Midnight at Marble Arch by Anne Perry

Author:Anne Perry [Perry, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Historical
ISBN: 9780345536679
Google: c0ZzIRBh2XkC
Amazon: B009QJMUKY
Barnesnoble: B009QJMUKY
Goodreads: 16085318
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2012-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

11

STOKER CAME INTO PITT’S office and closed the door behind him.

“Sir, something’s happened I think you should know about.” His expression was bleak, his eyes sharp and troubled.

“What is it?” Pitt asked immediately.

Stoker took a deep breath. “There’s been another very nasty rape of a young woman, sir, and I’m afraid she is dead. Seventeen, her father says. Respectable, good family. Walking out regular with a young man in the Grenadiers.”

Pitt felt horror ripple through him, then an overwhelming pity for the father, but also a sense of relief he was ashamed of. This was not Special Branch business. He could leave the pain and the bitter discoveries to someone else.

“I’m very sorry to hear that,” he said quietly. “But it’s for the police to handle, Stoker, it’s nothing to do with us.”

“I’m not sure about that, sir,” Stoker said, shaking his head. “Very violent, it was. Quite a lot of blood, and her neck was broken with the force of the blow.” Stoker stood rigid, almost to attention, like a soldier.

“It’s still not ours,” Pitt said hoarsely. “It’s for the regular police. Unless … you’re not going to tell me she’s a foreign diplomat’s daughter, are you?”

Stoker raised his chin a little.

“No, sir, her father is an importer and exporter of some sort. But her young man’s a friend of Neville Forsbrook and his crowd, even met Miss Castelbranco once or twice, so her father says.” He waited, staring at Pitt.

“You think Neville might be to blame?” Pitt framed the words slowly.

“Don’t know, sir.” Stoker attempted to smooth his face of anger and frustration, but failed. “I doubt the newspapers will make that connection. Nobody else knows for sure that Miss Castelbranco was raped, and she was certainly alive until she fell through that window. And, by the way, they’ve arrested someone for raping Mrs. Quixwood, but it’s a close thing as to whether he was in custody at the time of this most recent attack.”

Pitt was startled. “Have they? Who was it?”

“Alban Hythe,” Stoker said flatly, his voice expressionless. “Young man. A banker, so they say. Married. Not what you’d expect. Seems they were lovers—at least that’s what I hear from a friend I have in the police.”

Pitt said nothing. He wondered what Narraway would think of Hythe’s arrest. He had not wanted to think Catherine Quixwood was in any way to blame, even remotely.

“What’s her name?” he asked, meeting Stoker’s eyes again. “The new victim, I mean.”

“Pamela O’Keefe, sir. It’ll make a big splash in the newspapers, I should imagine. When it does, the Portuguese ambassador’s going to be very upset. I would be.” He stood still in front of the desk, his bony hands moving restlessly.

Normally Pitt would have resented the pressure, even the suggestion of insolence; however, he knew it sprang from Stoker’s own sense of helplessness in the face of what he felt was an outrage. He expected Pitt, as head of Special Branch, to do something about it.

“Be careful, Stoker,” Pitt warned. “The

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.