‘I am feeling better.’
This was said impatiently and the tone convinced Kane more than a thousand words that he couldn’t prevaricate. He looked at Sophy. He had been dreading this moment. ‘Ralph’s enquiries have borne fruit,’ he admitted softly.
‘Ralph’s? Not the police’s?’
‘Ralph can go places and ask questions the police can’t,’ Kane said shortly. And money was a great persuader. He’d spent a small fortune buying information, and Ralph had put himself in peril and to what end? He’d given the police enough reason to apprehend the man in question and the same day he’d skedaddled abroad. It stank of friends in high places. The aristocracy looked after its own, there was no doubt about that, and closed ranks when scandal threatened.
Aware Sophy was waiting, he cleared his throat. ‘I think the man who hurt Cat knew we were on to him and has gone abroad.’
Sophy stared at him. ‘Are you sure? That he was the man, I mean? Who is he? What’s his name? Did Cat know him?’
‘Yes, I’m sure it’s him. His name’s Chide-Mulhearne. And no, I have no reason to think Cat was acquainted with him before she was taken captive, although he may have been the individual who wrote certain obscene letters to her in the weeks before her murder,’ said Kane, answering her questions in order. ‘He’s rich enough to buy loyalty, but one of his servants made the mistake of talking a little too freely to a woman he later got with child and then abandoned. Her terror of the workhouse was greater than her fear of the man in question, and on being assured she’d be provided with enough money to make a new start far from London with her baby, she was very helpful. But Chide-Mulhearne was too clever, I’m afraid. He’s left and no doubt covered his tracks in the process so nothing can be proved. I’m sorry, Sophy.’
‘But that’s so wrong, so unfair! Can’t anything be done?’
Kane shook his head. ‘The only satisfaction gained out of this is that he probably won’t risk returning to England again if he’s as wily as I think he is, but I admit that’s not much comfort.’
Sophy shook her head in bewilderment. What sort of world was this? It seemed as though, if you were a man and you were rich enough, you could do anything you liked with impunity. Marriage, society, even the law was weighted on the side of men; she had never seen it so clearly before or resented it so bitterly.
‘This is a horrible world,’ she said slowly. ‘Where is the protection for the innocent? I always thought the law was supposed to help in the fight against wrongdoing, but half the time it doesn’t seem like that to me, not if the transgressor is rich or influential. Children can be imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread to keep their family from starving, and someone like this man can do the things he did and get off scot-free.’
‘Most of the time the law works.’
‘No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t, Kane. Not for one half of society, the female part.’ All the talking in the world wouldn’t bring Cat back, but she couldn’t bear to think this man was somewhere – eating, drinking, laughing, enjoying life – and her friend was dead.
She stared at Kane. ‘So he’s got away with it, this man? He could do unspeakable things to Cat and probably other women too, and then just leave the country?’
Kane’s discomfort showed as he strained his neck upwards, adjusting the collar of his shirt. ‘Like I said, he’s clever. And very wealthy. When the police went to the address we’d been given, they found the cellar room the female informer had described, but it held nothing incriminating and had been newly whitewashed.’
Sophy drew in a sharp breath. ‘A cellar room? Cat was held in a cellar? Was she killed there?’
‘Possibly.’
Sophy repeated the word but only in her mind. She felt sick and furiously angry, and this showed in her voice when she said, ‘I shall go and see the police myself and demand that more is done. I shall shout it from the rooftops if necessary.’
‘It will do no good, Sophy. Believe me. Everything that could be done has been done. Cat is gone and nothing can bring her back, and if you continue to torture yourself like this, you’ll only delay your recovery.’
She glared at him, incensed by the male logic, incensed by everything male, including Kane. For the moment he wasn’t Kane, her friend, but a member of the sex responsible for the outrage on her dear friend.
Sadie knocked on the door and entered immediately with the tea tray. She fussed about, pouring the tea and plying Kane with cake before bustling off again, a little put out by the atmosphere she sensed.