Secrets of the Heart (31 page)

“But why would anyone want to do that?” Perry leaned forward, enthralled with the story.

“To throw me off the scent. You see, I was working on another investigation, and I believe that the criminal thought I had learned too much, was getting too close to figuring it out. I don't know why, really, as I was hopelessly muddled. I think he threw this thing with Birkshaw in to distract me, send me haring off after him because I was personally involved in it, you see.”

“But that's not all,” Rachel put in. “I think he intends to harm Michael.”

“What?” Perry gaped at her. “You aren't serious.”

Michael, too, turned to look at her, startled.

She grimaced at Michael. “Did you honestly think I had not noticed?” She turned back to Perry, explaining, “There have already been two attempts on Michael's life.”

“Good Gad!”

“Someone shot at him,” Rachel explained. “And the other night, as he was coming home, three men set upon him.”

“It is my belief,” Michael put in, “that this criminal wants to do away with me and make it look as if Birkshaw is to blame for it.”

Overhill stared at him, speechless.

“It will solve all his problems. I will no longer be pursuing him. And Anthony will be the obvious culprit, so there will be no investigation into anyone else.”

“Of course!” Rachel breathed. “That makes sense. That is another reason he involved Anthony. Bow Street would doubtless leap to that conclusion.”

“But that—that's diabolical!” Perry exclaimed, aghast.

“I think we are dealing with a diabolical mind here. However, I have a plan to catch him.”

“You do?” Rachel asked, turning to look at Michael.

He nodded. “That is why I need Perry here to look after you tonight, to make sure you are far from danger. I intend to set a trap for the fellow.”

“But how?”

“Well, you see, I think I know who it is.”

“What?” Rachel's voice rose. “You know who it is, and you didn't tell me?”

“I am telling you now, dear,” he said, smiling at her. “But first, let me explain to Perry about the crimes.” He described to him the various unsolved cases that he and Bow Street had worked on the past few years and the bizarre way in which they were connected.

“So you see,” he said, finishing, “I think the crimes have all been carried out by one man, someone very clever, who gets other people to do the various crimes, people he has paid or people who are completely disconnected from the case in question. Then he uses the people who have benefited from that crime to help him with some other crime that will benefit someone else. Only
he
ties all the people together, and he is always behind the scenes, manipulating everything.”

“But how do you know who he is?” Perry asked. “I thought you said that you had not been able to solve the crimes?”

“I didn't know until this thing with Anthony. You see, I realized that whoever threw that in my path would have had to know about my jealousy of Birkshaw. The thing was, I haven't spoken about it to anyone.”

“Nor have I,” Rachel added.

“And the only ones who knew besides Rachel, Anthony Birkshaw and me were Rachel's parents, and I am sure they would not have let the story loose.”

“I have never heard a word about it,” agreed Perry, frowning in a puzzled way. “So how—”

“I mispoke when I said no one knew. I had told one person—my sister Lilith.”

A stunned silence hung in the air. The other two occupants of the room stared at Michael.

“Lilith!” Rachel exclaimed at last. “Michael, you cannot be serious! Lilith loves you, she admires you. She would never do anything to harm you!”

He smiled at her. “I agree. I do not think that Lilith is behind the crimes. However, she has a lover, and she might have told him.”

“Sir Robert?” Rachel gasped. “You think that Sir Robert is the mastermind behind these crimes?”

“Sir Robert Blount!” Perry echoed, looking as stunned as Rachel. “Michael, really, I think you—well, that's absurd. You and he have been friends for years and years. How can you think that he would try to kill you? That he would do such things?”

“I know.” Michael looked weary. “Believe me, I did not want to believe it. I still don't. But I could not overlook the facts. First of all, he is one of the few people who could have known about Anthony Birkshaw. Secondly, he has a mind capable of deviousness. He used it for good, mind you, when he and I were fighting Bonaparte's spy ring. But if he turned his mind to crime, he would be able to think of something of this complexity and inventiveness.”

“But that doesn't mean he has done so,” Rachel protested. “He is your friend. He loves your sister.”

“I know. I have to believe that in the beginning he had no intention of harming me. That he thought his scheme so clever it would escape detection. And it would have, if he had not overestimated my abilities. But I think when I was working on two cases that related to him, he began to get worried that I would figure it out. Then, when I started looking into Mrs. Birkshaw's death, he decided he could not risk that I would put all the pieces together. I would like to think that the first time he shot at me, it was a warning shot, designed to make me give up the investigation. He is an excellent marksman, yet he hit only my shoulder. But then, the other night when I was attacked…I had just left Robert, and I had told him about the progress we had made on the case. I think he realized that he could not afford to let me live any longer.”

“Still…” Perry said, shaking his head.

“There's more. There is the factor of money. His father left him nothing but a title and a house, which he had to sell to settle the estate's debts. He worked for the government because he had to earn a wage in order to live. All through the time we worked together, he was always strapped for money. But now he has enough money that he is able to live quite nicely without working. He even purchased Lilith's gaming establishment for her. He told me that he received a small inheritance from an aunt, which he subsequently built up through wise investing.”

“But such things do happen,” Perry pointed out. “That happened to me—not the wise investing, of course, but the inheritance. My grandfather left me money when he died.”

