Prince of Secrets Read online

  Since something seemed expected of him, he offered, again with all the naïve charm he could muster, ‘I cannot repay you by offering a similar remarkable ancestry—my own being remarkable only in that, like many Americans, I have none. I am newly invented.’

  The grey man laughed. ‘Well said, and I should have expected such an answer. Come, Mr Jacobus Grant, who possesses the face of the Hattons, but denies any connection with them, what moves a man like yourself to action? The philosophers whom I read tell me that newly invented men make their own laws since those which already exist mean nothing to them, being the work of men invented long ago. Do you make your own laws, Mr Grant, and in consequence carry out trial and sentence according to them—even in London?’

  Cobie lifted his guitar. San Miguel and its outlaws would have recognised his expression. He began to play the song from The Mikado again. He let the words run out softly, keeping his guitar at the ready.

  ‘Like that?’ he queried sweetly. ‘What a romantic notion, Mr Beauchamp, sir. You should write novels.’

  The grey man smiled. ‘Instead of living them,’ he said. ‘I must inform you that the Prince likes you, Mr Grant, genuinely likes you. Not just because you’re an American—he likes them all, you know. They do things. He was formed to do things, but was never allowed to. He will be an old man before he reaches the throne, which is a pity. The old woman who sits on it now has had her day but will not acknowledge it. Since he is a man who likes action, and is denied it, he becomes bored, and bored people make mistakes… It would be a pity if because of one of them he were to be passed over, reviled by a too-powerful Press.’

  Cobie said nothing, played a few soft chords on the guitar. The tune was one he thought Mr Beauchamp might not know. It sang of passion and death—but in a frontier society, not this civilised one.

  The grey man said, ‘As I am sure you are aware, His Royal Highness is quite unlike Sir Ratcliffe and his kind. His pleasures hurt no one. He takes them where he knows they will not offend. For him to have been indiscreet for once, does not mean that he deserves to be pilloried—only pitied because he may not act as other men do.’

  Cobie’s hands were busy on the guitar. His brain was busier. Where was all this double-talk leading? What did this faceless man want with Cobie Grant? How much did the man know of Sir Ratcliffe and himself? He could not believe that the mention of Sir Ratcliffe’s name was innocent, after Beauchamp’s earlier hints of his possible lawless acts in London.

  ‘Come to the point,’ he said negligently. ‘I’m sure there is a point. Americans like to get to it quickly. We are blunt, sir, blunt.’

  ‘I have never seen anyone less blunt than your good self,’ answered the grey man, his voice dry.

  ‘That is because you don’t know me,’ and Cobie played a few bars of a Negro spiritual.

  ‘Oh, I know you, Mr Grant, and of your doings—both here and in the States. No matter, I will be plain. The Prince wrote some letters to a lady, whose husband suddenly became jealous, and took her from London, and into the country. Being a fool, he thought that might keep her chaste. She, also being a fool, kept the Prince’s letters, and took another lover—and showed him the Prince’s letters for him to laugh at.

  ‘He did more than laugh at them. He stole them, and now he blackmails the Prince with them, to keep himself in society, save himself from ruin. His Royal Highness has been generous…you understand me? But the thief grows careless, and behaves after a fashion which would have caused the Prince to—banish him, as it were. But he may not, because of the letters…

  ‘Now the man has become so indiscreet that he grows dangerous. Were his secret activities known he, being a friend of the Prince, would prove dangerous to the Prince, might even shake the throne. Cornered, he might try to use the letters to save himself—or even publish them, out of spite.’ He paused.

  Cobie played a few slow bars of ‘God Save the Queen’, and said, as drily and anonymously as the man before him, ‘What has all this to do with me, sir?’

  But he knew, he knew.

  ‘Why, I think you know the thief very well, Mr Grant. You have already dealt with one of his minions—and have plans for him, too.’ He began to hum the song from The Mikado which Cobie had treated him to earlier.

