It was a noble speech, most especially considering that it was her own husband who now stood so openly accused.
Eilish looked wretched, and Monk felt an unaccustomed wave of pity for her. Quinlan’s behavior could only be acutely embarrassing to her.
Hester was generous about it, whatever her underlying feelings.
“You have no call to apologize, Mrs. Mclvor. You were newly bereaved in most fearful circumstances. I think you acted with dignity and restraint. I would be pleased to have done as well.”
A slight smile touched Oonagh’s lips.
“You are very gracious, Miss Latterly, more generous than I think I should be”-the smile broadened for a moment-”were we to change places.”
Eilish made a strangled sound in her throat.
Deirdra turned to her, but Oonagh ignored the interruption, and looked at Monk.
“Good morning, Mr. Monk. McTeer gave no indication as to why you have come. Was it simply to accompany Miss Latterly, that we might apologize to her?”
“I did not come for apologies,” Hester cut across him before he could speak. “I came to say how highly I regarded your mother, and in spite of all that has happened since we last met, I regard her loss as the worst of it.”
“That is generous of you,” Oonagh accepted. “Yes, she was a remarkable person. She will be greatly missed, outside the family as well as within it.”
They seemed to be on the point of being shown out again, and Monk had asked nothing at all.
“I have already expressed my regrets, long ago,” he said somewhat abruptly. “I came to ask if you wished my assistance in the matter. It is far from resolved, and the police will not allow it to rest. They cannot.”
“As an agent of inquiry?” Oonagh’s fair eyebrows rose curiously. “To help us obtain another verdict of ‘not proven’?”
“Do you think Mr. Mclvor is guilty?”
It was an appalling thing to ask. There was a shocked, breathless silence. Even Hester gasped and bit her lip. A coal settled in the grate and outside beyond the windows a dog barked.
“No!” Eilish said at last, her voice a sob in her throat. “No, of course not!”
Monk was ruthless. “Then you will need to prove that it was someone else, or he will take Miss Latterly’s place at the rope’s end.”
“Monk!” Hester exploded. “For heaven’s sake!”
“You find the truth ugly?” he said. “I would have thought you, of all people, would not now balk at the real- ity”
She said nothing. He could feel her disgust as if it were a palpable thing radiating from her. It did not disturb him in the slightest.
A bar of pale sunlight came through the clouds and shone on one of the bookcases.
“I fear you are right, Mr. Monk,” Oonagh said with distaste, “no matter how bluntly you phrase it. The authorities cannot afford to allow the matter to remain unresolved. They have not yet been here, but no doubt it is merely a matter of rime. If not today, then tomorrow. I know of no one else we could call to our assistance in the matter of learning the truth. Of course we do have lawyers, should that be necessary. What would you propose to do?” She did not mention money; it was vulgar, and she had more than sufficient means to meet anything he might charge, probably out of petty housekeeping.
It was an impossible question to answer. He was seeking the truth only to prove once and for all that it was not Hester. The only imaginable alternatives were members of the Farraline family. Looking at Oonagh’s face, he saw the depths of her eyes, the black laughter in there, and knew that she understood it as perfectly as he did.
Eilish moved uncomfortably. Deirdra glanced at her.
“Discover which of you it was, Mrs. Mclvor,” Monk said quietly. “At least let us hang the right man-or woman. Or would you prefer simply to hang the most convenient?”
Hester let out a suppressed groan of anguish.
Oonagh remained entirely composed.
“No one could accuse you of mincing your words, Mr. Monk. But you are correct. I should prefer it to be the right person, whether it is my husband or one of my brothers. How do you propose to proceed? You must know a great deal already, and it has not led you to any conclusion, or doubtless you would have said so in Miss Latterly’s interests.”
Monk felt himself tighten as if he had been slapped. Once again his respect for Oonagh mounted. She was unlike any woman he had known before, and he could think of few men, if any, who could match her cold courage or her monumental composure.
“I now know a great deal more than I did then, Mrs. Mclvor. I think we all do,” he replied dryly.
“And you believe it!” Eilish could control herself no longer. “You believe everything Quinlan said, just because it was-”
“Eilish!” Oonagh’s voice cut across her firmly, reducing her to agonized silence, staring at Monk with her brilliant eyes. Oonagh turned back to Monk. “I presume you do not believe the matter is ended, or you would not have bothered to come. I imagine, whatever tactics or courtesy require you to say, it is to clear Miss Latterly’s name that you have really come. No, you do not need to answer that. Please don’t protest, it is unworthy of either of us.”
“I was not going to protest,” he said tersely. “As I see it, there are at least two avenues to explore on the grounds of evidence, either old or new.”
“Mother’s property in Ross-shire,” Oonagh said. “What else?”
“The diamond brooch which apparently you never found.”
She looked a little surprised. “You think it matters?”
“I have no idea, but I shall find out. Who is your jeweler?”
“Arnott and Dunbar, of Frederick Street”
“Thank you.” He hesitated only an instant. “Will it be possible to know a little more about the property in…”
“Ross-shire,” she finished for him, her eyes wide. “If you wish to. Quinlan has naturally given the papers to the police. They took them yesterday evening. But the fact is irrefutable. Mother inherited a small croft in Easter Ross. She gave the leasing of it into Baird’s hands, and there are, it would seem, no receipts of money whatever…”
“There will be some explanation for it!” Eilish said desperately. “Baird would never simply steal it!”
“Whatever it is, I doubt it is simple,” Oonagh said dryly. “But of course, dear, we all wish to think it is not as it seems, no one more than I!”
Eilish blushed, and then went white.
“Where is Easter Ross?” Monk could not recall the county, if he had ever known anything of it. Presumably it was in the east, but to the east of where?
“Oh, beyond Inverness, I think,” Oonagh replied absently. “It is really very far north indeed. Saint Colmac, Port of Saint Colmac, or something like that. Really, it is all rather absurd; the amount cannot be more than a few pounds a year. Hardly worth anyone’s life!”
“People have been killed over a hand of cards,” Monk said bitterly, then as Hester glanced towards him, suddenly wondered how he knew that. He was not conscious of knowing, and yet he had spoken with certainty. It was another of those little jolts of knowledge that returned every so often, utterly without warning and with no surrounding recollection.
“I suppose so.” Oonagh’s voice was little more than a whisper. She looked towards the window. “I shall find the precise address for you, if that is what you wish. Perhaps you would dine with us this evening, and I shall have it for you then?”
“Thank you,” Monk replied, then suddenly was uncertain whether Hester had been included or not.
“Thank you,” Hester accepted, before the question could be answered by anyone else. “That would be most generous of you, especially in the circumstances.”
Oonagh drew in her breath, then decided against arguing, and smiled instead.
It was dismissal, and Monk and Hester were in the hall, waiting for the sepulchral McTeer to let them out,
