Carlisle's winged and rather crooked eyebrows rose. 'And that brings you here?''
' 'No, not of itself, of course not. I am concerned because it seems the niece of a very good friend of mine may be suspected by the police.'
'A woman?' he said incredulously. 'Hardly a woman's sort of crime-neither the method nor the place. Thomas Pitt doesn't think so, surely?'
'I really have no idea,' she admitted. 'But I think not, or Charlotte would have mentioned it, always assuming she knew. She has been somewhat preoccupied with Emily's wedding recently.''
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'Emily's wedding?' He was surprised, and pleased. 'I didn't know she had married again.'
'Yes-to a young man of immeasurable charm and no money whatsoever. But that is not as disastrous as it sounds; I think, as much as one can ever be sure, that he cares for her deeply and has the quality of loyalty in even very trying times, a sense of adventure, and a very agreeable sense of humor, so it may well prove a happy situation. At least it has begun well, which is not always the case.'
'But you are concerned about your friend's niece? Why on earth should she take to murdering M.P.s?'' His face was full of visions of the absurd, but she knew that beneath it he understood fear very well, and his light tone did not mean he did not appreciate the gravity of the situation.
'Because the second victim promised to help her retain custody of her child, and then reneged on his word and assisted her husband, with the result that she lost the child and will in all probability not see her again.'
He was leaning forward towards her, tense now, concentrating. 'Why? Why should a mother lose custody of her child? 'he asked.
'She is deemed an unsuitable person to raise a girl because she has opinions. For example, she believes that women should have a right to vote for their representatives in Parliament and in local government, and she has associated herself with Mrs. Bezant and the fight for a decent wage and improved conditions for the match girls at Bryant and Mays. No doubt you are better aware than I of the numbers who die of necrosis of the jaw from the phosphorus and are bald before they reach the age of twenty from carrying boxes on their heads.'
His face looked suddenly bruised, as if had seen too much pain. 'I am. Tell me, Vespasia,' he said, letting the formality drop without realizing it, 'do you believe this woman could have killed the M.P.s?'
'I do,' she confessed. ' 'But I have not met her yet. I may 177
think otherwise when I have, though I doubt it: Nobby- Zenobia Gunne-thinks so too. But I have promised to help. Therefore I have come to ask you if there's anything at all you can tell me about either Lockwood Hamilton or Vyvyan Etheridge which may conceivably be of any use in discovering who murdered them, whether it is Florence Ivory and Africa Dowell or someone else.'
'Two women?'
'Florence Ivory is the mother who lost her child; Africa Dowell is Nobby's niece, with whom Mrs. Ivory shares a house.'
He stood up and went to the door, requested tea and sandwiches, and returned to sit down opposite Vespasia again, having to remove Hamish from his chair first.
'Naturally, when I first heard of the murders it crossed my mind to wonder whether it was anarchists, a lunatic, or someone with a personal motive, although I admit, I thought the third far less likely after Etheridge was killed as well.'
'Didn't they have anything in common?'
'If they did I don't know what it was, beyond the things that are equally common to a couple of hundred other people!'
'Then we may have to assume that one was killed in mistake for the other,' she concluded. 'Is that imaginable?'
He thought for a moment. 'Yes. They both lived on the south side of the river not far from Westminster Bridge, a pleasant walk home on a spring night. They were both of medium build, with the conspicuous feature being silver hair, and both were pale, with rather longish faces. I have never mistaken one for the other, but
