns that Thomas does know and intends to notify the authorities.”
“We shouldn’t forget,” Barnaby cut in, “that Keeble didn’t go to see Thomas intending to kill him.”
Penelope picked up the thread. “But something Thomas said caused Keeble to panic, pick up the letter knife, and kill Thomas.”
Stokes stirred. “We keep circling the point of Keeble having some unknown but deeply compelling reason for not wanting Thomas to contact the authorities.” He looked at the others. “What could such a reason be?”
Jordan offered, “Because he wanted to protect Josh?”
“But Thomas was already doing his best to protect Gibson, Harrison, and Josh,” Stokes said. “I can’t believe that in telling Keeble he intended to alert the authorities, Thomas didn’t make that part of his plan plain.”
Penelope nodded. “Just think of how that discussion must have gone. If Keeble balked on the grounds of protecting Josh, Thomas would have tried to calm his parental concerns by explaining what he hoped to achieve.” She paused, then went on. “I would be more inclined to think that Keeble feared that any revelation would fundamentally undermine, even fatally damage, his long-standing efforts to socially elevate the family.”
Stokes thought, then grimaced. “That’s possible, but in truth, neither of those motives—protecting Josh or protecting thefamily’s social status—feel strong enough, compelling enough, to have panicked a man like Keeble into committing murder.”
