Deception on His Mind (Inspector Lynley, #9)(86)

“Does Theo know about the baby?”

Sahlah gave a dispirited laugh. “You still don't understand, do you? Once you gave that receipt to Haytham, once Haytham knew it was for a gold bracelet, once he ran into Theo at that idiotic Gentlemen's Cooperative that's supposed to bring this pathetic little town back to life—” Sahlah stopped herself, as if suddenly aware of the uncharacteristic bitterness of her words and how they revealed the chaotic state of her mind. “What difference does it make to anything now if Theo knows or doesn't know?”

“What are you saying?” Rachel heard her fear and tried to quell it for the other girl's sake.

“Haytham's dead, Rachel. Don't you see? Haytham's dead. And he'd gone to the Nez. At night. In the dark. Which is less than half a mile from the Old Hall, where Theo lives. And which is also the place that Theo's been collecting fossils for the last twenty years. Do you understand now?” Sahlah asked sharply. “Rachel Winfield, do you understand?”

Rachel gaped at her. “Theo?” she said. “No. Sahlah, you can't think Theo Shaw …”

“Haytham would have wanted to know who it was,” Sahlah told her. “He was prepared to marry me, yes, but still he would have wanted to know who'd made me pregnant. What man wouldn't, no matter what he said to me about living in ignorance? He would have wanted to know.”

“But even if he knew, even if he actually talked to Theo, you can't think that Theo …” Rachel couldn't finish the sentence, so horrified was she at the pure logic behind Sahlah's words. She could even picture how everything had happened: A meeting in the dark on the Nez, Haytham Querashi's conversation with Theo Shaw in which he spoke of Sahlah's pregnancy, Theo Shaw's subsequent desperation to rid the world of the man who stood between himself and his one true love and what he knew—had to know—to be his moral duty … Because he'd want to do his duty by Sahlah, Theo Shaw would. He loved Sahlah and if he knew he'd made her pregnant, he'd want to stand by her side. And because Sahlah was so reluctant—indeed, so afraid—to be cast out from her family for marrying an Englishman, he would also have known that there was only one way to bind her to him.

Rachel swallowed. She sucked in her lip and bit it, hard.

“So look what you've done in passing along the receipt for that bracelet, Rachel,” Sahlah said. “You've given the police a connection—which they might otherwise have never known about—between Haytham Querashi and Theo Shaw. And when a murder's been done, that's the first thing they look for: a connection.”

Rachel began to babble, so acute was her guilt and so horrifying the knowledge of the part she'd played in the tragedy on the Nez. “I'll phone him straightaway. I'll go to the pier.”

“No!” Sahlah sounded horrified.

“I'll tell him to throw the bracelet in the rubbish. I'll make sure he doesn't wear it again. The police have no reason to talk to him anyway. They don't know he knew Haytham. Even if they talk to all the blokes in the Gentlemen's Cooperative, it'll take them days to talk to everyone, won't it?”

“Rachel—”

“And that's the only way they'll know to talk to Theo Shaw. There's no other connection between him and Haytham. Just the Cooperative. So I'll get to him first. And they won't see the bracelet. They won't know about anything. I swear they won't know.”

Sahlah's head was shaking, her expression a mixture of disbelief and despair. “But don't you see, Rachel? That doesn't address the real problem, does it? No matter what you tell Theo, Haytham's still dead.”

“But the police'll rest the case or close it or whatever they do. And then you and Theo—”

“Then Theo and I what?”

“You can get married,” Rachel said. And when Sahlah didn't answer at once, she added weakly, “You and Theo. Married. You know.”

Sahlah rose. She pulled her dupattā back over her head. She looked towards the pier. The calliope music of the roundabout floated towards them on the air, even at this distance. The ferris wheel glittered in the sunlight, and the wild mouse frantically tossed its shrieking passengers from side to side. “Do you actually think it's as easy as that? You tell Theo to throw the bracelet in the rubbish, the police go away, and he and I marry?”

“It could happen that way, if we make it happen.”

Sahlah shook her head, then turned back to Rachel. “You don't even begin to understand,” she said. Her voice was resigned, a decision made. “I must have an abortion. As soon as possible. And I need you to help me make all the arrangements.”

? ? ?


THE BRACELET WAS unmistakably an Aloysius Kennedy piece: thick, heavy, undefined swirls similar to the bracelet Barbara had seen in Ra-con Jewellery. She was willing to admit that Theo Shaw's possession of such a unique item might be pure coincidence, but she hadn't been involved in Criminal Investigations for eleven years for nothing: She knew how unlikely coincidences were when it came to murder.

“Can I get you something to drink?” Theo Shaw's tone was so friendly that Barbara wondered if, against all reason, he thought her visit was a social call. “Coffee? Tea? A Coke? I was about to grab a drink myself. Bloody hot weather, isn't it?”