Page 32 of Cloaked in Deception
Jasper didn’t disagree with him entirely. The orphanage was a charitable fund and did some good for the wives and childrenof fallen officers, but the idea of displaying Martha Seabright and her children as indebted recipients smacked of arrogance.
Mrs. Blickson stiffened her back and slid her hand out from under Felix’s. Jasper sensed she didn’t want her cousin’s pity.
“I also did not wish to see my mother or speak to her,” she said. “If I am honest, that is the main reason I declined the invitation.”
“You bore your mother ill will?” Jasper asked.
“Why the hell wouldn’t she?” her cousin snapped loudly, causing her to startle in her seat. “Paula never should have been sent there. None of them should have been.”
Mrs. Blickson angled her head down, the lace veil obscuring her face.
“Your mother would have helped care for them?” Jasper asked Felix, recalling what Leo had imparted about Esther Goodwin.
“My mother offered numerous times, and yet Martha refused. I think she was envious of my mother. Paula and Gavin preferred our home to their own.” Felix reached over to cover his cousin’s hand with his again. “I’m sure Edward would have too. Had he been given the chance.”
Paula Blickson put her hankie to her nose again, wracked with new tears. She stood up from her chair quickly and paced away, putting her back to them.
“Did Gavin decline the invitation to the dinner for the same reasons?” Jasper asked.
She turned and with a tremulous voice, replied, “I don’t know. I haven’t seen or spoken to my brother in a long time.”
“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” Felix demanded, his temper still high.
Jasper wasn’t inclined to relate the trouble at Gavin’s lodgings the previous day. “As soon as I can locate him, I will.”
Paula walked back toward Jasper’s desk. “You can’t find him?”
“He has not returned to his lodgings since yesterday morning.” A rotation of constables had been placed on watch outside Mrs. Beardsley’s home. So far, there had been no sighting of Gavin.
“That is curious,” Felix said. “Right after Martha’s killing, he’s nowhere to be found?” He scrunched his forehead, skeptical. Jasper was as well.
At least one of the masked intruders had known Gavin and gone to his room, ostensibly to inform him of his mother’s death. Jasper thought it highly likely Gavin was involved with the robbery, even if just the planning of it.
“Can you think of any specific reason your brother would hold a grudge toward your mother?” he asked.
“The same reason I held a grudge, I suspect,” Paula answered plainly.
“Where were you on the night of the dinner?” he asked.
The lace veil could not obscure her frown. “At home, with my husband. Why?”
“I’m trying to build a picture of that evening,” he said vaguely. He peered at Felix, curious as to why he had accompanied Paula and not Mr. Blickson. Archibald Blickson had been absent from the house yesterday as well.
“And yourself, Mr. Goodwin?”
“I was not invited to the benefit dinner,” he replied.
“I’d like to know where you spent the evening, just the same.”
After a loud sigh of annoyance, he tossed up his hands and answered, “I went to Evans in Covent Garden for some entertainment.”
Jasper knew of the music and supper room. It catered to men only, and while some of its acts were mild, its license had oncebeen revoked for a full year before being reinstated due to an overly lewd entertainer.
“Inspector, my aunt informed me that Scotland Yard believes my mother was targeted at the dinner,” Mrs. Blickson said. “Are you saying this wasn’t a robbery that went wrong?”
He gritted his molars again.Leo. Telling Esther Goodwin that had been premature. For all Leo knew, the woman could have gone to the press and spouted off everything she’d shared with her. Had that happened, Coughlan would have skewered him.
“It is a robbery, Mrs. Blickson, but we are also looking into the possibility that the assailant chose to shoot Mrs. Seabright on purpose.”
