Page 74 of Ghost in the Garden
“But we have the same problem. We didn’t see him go in or out.”
“The police might yet find him hiding in one of the cellar rooms.”
She shivered. “I hope they do, and then this whole case will be over. But I’m not convinced, are you? But it seems to me the only other person who could have done it is Duggin, and he’s devoted to Lambert.Wasdevoted to Lambert.”
Solomon considered. “He was the one who sent Lambert to the wine cellar in search of the missing bottle. He waited a few minutes with Angela and then she dismissed him with a message for the kitchen. He could have gone into the cellar then, whacked his master, and emerged again, locking the door behind him and meaning, presumably, to get rid of the body at some later date.”
“It works, except… Wouldn’t we have heard him? If by some miracle we just missed Lambert coming into the cellar from the house, surely we weren’t late enough to have missed Duggin murdering him? Everything was quiet, and we can’t have beenthatdistracted by Iris’s sordid little tale.”
“It makes no sense,” Solomon agreed. “Though I suppose Duggin might have killed Gregg for Lambert’s sake, only without telling him? It would explain why the body wasn’t moved immediately.”
“But not why Duggin would have killed Gregg without Lambert’s specific instructions. Maybe Gregg assaulted his daughter?”
“Guesswork, with absolutely no evidence,” Solomon said dismissively. “Could one of the other servants have stolen Duggin’s cellar key temporarily and copied it?”
“I suppose so, though I don’t see why. Or how, to be honest. They’re pretty much in awe of him. And Lambert.”
“And Mrs. Lambert?”
Constance thought about it. “I thought at first they didn’t respect her. The day I arrived, Bert took me to her parlor without even knocking. But they’re just not proper servants. They don’t know how to behave. I think they do respect her, though they’re not scared of her the way they are of Lambert and Duggin. In fact, they like her. Mrs. Feathers, the cook, will do anything for her.”
“Even kill her husband?”
“Oh yes,” Constance said. “But she’d poison his food, not hit him with an axe. She wouldn’t have the…” She trailed off, then drew in a breath. “Wouldn’t have the strength? She took Gregg’s body on a donkey through the streets at some speed and dumped it in Devil’s Acre. Maybe shedoeshave the strength.”
“Or maybe someone helped her get Gregg onto the donkey and she really doesn’t have the strength. Hopefully the police will be able to get the truth out of the servants.”
“They’re not the sort of people who’ll ever talk to the police.”
Solomon grimaced. “And if they do, it will only be exactly what Angela told them to say. Would they tell you the truth?”
“I doubt it. I’m still the outsider. But I’ll try. If they think Angela trusts me, they might talk to me.” She glanced up at Solomon, who was waving down a hackney. “Do you think she does trust me?”
The hackney stopped behind them.
“Grosvenor Square, please,” Solomon told the jarvey, before opening the door and handing her inside. He climbed up and sat beside her. “The question is, really, doyoutrusther?”
Chapter Sixteen
It was aspectacularly good question. Did Constance trust Angela Lambert?
The hackney jolted its way onward among the sea of costermongers and criers still lurking around Westminster.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Something has changed and I can’t put my finger on what it is.”
“Something in you?” Solomon asked. “Or in her?”
“In my perception of her. I feel for her. I always did. I thought she was like me, but she isn’t. I feel for her losing her husband—she genuinely loved him, I’m sure of that—but I don’t trust her not to use me or anyone else to get her revenge. Does that make sense?”
“Then you don’t think she did it?” Solomon asked.
“She doesn’t have a key.”
“More than anyone else, she had opportunity to take it and copy it. You say Bert is always with her, but he isn’t. She came to see us without him, remember?”
Constance, who had, in fact, forgotten that, nodded slowly. “And if she didn’t have her own key, Duggin opened the cellar door for her quickly enough when she told him to.” She didn’t want it to be Angela, but she forced herself to consider the possibility.
“She couldn’t have done it herself,” she continued. “She was in the dining room at least until Duggin left her. And we found her there surely a bare ten minutes later. She was wearing the same clothes and there was not a mark on her, not a drop of blood.”
