know Tellman was responsible, even though he had paid
LONG SPOON LANE 275
someone else to perform the actual theft. Simbister owned
the Josephine, where the dynamite was. Grover works for
him. The circle of proof is complete.
Narraway looked tired and impatient. This is a dangerous
job, Pitt! He said abrasively. Ever hunted big game?
No, of course not.
Narraway s smile was sour. There are some beasts you
only get one shot at. You have to make sure that shot is fatal.
Do no more than wound it, and it will turn and crush you,
tear you apart, even if it dies afterwards. Wetron is an animal
like that.
You ve been big-game hunting?
Narraway looked straight back at him. Only for the most
dangerous creature of all man. I have nothing against ani-
mals, and no desire to put their heads on my walls.
Pitt liked him better for that.
Yes, sir!
He called on Vespasia briefly, only long enough to tell her
about the night s doings. She responded with a mixture of
laughter and grief, and a deep and troubling fear that there
might be further tragedy yet to happen. However, she would
not tell him of what nature she thought it, nor whom it would
involve, although he felt certain she knew.
He left her house and went to St. Paul s where, at noon, he
met Voisey at the tomb of the great Elizabethan and Ja-
cobean clergyman, lawyer, philosopher, adventurer, and
poet, John Donne. For once Voisey had little to say about
him. A glance at Pitt s exhausted face, the haste of his step,
and the fact that he was ten minutes early, took from him all
desire to show off beyond the first remark.
He entered Oxford University at the age of eleven. Did
you know that? he said wryly. You look awful. Did you go
back to the bombing?
No, Pitt said quietly, keeping his voice low so an elderly
276 Anne Perry
couple, also paying a passing reverence to Donne, could not
hear him. I was up most of the night, creating a diversion
while a certain burglar took from Wetron s house a piece of
crucial evidence, as you suggested.
Voisey s face lit up, his eyes bright. And wide open.
What?
The eagerness in him had been so intense the elderly cou-
ple turned in surprise. The man had been in the middle of
quoting perhaps Donne s most famous words: therefore
never send to know for whom the bell tolls . . .
It tolls for thee. The line finished in Pitt s mind. Ex-
actly where you expected, he said in little more than a whis-
per.
For God s sake! Voisey snarled. Who?
Piers Denoon. An old charge of rape.
Voisey let his breath out in a sigh as if a long-held knot
had at last unloosed itself. Is it enough?
Almost. We need to be able to prove all the connections.
We have the dynamite to Grover, Grover to Simbister, through
that confession of Denoon s, Simbister to Wetron, but Wetron
could still deny it. He could say he had only just found that,
and intended to act on it when he was certain. It would de-
stroy Simbister, and Wetron would merely replace him with
someone else.
I see, I see! Voisey said impatiently. We must tie
Wetron to using Piers Denoon so he can t escape it. If De-
noon shot Magnus Landsborough you can charge him with
murder. He ll be happy to swear he was blackmailed into it.
The papers are safe? Where? Not in your house!
Yes, they re safe, Pitt replied bleakly.
A half smile flashed on Voisey s face. He had not really
expected to be told.
Use your old Circle connections, Pitt went on. We need
the proof quickly. Wetron knows we have the papers.
The half-smile widened. Does he indeed? I wish I d seen
LONG SPOON LANE 277
that. There was regret in his voice, a hunger to take revenge:
to roll it on his tongue, not merely be told about it.
Pitt felt faintly sick. A shiver passed over his skin, but
there was no way around working with Voisey, and no point
thinking about it as if he could escape. Use them today, he
said aloud. Find the proof that Wetron knew of the rape and
used it on Denoon to force him into funding the anarchists,
then murdering Magnus Landsborough.
Voisey licked his lips. It was a slow, delicate gesture made
without awareness that he was doing it. Yes, he said, look-
ing at Pitt. Yes, I know just who to go to. I still have a few
old debts to call in. You have a telephone? Of course you
have. Be by it from four o clock onward. You re right, there s
no time to waste. He gave a very slight shrug, an inch, no
more. For Tellman s sake!
Pitt gave him the number of his telephone, then turned and
walked away, his footsteps rapping on the stone, before he
gave in to the impulse to hit Voisey s subtle, smiling face. He
was perfectly aware that they were on the brink of success,
and it could all still go wrong. Voisey could betray him; de-
stroy Wetron with the evidence, and Simbister; disgrace Ed-
ward Denoon through his son; and save enough from the
ashes to step back into his old place in the Inner Circle. Per-
haps he could even use the bill in Parliament to his own ends.
And there was nothing Pitt could do to prevent that. He knew
it, and he could see in his eyes that Voisey knew it too. Voisey
was savoring it, as one does a hundred-year-old brandy:
breathing the aroma, letting it dizzy your senses.
Pitt was at home at four o clock, waiting, pacing the
floor, starting at every sound. Charlotte was watching him.
Gracie was banging around with a mop, muttering to her-
self, because she knew there was danger, and no one had
told her what it was. She had not seen Tellman alone for
two days. Pitt said Tellman had acted with extraordinary
278 Anne Perry
courage and intelligence, but would not elaborate, even to
Charlotte.
At five o clock they had tea, drinking it quickly, and too
hot, wanting cake and then not wanting it.
It was quarter to six when the telephone finally rang. Pitt
charged to the hall and picked the receiver off its hook.
Yes?
Got it, Voisey said jubilantly. But Denoon has been
warned. He s at the docks already. Come as fast as you can.
King s Arms Stairs on the Isle of Dogs, at Rotherhithe on the
south. It s Limehouse Reach . . .
I know where it is! Pitt snapped.
Come now! Voisey urged. Fast as you can. I ll go
ahead. If we lose him, we ve lost it all.
Coming. Pitt replaced the phone, swung around to look
at Charlotte and Gracie staring at him. I m going to the
King s Arms Stairs on the Isle of Dogs, to get Piers Denoon,
before he escapes. Wetron must have warned him. And he
started for the door.
You can t arrest him! Charlotte called after him. You
aren t police anymore. Let me call . . .
No! he shouted. No one! You don t know who to trust.
Tell Narraway, if you can find him. No one else!
She nodded. It was clear in her face she knew not even to
try to reach Tellman. He kissed her so swiftly it was barely a
touch, then went out of the house and sprinted to the end of
the street. He hailed the first hansom that passed him. Mill-
wall Dock! he called to the driver. Then the King s Arms
Stairs. Know it?
Yes, sir!
Fast as you can! I ll pay extra!
Ang on!
The hansom lurched forward and increased speed as the
light faded in the streets. Pitt hung on as they slewed around
corners going south towards Oxford Street. They forced their
LONG SPOON LANE 279
way through the traffic eastwards, the driver yelling alter- [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]