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"Yes. But either way I have to know the truth, if you can find it."
"What happened to Hugh Gibbons?"
"What? I've no idea. Can it matter now?"
"I don't know. Can you think of any other incident in Zillah's life which anyone might fear my looking into?"
"I don't fear that." Some of the indignation came back into Lambert's voice. "It could have been tragic, but it wasn't. My wife dealt with it before it went too far. Took Zillah away." There was no shadow in his face, not the slightest duplicity. If there had been anything more to it Monk would swear Lambert knew nothing of it. But then that was entirely possible. A wise mother might well not tell the father of any such thing. She might fear his reaction, his anger, his sense of outrage. He could all too easily lose his temper and, without realizing it, bring about the very disaster his wife was laboring to avoid.
Lambert saw the disbelief in Monk's face. "It wasn't!" he repeated fiercely.
"What about Hugh Gibbons?" Monk said again. "Might he have gone on to become involved with another young woman, and her mother not have acted so quickly, or so effectively?"
"I've no idea. What difference could it make?" Lambert's eyes opened wide. "Are you suggesting Gibbons came to the courtroom and poisoned Melville to stop you from looking into it? That's ridiculous. How? Why didn't we see him? And how would he know about you anyway? What would you have done about it if you had found something? You would hardly have ruined some other young woman just for the sake of it. It wouldn't have helped Melville's cause." His contempt for the idea was plain.
So was Monk's, he had to admit. If it was this incident, then it was to do with Zillah.
The same thought must have occurred to Lambert. He rose to his feet.
"We'll ask my wife and get the whole thing disposed of. Come."
Monk followed obediently, catching up with him at the withdrawing room door. "Would you rather not discuss it with Sacheverall present?" he asked.
"Not at all. He is our family lawyer, and as you may have observed, extremely fond of Zillah. We have no secrets to hide from him." He opened the door and walked in.
Delphine was sitting elegantly on the sofa with a piece of embroidery in her hands, although she was paying it little attention. Zillah and Sacheverall had returned from their walk in the garden. Perhaps it was a little cool. Now they stood over by the window close together, and Sacheverall was talking to her earnestly, gazing at her eyes, her lips. The sunlight caught the brilliance of her hair, shining bronze and gold. They all looked at Lambert as he came in.
Lambert went straight to the point. "Mr. Monk has told me some disturbing things about Melville's death. It seems it is not as simple a suicide as it first appeared."
Sacheverall made as if to interrupt, coming a step forward into the room.
Lambert overrode him. "There are things which need explaining, and we ca
"With respect, sir," Sacheverall argued, "to continue to go over the matter can only cause further distress to i
"A great deal," Lambert answered with a sharpness that surprised Monk, and from the look in his face, Sacheverall also. Only Zillah seemed happy with her father's words.
Delphine looked merely a
For the first time Lambert hesitated. He glanced at Monk, then back at Delphine.
"What things?" Zillah asked.
Lambert did not answer.
She looked beyond him to Monk. "What things need to be answered, Mr. Monk? Why do you care what happened? Please answer me truthfully. I am very tired of evasions and euphemisms told to protect me."
"You don't need to know, my dear…" Sacheverall said, reaching toward her with his hand.
She moved a step away from him. "I wish to know," she said, still looking at Monk. "Did she kill herself over what we did to her? Was it because of what everyone said about Mr. Wolff?"
Delphine winced.
"We can't blame ourselves for that!" Sacheverall said quickly, a flush of anger marking his cheeks.
Zillah appeared not even to have heard him. She remained looking at Monk.
"I don't know what it was, Miss Lambert," he answered. "If that was the cause, I don't understand why she did not tell the truth. It would have ruined her professional reputation in this country, but there are other countries, and she had lived and studied in some of them. Surely that would have been better than death? The only crime she was accused of was so easily explained."
"Easily!" Sacheverall said with amazement. "Perhaps in your circles, Monk, but hardly in the society in which he-she moved, and among the people who would be her patrons. I think you forget she practiced her profession among the very cream of society, not the sort of person who might regard that kind of… perversion… as acceptable."
Zillah swung around to glare at him. "It was not a perversion!" she defended hotly. "She did nothing wrong or not… normal. She only dressed as a man; she didn't behave as one in-in a personal sense." The color was hot in her cheeks also, but for the embarrassment of having to seek words for something she was uncertain of and which it was indelicate to discuss. "You are trying to say that she was in some way mad, and that's not true."
"My dear Zillah, you have no idea what she may have done… in private!" Sacheverall expostulated.
"Neither have you!" she said instantly. "You are suggesting something ugly, but you don't know."
"We know she killed herself," he said gently. "That is unarguable. Young people in good health, with sufficient funds and a stable character, do not take their own lives. It is a crime against God, as well as against the state." He looked calm and satisfied with that answer.
Zillah looked back at Monk. "Is that true?"
"It is part of the truth," he agreed.
"And the rest of it?"
"Zillah…" Delphine said warningly.
"The rest of it?" Her eyes did not deviate from Monk's.
"The rest of it is that I wonder if she did kill herself, or if someone else did in order to bring the case to a conclusion before I investigated any further and uncovered something unpleasant," he replied.
She looked completely confused, as if she could see no sense in what he had said.
Sacheverall let out a guffaw of ridicule.
"What were you investigating?" Zillah asked. "About Killian? I-I mean Keelin… I don't understand a great deal about the law, but if there was something, surely if she told Sir Oliver, he would have kept it secret? Doesn't he have to, if he was her barrister? Anyway, what could it be?" Her brow darkened. "And why were you investigating her? Sir Oliver was supposed to be defending her. He was on her side!" She was indignant. She felt a trust had been abused.