"Yes," he said carefully. "Yes, thank you. I was just thinking. No, you are right; I am not at all sure it was Shelburne."
Evan leaned forward a little, his face eager.
"I'm glad you say that, sir. Don't let Mr. Runcorn push you." His long fingers were playing with the bread, too excited to eat. "I think it's someone here in London. In fact I have been looking at Mr. Lamb's notes again, and ours, and the more I read them the more I think it could have something to do with money, with business.
"Joscelin Grey seems to have lived fairly comfortably, better than the allowance from his family supported." He put down his spoon and abandoned all pretense of the meal. "So either he was blackmailing someone, or else he gambled very successfully, or, most likely of all, he had some business we know nothing about. And if it were honest, we ought to have found some record of it, and the other people concerned should have come forward. Similarly, if he borrowed money, the lenders would have put in some claim against the estate."
"Unless they were sharks," Monk said automatically, his mind cold with fear, watching Evan draw closer and closer to the thread that must lead him to the truth. Any moment now and his fine, sensitive hands would grasp it.
"But if they were sharks," Evan said quickly, his eyes alight, "they would not have lent to someone like Grey. Sharks are exceedingly careful about their investments. That much I've learned. They don't lend a second sum out before they have the first back, and with interest, or a mortgage on property." A lock of his heavy hair fell forward over, his brow and he ignored it. "Which brings us back to the same question: Where did Grey get the repayment, not to mention the interest? He was the third brother, remember, and he had no property of his own. No sir, he had some business, I'm sure of it. And I have some thoughts where to start looking for it."
He was coming closer with every new idea.
Monk said nothing; his mind was racing for a thought, any thought to put Evan off. He could not avoid it forever, the time would come; but before that he must know why. There was something vital so close, a finger's length out of his reach.
"Do you not agree, sir?" Evan was disappointed; his eyes were shadowed with it. Or was it disappointment that Monk had lied?
Monk jerked himself back, dismissing his pain. He must think clearly just a little longer.
"I was turning it over," he said, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice. "Yes, I think you may very well be right. Dawlish spoke of a business venture. I don't recall how much I told you of it; I gathered it had not yet begun, but there may easily have been others already involved." How he hated lying. Especially to Evan-this betrayal was the worst of all. He could not bear to think what Evan would feel when he knew. "It would be a good thing if we investigated it far more thoroughly."
Evan's face lit up again.
"Excellent. You know I really believe we could yet catch Joscelin Grey's murderer. I think we are near it; it will only take just one or two more clues and it will all fell into place."
Did he know how appallingly near he was to the truth?
"Possibly," Monk agreed, keeping his voice level with an effort. He looked down at the plate in front of him, anything to avoid Evan's eyes. "You will still have to be discreet, though. Dawlish is a man of considerable standing."
"Oh I will, sir, I will. Anyway, I do not especially suspect him. What about the letter we saw from Charles Latterly? That was pretty chilly, I thought. And I found out quite a lot more about him." He took a spoonful of his stew at last. "Did you know his father committed suicide just a few weeks before Grey was killed? Dawlish is a business affair in the future, but Latterly could have been one from the past. Don't you think so, sir?" He was ignoring the taste and texture of the food, almost swallowing it whole in his preoccupation. "Perhaps there was something not quite right there, and the elder Mr. Latterly took his life when he was implicated, and young Mr. Charles Latterly, the one who sent the letter, was the one who killed Grey in revenge?"
Monk took a deep breath. He must have just a little more time.
"That letter sounded too controlled for a man passionate enough to kill in revenge," he said carefully, beginning to eat his own stew. "But I will look into it. You try Dawlish, and you might try the Fortescues as well. We don't know very much about their connection either." He could not let Evan pursue Charles for his, Monk's, crime; also the truth was too close for Charles to deny it easily. He had no liking for him, but there was something of honor left to cling to-and he was Hester's brother. "Yes," he added, "try the Fortescues as well."
In the afternoon when Evan set off full of enthusiasm after Dawlish and Fortescue, Monk went back to the police station and again sought out the man who had given him Marner's address. The man's face lit up as soon as Monk came in.
"Ah, Monk, I owe you something. Good old Zebedee at last." He waved a book in the air triumphantly. "Went down to his place on the strength of the ledger you brought, and searched the whole building. The rackets he was running." He positively chortled with delight and hiccupped very slightly. "Swindling left and right, taking a rake-off from half the crime and vice in Limehouse-and the Isle of Dogs. God knows how many thousands of pounds must have gone through his hands, the old blackguard."
Monk was pleased; it was one career other than his own he had helped.
"Good," he said sincerely. "I always like to imagine that particular kind of bloodsucker running his belly off in the treadmills for a few years."
The other man grinned.
"Me too, and that one especially. By the way, the tobacco importing company was a sham. Did you know that?" He hiccupped again and excused himself. "There was a company, but there was never any practical chance it could have done any trading, let alone make a profit. Your fellow Grey took his money out at precisely the right moment. If he wasn't dead I should be wishing I could charge him as well."
Charge Grey? Monk froze. The room vanished except for a little whirling light in front of him, and the man's face.
"Wishing? Why only wishing?" He hardly dared ask. Hope hurt like a physical thing.
"Because there's no proof," the man replied, oblivious of Monk's ecstasy. "He did nothing actually illegal. But I'm as sure as I am that Hell's hot, he was part of it; just too damned clever to step over the law. But he set it up- and brought in the money."
"But he was taken in the fraud," Monk protested, afraid to believe. He wanted to grab the man and shake him; he resisted only with difficulty. "You're sure beyond doubt?"
"Of course I am." The other raised his eyebrows. "I may not be as brilliant a detective as you are, Monk, but I know my job. And I certainly know a fraud when I see one. Your friend Grey was one of the best, and very tidy about it." He hitched himself more comfortably in his seat. "Not much money, not enough to cause suspicion, just a small profit, and no guilt attached to him. If he made a habit of it he must have done quite nicely. Although how he got all those people to trust him with their money I don't know. You should see the names of some of those who invested."
"Yes," Monk said slowly. "I also should like to know how he persuaded them. I think I want to know that almost as much as I want to know anything." His brain was racing, casting for clues, threads anywhere. "Any other names in that ledger, any partners of Marner's?"
"Employees-just the clerk in the outer office."
"No partners; were there no partners? Anyone else who might know the business about Grey? Who got most of the money, if Grey didn't?"