The man looked up with bloodshot eyes and said, “Yes, sir?”
“I’m Charles Lenox.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m very sorry for you, James. I truly am.” It wasn’t quite proper to shake hands, but Lenox did it anyway.
“Thank you, sir.”
“Time is the only friend you have, I’m afraid.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I know you’ve had a difficult afternoon—beyond difficult, I daresay—but I’d like to ask you just a few more questions. For her sake.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Very well. Do you know of any reason why Miss Smith might have been unhappy recently? Had you two been quarreling?”
“Gracious, no, sir. I was with her most of the morning, sir, and she was as happy as she could be.”
The footman put his head in his hands again, and Lenox sat down next to him at the table.
“Thomas,” Lenox said, “may I use your flask?”
McConnell pulled a tall flask from his waistcoat.
“Have some of this, James,” Lenox said.
“Sir?”
“It’s gin, I believe.”
James took a quick sip and then a longer sip. “Thank you, sir.”
“James,” said Lenox, “I will tell you the truth. There is a strong chance that Miss Smith died by someone’s hand.”
“Not suicide?”
“No, not suicide. In fact, between us, I’m sorry to say that it’s nearly certain.”
“That she was murdered?”
“Yes.”
The young man bent forward over the table, and a lock of his hair fell across his forehead and into his eyes. He made fists of his hands but didn’t slam them down.
“James?” said Lenox.
“Yes?”
“Can you think of any reason why this might have happened?”
The young man was still looking at the table. His black hair had tumbled out of its shape and looked wild. He had interlaced his fingers and he was twisting his thumbs.
“No,” he said.
“Or anyone who might have done it?”
“No,” he said.
“How long had you been engaged?”
“For four months, or near it. She came into service here to be—oh, damn it all.…”
Lenox paused and then offered him another sip of gin. The young man took a deep sip this time and held on to the flask.
“Who were her friends here?”
“Just me,” James said. “She hated it here. Enough so she wanted to go back to Lady Grey’s employment. Her friends was there.”
“She disliked the other members of the staff?”
“Oh, hated ’em!”
“James, which members of the staff in particular did she have quarrels—”
“Charles,” McConnell said, “if I may interject?”
“Yes,” Lenox said.
“An ounce of
James looked up at the mention of the sum. “What’s forty pounds?”
“It’s no matter,” Lenox said. “Thank you, Thomas.”
It was clear, when he looked up, that James had started crying during this interchange. He had tried to keep his head down but failed.
“You loved Miss Smith, James?” Lenox asked.
“Of course I—”
“I did not intend to question it. I’m sorry to have been indelicate.”
James looked at him and began to cry again.
“Keep it together, man. Here, have another sip of gin,” Lenox said, and James did as he was told. Lenox sighed. “We can always speak again later.”
He placed a hand on James’s shoulder and turned to go upstairs. Thomas approached the table and put two crowns in the young man’s hand.
“Take a friend to the pub,” he said. “A doctor’s opinion.” He smiled, picked up his flask, and followed Lenox upstairs.
“Forty pounds?” Lenox asked as they climbed the stairs.
“If not more.”
“It would be clever of a servant to use every halfpenny he could find to buy it, I suppose, but you’re probably right.”
“I probably am.” Thomas took the last sip of gin in the flask. “Will you drop me a note when anything happens?”
“Of course,” Lenox said. “Come to dinner this week, and we’ll talk it over.”
“Just as you say.”
They had reached the top of the stairwell, and the doctor stepped outdoors. He had forgotten his coat and came back in to retrieve it from the housekeeper. “Good luck!” he said, and went to the curb to find a cab.
Jenkins and Lenox stood in the hallway. It was a vast corridor, with the myth of Bacchus painted around its walls, and a silver punch bowl on the center table that Barnard used only at parties, insisting it had belonged to Henry V.
“Are you taking this case, sir?” said Jenkins.
“I think I shall. For an old friend.”
“I hope we can work together, then. The Yard must be involved.”
“It must, I suppose.”
“Yes.”
“But all the same, it is fortunate for the dead that you did not leave here with Barnard’s verdict. I have no desire to reprimand—”
“Of course, of course, you’re right,” Jenkins said hastily. “But I shan’t miss another trick, you may count on that.”
Lenox smiled. “Then we’ll have it out yet.”
He was lucky to have had Jenkins on the job this evening. High-ranking but young; one of the few people from the Yard who had anything approaching a good opinion of him. No doubt it would all change tomorrow.
Barnard strolled into the front hall.
“George,” said Lenox.
“Have you reached a conclusion?”
“Not quite yet. Shall we have a talk tomorrow morning?”
“Lenox, I’m a busy man, you know—”
“It is entirely necessary.”
Barnard sighed in a martyred way. “Very well,” he said. “Shall we have breakfast here at eight o’clock?” He looked as if Lenox were asking him to chat with Daniel while the lions built up an appetite.
“At eight,” Lenox said. “And before I leave, may I have a word with your housekeeper?”
Lenox could see that Barnard was being pushed to the end of his tether, but Barnard walked over to the bell
