The Other Lady Vanishes (Burning Cove #2)(65)

“There were some patients like that at Rushbrook. It was very unsettling to be around them.”

“I found out later that her family had hoped that marriage would calm her wild temperament, but of course that didn’t happen. If anything, marriage made her more unstable.”

“When did you discover that she had taken a lover?”

“Elizabeth didn’t take a lover after our wedding,” Jake said evenly. “She already had one. Peter Garrick. In fact, he was the one who introduced Elizabeth to me. Garrick was a successful lawyer in Los Angeles. He had a lot of wealthy, influential clients including some studio heads, tycoons, and politicians. Garrick and I moved in the same business circles.”

“It must have come as a terrible shock when you discovered that your wife and Garrick were lovers.”

“The fact that she was having an affair with Garrick was certainly disturbing,” Jake said. “But the real shock was finding out that Garrick was a spy for a foreign power. It made me realize what a fool I’d been.”

“Believe me when I tell you I know the feeling.”

“Yes, but you are a naturally trusting person, Adelaide. I am not so inclined to trust. I never thought I could be deceived. To say I learned a lesson is putting it mildly. Con artists will tell you that anyone can be tricked if you promise the target what he or she wants most. They are right.”

“You wanted a wife and a family.”

“Like you, I was alone in the world. I was growing weary of the constant traveling and my work abroad. Yes, I wanted to start a family of my own. Elizabeth seemed perfect.”

“Too good to be true.”

“Yes.”

Adelaide gripped the edge of the cot with both hands. “How did you discover that Garrick was a spy for a foreign power?”

“I was convinced from the start that Elizabeth had not hanged herself. After the funeral I went through her things. I found some letters in the bottom of her jewelry box. They were from Garrick. There were also photos of him and mementos of the times they had spent together. I finally understood that my marriage had been a lie from the start. She had married me to please Garrick. Once I started looking into his background, it didn’t take long to realize that from the very beginning of their relationship he had planned to use her.”

“How?” Adelaide asked. “I don’t understand.”

“Soon after I took over my father’s import-export business I was approached by a man who works for a certain government agency. I was asked to do some favors.”

“What kind of favors?”

“I told you that my business took me to some dangerous places. The whole world is preparing for war, Adelaide. I was often in a position to observe and photograph the construction of fortifications of various foreign harbors and airports. In the course of my business I met many of the people around the globe who are engaged in the manufacture and shipment of weapons and military equipment. I learned who is stockpiling fuel and other essential materials and where those things were stored.”

“You were a secret agent? A spy?”

“I was never on the government payroll. But, yes, I did favors for that agency I mentioned. Garrick knew that.”

“How did he find out?”

“When it was all over, my contact at the agency told me that they had discovered a freelance spy working at the very heart of the agency. He was selling secrets to anyone who came up with the money.”

“How did you discover that Garrick was working for a foreign power?”

“It wasn’t until I concluded that he had murdered Elizabeth that I began to realize what had happened. Garrick had used her and manipulated her. In his letters he swore he would marry her when he had the information he needed. He made her think that I was the foreign spy and that she was doing her country a service by reporting on my contacts overseas. I think that Elizabeth believed him. She would have believed anything he said. She was obsessed with him. At first, she seemed to have thought that it would be exciting to be a spy. But she soon became bored and frustrated with the task. She wanted out. Garrick killed her to keep her quiet.”

“What happened to Garrick?”

There was a short, brittle pause from Jake’s cot. For a moment she did not think that he would answer the question. But eventually he spoke quietly into the darkness.

“About a month after he murdered Elizabeth, Garrick died,” he said.

“How did that happen?”

“He spent an evening on a gambling ship anchored off Santa Monica. He had too much to drink, fell overboard, and drowned.”

The lack of even a nuance of emotion in his voice told her that there was probably a lot more to the story. She also knew that she was not going to get the rest—not tonight.

“That was certainly convenient from the government’s point of view,” she ventured.

“No, it wasn’t convenient for the government,” Jake said. There was a cold, sharp edge on the words. “The agency rather liked the idea of leaving Garrick in place so that they could watch him.”

“But that would have meant letting him get away with murder.”

“The spy game is a game that is played outside the rules. Those who take part do not allow themselves to be distracted by questions of legality or right and wrong, let alone justice. All that matters is information.”