C. Harris - What Darkness Brings

Jarvis smiled. “Ah, Archer. Come in and close the door. I have an assignment for you.”

Although both men had already denied it, Sebastian suspected that the shadowy chapeau bras glimpsed by Foy through the windows of a hackney the night of the murder in all likelihood belonged to either Blair Beresford or Samuel Perlman.

He decided to start with the young Irish poet.

It took a while, but Sebastian finally traced Beresford to the churchyard of a small eighteenth-century chapel that lay just to the northeast of Cavendish Square, where the younger man was winding his way among the tombstones. Pausing beneath the arched lych-gate, Sebastian watched as Beresford stood beside one of the newer monuments, removed his hat, and bowed his head in prayer.

Beresford prayed silently for some minutes before replacing his hat and turning toward the street. Then he saw Sebastian and drew up, an angry flush mottling his cheeks. “What? A man can’t even pray over his own dead sister without being spied on?”

“You have a sister buried here?” said Sebastian in surprise.

“My younger sister, Elizabeth. Louisa invited her to London two years ago, for the Season. It was a dream come true for her. I’d never seen her so excited.”

A breeze rattled the yellowing leaves of the hawthorns in the churchyard and brought them the scent of damp earth and dying grass. “What happened?”

“She died of fever just five weeks after she arrived.”

“I’m sorry.”

A muscle jumped along the younger man’s jaw, but he said nothing.

Sebastian turned to leave.

Beresford stopped him by saying, “I take it you wanted to speak to me about something?”

Sebastian shook his head. “It can wait for a more appropriate time.”

“Why? Out of respect for my sister? She’s dead. If you’ve something to say to me, just say it.”

Sebastian squinted up at the chapel’s awkward, neoclassical facade. “I have a witness who says he saw a man in a hackney carriage drop a woman of the street at Eisler’s house an hour or so after sunset the night of the murder. A man wearing a chapeau bras.”

Beresford’s face hardened in a way that made him look considerably older-and less gentle. “If you’re asking if that man was I, the answer is no. I already told you that.”

“So you did. Then tell me this: When was the last time you saw Eisler?”

“The Saturday before he died.”

The readiness of the man’s answer took Sebastian by surprise. “Was that the last time you provided him with a woman?”

“As a matter of fact, no. I saw him here.”

“Here?” Sebastian wasn’t certain he’d understood right. “At Portland Chapel?”

“That’s right.”

Sebastian stared out over the rows of graying, moss-covered tombstones. The chapel was less than a century old, and already the churchyard was filled to overflowing. He said, “When was this?”

“Late Saturday afternoon.”

“What was he doing here?”

“I didn’t ask.”

“Did you speak to him?”

“I did. I hadn’t intended to, but he approached me. Accused me of following him. If you ask me, he’d been drinking. He was talking wild-said he knew ‘they’ were watching him. He even accused me of working for ‘them.’ But when I asked who ‘they’ were, he just started ranting about some Frenchman named Collot.”

“Jacques Collot?” asked Sebastian sharply. “What about Collot?”

“I told you, the old goat was obviously foxed. He was practically raving. Nothing he said made much sense. He said it was all Collot’s fault.”

“What was Collot’s fault?”

Beresford shrugged. “I assumed he meant the fact that someone was watching him. I don’t really know-I tell you, he was as drunk as a wheelbarrow.”

The wind gusted up again, scuttling dead leaves across the overgrown path and ruffling the younger man’s soft golden curls. After a moment, Beresford said, “Look. . I know you think I killed him, but I didn’t. I’m not saying I didn’t want to. To be frank, I even thought about it a few times-about how I could maybe do it. But I’m too much of a coward to ever go through with something like that.” His features twisted with what looked very much like self-loathing. “I let that little piece of human excrement use me as a tool to satisfy his sick carnal urgings. He talked to me like I was filth. Threatened me. And I took it. Because I was too weak and afraid to do anything about it.”

“Sometimes admitting that you’ve been weak takes more courage than walking into a man’s house and putting a bullet in his chest.”

Beresford gave a mirthless laugh and shook his head. “No.” Then his features sharpened.

“What?” asked Sebastian, watching him.

“I was just remembering something else Eisler said-about that Frenchman, Collot.”

“What about him?”

“He said he had a big mouth.”

Darkness was just beginning to fall, the last of the light leaching from the sky as Sebastian walked the narrow streets and alleys of St. Giles looking for Jacques Collot. The reek of newly lit tallow candles and torches filled the air, mingling with the smell of roasting mutton and spilled ale and cheap gin.

He tried the Pilgrim first, then a string of ale shops along Queen Street, then the tavern where he’d spotted the Frenchman in consultation with his three confederates.

Nothing.

He was passing the smoke-blackened ruins of what looked like an old coaching inn when a low, anxious voice hissed at him from out of the darkness.

“Pssst.”

Sebastian turned to find Collot hovering in the shadows of the burned inn’s scorched, refuse-filled arch. He had his hat brim pulled low over his forehead and the collar of his greatcoat turned up, although it was not cold.

“Why are you hiding in the shadows?” asked Sebastian, walking up to him-but not too close.

“Why? Because I am nervous! Why do you think?” He cast a quick, harried glance around. “Many people are looking for me, asking about me. Why are you stirring up trouble by looking for me again?”

Sebastian stared through the arch at the abandoned yard beyond. It appeared deserted, its piles of blackened timbers and rubble standing quiet and still in the deepening darkness. “I wanted to talk to you.”

“The last time you talked to me, you ripped my coat. See? Look here.” He turned sideways to display a large rent down one shoulder.

“My apologies,” said Sebastian. “I want to know how you discovered that Eisler had in his possession a certain big blue diamond.”

“Why should I tell you? Hmm? Give me one reason why I should tell you.”

“To save your coat?”

Collot’s wayward eye rolled sideways. “I am a man with many contacts. I hear many things. Who can say where I learn things?”

“I suspect you could say where.” Sebastian showed his teeth in a smile. “If the alternative becomes unpleasant enough.”

“Monsieur.” Collot threw up his hands like a man warding off evil. “Surely this is unnecessary.”

“How did you discover Eisler had the diamond?”

“He showed it to a woman I know. A putain . She told me.”

“A whore? Why would Eisler show a priceless gem to a woman off the streets?”

“Why? Because he was a sick salaud ; that is why.” Collot hawked up a mouthful of phlegm and turned his head to spit. “You would not believe some of the things I could tell you.”

“Try me.”

But Collot only shook his head.

Sebastian said, “How did Eisler find out you knew about the diamond?”

“What makes you think that he did?”

Sebastian smiled. “You’re not the only one who hears things.”