‘Me, sir? Rash?’ Salter shook his head and flashed a wry smile. ‘Never.’
‘I was just ruminating before you came in—’
‘Ruminating, were you, sir? Is that what posh people do when they settle in for a good think?’
Glad that Salter had been restored to good enough spirits to resort to sarcasm, Riley made do with sending him a look of mild rebuke. ‘I am absolutely convinced that you were right about Verity from the word go and that she’s the catalyst.’
‘There you go, using big words again, sir.’
‘The catalyst, Jack. The inspiration behind this sad business.’
‘Ah well, now you’re speaking English, I can’t help agreeing with you there.’
‘She found Ezra first and looked upon him as her own guilty secret. But Ida stole him away from her, which wasn’t supposed to happen. She gave him all the money he wanted and he refused to share it with Verity.’
‘He prob’ly laughed in her face,’ Salter said, nodding in agreement. ‘We’ve been told by several people that he could be cruel with those whose help he didn’t need.’
‘His dismissal of Verity’s claims could well have sealed his fate.’
‘Aye, more than likely.’
‘Ida lavished Ezra with monetary rewards, all the while denying her own son the funds he needed. Her brother was tight with his cash too, which must have further infuriated Verity. Then, to add insult to considerable injury, her sister-in-law fell for Ezra’s charms too. It would be enough to tip a sane woman beset with jealousy and a sense of ill-usage over the edge, but Verity is far from sane. Everyone we have spoken to since the start of this case—including her own husband—all agree that Verity has never been rational.’
‘She’s desperate to leave her lowly origins in Clapham behind her, and she never refers to them,’ Salter pointed out. ‘Yet Ezra seemed perfectly content to settle there with Mrs Wendall. She would have been beside herself with envy.’
‘I’m convinced that she had her own brother killed in the hope of extracting funds from Mrs Wendall. It would have gone some way to assuage her injured pride. But yet again she was gainsaid, since—and I’m guessing here—Mrs Wendall didn’t particularly care if the entire world knew about her and Ezra and refused to pay her off.’
‘You think she killed Ezra and her brother, sir?’ Salter scratched his head. ‘Blimey!’
‘Well, don’t you? They say it gets easier. She got away with killing her brother, but failed to wheedle funds out of Mrs Wendall, so she has had to start down the degrading path of contesting her brother’s will, probably hoping to show Mrs Wendall that she meant business and persuade her to settle. Mrs Wendall, I hope, has the sense to realise that if she pays up once it will never end, so I worry about her long-term safety too.’
‘Should we have someone watching her, sir?’
‘Not now. Even Verity isn’t bold enough to act when she knows we suspect her. But once the case is resolved, always assuming we haven’t proven Verity’s guilt, then it will be a very different matter.’
‘All well and good suspecting her, sir, but how did she do it? Not once but twice. She must have had accomplices.’
‘That was the problem I was wrestling with before you came upon me.’
‘Ruminating, like?’
‘That would be it,’ Riley said, with the suggestion of a smile. ‘I very much doubt whether she used the same person twice. I think Gregg might have helped her with Ezra. Of all the people we have spoken to, he disliked him the most and couldn’t abide having his authority in that household steadily eroded day by day. But her accomplice with regard to Wendall’s murder had me stumped.’ Riley paused. ‘Until you told me just now about Sam and his temper. Those barrels are heavy, but a strong man like Sam might be able to topple a stack of them without help.’
‘Why would he risk it though, sir?’
‘We now know that he was jealous of his brother, who had declined his offer of help with his new club. Sam saw himself taking off his working clothes once and for all, abandoning labouring for a living and instead swanning about like a man of means, I suspect. But Ezra laughed at him and we now know just how volatile Sam’s temper can be. Ezra had offered Ruth a place at the club but wouldn’t offer Sam the same opportunity. It must have infuriated him.’
‘It’s all possible, but it still don’t explain why he did Verity’s dirty work for her, if he did. A bit of thieving is one thing, but murder…’ Salter fell momentarily silent. ‘I want it to be him, sir, but how do we link them together?’
‘I think Verity made it her business to track Ezra’s relatives down.’ Riley leaned an elbow on the arm of his chair and rubbed the side of his chin. ‘She knew they lived in Clapham, as did her brother—in more style than Verity enjoys here in London, I might add. If she somehow contrived to meet Sam and gauged the level of his greed and resentment, she would have known that she’d found herself a kindred spirit.’
‘All we have to do is prove it, and I’m worried that we won’t manage that.’
‘So am I, Jack. Ruth might know. Verity would have gone to Sam’s house, not his place of work, where she would be seen by too many people.’
‘Ruth will never tell us for fear of what Sam might do to her.’
‘Very likely not. But there again, she did tell us about Ezra offering her a position at his club, and that took courage. Sam has now killed their child and
