Page 80 of Death of a Courtesan
‘No!’ He slumped in his chair. ‘She used to sit on my lap when she was little. She was crying one day because Ruth had done something mean and it just seemed natural for her to crawl into my lap for some comfort.’ He spread his hands. ‘I’m only human. She must have felt my response, realised what it meant and turned into a wildcat, screaming and crying and hurling accusations at me.’
‘Wild enough to cut your face?’ Riley asked, not believing a word of it.
‘That was another time. I’m telling you, she overreacted and ran away because she knew she’d got it wrong.’
‘All right,’ Riley said, leaning back in his chair. ‘Let’s pretend that I believe your account. Why did you lie about the number of times you saw Mary here in London?’
‘Was she trying to blackmail you?’ Salter asked belligerently. ‘Did she want revenge?’
‘No. I keep telling you—’
‘Stop lying to us!’ Riley didn’t raise his voice but spoke with enough authority to make Huxton’s shoulders slump as he shrunk in on himself, putting Riley in mind of a tortoise retreating into its shell. ‘We haven’t got all day, so we will tell you what we know. You went to France on your brother’s behalf, but you also just happened to return early on the day that Mary was murdered and are not able to account for your movements.’
‘Which makes you our prime suspect,’ Salter added.
‘You have two choices. You can either tell us what you were really doing, or we will charge you with your niece’s murder, and lock you in a cell that’s full of last night’s drunks.’
Riley remained silent, allowing the man a moment to ponder. Riley was fairly sure that he knew the truth, and that Huxton had not murdered the girl, but he needed to hear it from his own lips.
‘Very well,’ Huxton said after a long period of silence, ‘I was overseeing the import of some extra barrels of wine.’
‘Barrels that you omitted to pay duty on,’ Riley clarified.
‘Look, my brother’s been in a mess since the death of his wife. He blames himself for that and for Mary’s disappearance. He’s pretty much lost his mind and doesn’t care about the business our father worked to establish, so it gets left to me to keep it running. Times have changed, there’s more competition in the wine business since it’s gained in popularity and less scrupulous dealers undercut our prices because they don’t have any qualms about smuggling in the merchandise.’
‘So you store it in those outhouses on your brother’s estate and distribute it from there, away from prying eyes and questioning officials,’ Riley surmised.
‘You knew!’
‘My constables took a look yesterday. None of the barrels in those stores had been stamped by customs’ officials.’
‘Well then.’ Huxton spread his hands. ‘You can prosecute me for trying to save my brother’s hide. You can think what you like about my relationship with my niece. You will anyway. But you sure as hell can’t accuse me of killing her because I was miles away at the time and I can prove it. My sister, as you rightly pointed out, is narrow-minded but she ain’t no liar. She says I was at home that night because I was. She just didn’t tell you what I was doing there.’
‘She approves of your smuggling operation?’ Salter asked.
‘Oh, good Heavens no!’ Huxton gave a derisive sniff. ‘When did she ever approve of anything? But she ain’t stupid and knows that her comfortable existence is dependent upon my turning a profit in a business that’s struggling.’
‘Are your nephews involved in the smuggling?’ Salter asked.
‘No,’ Huxton said emphatically. ‘They just do as they’re told. They don’t have the wits to think and act independently.’
‘But Mary knew what you were doing, didn’t she?’ Riley said. ‘She kept abreast of her family’s activities and became curious when she encountered you colluding with the shifty individuals who smuggled the wine in for you. Unlike her brothers, she did have wits and put it all together. That’s why you saw her more than once and didn’t want me to know about it. She was attempting to blackmail you.’
‘I knew it!’ Salter cried. ‘An excellent motive for murder, if ever I heard one.’
‘Yeah, she tried, but I told her to go right ahead. I never keep the wine at my brother’s house for long and it would have been gone before she could persuade anyone to investigate. Besides, if she did that she would have had to reveal her own identity and let her family know what she had become. I pointed that out to her and she knew we’d reached a stalemate.’ Huxton sat a little straighter, confidence creeping back into his expression. ‘She could accuse me of whatever she liked. She could write fictional accounts of what she wants to think happened, but she had no proof because it wasn’t true.’
Riley and Salter exchanged a look. Riley was convinced that he was telling the truth, at least as far as his recent dealings with Adelaide were concerned. Whether or not he had actually attempted to rape her was another matter. Riley was inclined to think that he had.
‘Very well. Make a full statement to my constable about the smuggling. Names, dates, customs officials who’ve been bribed to turn a blind eye and I will see what I can do to help you.’ Riley sighed. ‘It would have been useful if you’d told me all of this from the beginning. Then we wouldn’t have wasted so much time looking at you.’
Huxton shook his head. ‘I was hoping it wouldn’t have to come out…the smuggling, that is.’ He sighed. ‘Well, I’ve done my best by the family but I suppose it’s all over now.’
There was a tap at the door and Carter put his head round it. He looked agitated. Riley acknowledged him and stepped outside to see what it was that he wanted.
‘It’s Mirabelle, sir,’ he said breathlessly. ‘She left Mrs Sinclair’s early this morning and Peterson just sent word that he followed her to Battersea.’
Riley elevated both brows as the pieces fell into place. ‘To visit Mrs Clement, I assume.’
