[Redmond and Haze 11] - Murder of a Mermaid by Irina Shapiro

Author:Irina Shapiro [Shapiro, Irina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Historical
Amazon: B0BSS7NMWY
Goodreads: 92123807
Publisher: Merlin Press LLC
Published: 2023-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

It was nearly dark out, the first stars of the evening twinkling through the smoke rising from the forest of chimneys outlined against the purpling sky. The street was deserted, the windows casting slanted rectangles of light onto the ground below. The nearest hansom stand was near the opera house, so Daniel and Jason headed in that direction.

“Do you think Mary is protecting Tristan Carmichael?” Daniel asked.

Jason’s gaze was thoughtful. “I’m not sure. On the face of it, Tristan Carmichael had nothing to gain by killing Eliza Bennington. He stood to profit off her, and if Mary can be believed, they had parted on amicable terms. But the fact that Eliza seemed dazed is concerning.”

“Do you think she was intoxicated when she left the warehouse?”

“Or drugged,” Jason replied. “And if that’s the case, it’s entirely possible that she did not consent to whatever took place during that session. We know that Eliza Bennington had posed for risqué photographs for money, but there’s no evidence that she had acquiesced to performing sexual acts in the past. The images were artistic rather than pornographic in nature. Based on the postmortem, she had intercourse shortly before she died, which may have been rape, given the bruising and tearing to the genitalia and the fact that two men were present at the shoot.”

Daniel gaped at Jason. “Are you suggesting that Tristan Carmichael drugged the woman and then had his flunkeys rape her on camera?”

“It’s possible. Which would also explain why he sent Mary for a walk and then had her help Eliza get dressed. Eliza wasn’t up to dressing herself.”

“But why kill her?”

“Perhaps Eliza Bennington had threatened Carmichael in some way, but I can’t see that any threat she made could have harmed Tristan Carmichael or his business interests. If anything, the exposure would hurt Eliza much more, since her own involvement would come to light. Or perhaps,” Jason mused, “Carmichael had nothing whatsoever to do with the murder and Mary was telling the truth. She seems an observant girl, which is why I didn’t believe her when she said she couldn’t say if the other women seemed dazed or what the name of the photographer is. I think she’d been given clear instructions as to what she could and could not say and quickly realized that she’d strayed into dangerous territory when she admitted to Eliza appearing dazed.”

Daniel exhaled loudly in his exasperation. “For all we know, everything Mary told us was a lie intended to protect the man who keeps her. The odd person she saw Eliza Bennington with might be nothing more than a figment of her imagination.”

“Also possible,” Jason agreed.

“If we take Mary at her word, which I am hesitant to do, then Eliza Bennington had finished the photography session, collected her pay, said goodnight to Carmichael, and headed out into the night. She would have been eager to get home before her husband, I should think, if only to wash away traces of other men, if she was even coherent enough to understand what had taken place.

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