Shadow of the Hangman(32)

‘You’re the bearer of bad news, I fancy,’ he said.

‘I fear that I am, my lord.’

‘Are our worst fears realised?’

‘No,’ replied Peter, ‘Mrs Horner is not dead – at least, that’s what I believe.’

‘Have you made any progress in the investigation?’

‘I think that I have.’

Peter explained how he’d taken the route home used by the woman and how someone had tried to rob him. Sidmouth was highly alarmed. To lose Anne Horner was an inconvenience to him. The loss of the reliable Peter Skillen, however, would be a calamity. Over the years he’d undertaken assignments that few other men would even have dared to contemplate.

‘I do urge you to exercise care,’ he said.

‘Mrs Horner has taken the same journey on many occasions and always emerged unscathed – until now, that is.’

‘I’m sorry I interrupted you. Finish your report.’

Peter went on to recount what he’d been told by Reuben Grigg and suggested that they should accept that the cleaner had been kidnapped. Sidmouth was sceptical.

‘Why on earth should anyone wish to abduct her?’

‘I have no answer to that, my lord.’

‘Neither do I and I’m inclined to think that the woman who screamed out that night was not Horner at all.’

‘That may well be true,’ conceded Peter, ‘but we do know that she would have been in that lane – and at that time – on the night in question. Grigg is a predator. He watches very carefully before he strikes. When I described Mrs Horner to him, he admitted that he’d seen her by day many a time but always left her alone because she was not a tempting target. What he waits for is someone with a purse worth taking.’ He smiled at the memory. ‘That’s why his eye alighted on me.’

‘The rogue got what he deserved.’

‘I squeezed every ounce of information out of him that I could. Few women walk alone down that lane after dark. It is, however, a place where certain ladies transact business. Yet it’s unlikely that it was a prostitute who called out for help that particular night. According to Grigg, they’ll fight like wildcats and cry blue murder. This plea was quickly extinguished.’

‘I pray to God that it didn’t come from Horner.’

‘It’s a probability we have to face, my lord.’

Sidmouth was profoundly distressed. He took several minutes to absorb what he’d been told. Though he tried to persuade himself otherwise, he slowly came to see that Peter’s conclusion was a valid one.

‘What happens now, Mr Skillen?’

‘I continue the search.’

‘Where will you start?’

‘In the very place where I stumbled on our first important clue,’ said Peter. ‘I’ll go back to that lane at night and walk down it at roughly the same time that Mrs Horner did. There may be inhabitants there other than Grigg. It’s a place where one wouldn’t be at all surprised to find someone sleeping in a gateway. I’ll search for possible witnesses who may have heard what Grigg heard on that fatal night or, hopefully, have even glimpsed something.’

‘Go armed and take your brother,’ counselled Sidmouth.

‘Oh, I think I’ve removed the one real danger from that lane.’

Sidmouth shook his head. ‘I remain perplexed. If we ask who would gain any advantage by kidnapping a woman like Horner, we’re bereft of suspects. Nobody would demand a ransom for a cleaner earning a relative pittance. In short, there’s no value in this crime.’

‘Yes, there is, my lord.’

‘It eludes me.’

‘A motive is unclear but one must surely exist. Someone will somehow profit from this bizarre situation. That’s the assumption on which they’re working anyway. Meanwhile, of course, you have a competent replacement here.’

‘Levitt is keeping this whole building spick and span.’

‘Then her appointment was obviously prudent.’

‘Forget the cleaner we now have, Mr Skillen,’ said the Home Secretary. ‘My overriding concern is for the one who preceded her. Where is she? What have they done to her? Will she ever be released alive?’

‘I may learn more when I visit that lane tonight.’

‘For your own sake, don’t go alone.’

‘I can manage very well without anybody else. Two of us would frighten people away. Someone on his own is sure to be approached.’





It was well after noon when Paul Skillen eventually emerged from his stupor. How he’d got back home during the night was a mystery. All that he could remember was that he’d left the theatre in a towering rage, vowed that he’d never see Hannah Granville again then made for a gambling hell in Jermyn Street. It was a place where people who were shunned by respectable clubs could gather in order to drink their fill and risk their money on the roll of a dice or the turn of a card. Since he had so many acquaintances there, Paul was given a welcoming cheer when he appeared and several people asked him why he’d deserted them recently. It was a poignant reminder of the siren who was Hannah Granville. When he met her, Paul’s leisure time had been put entirely at her disposal and he’d turned his back on gambling completely. Only her rejection of him could have sent him back to Jermyn Street.