Page 13 of Death of a Courtesan
‘No, she said it was better that I didn’t know.’
‘Do you think one of her gentleman planned to set her up as his mistress?’ Salter asked.
‘I thought that might be the case. I saw her once in the street, arguing with a man. She didn’t see me and I knew she’d be angry if she thought I was spying on her, so I just walked away.’
‘Had you seen the man before?’ Riley asked. ‘Does he come here?’
Ruby shook her head. ‘I don’t think so. I only caught a glimpse of him. He was older, in his forties, I suppose. He had dark whiskers that were turning grey and mean eyes. I know because he strode past me a few minutes later, muttering to himself, and I noticed a scar running down his left cheek.’
‘You are very observant,’ Salter said.
‘It helps in this business.’
But there was nothing more she could add to the information she had already supplied, so they let her go. Once the door closed behind her they paused to consider what they’d learned.
‘Adelaide planned to leave, but it doesn’t sound as though the man with the scar was her intended meal ticket,’ Riley said. ‘They’d hardly be arguing if that was the case.’
‘Unless he was pressing her to leave before she was ready to go.’
‘But how did she meet him? Ruby said she hadn’t seen him here and although she’s young, she’s already proved to be observant.’
‘Someone from her past, perhaps?’ Salter suggested. ‘Besides, the ladies aren’t prisoners here. They must go out sometimes. They could have met anywhere. Adelaide was a beautiful woman. She would have attracted attention without trying to.’
‘We still don’t have her family’s address. We need to find it, then we will know more. Someone wanted her dead very badly. They took an almighty risk to carry out such a brutal crime.’ Riley scowled as he thought the matter through. ‘A crime of passion committed by an angry man, I’ll wager.’
‘She obviously wasn’t completely hard-hearted in the way Mirabelle suggested, or she wouldn’t have taken such an interest in young Ruby.’ Salter thumped his clenched fist against his thigh. ‘I wish that little girl didn’t have to do what she does.’
‘Don’t make this personal, Jack. I know you’re thinking of your own lass, but—’
‘If a parson can’t keep his daughter on the straight and narrow, what hope is there for the rest of us?’
‘A good deal more, I would imagine,’ Riley replied briskly. ‘Ruby said she was only ever allowed to read the Bible, if you recall. She must have grown up in a pretty austere household. She’s a pretty girl, a lad probably took an interest in her and…well, here she finds herself.’
Salter grimaced. ‘So much for Christian charity.’
‘Right, let’s talk to the maid and the cook. Then we’ll tackle Tennyson.’
The maid, Lily, explained that her duties finished at midnight, at which time no one was interested in being served food or drink. She retired to her basement room because she needed to be up early in the morning, long before the rest of the household stirred.
‘My first duty is to change the linens in the upstairs rooms and tidy them up. They can sometimes be left in a bit of a state.’
‘I am sure they can be,’ Riley sympathised. ‘You found Adelaide? That must have been a terrible shock.’
‘Oh, sir, upon my life, you don’t know the half of it.’ Lily clapped a hand over her scrawny breast. ‘Just for a second I thought she’d fallen asleep. Then I saw all the blood and I knew something terrible had happened. Screamed the house down, so I did.’
‘What time was this?’
‘Just before seven o’clock. I always do that room first because Adelaide is…was, really fussy and if it wasn’t all neat and tidy she got into a right old taking.’
‘You found Adelaide and screamed. What happened then?’
‘Mr Tennyson came belting up the stairs first, then all the others appeared. Mrs Sinclair took me downstairs and gave me some brandy, for the shock like. She told all the others to come down and left it to Mr Tennyson to call the police.’
Which, Riley knew, he didn’t do immediately He would have been aware of how to contact Danforth—after all, he enjoyed the services of the best female in the house free of charge. It stood to reason that in return he would be expected to protect Mrs Sinclair’s interests, so he would have been Tennyson’s first port of call.
Lily couldn’t tell them much more. Nor could the cook.
‘At least we’ve ascertained that Adelaide was still alive at the end of the evening,’ Riley said when he and Salter again found themselves alone. I don’t think the ladies lied about seeing her.’
