Paragon Walk by Anne Perry Read Free Book Online Page A

she was anything but a chance victim, and therefore her life story need not be inquired into so far. Perhaps if you would tell me where you were on that evening, and if you saw or heard anything that might help us?”
    “I was here,” Fulbert replied with slightly raised eyebrows. He was more reminiscent of Afton than of Diggory, having something of Afton’s faintly supercilious expression, features that should have been handsome, but were not. Diggory, on the other hand, was less well constructed, but there was a pleasingness in the irregularity, character in the stronger, darker brows, something altogether warmer.
    “All evening,” Fulbert added.
    “In company, or alone?” Pitt asked.
    Fulbert smiled.
    “Didn’t Afton say I was with him, playing billiards?”
    “Were you, sir?”
    “No, as a matter of fact, I wasn’t. Afton’s several inches taller than I am, as I dare say you’ve noticed. It irritates the hell out of him that he can’t beat me, and Afton in a bad temper is more than I care to put up with.”
    “Why don’t you let him beat you?” The answer seemed obvious.
    Fulbert’s light-blue eyes opened wide, and he smiled. His teeth were small and even, too small for a man’s mouth.
    “Because I cheat, and he’s never been able to work out how. It’s one of the few things I do better than he does,” he answered.
    Pitt was a little lost. He could not imagine any pleasure in a competition to see who could cheat the best. But then he did not enjoy games himself. He had never had time in his youth, when he might have learned the skills. Now it was too late.
    “Were you in the billiard room all evening, sir?”
    “No, I thought I just told you that! I wandered round the house a bit, library, upstairs, into the butler’s pantry and had a glass of port, or two.” He smiled again. “Long enough for Afton to have nipped out and raped poor Fanny. And since she was his sister, you’ll be able to add incest to the charge—” He saw Pitt’s face. “Oh, I’ve offended your sensibilities. I forgot how puritanical the lower classes are. It’s only the aristocracy and the guttersnipes who are frank about everything. And on reflection, perhaps we are the only ones who can afford to be. We are so arrogant we think no one can shift us, and the guttersnipes have nothing to lose. Do you really imagine my painfully self-righteous brother crept out between billiard balls and raped his sister in the garden? She wasn’t stabbed with a billiard cue, was she?”
    “No, Mr. Nash,” Pitt said coldly and clearly. “She was stabbed with a long knife, sharp point and probably single-edged.”
    Fulbert shut his eyes, and Pitt was glad he had hurt him at last.
    “How revolting,” he said quietly. “I didn’t go out of the house, which is what you want to know, nor did I see or hear anything odd. But you can be damned sure that if I do, I’ll look a good deal harder! I suppose you’re working on the hypothesis it is some lunatic? Do you know what a hypothesis is?”
    “Yes, sir, and so far I am merely collecting evidence. It is too early for hypotheses.” He deliberately used the plural to show Fulbert that he knew it.
    Fulbert observed and smiled.
    “I’ll lay you odds two to one it is not! I’ll lay you it’s one of us, some nasty, grubby little secret that snapped through the civilized veneer—and rape! She saw him, and he had to kill her. Look into the Walk, Inspector, look at us all very, very carefully. Sift us through a small sieve, and comb us with a fine-tooth comb—and see what parasites and what lice you turn up!” He giggled very lightly with amusement and met Pitt’s angry eyes squarely, brilliantly. “Believe me, you’ll be amazed what there is!”
    Charlotte was waiting anxiously for Pitt all afternoon. From the time she had put Jemima upstairs for her afternoon sleep, she found herself repeatedly glancing at the old brown clock on the dining room shelf, going up to it to listen for