“Of Tellman or the lunatic?” Pitt asked with only a thread of sarcasm.
Le Grange weighed his answer for several moments. “Of Mr. Tellman, I think, sir,” he said at last. “Mr. Tellman being there, like, and the lunatic not.”
“Very pragmatic,” Pitt remarked.
“What, sir?”
“A good choice. What else?”
Le Grange looked at Pitt carefully. He took a deep breath.
“If you don’t mind me saying so, sir, you shouldn’t ’a gone questioning the criminal element yerself. There ain’t no need. And Mr. Tellman’s got a real skill at it. ’E don’t waste no time bein’ nice, and nobody tells ’im lies. ’E won’t stand fer it. There are ways, sir, and it ain’t what a senior officer like yourself needs to be doing.”
“Indeed?” Pitt felt both insulted and excluded. Le Grange was telling him plainly as he dared that Tellman was better at the job.
“Well sir.” Le Grange was insensitive to danger. “It’s beneath you now, sir, isn’t it?”
“No it’s not. I learned some very useful things from some of the prostitutes. They don’t think it’s a lunatic at all.”
“No sir?” le Grange said politely, disbelief all through his bland face. “Well I wouldn’t take much notice o’ what them sorts o’ people says. They ain’t exactly noted for their truthfulness, are they? Mr. Tellman says as they’d sell their mothers fer a flatch I mean an ’a’penny to you, sir. And beggin’ your pardon again, sir, but you’re too much the gentleman with ’em. They’ll run rings ’round you.”
“Is that what Mr. Tellman says?” Pitt said quickly.
Le Grange blanched. “Well—yes sir—in a manner o’ speaking. This is a real bad case, sir. We got no time to pussy around wi’ people, especially that sort.”
“And do you think they know who killed those men, le Grange?”
“Well …”
“Don’t you think they’d be willing enough to help us if they could?”
Le Grange’s face softened with amusement. “Oh no, sir. That’s where you got them wrong. They ’ate us. They’d not give us the time of day, willing like.”
“No, le Grange,” Pitt corrected. “That’s where you are wrong, and Tellman, if he agrees with you. They don’t give a toss about us one way or the other. What they do care about is business. And believe me, the Hyde Park Headsman is bad for business—very bad.”
Le Grange sucked in his breath sharply as realization dawned on him. Gradually the full understanding came to him of just what Pitt meant, and with it the dawning of respect.
“Oh—well. Yes, I see. I suppose so.”
“indisputably so,” Pitt agreed. “And you may report that back to Mr. Tellman when you see him. Find any witnesses yet?”
“Nothing very good.” Le Grange’s face was pink and he moved from one foot to the other. “Arledge definitely weren’t there at ten o’clock. We got a judy what took a customer there after then, and she swears there weren’t no one anywhere near, or she’d not ’ave—well …” He stopped, not sure what words to use.
“Quite. Is that all?”
“No sir. Mr. Tellman went to see the widow, poor soul.”
“And?” Pitt demanded.
“Well sir, ’e says she’s a very decent sort of lady—”
“For Heaven’s sake, le Grange!” Pitt exploded. “What did you expect? That she’d come to the door in scarlet pantaloons and a feather in her hair?”
Le Grange stared at him in total consternation.
“Of course she’s a decent woman,” Pitt said in exasperation. “What did he learn? What time did Arledge go out? Did he go alone? Where did he say he was going, and what for? A walk, to meet someone, to visit someone?”
Le Grange looked aggrieved.
“She said ’e went out about a quarter past ten, sir, just for a breath of air. ’E did that sometimes. She weren’t worried because it’s the sort o’ thing gentlemen do on a spring evening, especially if they live near the park.”
“Where do they live? You didn’t say.”
“Mount Street.”
“I see. What else did Mrs. Arledge say?”
“She weren’t anxious when she didn’t ’ear ’im come ’ome, because she were very tired that night, and she just went ter bed and fell asleep straight orf. It was only in the morning when ’e didn’t come down for breakfast that she got worried.”
“And did she know Captain Winthrop?”
Le Grange’s face fell.
“Mr. Tellman didn’t ask?” Pitt opened his eyes very wide. “No sir, I don’t recall as ’e said. But if it were a lunatic, sir, what difference would that make?”
