Murder on Cold Street (Lady Sherlock #5) - Sherry Thomas Page 0,7

of his own. His niece lived with him and they doted on each other. I understand that he is also survived by a sister and several nephews.

“As for who would be the greatest beneficiary of his will, I guess it would be his sister and his niece. I once heard him say that men should make their own way in the world, but that women, not being able to work for success in the same manner, should be given as many resources as possible, so that they do not depend on the mercy of men who do not have their best interest at heart.”

“Did his nephews know they were not to expect much from his will?”

“I would imagine so. Nothing more significant than small annuities.”

Nothing worth murdering for.

Although, if a discontented nephew knew that the bulk of his uncle’s fortune would go to two women, who was to say that he wouldn’t kill Mr. Longstead in the hope that he could persuade the women to let him have a lot more of the money?

“Is there anyone else, besides blood relations, who might want him dead?”

Mrs. Treadles bit her lower lip. “If he weren’t dead, but had simply left, I would have thought that those at Cousins who oppose me had finally succeeded in persuading him that it was in everyone’s best interest to let me fail. But as overwhelming as my own problems seem to me, I don’t believe that is why he died.”

Lord Ingram’s interlaced fingers tightened around one another. The weary reluctance in her words—it cost her to speak the truth. She would have preferred by far to be the picture of confident vivacity, and present her tenure at Cousins Manufacturing as one of brilliant success. But for the sake of the investigation, she must swallow her pride and admit that she was foundering.

“It is early in the investigation,” said Holmes, “too early to dismiss any possibilities, even ones that seem unlikely. Any other reason you know of, Mrs. Treadles, why someone might want Mr. Longstead dead—or gone?”

Mrs. Treadles shook her head. “He could be blunt, Mr. Longstead—it was the very reason that he and my father got along so well. My father used to say that one could depend on Mr. Longstead for the unvarnished truth, because he had no vanity and therefore no desire to embroider results or shift blame onto others. For the same reason, one could tell him the unvarnished truth, because he would never take offense at being informed that his work needed improving.

“So yes, Mr. Longstead spoke the truth as he saw it. But he did not use truth as a cudgel, as some do, or an instrument for the wounding of others. He was deeply decent and deeply kind, and his honesty was equally decent and equally kind.”

Lord Ingram was beginning to regret not having met Mr. Longstead while the man still lived. Some men’s deaths left little besides unfulfilled obligations and the inconvenience of a corpse. The departure of others tore holes in the hearts of those who were fortunate enough to know them.

Mrs. Treadles’s eyes glimmered with unshed tears. “My father loved Mr. Longstead as a brother. More than a brother, I’d say. I don’t remember him ever being as happy to see my late uncle, or having as many good things to say of him. He always did lament that it wasn’t the same at Cousins after Mr. Longstead left. That he felt lonely without his brother-in-arms.”

Holmes nodded, as if in sympathy, but not so much that she didn’t immediately pose another question sure to discomfit her client. “Since you brought up the existence of those who oppose you at work, Mrs. Treadles, may I ask what exactly is the nature of your disagreement with your managers?”

Mrs. Treadles dabbed at the corners of her eyes with her handkerchief. It crossed Lord Ingram’s mind that she might be trying to hide her reaction from Holmes’s all-seeing gaze. He felt disloyal at the thought but nothing Mrs. Treadles had said or done since had dispelled his earlier impression that she was not being entirely forthcoming.

“I can answer that question, but Miss Holmes, you must understand, I never mentioned any of my difficulties at Cousins to my husband.”

“It is precisely because we are trying to extricate Inspector Treadles from his present predicament that I am asking about matters unrelated to him,” Holmes explained. “You affirmed Mr. Longstead as an ally. I take it to mean that he sided with you against