“Yes, it happens. But we don't know that he really did inherit. It could have been a lie to explain away his sudden increase in funds. All we really know for certain is that he did not have money in the past and now he has a good deal. Also, because he is a member of the
Ton,
he knows all the gossip—who badly needs money and would receive it if an inconvenient relative dies, who has valuable objects to be stolen, what wife or husband would be glad to pay to get rid of a spouse. He has necessary knowledge that most members of the criminal class do not. And, unlike most aristocrats, he also has access to a large number of criminals through his years of working with the spy ring and then with Bow Street. He would know burglars, pickpockets, men who would murder for pay.”

Rachel frowned. “Yes, I can see how it would be possible for him to be the mastermind, but that doesn't mean that he
is.
I mean, a number of those things apply to you, as well.”

Her response startled a laugh from Overhill. “A direct hit, Rachel!”

Michael smiled. “I know—although I think we can absolve me from having hired someone to kill me. The most damning thing is the knowledge the man obviously has about Anthony.”

“But even that is only a possibility. You don't know that Lilith told him. You have no proof,” Rachel insisted.

“Quite right,” Perry agreed. “You can scarcely go about accusing the fellow.”

“I know. That is why I have decided to set a trap for him.”

“A trap!” Rachel narrowed her eyes. “What kind of trap? Is that why you want Perry to take me somewhere, to get me out of the way so that you can do something dangerous?”

“I will feel much better knowing that you are somewhere safe, yes,” Michael told her. “There is nothing wrong in that.”

“Only the fact that it means that where you are will
not
be safe,” Rachel retorted. “Michael, what are you planning?”

“It is simple, really. I shall tell Sir Robert that I plan to meet Anthony tonight at a certain place and time. If he is the man behind all this, I believe that he will get there before then and try to kill me so that he may lay the blame on Anthony.”

“Michael!” Rachel exclaimed, horrified. “Have you run mad? You are going to provide him with yourself as a target just so that you can prove that he is the man behind these crimes?”

“You might have a little faith in me, my dear,” Michael returned mildly. “I will get there earlier than Sir Robert does, and then when he arrives and hides, preparing to shoot me, I will have the proof I need.”

“You
are
mad,” Rachel said.

“She's right,” Overhill agreed. “You cannot go there alone.”

“He won't be, because I am going with him,” Rachel put in.

Both men swung on her, protesting.

“No! Rachel…” Perry looked horrified. “That would just put both of you in danger.”

“Absolutely not.” Michael crossed his arms and looked forbidding.

“Well, I cannot go to the opera while you are out trying to get yourself killed!”

“Then stay at home. You and Perry could have an evening of cards, say.”

“You need someone with you. Someone to help you watch for Sir Robert. To guard your back. You cannot see everywhere at once. He could sneak up on you.”

“I can take care of it. I promise you, I will be fine.”

“You need a witness!” Rachel cried, pleased at having come up with another argument. “Someone to corroborate that Sir Robert came there to ambush you.”

Michael raised an eyebrow. “You think that my word would not be good enough?”

“Don't try to throw me off course. You know I'm right. Of course you are trustworthy—everyone knows that. But Sir Robert is also a man of breeding and apparent honor. He was a hero alongside you in the war. You have a difficult case to prove. It would help greatly if you had another witness to his perfidy,” Rachel argued reasonably. “Besides, if there are two people there, he will be less likely to shoot you. He cannot go about leaving dead bodies strewn all over the place.”

“If he is cornered, I'm not sure what he is capable of doing. I cannot risk it, Rachel. Not you.”

“You are risking yourself!”

“That is different. I have had some experience in these matters. I will have my pistols with me, and Sir Robert is well aware of my accuracy with them. You, on the other hand, would not only be vulnerable, you would make me vulnerable. I would have to worry about you. I could not simply concentrate on the matter at hand. Your presence would distract me, and that could prove fatal. Besides, he would know he had only to threaten you and I would be rendered harmless. If I had a pistol on him, he would know that even if he shot me, he would die, too, whereas if you were there, he would need only to point his gun at you and I would have to give up. You would endanger me, not help me.”

Rachel scowled. She would have liked to argue, but she knew that he was right.

“I will go with you,” Perry announced. “Don't look at me like that. I'm not completely useless, you know. I may not be the marksman you are, but I have clipped a few wafers at Manton's. I can guard your back. And Rachel is right—two people's testimony would carry more weight.”

“Yes, take Perry with you,” Rachel agreed. She did not really think that Perry Overhill would be adequate protection—she wished desperately that Richard or Devin were there—but having him with Michael would be better than Michael's facing an enemy alone.

“No. I need Perry to stay with you,” Michael said. “I have to be sure that you are safe.”

“I will be at home, with servants all around,” Rachel pointed out. “And the man you suspect will be with you. What could happen to me? I will be perfectly safe. You need Perry with you much more than I need him.”

“She is right,” Perry added. “Be sensible. I am sure—if Blount is your man—that he does not want to hurt you. He simply wants you out of the way. All harming Rachel would do is wound you and make you even more determined to capture him. It would be foolish in the extreme of him.”

Michael hesitated, obviously swayed by the arguments. Finally he sighed and said, “All right. But only—” he fixed Rachel with a serious look “—if you stay at home, locked in and with the servants around.”

Rachel rolled her eyes. “I promise. But I do wish that you would hold off on this, Michael. We could write to Dev and Richard, and they would come to help immediately. I know they would.”

“No. I need to do this now. And I do not need an army. Perry will do fine.”