Charles Lenox Mysteries 08 The Laws of Murder by Charles Finch

Author:Charles Finch
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Suspense, Detective and Mystery Fiction, Historical
ISBN: 9781466857889
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Published: 2014-11-11T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Lenox looked at the doctor. “I know we’ve asked too much already, but if you could—”

“Of course,” said McConnell.

The three men went outside to Lenox’s carriage, which was waiting in the weak warmth of the spring sun. The bobby knew nothing of the circumstances of the attack, not even whether there had been another murder or not. He had just been told to come and fetch Lenox. The drive didn’t take long, and as they pulled into Portland Place Lenox looked anxiously through the window and after a moment said out loud that he thought there wasn’t another corpse; there was a single constable at the door of Wakefield’s house, not the whole circus that would gather in the event of a death.

He was right. Inside the house Nicholson was talking in a low tone to a young man. Both looked up at the arrival of Lenox and McConnell, and Nicholson said, “Ah, here’s Mr. Lenox now. He’s been working closely with us to investigate your father’s death. Lenox, this is the … well, the Marquess of Wakefield.”

The young man stuck out his hand. “Joseph Travers-George,” he said. “Thank you for your assistance. I know that Scotland Yard are doing all they possibly can to get to the bottom of all this. Rotten business.”

The new marquess spoke emotionlessly, as if he were thanking Lenox for his assistance with a banking transaction, not a criminal investigation. This squared with the upbringing he had no doubt received, an emphasis on stoicism, and then his father had been no prize. Whether or not it was seemly, not all deaths were mourned equally.

Still, it seemed odd. Lenox felt a breath of interest in the back of his mind. Some enormous proportion of a detective’s education could be reduced to a single Latin phrase of two words: cui bono. Who benefits, as it was most often translated into English, though Lenox associated it more strongly with money than that translation would imply—who gains, perhaps. Who is enriched? It was easy to say this to a young constable at the Yard, of course, but it took the grind of years to really impart that knowledge to a man, case after case in which some sordid crime led back to a few thousand pounds, a few hundred, even just a few. Cui bono. It was the phrase that entered Lenox’s mind as he shook the hand of the former Earl of Calder. This young chap had inherited one of the largest fortunes in England two days before, and one that he couldn’t have expected to descend to him for many years, given the rude health of his father.

There was every chance that he was a mere bystander to the circumstances. But the alternative was not impossible, either.

The lad was only twenty, but you could see his middle age coming pretty plainly; he was already overweight and slightly too red, with a globe of a stomach and limp light hair. He looked as if he would grow short of breath easily.

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