The Custom House Murders (Captain Lacey Mysteries #15) - Ashley Gardner Page 0,43

sword and then legged it. I always thought you daft, guv, but this … ”

I backed away a step from his outburst. “I am none the worse for wear.” I patted my chest and arms as though checking for wounds. “He only wanted to play a game of chess and boast of how much he knows about me and about Mr. Denis.”

Brewster’s eyes narrowed. “And what does he know?”

“Nearly everything. He must have spies who follow Denis and note who he meets, what he does, who his associates are. Denis does the same to Creasey, doesn’t he?”

“I don’t pay much mind what His Nibs gets up to,” Brewster growled. “I only do what I’m told.”

“You are a poor liar, Brewster.” I brushed off my coat, as though I could rub off the disquiet Creasey had given me. “I did make Creasey promise to leave you alone, however.”

“Oh, did ye? For what price?”

I shrugged. “He asked none. I think he was perplexed by me.”

“Everyone is, guv. But you’re wrong. He might not have named a price, but he’ll have one. We should visit His Nibs, tell him all.”

I followed Brewster as he pushed through the crowd in search of a hackney. “I thought you no longer worked for him.”

Brewster threw me a scowl over his shoulder. “It ain’t that simple, guv. It’s like you with the army. You don’t have to obey your commanders no more, but you’d tip them the wink if someone was after ’em, wouldn’t you?”

He had a point. I admired him very much in this moment, for choosing not to wash his hands of Denis.

“By the bye, did you discover any gossip about Mr. Laybourne?” I said as we hurried along Lower Thames Street. “The clerk from Eden’s ship?”

“’Appen I did. Here’s a coach. I trust this driver, as much as I trust any of ’em.”

“Wait a moment.” I scanned the street. “I can’t desert Eden.”

“Major Eden found me, told me what happened. I was coming to yank you out of that house when you emerged, much to me relief and surprise. The major was worried about you but had to rush off to an appointment.” Brewster paused as we reached the hackney and he opened its door. “If you like, you can go to His Nibs, and I can stay and follow the major, see what he gets up to. I know what road he went down. I can find him.”

“No.” I said the word abruptly. “Leave him be.”

I climbed past Brewster into the coach, and he watched me, brows rising. “He strands you with a bloke like Creasey, he lies to you about all sorts, and you’re not curious what he’s about?”

“A man’s business is his own.”

I thought I had an inkling about Eden’s evasiveness and lies, though I could not be certain. But Eden had the same honor Creasey had sneered at me about. If Eden disobeyed orders or broke the law, it was to protect another. In battle, his rashest moments had been acts to save others. His measures had earned him a dressing down from his superiors on more than one occasion, but as he’d already saved the lives in question, the rebuke never upset him.

“We’ll learn of it soon enough,” I told Brewster. “I am more interested in clearing him of murder than condemning him for lying to me.”

Brewster stared at me as though I’d run mad. “It might all have to do with the same thing, guv. The lies and murder all mixed up.”

“Possibly, but I do not think so. Now, are you coming in the coach, or riding above?”

“Up top.” Brewster slammed the door. “Where you won’t drive me spare. The accountant, if ye want to know, is rooming in Cable Street. Very near to where the dead man lived. I call that interesting, even if you don’t.”

CHAPTER 11

I did find it very interesting that a fellow passenger from the Dusty Rose had taken rooms close to those of Warrilow. I would have to hunt up this Mr. Laybourne and have a long chat with him.

Meanwhile, the hackney conveyed us across the metropolis, as it had yesterday, to the home of James Denis.

It was now that I missed Grenville. He’d been gone from London some weeks, excited about his new house and bringing Marianne to it as his wife. She’d never be accepted fully in his circles because of her background—or lack thereof—but deep in the country, away from the crush of London, she might find a place for