The Lady Has a Past (Burning Cove #5) - Amanda Quick Page 0,94

him. “Men who are in power or will be soon.”

“Men who would have access to government secrets during a war,” Luther said.

“But the Great War ended twenty years ago,” Irene pointed out. She stopped as understanding struck. “Oh. You mean the next war.”

“The world will soon be on fire again,” Luther said with grim resignation. “And the U.S. will be drawn into it. There will be no avoiding that abyss. When war comes, Guppy’s book of blackmail targets would have been extremely valuable to certain parties.”

Raina took a sharp breath. “You think she was collecting blackmail material on powerful people so she could sell the information to a foreign government?”

“That’s the pattern that I see,” Luther said. “What’s more is that I recognize it because I’ve seen it before. Guppy’s age, her background, the photography, the pharmaceutical training, the poison, it all fits.”

“What do you mean?” Raina asked.

He took his hands off the desk and straightened. “People, including professional spies, rarely change their style. If a strategy worked in the past they’ll continue to use it.”

Simon watched him intently. “You think Edith Guppy was working for a foreign power?”

“I think she worked for a foreign power during the Great War and was probably positioning herself to be an independent contractor in the next one.”

“Who was Guppy?” Oliver asked.

Luther walked to the window and looked out at the street. “The spy world is a small one. I’m not saying we all knew each other personally during and after the war, but we were certainly aware of each other, especially those who were particularly effective. I and the members of my department studied their styles, their techniques, their strategies. Some were more obvious than others. Some were brilliant when it came to concealing their identities. But once you knew their patterns you could create a file and assign a code name to the person.”

“You’re telling us you had a file on an agent who fit Edith Guppy’s pattern?” Raina said.

“Yes.” Luther turned around. “Janus. We were sure of very few things about her, but one thing we assumed, based on her skill with poisons, was that she’d had some pharmaceutical or medical training.”

“Guppy concocted all her signature formulas,” Irene said.

“Janus was also thought to be beautiful and seductive, because she managed to get close to powerful men,” Luther continued. “She was suspected in the deaths of some highly placed individuals, but she preferred to get them into compromising situations and obtain proof that could be used to blackmail them.”

Oliver looked at him. “You’re going to tell us that Janus was one of the many agents who vanished after the war, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Luther said. “We kept an eye out for her for a few years, but if she was alive there was no indication she was still in business—at least, not as a spy. But now I’m wondering if she reinvented herself in New York.”

“Interesting,” Raina said. “But that brings us back to the start of this thing. Why grab me? I’m not in a position to be of use to a foreign power. And there were no compromising photos taken.”

Simon looked at her. “We agree that you don’t fit the pattern.”

“Which means this is personal,” Luther said.

“You can forget Malcolm Whitlock,” Irene said. “I was able to confirm that he really is dead. My source is a reporter in Boston who covered the funeral because the family is an important one in the city. He told me he saw the body and said it definitely matched photos of Malcolm Whitlock that had been published over the years in the society sections of the papers. He also said that everyone who attended the funeral appeared relieved, not distraught.”

Luther looked at Raina. “That leaves us with your connection to the law firm of Enright and Enright.”

Raina shook her head. “Both Enrights are dead. There was no other close family. Who would care enough to come after me?”

“Someone who thinks you have some valuable information,” Luther said.

“We’ve been focusing on the possibility that your husband was still alive, Raina,” Simon said. “But now that Irene has confirmed his death, we need to come up with another angle.”

Raina froze. “The files.”

Everyone looked at her.

“What files?” Irene said.

Raina cleared her throat. “I took a few with me when I, ah, closed down the offices of Enright and Enright. I grabbed them because I knew Graham Enright considered them particularly important. At the time I didn’t know what I had. There wasn’t time to go through them.