Page 62 of Courier of Death
The man was lying, but there was no way to prove it. Jasper took another tack. “Why did your sister-in-law cuff you across the cheek just now?”
Mr. Stewart’s purposefully distant expression came alive. “What… I don’t know what you mean.”
“Your ascot is mussed, you’ve been slapped, and Emma Bates came here this morning after getting your children well out of London so she could have you all to herself.”
It was pure theory, but Jasper slung it out with confidence, hoping it would stick. He had nothing to lose anyhow.
“You cannot know that,” Mr. Stewart protested, but he was more in awe than he was angry.
“I know plenty,” Jasper hedged. It worked.
Mr. Stewart turned away and sipped his drink, this time more restrainedly.
“She’s a beautiful widow, still in her prime,” Jasper went on, drawing from what Leo had told him, as he’d never made the woman’s acquaintance. “And she admires you a great deal.”
“That is quite enough, Inspector. What you are suggesting is offensive.”
“I’m sure it is. How long have the two of you been having an affair?”
Jasper could always tell when a person was holding something back—usually for self-preservation. Mr. Stewart was doing just that. He needed to needle the man until he gave up whatever he was hiding.
“I will ask you to leave this instant,” he snapped.
“Your wife’s valise was used in one of the Scotland Yard bombings. Would Emma Bates have had access to your attic?” Jasper pressed further. “Or perhaps you fetched the valise yourself and staged the break-in.”
The banker slammed his glass onto the drinks cart. “Enough! This is ludicrous. I had nothing to do with that bombing, and it does not matter what Emma feels for me because I most certainly do not feel the same toward her.”
He drew a shaky breath. Ran his fingers through his already unkempt hair.
“Where is she?” Lewis asked.
“No longer here. She ran off after she…” Mr. Stewart capitulated. “After she struck me.”
“Why did she do that?” Jasper asked. When the banker hesitated, he guessed, “You rejected her?”
With a nod, he swiped up his glass again. “This is a bloody disaster. It was a lapse of character.Onedalliance,” he said, his voice cracking. “I told her that it could not be. That I’d made a mistake. I thought she understood and agreed. But then… I don’t know, she got it into her head that I was going to leave Geraldine. Divorce her. Can you imagine?”
Lewis stopped just short of rolling his eyes. “What was she thinking?”
Mr. Stewart didn’t note the detective sergeant’s sarcasm. “I know. I tried to reason with her, tried to keep her calm.”
“But?” Jasper asked.
He rubbed his temple. “She would not be mollified.”
“This all happened today?” Jasper asked.
“No, no. It was a month ago. Nearly two. But today, she brought everything up again. And again, I had to tell her it would not happen. Itcouldnot.” Mr. Stewart no longer looked ready to toss them out. If anything, he appeared eager to confess.Jasper imagined he’d been struggling in secret with hislapse of character, as he’d called it.
“Em has always been sympathetic. She saw how much of my attention and effort went toward Geraldine and her political group. My wife, well, she is a force. It can be difficult to get a word in edgewise about anything. But Em seemed to recognize that I needed support too. Attention, perhaps. She encouraged me to speak up for myself.” He sounded nearly nostalgic and forgiving, and his calling herEmwas proof of familiarity.
Mr. Stewart lowered his head, sobering. “I am ashamed that I strayed, but it was only once. One mistake,” he repeated.
A vigorous slamming of the front door knocker punctuated Mr. Stewart’s confession. The maid, Betty, had been lingering close by—listening in, most likely—and hurried to open the door. The murmur of a female voice reached them in the large gathering room, and the small hairs on the back of Jasper’s neck stood at attention. His blood stirred. And then, Leo swept inside, her cheeks flushed and eyes bright. Her lips bowed with a rare smile.
“Oh, good. You’re all here,” she began. “I think I know why Mr. Foster was killed.”
Chapter Twenty-One