  ‘Need I say,’ he continued smoothly when he had finished humming, ‘that not only would you be satisfying yourself, and saving yourself from trouble, but you would also be doing the state some service if the Prince’s letters were…somehow…to be recovered…’

  Cobie thought rapidly again. No one had disturbed them. He swung his head and looked down the corridor. Since the grey man had appeared the double doors at the far end had been closed—were probably locked, he thought. He had been tracked as carefully as though he were in the desert in Arizona, being followed by the law. He was, in effect, a kind of prisoner.

  He laughed.

  He murmured, his voice reproving, ‘The more things change, the more they remain the same. That’s the most delicate attempt to blackmail me into doing something that I have ever suffered. Tell me, does your master know of this—or of Sir Ratcliffe’s vicious life?’

  The grey man smiled ironically. ‘It all depends which master you mean. If you are referring to the Prince, then my answer is, No.’

  ‘I thought not.’ Cobie shook his head. ‘You have read Francis Bacon, sir? I am sure you have. He said a number of things worthy of remembrance. He is particularly good on revenge, Mr Beauchamp, sir…’ The last phrase came out in his most insolent Western drawl.

  ‘He said that revenge is a kind of wild justice, and also that it is a dish best eaten cold. When I was very young, I agreed with him… When I was a little older—I was not so sure. Sometimes the best revenge is no revenge at all. What we do, Mr Beauchamp, sir, has consequences for us, as well as those to whom we do it. I will think your proposition over.’

  The grey man hesitated. ‘That is your considered answer?’

  ‘I have no master but myself,’ replied Cobie negligently, ‘and therefore the only duty I owe is to myself, and to none other. No fear of demotion, no hope of promotion can move me, you understand, no threat to blast my reputation, either. I think that what you have found out about me is hearsay.

  ‘If I do what you want me to do, it will be because I want to do it, not because you are trying to blackmail me into stealing back the Prince of Wales’s letters—as Sir Ratcliffe is blackmailing the Prince. I don’t like blackmailers, Mr Beauchamp, sir, not even in a just cause. You must live in hope.

  ‘Now had you asked me, pat, as the Bard says, you might have gained a different answer.’

  His smile was as provoking as he could make it.

  The grey man said slowly. ‘I see that I have underestimated you.’ He paused, before asking, ‘Tell me one thing—out of curiosity, you understand, not to use against you. Is it true that you possess total recall? I have heard of such a talent, but I have never met anyone who genuinely possessed it.’

  Cobie began to laugh. ‘Of course, if I told you the truth you would use it against me after some fashion. I know that because were the situation reversed I would use such a thing against you! Live in hope, Mr Beauchamp, sir, that you might one day find out. I have no intention of satisfying your curiosity at present.’

  The grey man laughed with him, and for once his mirth was real. ‘I shall leave you now, Mr Grant. I hope that you will give me the answer I want, but I see that I must wait. Give me a few moments before you follow me.’

  He turned away without waiting for a reply—and then turned back again.

  ‘By the by,’ he said, his smile shark-like, ‘I believe that we are cousins—distant, it’s true, but cousins. The Sir Beauchamp Hatton whom you and your uncle, Sir Alan Dilhorne, so greatly resemble, was named after my great-great-grandfather, his first cousin. Interesting, Mr Grant, sir, interesting?’

  He was gone, leaving Cobie to reflect that Machiavelli’s Chance had been brought along, once again, like a ho
rse ready for him to ride.

  Chapter Two

  ‘Exactly like the other one, Lizzie Steele. But not thrown in the river this time, just dumped in an alley.’

  Inspector Will Walker thought that there were some things in his line of work which he would never get used to, and examining the sexually mutilated bodies of murdered girl children was one of them.

  He sighed. He could imagine the excited headlines in the new popular press, the criticism of the police for not being able to track the brutal murderer down. Just his luck that he should have been involved in the previous case.

  ‘Turns your stomach, don’t it, guv?’

  Walker nodded wearily.

  ‘True, Bates. I shan’t rest until the beast who did this has been stopped. But it’s not going to be easy. No clues at all—other than that this one was killed and maimed exactly like the Steele girl was.’

