Death, Diamonds, and Deception by Rosemary Simpson

Author:Rosemary Simpson [Rosemary Simpson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2020-08-20T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

Morgan returned to the world of banking and investments a week after his friend Aubrey’s funeral. He had spent that interim time probing deeply into his battered and bruised psyche, wrestling with the remnants of what he remembered of who he had once been. Long, empty days in the company of fellow sufferers at the Keeley Institute had introduced him to introspection, though the Gold Cure relied more on its regimen of injections and tonics than forays into the inner man. But for Morgan, alone in a bedroom of his stepfather’s home, there was no place else to go.

William cautiously welcomed him back, the Swiss clinic lurking as a temporarily shelved threat. Or beacon of hope. Morgan was sober again—his eyes clear and focused, skin showing a modicum of winter ruddiness, hands steady, posture erect, clothing appropriately somber. He drank coffee at breakfast, hot tea at lunch, water at dinner.

Beside him from morning to late afternoon, though for fewer hours as each successful day followed another, Everett Rinehart played the role of caretaker, much as the white-coated attendants at the Keeley Institute monitored the behavior of sometimes recalcitrant patients. The friendship between the two young men grew deeper as Morgan’s trust in his stepfather’s nephew escalated to something close to the confidence he had in his mother. Everett kept a weather eye on his calculations and smoothed the way back to active management of client portfolios. Morgan was far from being allowed to work unsupervised, but his personal minder was solicitous and encouraging. He had never known what it was to have a brother; Everett was teaching him what that relationship could be.

Morgan was healing.

* * *

“I no longer require you to find proof of Morgan’s guilt,” William De Vries said, removing a blank printed check from his wallet. “I’ve decided to end this farce here and now. What happens inside my home and my place of business is no longer your concern, though I appreciate the unobtrusive way the investigation has been conducted. Worthy of Allan Pinkerton himself.”

“Has Morgan confessed to you?” Prudence asked. He’d been so adamant in declaring his innocence that she couldn’t imagine the abrupt about-face his stepfather’s presence at the Hunter and MacKenzie offices seemed to indicate. She ignored Geoffrey’s signal to stop asking questions. “Did he agree to begin treatment at the clinic in Switzerland?”

“Neither, if you must know, Prudence.” William uncapped one of the new gold-nibbed fountain pens that had lately grown popular for their convenience and cachet. “His mother and my nephew have pleaded eloquently for his rehabilitation, and he himself is showing signs of having turned over a new leaf. I don’t think it an exaggeration to say that the death of his friend Aubrey Canfield shook him to the core. It happens that way sometimes. A man obstinately refuses to see the truth until it stares him in the face and delivers a blow to his viscera. He’s never the same afterward.”

“I doubt you’ll be able to claim compensation

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