Page 53 of Death of a Courtesan
‘She turned my brother against me, that’s what.’ Clement swayed a little and bumped his hip against the wall. ‘Me and Michael, we was all right until she came along. Me da, he left his blunt to Michael on the understanding that he looked after me. Michael started up his wine thing and I was gonna join him, until she talked him out of it.’
‘What do you know about wine?’ Salter asked derisively.
‘As much as Michael did when he started out. I can learn, or I would have if he’d of given me half a chance.’
‘How could Adelaide have stopped that from happening, even supposing that she did?’ Riley asked. ‘You’re not making any sense.’
‘I don’t rightly know.’ Clement ran his fingers through his sparse wet hair, leaving pink sections of his scalp exposed. ‘I saw them together once by chance in the street. I was curious to know who she was. Michael ain’t much of a one for the ladies, and I thought she might be taking advantage of him. Anyway, I was curious so I followed her back to Maiden Lane and then it became clear precisely what she was.’
‘You have something against prostitutes?’ Riley asked mildly.
Clement responded with an ugly sneer. ‘I ain’t never had to pay for it and don’t plan to do so any time soon.’
‘What explanation did your brother give for his friendship with such a highly unsuitable person?’ Salter asked, scowling at Clement as he swayed, struggling to remain on his feet.
‘I asked him about her, right enough. Good at being judgemental is our Michael, but he don’t like it when others judge him. He came over all defensive like, said it was nothing to do with me and that she was just an old acquaintance. But I knew he saw her several more times. I called at his rooms and could smell ’er in ’em. And after that, every time I asked about me working with him, he made excuses. Said it wasn’t the right time.’
‘Your father didn’t make any provision for you before he died?’
Clement blinked blearily. ‘Come again?’
Riley sighed, wishing the rain would ease up a little. He stood beneath the inn’s porch but a persistent stream of water still found his shoulders and the top of his hat. Salter broke in. ‘Your old man left you without a bean,’ he said. ‘He left it all to his older son.’
‘His only son,’ Clement said reluctantly, hands now thrust into pockets as he kicked sullenly at a loose stone. ‘I’m his step-son.’
‘You share the same surname,’ Salter pointed out. Riley’s sergeant stood in a position that left him directly exposed to the rain, but if he felt discomfited by it he gave no sign.
‘Me Ma took his name when she married ’im and changed mine too.’
‘How old were you?’ Riley asked.
‘Ten, or thereabouts. Michael was fifteen. We were chalk and cheese. Him educated, me barely able to write. But he took an interest in me, encouraged me to better meself. Which is why I thought he would keep his word about the business.’ Clement sniffed and wiped his nose on the back of his hand. ‘Just goes to show how easily a woman can turn a man’s head.’
‘Like your mother turned your step-father’s?’ Riley asked.
‘What the hell do you—’
‘Your mother was a whore,’ Salter said, easily warding off Clement’s aggressive move by prodding his chest, causing him to fall back against the wall. ‘Don’t suppose she could help what she had to do to survive, yet you seem very willing to judge others who find themselves in the same position. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it, inspector? I mean, Adelaide represents everything that our friend here most despises in women. His mother, herself a whore, ups and marries a man who treated him like his own and whose son encouraged him to better himself. He idolised that son, then found out he secretly associated with a woman in the same profession as his mother’s. Shattered all his illusions. No wonder he’s glad she’s dead. Makes you wonder if he knows how that came about.’
‘Indeed, it does, sergeant. My thoughts exactly.’
‘When did she die?’ Clement slurred, a drunken half-grin spreading across his face.
Salter told him and Clement’s smile widened. ‘Can’t have been me. I was playing cards until the early hours, right here in this godforsaken tavern, in the upstairs room. There were a dozen of us and we all left together. Some of us were having trouble seeing straight, much less walking. I was in no fit state to kill no one, not that night.’
Riley eventually let him go, unsurprised when the man staggered back into the tavern.
‘He hates prostitutes, and he was jealous of Adelaide for claiming his half-brother’s attention,’ Riley said as they hailed a hansom and he gratefully sank onto the worn seat. ‘He has a vicious temper and could easily have killed Adelaide. Even if he wasn’t in his cups, which he most likely was because it seems to be a near permanent state with him. But he doesn’t have the wits to plan such a complicated crime, much less carry it out.’
‘I agree, sir,’ Salter said, adjusting his damp headgear. ‘But his name remains on the list of suspects?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘Fair enough. What now?’
‘Back to the Yard. We shall see what the others have unearthed and I will give the superintendent my report, such as it is.’
‘What are your thoughts, guv? You usually have some idea who did the deed by this stage in an investigation and, blow me, half the time you’re right, even though there’s not always any evidence to support your theory.’
