Page 96 of Return Ticket

He lifted his gaze to the rear view mirror and sent Tanner a quick look.

“See, I just wanted her to drop the charges. She wasn’t harmed, right? I also wanted to know what she’d told you. That’s all. I wasn’t planning on doing anything to her.” Tanner moved his shoulders, as if he couldn’t get comfortable.

“Tanner, are you sane?” James couldn’t believe a man in his position was seriously arguing that holding a person against their will and forcing them to talk was a harmless endeavor.

Tanner blinked. Shuffled around on his seat. “I went too far, all right. I saw my whole career in shreds, and when I realized she was in the bathroom, I thought it would be an easy matter to get her to talk. After the adrenalin wore off, I went back to apologize for scaring her. When she wasn’t there, I guessed she’d have gone to you again. I lost my grip there for a bit, I don’t mind admitting it.” He heaved a sigh. “And then when I was walking back to my car, these blokes jumped me and left me tied up. I’m not sure why.”

“Your client must be paying you big money to have you trashing your reputation like this,” James said. “Mrs. Fitzgerald, is that right?”

Tanner’s gaze lifted. “You got a warrant to search my office?”

“We did.” James sent him a cold smile. “And we will be talking with Mrs. Fitzgerald, you can be sure of it.”

“She’s paid me a lot, but not enough to lose my license.” Tanner shook his head. “She insinuated that she’d recommend me to her posh friends, and I thought this could really be an in for me with the moneyed set, you see?”

“But why the aggressive hounding of Miss Farnsworth?” James had never understood that.

“Mrs. Fitzgerald is desperate to know who her husband was visiting that day. A desperate client who looked like she would be very grateful if I found out what she wanted to know.” Tanner shrugged. “I need the money, and I don’t mind admitting I could see a nice rosy future if I got it right.”

“And you thought Miss Farnsworth was the answer.” James tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

“When Mrs. Fitzgerald saw the fine, and that her husband tried to hide it from her numerous times, she became convinced he was having an affair with her cousin, who lives on that street.” Tanner grimaced. “He, of course, refuses to admit it. He insists he wasn’t in any house at all, that he’d parked there to go shopping because he couldn’t find a place to park on the high street.”

“And do you think he’s having an affair with Mrs. Fitzgerald’s cousin?” James asked.

“Given the fear I’ve seen in his eyes at the thought of being found out, yes.” Tanner shifted on his seat again. “And I should probably clarify that Mrs. Fitzgerald’s cousin in this instance is a man.”

“Ah.” That did make things clearer. Both the fear on Fitzgerald’s part, and the relentless chasing after the issue by his wife.

“You have to see that I didn’t set out to hurt or frighten Miss Farnsworth.” Tanner leaned forward as James drove through the massive steel gates of New Scotland Yard. “I’ve learned my lesson.”

James parked in front of a side door, and an officer emerged.

He opened the passenger door, and watched Tanner struggle out.

“Holding?” the officer asked.

“Yes, please take him to holding.” James stepped back. “Am I going to have other people coming forward after what’s happened in this case hits the news, Tanner? Others who you’ve held against their will, grabbed, or chased through the streets of London to get them to withdraw charges or give you information?”

Tanner’s look, startled and fearful, told James there probably would be, and he was silent as he was led into the building.

James parked the Wolseley and then went in by the front entrance. “Any messages?” he asked at the desk.

He was handed a note phoned in by Hartridge, asking him to call a Kent number, and he ran up to his office to make the call.

Hartridge answered on the second ring. “This is definitely Blythe’s residence,” he told James. “We found four handbags in a cupboard, all in a neat row, and behind them, we found another five.”

James sat down slowly. “So Katie Brompton was his fifth. Was he matching his old body count, murder for murder, I wonder?”

“We couldn’t find records of anyone killed during the Blitz at the place where the first body was found over a month ago,” Hartridge said. “But now we have the handbags, we should be able to work out who he might have murdered and left there.”

“Good work, Ian. I want all evidence collected by the book, everything labeled and put in separate bags. And keep looking for anything else that would tie him to the crimes.”

“We’ve got him either way, don’t we?” Hartridge asked.

“We’ve got him,” James agreed. He leaned back and looked up at the ceiling, then closed his eyes.

This was why he was a copper, despite the poison that Whetford brought to the Met. He and Hartridge had made a difference, and Whetford could try to push them out or corrupt them, but he would not succeed.

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