The Angel Court Affair (Thomas Pitt 30) by Anne Perry Read Free Book Online Page A

Brundage swung round when he saw Pitt.
    ‘Morning, sir,’ he said grimly.
    ‘Morning,’ Pitt replied. He might be less civil later, but not now. They needed clear thinking, a logical appreciation of the facts. It might look like kidnapping to the unsophisticated, but there were many other possibilities higher in his mind. Whatever was written in the newspapers yesterday, to Frank Laurence, and any other sceptical observer, this would look very much like a stunt to obtain publicity.
    ‘Was the front door locked and bolted this morning?’ he asked Brundage levelly.
    ‘Yes, sir,’ Brundage replied. ‘So was the back door into the delivery area. I can’t find anything to indicate a jemmied window, but there is a window open on the second floor. It’s right near the bathroom downpipe, but I can’t see three women dressed in long skirts climbing down the wall in the small hours of the morning.’
    Pitt could imagine Sofia Delacruz doing it, if the cause were important enough to her, but he did not say so.
    Smith glared at him. ‘Someone could have climbed up it,’ he pointed out angrily. ‘They could have broken in and taken Sofia and . . .’
    ‘The two other women also?’ Pitt raised his eyebrows. ‘Only with help. And extremely difficult to do silently. I cannot imagine Sofia Delacruz going unwillingly and without a fight. Can you? You know her well.’
    Smith glared at him. ‘Are you suggesting she went willingly?’ he said between his teeth, anger staining his cheeks pink.
    ‘Is it possible?’ Pitt responded. ‘You know her better than most people do. You have supported her for over five years. You have stated publicly, many times, that you believe her philosophy.’ He smiled very slightly. ‘You certainly appear to admire her.’
    ‘Of course I do,’ Smith said instantly, then stiffened as if he regretted committing himself so far, and without equivocation. He moved his feet uncomfortably on the wide oak floorboards. ‘We have our differences,’ he went on, aware of now being intensely awkward. ‘On minor points only.’
    Pitt allowed the silence to grow heavy before he replied. Footsteps echoed across the yard, uneven on the cobbles, and somewhere in the kitchen a saucepan was dropped.
    ‘She was in danger!’ Smith said angrily. ‘That’s why your people were supposed to guard her! Where were your men when she was taken? Why aren’t you asking them these questions? Where were you yourself?’
    ‘Asleep, as I imagine you were,’ Pitt said softly. ‘I am not attacking you, Mr Smith. I am trying to rule out impossibilities, so that we can concentrate on what is possible. A window three storeys up is open, but all the doors to the outside were locked and bolted. It seems hard to think of a way in which Señora Delacruz and both the other women were taken by force without a sound being heard. There has been nothing broken, nothing stolen and no one here was hurt.’
    Now Ramon spoke for the first time, his face flushed with anger. ‘If you are saying that the señora went willingly and has left us, then you are a fool! You know nothing of my people.’ His accent was very slight but his voice was husky with anger. ‘You spoke with her, I know that, and I know she told you what her belief is because she said so to me. Do you see that woman stealing out in the night like an eloping maid? Why? What for? Her faith is her life . . .’
    ‘There are different kinds of faith, Mr Aguilar,’ Pitt said very gently. The man’s distress was clear in his pale face and clenched body. ‘What about coercion or trickery?’ he suggested. ‘Or an emergency of some kind? A message from her family that someone was ill, perhaps dying, and time was short.’
    Ramon hesitated. ‘I suppose it is possible,’ he said with a flicker of hope. ‘But why did she not leave a message? And why take both Cleo and Elfrida?’
    Smith’s mouth was drawn in a tight, thin line. ‘If she had gone to see her cousin,