  ‘So it wasn’t Hoskyns who killed Lizzie Steele?’ said Bates thoughtfully. ‘Do you think that the Ripper has come back from wherever he vanished to?’

  Walker shook his head. Four years ago, in 1888, Jack the Ripper had stalked the East End, killing and mutilating prostitutes in the most gruesome manner. And then, as suddenly as they had started, the murders stopped.

  ‘No, Bates. This ain’t the Ripper’s handiwork. It’s a different way of going on altogether. No, this means another interview with our friend Mr Dilley. If it weren’t that he had an unbreakable alibi for the night Hoskyns was killed…’

  His voice trailed off. He was a frustrated man these days. Things were not going well with him. He had walked upstairs only the day before to be told that his record of success in clearing up crimes was not good enough. He had wanted to retort that so long as he was not given proper back-up, his record would remain poor. But he held his tongue.

  Now he had a multiple murderer on his patch. The similarity between this death, and that of Lizzie Steele was too great to believe that two men were involved. Dismally he had little doubt that this would not be the last body he would be called out to see…

  A fortnight ago the word had come down from on high to lay off Mr Jacobus Grant, alias Mr Dilley, amateur magician and former outlaw. What a thing it was to have friends in high places, being his cynical reaction to that. On the other hand, he had to allow that, so far, he had uncovered nothing to support his belief that Grant was responsible either for the fire by the river or Hoskyns’s death.

  But if Grant had thought that Hoskyns had murdered the girl, as well as procured her, what was he thinking now? Hoskyns dead, Madame Louise and the rest of her cohorts in prison—and a killer of girl children was still on the loose.

  What magic trick could Mr Dilley answer that with?

  Dinah sat at breakfast with Cobie. Their Sandringham excursion was safely over without any further trouble from Sir Ratcliffe or anyone else. Not that she was aware of Cobie’s session with Hervey Beauchamp.

  Sir Ratcliffe had behaved himself after that first disastrous evening. The Prince had made it plain to him that he was no longer one of the favoured few around him, and he did not like that upstart Grant the more for that.

  Part of him regretted the behaviour which had drawn the Royal wrath down on him because it meant that his rocky social position had become even rockier. He could only console himself with the thought that, as long as he possessed Tum Tum’s letters, the Prince could not banish him from high society by withdrawing his patronage completely.

  On their last day in Norfolk the Prince had genially roared at the Grants, ‘I am looking forward to our rendezvous with you in the North, Lady Dinah. Make sure that husband of yours brings along all his musical instruments to entertain us. Lady K. tells me that he’s a devil on the banjo, too.’

  Cobie had bowed agreement and Dinah had made what she thought were the kind of suitable noises which the Marquise de Cheverney, who had been her social tutor, would have approved of. She did not say, although she thought it, that she would be relieved to be in her own home again, and was not very eager to spend yet another week or so in her sister’s grand mansion with people whose interests she did not share.

  Besides that, not only would she and Cobie be off to Markendale, but nothing was yet resolved between them. She had begun her campaign to win his love, but it seemed mired in the pleasant stalemate which her life had become.

  Not that Cobie knew that there was anything to be resolved. He remained his own equable, charming and kind self. There were times when she almost wished that he would say or do something for which she could reproach him! She sometimes wished that his manners, like the rest of him, were less than perfect. It was hard to have nothing to criticise.

  Take this morning, for example. He had eaten, sparely for him, and was now drinking coffee while he read the The Times, having excused himself for doing so, saying that he needed to be au fait with the world’s news before he went off into the City.

  Finally he put the paper down, and said in what she thought of as his deceiving voice, ‘I had hoped that I might spend the day with you today, but I find that I need to go into the City. You will forgive me, my love, I will make it up to you tomorrow.’

  ‘Of course,’ she said. If he were the perfect husband, then she could be no less than the perfect wife. Something had disturbed him, she knew that, but had no idea how she knew it. Something in the paper. Other people might not be able to see behind the mask he wore, but she was beginning to. She wondered what it could be.

