A Fawcett Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group
Copyright © 1997 by Anne Perry
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Fawcett Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Fawcett is a registered trademark and the Fawcett colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
www.ballantinebooks.com
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 97-97089
eISBN: 978-0-307-76767-7
v3.1
To my mother, for her courage and belief,
and to Meg MacDonald for her friendship,
her good ideas, and her untiring constructive comments
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
1
P
The constable shone his lantern on the dead face.
“ ’E’s one o’ ours, sir,” he said with tight anger straining his voice. “Least ’e used ter be. I know’d ’im. That’s why I sent for you personal, Mr. Pitt. ’E went orff ter summink special. Dunno wot. But ’e were a good man, Denbigh were. I’d swear ter that.”
Pitt bent down to look more closely. The dead man—his name was Denbigh, according to the constable—looked
