Twenty-One Days (Daniel Pitt #1)(52)

Pitt’s face was filled with sympathy, which softened all the lines in it, making him look younger and much more vulnerable. ‘There will always be people like that. There’s nothing we can do about it.’

Daniel felt the sweat on his hands. ‘There ought to be,’ he replied. ‘It’s not just unpleasant. I have to investigate, in case it is true that somebody else killed his wife, in order to ruin him. Silence him permanently, by hanging.’

‘You just said it won’t save him,’ Pitt pointed out.

Daniel was losing control of it. He could not back out now. ‘The man he has exposed is Victor Narraway . . .’

Pitt looked incredulous. ‘What?’

‘Victor Narraway,’ Daniel repeated.

‘Exposing him as what?’ Pitt asked incredulously. ‘Head of Special Branch? For God’s sake, everybody who mattered knew that. And Victor’s dead. He hasn’t got any family to pay . . . or whatever this man wants.’

‘He’s not looking for money. He’s just inherited a whole fortune. Lands, money and a title. But it isn’t only Narraway . . .’ This was hard to say. Pitt didn’t seem to have understood it – not really.

Pitt waited, his face paler now, the tension apparent in the way he sat.

‘Graves has painted him as corrupt.’ Daniel swallowed. ‘He says Narraway had a file of information on people which he used to blackmail them, to give himself more and more power. And he also said . . .’ This was even harder than he had foreseen. He felt as if it would make it sound believable, just by repeating it. ‘He says that Aunt Vespasia slept with all sorts of people to get information . . . personal information about important people, that she was . . . a high-class whore.’ He watched Pitt’s expression move from incredulity to understanding, to fury, then to grief.

‘I’m sorry . . .’ Daniel began.

Pitt put up his hand, as if that could silence Daniel.

‘I had to tell you!’ Daniel said, his voice shaking with emotion. ‘And he says you use the same file of names to keep power. He . . .’ He tailed off. He could not repeat Graves’ words about Pitt. Even to say it sounded as if Pitt had to justify himself to Daniel. He could not do it. ‘He is suggesting that someone in Special Branch killed Ebony Graves, to keep anyone from publishing Graves’ book. I have to prove that is not true! It’s . . . it’s his only defence. And they’re going to hang him in a less than three weeks. I don’t believe it, but that isn’t good enough . . .’

Pitt seemed to be stunned. He blinked once or twice. ‘Did he say where he got his information from?’

‘No. He knows that I’m your son. He seemed to take some pleasure in that.’

‘So, he used it to manipulate you? Or to have some sort of revenge on you that you didn’t save him?’

‘No. He hasn’t been home since I came onto the case. I’m only a replacement.’

‘What difference does it make that he hasn’t been home?’

Daniel was doing this badly. And Pitt was refusing to understand. Daniel wanted to shout at him that he couldn’t evade it like that! Why wouldn’t he see that this was real?

He took a deep breath. ‘I went to his house. Spoke to his servants, who don’t like him very much. They didn’t actually say so, but it’s there. They don’t seem to have any trouble believing that he killed his wife. I don’t know whether I believe he did or not. But Mr fford Croft owed him a debt of honour, and we have to . . .’ That was not what he meant. Start again.

‘I have to investigate it,’ he said desperately. ‘He hasn’t written a complete book yet, but he’s done a lot of it, a lot of the preliminary work, and a draft of the complete manuscript. And I don’t know who his publisher is yet and I don’t know how much they know.’ His voice was rising in exasperation. ‘I’ve got to see if it’s a credible defence! Somebody, anybody, might have tried to silence publication by framing Graves.’ He went on. ‘As he says, if he wanted to kill his wife, he could find a far better way of doing it than when he was the only suspect. And he could make it look like an accident, and no one would be the wiser. As it is, it’s obviously murder, because she was disfigured afterwards.’

‘Yes, all right!’ Pitt said quickly. ‘I see. And considering the material, the suspicion naturally falls on Special Branch. Narraway has no relatives, and Vespasia’s are her grandchildren, who are largely abroad. And they are not likely even to have heard of this, and less likely to do anything so . . . violent. And so futile.’

‘It’s to ruin Special Branch,’ Daniel said. ‘And you.’

‘Oh?’ A black humour lit Pitt’s face for a moment, and vanished. ‘What do these notes say about me?’

Daniel did not answer.

Pitt’s voice was stunned. ‘Daniel? What do they say about me?’

Daniel felt the room sway around him. He clenched his teeth, and breathed in deeply. ‘That you’re no better than Narraway. That you’ll do anything for power . . . even cover . . . murder.’ He waited, watching his father’s face as it changed from bewilderment to a flash of understanding, and then ill-concealed distress.

The silence prickled for a moment. Then Pitt spoke. ‘And does he say whose murder this was, or only that I . . . covered it up?’