  After he had gone Dinah picked up the newspaper. He had carefully refolded it. She had no idea what she was looking for. She doggedly skimmed through its pages after the fashion which her father had taught her to read documents. It was full of the usual kind of thing. Towards the end there were some discreet headlines about what the popular press were calling ‘The Dockland Vampire Murders’. The Times referred to them so delicately that Dinah could hardly make out what had occurred, other than that this was the second poor child who had been found killed and mutilated either in, or near, the Thames. The police were adjured in no uncertain terms to do their duty and find the murderer. Crime must be seen to be punished.

  It was, she concluded, putting the paper down again, probably something in the financial news, which she was unable to make sense of, that had troubled him. He never talked of his money-making activities, either to her or to anyone else. She was quite certain that he had whole areas of life to which no one, including his wife, was privy—other than Mr Van Deusen, that was. And what did that tell her?

  Cobie had read the short account of the child’s murder in The Times with mounting pity and horror. He had no doubt as to who was responsible. Sir Ratcliffe had, like the Grants, been back in London for a week, and doubtless had grown bored with the milk and water life of his social equals.

  He contemplated going to Scotland Yard immediately with what he knew, and the devil take the Prince’s reputation—to say nothing of his own. But what hard evidence could he offer against Heneage? Simply that he had once seen him with Lizzie Steele in a house of ill fame, and that he had helped her to escape from him. His one possible witness, Hoskyns, was dead—and even if he had lived, what would his sole evidence have been worth against Sir Ratcliffe in his power and might?

  Besides that, would the faceless men behind Beauchamp ever allow Sir Ratcliffe to be caught and tried, either for Lizzie’s death or that of his latest victim, while he could still hold the Prince to ransom with the stolen letters? All he could do was go to his City office and hope that Walker would visit him there, and not at Park Lane, to disturb Dinah again.

  Sure enough when he arrived there, Walker, with one of his constant shadows in attendance, was waiting for him, Bates standing stolidly in his rear.

  ‘So, Mr Dilley,’ Walker began without preamble, ‘what do you say to that?’ He flung an assortment of newspapers, all crying out against the murderer of girl children. ‘You killed Hoskyns for nothing, didn’t you? The real murderer of Lizzie Steele is still running round among us
. How do you feel about that?’

  There was nothing for it but to put on his most baffled face, and lie—as usual.

  ‘Really, Inspector, I had thought I had done with these baseless accusations. Why should you think that Hoskyns was killed because of Lizzie Steele’s death—or that it was Hoskyns who murdered her? My own belief, for what it’s worth, is that these children are being killed by someone from a different walk of life altogether.’

  ‘Oh, aye,’ jeered Will Walker, turning to grin at Bates, before going on. ‘Some toff, I suppose. Well, now, Mr Dilley, the only toff I know of on the loose is your good self, and I don’t think that the Vampire killer is you—even though I might like to.’

  Cobie said slowly, ‘What sort of evidence would convince you that I may be right, Inspector?’ More than ever he regretted having made an enemy of the man.

  ‘Hard evidence, Mr Dilley. Hard evidence. No whim-whams, no putting it on to someone of your own kind whom you happen to dislike. No confessions made by a dead man, either.’

  This was a shrewd hit, if only the Inspector had known it!

  Cobie said slowly, ‘Suppose I found evidence, Inspector, and passed it on to you? Would you respect it?’

  Walker thrust his face forward. ‘I’ll tell you what I would respect, Mr Dilley, and that’s that you won’t go round killing anyone else because you might think they’ve done in Lizzie Steele and this latest child. We don’t know the poor creature’s name yet. I’ll have you if you do—and that’s my last word. That’s why I came. You go home to your pretty young wife, make her happy, and leave us to do our job, and you do yours, which I understand is making money. You aren’t in the U.S. of A. now, Mr Dilley.’

  No, he couldn’t mention Sir Ratcliffe’s name to the disbelieving man before him. A crony of the Prince of Wales, a Cabinet minister, if a minor one, with a family name which went back fifteen generations! He could imagine Walker’s scornful laughter. As well accuse the Prince himself.