Page 85 of The Trick of the Treasure
Audrey slumped again. “I expect Barnabas has it back. He’ll have taken it when he shot my Joshua.”
Chapter Eighteen
Solomon gazed atAudrey. She sounded so certain, so dispassionate. But then, she was numb with old pain and new grief.
“Then he knew where Clarke lived all the time?” he said. “Did he know you went there to meet him?” If so, why was Lloyd not more suspicious when Clarke appeared among the crew of theQueenunder a different name?
“I hadn’t thought so, but obviously he did,” Audrey said. “None of us is quite so clever as we imagine, it seems…”
Was it possible? Or was she simply projecting old anger onto the new crime? Solomon exchanged another glance with Constance. Oh yes, they both thought it possible. Lloyd, of all concerned, saw himself as above…
“So what is your next step?” Tybalt asked him, with a hint of aggression. “Are you going to the police with this? Or straight to Lloyd?”
“We need proof to go to the police. We shall go back to London, and I strongly suggest you and Miss Lloyd accompany us.”
“She is not going back to her brother’s house,” Tybalt warned.
“That is Miss Lloyd’s decision,” Constance said flatly.
If necessary, Solomon knew, she would take Audrey to her own establishment. His mind rather boggled at the idea, though in her present state, at least, Audrey was unlikely to objector even notice that many of her companions were whores and courtesans.
In the end, both Audrey and Captain Tybalt accompanied them back to London. Neither brought any luggage.
“You don’t expect her to go into Clarke’s house, do you?” Tybalt said uneasily. “She can just tell you where the treasure was hidden, and you can see if it’s still there.”
“I want to go in,” Audrey said. “I need to. The house is mine now, in any case.”
Everyone looked at her in surprise.
“There is a will,” she said without much interest. “Joshua made it before he sailed with theQueen. Accidents happen at sea, after all, and he didn’t want me left with nothing, should anything happen to him.”
“Do you know where his will is?” Tybalt asked. “Will the police have found it?”
“It is lodged with a solicitor. I know which one. It doesn’t matter, really. I can’t stay there without him.” She spoke in a detached yet certain voice, as though even in her numbing grief, in the collapse of all her hopes and happiness, some things were still written in stone.
She could sell the house and live where she pleased. With a few items from the treasure…
Audrey had a point. Whatever the legal ownership of the treasure, the moral case was dubious. Silver and Grey’s moral duty was not attractive either. But if Lloyd had murdered Joshua Clarke, he should pay for it—and his heir would own the treasure. Presumably Sydney. Would the son be more generous than the father, more understanding of his family’s happiness?
Part of Solomon itched to go straight to Lloyd, now, to discover if he truly had retrieved the treasure from Clarke, and if he would admit it… Mostly, he worried about Constance, who was not fit for all this travel. For speed, they should have takenthe train back to London, but Constance held out for the carriage to give Audrey some privacy in her grief.
Solomon and Tybalt sat opposite them, both worrying, he expected. But at least the carriage was comfortable, the changes of horses quick and painless, even in the dark, and he was glad to see Constance sleep for a good part of the journey. Audrey closed her eyes too, some of the time, but all too often, he noticed them open and staring.
They should not be confronting Lloyd after a sleepless night… Constance must go straight home to bed while he dealt with Clarke’s house, and with Lloyd…
But, of course, Constance had other ideas. She woke with the noise of the London streets, which were always busy, even so early in the morning before it was light. As she sat up straighter and fixed the angle of her cloak hood, Audrey opened her eyes too and began rummaging in a large reticule. Her fingers re-emerged clutching a key.
“What if there is still a policeman there?” Constance said.
“Then he can run and fetch his superiors,” Solomon replied.
But, in fact, although the door was locked, no policeman had been left on duty to guard it. All four of the travelers alighted from the carriage, and Solomon instructed his poor coachman to wait. The groom, with whom he had shared the driving duties, was asleep upright on the box beside him.
Audrey opened Clarke’s door with her key, as she must have done many times before. Her hand shook slightly, but not enough to slow her down.
It was dark inside, shutters and curtains all closed against any nosy members of the public. Solomon, who had brought a lantern from the carriage, held it high to let them all see around the modest house. Stray feathers remained scattered about, as though a bird had flapped around the hall at one point and no one had swept them out. Ominous stains still marked the hallfloor, where Solomon had discovered Clarke’s body. And the semiconscious, helpless Constance…
His stomach rebelled with the echo of that moment, and he quickly shifted the lantern’s direction.
