Anne Perry - Funeral in Blue

“Opium,” he said, almost as if he were challenging Monk.

Suddenly, Monk placed the smell in Bella Holden’s room. He was annoyed with himself for not having known at the time. That was another gap in his memory. He hated Runcorn’s seeing it, especially now. “Sarah Mackeson was taking opium?” he asked with something close to a snarl.

Runcorn misread his expression for contempt. His face flushed with anger almost beyond his control. His voice shook when he spoke. “So might you, if you had nothing to offer but your looks, and they were fading!” He gulped air. His knuckles shone white where his hands were pressed on the desk in front of him. “With nothing ahead of you but doss-houses and selling your body to strangers for less and less every year, you might not stand there in your handmade boots looking down your damn nose at someone who escaped into a dream every now and then, because reality was too hard to bear! It’s your job to find out who killed her, not decide whether she was right or wrong.” He stopped abruptly and sniffed hard, looking away from Monk now, as if his anger embarrassed him. “Did you go and see Bella What’s-her-name as I told you? Have you done anything useful at all?”

Monk stood totally still, an incredible reality dawning on him. Runcorn was abashed because he felt defensive of Sarah and had developed a pity for her he had not expected, and it totally confused him. He was not idly defending her, but was instead defending himself and his own nakedness in front of Monk, who he imagined could not share his understanding or his pain.

The fact that he did share it made Monk angry, too. He admired Runcorn for it. It must have required an inner courage to admit an openness to hurt and to change Monk had not thought Runcorn capable of. Now it meant Monk, too, had to alter his judgments-and of Runcorn, of all people.

He was aware that Runcorn was watching him now. “Opium?” he said, forcing his voice to convey interest. “Any idea where she got it from?”

Runcorn grunted. “Could be Allardyce,” he said noncommittally. “That could be what all this is about-opium sale gone wrong. Perhaps Mrs. Beck came in on it and they were afraid she would cause a scandal.”

“Worth killing her for?” Monk said dubiously. Selling opium was not a crime.

“Might have been a lot of money,” Runcorn reasoned. “Or other people involved. Don’t know who else Allardyce painted, perhaps society ladies. Maybe they were taking the stuff and wouldn’t want their husbands to know?”

It was possible; in fact, the more he thought of it the better it looked. It would mean the murders had nothing to do with Kristian, or with Elissa Beck. “A quarrel perhaps, or a little blackmail?” he added to the idea. “Allardyce was the supplier?”

Runcorn looked at him with something almost like approval. “Well, he probably gave it to Sarah Mackeson, to keep her docile, if nothing else-poor creature. He wouldn’t care what it did to her over time. He’s only interested in the way she looks now, not what happens to her once he’s tired of her and picked someone else.” His mouth closed in a bitter line, as if he were angry not only with Allardyce but with everyone else who failed to see what he did or was indifferent to it.

Monk said nothing. There were too many changes whirling through his mind. His fury against Runcorn dissolved, and then was confused with a new one, because he did not want to have to change his opinion of this man, especially so quickly and so violently. It was his own fault for leaping to a cruel conclusion before he knew the truth, but he still blamed Runcorn for not being what he had supposed. Even as he was doing it he knew it was unfair, and that made it worse.

Runcorn flicked through the papers on his desk and found what he was looking for. He held it out to Monk. “That’s the drawing Allardyce spoke about. Feller who drew it said it was the night of the murders, and the pub landlord said he was there right enough, and drawing people.”

Monk took it from him. He needed only a glance to see an unmistakable portrait of Allardyce. It had not Allardyce’s skill at catching the passion of a moment. There was no tension in it, no drama. It was simply a group of friends around a table at a tavern, but the atmosphere was pervasive; even in such a hasty sketch one could imagine the laughter, the hum of conversation, the clink of glasses, and music in the background, a theater poster on the wall behind them.

“They were there all evening,” Runcorn said flatly. “We can forget Allardyce.”

Monk said nothing; the ugly, choking misery inside him closed his throat.

Hester went to the hospital again to see Mary Ellsworth. She found her sitting up in bed, her wound healing nicely and the pain definitely less than even a day ago.

“I’m going to be all right!” she said the moment Hester was in the door. “Aren’t I?” Her eyes were anxious, and she held the bedclothes so tightly her hands were balled into fists. Her hair was straggling out of the braids she had put it in for the night, as if already she had started to pull at it again.

Hester felt her heart sink. What could she say to this woman that would even begin to heal her real illness? The bezoar had been the symptom, not the cause.

“You are recovering very well,” she replied. She reached out her hand and put it over Mary’s. It was as rigid as it looked.

“And I’ll. . I’ll go home?” Mary said, watching Hester intently. “And will Dr. Beck tell me what to do? I mean. . he’s a doctor; he’d know better than anyone, wouldn’t he?” That was a challenge, almost a plea.

Kristian could tell her not to eat her hair, but that was not what she meant. She was looking for some other kind of instruction, reassurance.

“Of course he will, but I expect most of it you know for yourself,” Hester answered.

An extraordinary look came into Mary’s eyes: hope, terror, and a kind of desperate anger as if she were newly aware of something which was monstrously unjust. “No, I don’t. And Mama won’t know! She won’t know this!”

“Would it help if we tell her?” Hester suggested.

Now, Mary was quite clearly frightened. She seemed to be faced with a dilemma beyond her courage to solve.

“Is your mother not very good at looking after things?” Hester said gently. She knew Mary’s father had been a country parson, a younger son of a well-to-do family.

“She’s good at everything!” Mary asserted angrily, pulling the bedclothes more tightly up to her chest. “She always knows what to do.” That came out like a charge. Resentment and fear smoldered in her eyes. Then she looked away, down at her hands.

“I see.” Hester thought that perhaps she did, just a glimpse. “Well, it doesn’t need to be decided now,” she said firmly. “But I’m sure Dr. Beck would be happy to tell you what you need to do, and I will also. Will that make you feel better?”

Mary’s hands relaxed a fraction. “Will you write it for me, in case. .”

“Of course. You will have something to refer to,” Hester agreed. “And you can practice before you go home.”

“Practice?”

“Practice being certain what is the right thing to do.”

“Oh! Yes. Thank you.”

Hester stayed a few minutes longer, then went to look for Kristian.

Later, she passed Fermin Thorpe in the corridor. He looked impatient as always, and was affecting not to see her, because she made him feel uncomfortable. He had once lost his temper with her, and he hated being out of control of anything, most of all his own behavior. His color was high, and he had a glitter in his eyes as if his last encounter had displeased him.

She found Callandra in the apothecary’s room, and the moment she saw Hester she concluded her discussion and came out. “Have you heard anything?” she said as soon as the door was closed. “What has William found?”