Page 48 of Silence of Deceit
He perused Audrey’s face with a narrow eye, apprehension wiping away all pleasantness on his expression.
“Miss Haverhill. Yes, of course, I do recall you. What is this about?” He skewered Hugh with a glare. “You do not have a mother in need of care, do you?”
“I’m afraid not,” he replied. “I’m a principal officer at Bow Street, and I’m investigating a blackmailing scheme in connection with two murders.”
As if his legs suddenly became gelatinous aspic, Doctor Warwick swayed. His dug his fingers harder in the desk.
“Murders?” He licked his lips. “I do not know what this could possibly have to do with me or Shadewell.”
“The victims have been former residents,” Audrey said.
His aspic legs gave out. Doctor Warwick collapsed backward, into his chair. “Dear God, no. Please tell me it is not—” He swallowed the rest of his sentence, but Hugh finished it for him.
“Esther?” More color drained from the man’s face. “No. Two other women have been killed.”
The doctor’s visible relief irritated Hugh. Though he did not wish death upon anyone, especially no woman, the doctor’s dismissal of two other murdered women was in poor, selfish taste.
“I visited Esther’s home in Kilburn yesterday and learned of your deception,” Audrey continued. “You led her husband to believe she was dead, and I’m willing to wager it was because you and Esther plotted to abscond together. You met with her here in London when you took this position.”
As he stammered over the beginning of his reply, Hugh was reluctantly impressed with how unnerved the doctor already appeared to be.
“You do not understand,” Warwick finally said without spluttering. “Esther and I did not mean to fall in love. Her time at Shadewell changed her. It made her realize that she was not happy with the life she’d had before. And the more time we spent together…it was as though we had been searching for each other for our whole lives.”
“She was a married woman. A patient at your hospital, under your care,” Hugh said, less than sympathetic to the man’s reasons. “Did you never think that your authority might have swayed her into believing she was in love with you?”
Doctor Warwick shot to his feet. “No! Esther does loves me. She is my wife—”
“As she is still legally married to Mr. Starborough, she isnotyour wife,” Hugh cut in.
“Your duplicity is not our main concern at the moment, however,” Audrey said. “Where is Esther? We must speak with her.”
The doctor’s fear whether Esther was one of the murder victims now caught up to Hugh. “You don’t know where she is.”
Doctor Warwick gaped at him. “How did you know that?”
Explaining how he’d deduced it wasn’t worth the time it would take. “When did you last see her?”
The doctor loosened his neckcloth, his hand trembling. The man was coming apart at the seams. Before he’d even given an answer, Hugh knew Esther had been missing for some time, and that the doctor had been covering up her absence.
“A fortnight,” he confirmed.
Audrey and Hugh crossed a look. Two weeks. Just about the time Delia Montgomery went into the Thames.
“Have you not reported her missing?” Audrey asked.
Doctor Warwick tossed up a hand. “How can I? They might print her name and likeness in the news sheets. Starborough could see it. The police might ask questions I cannot answer.”
Hugh nodded; the doctor was correct. Any attention brought to the missing Mrs. Esther Warwick would bring the risk of discovery.
“I’ve hired a private inquiry agent, but he has found nothing more than one of Esther’s friends saying she spotted her at Varney’s Ices with a young woman the last day I saw her.”
Audrey rested her gloved hand on the back of a chair before the desk. “Varney’s Ices?”
“Yes. Esther’s friend did not know who the woman was, and when she greeted Esther, apparently my wife dismissed her as a stranger.” Doctor Warwick mussed his hair as he raked his fingers through. “Something has happened to her. I know it.”
Hugh didn’t want to be cruel; he could tell the doctor was going through hell. But there was a theory he could not overlook: “Esther walked out on her first husband. Who is to say she hasn’t done the same with her second?”
True fury lit the man’s face, incinerating the anguish and confusion. “To hell with you, officer. I know what you must think of her and of me, but you are wrong. Esther would never have left us.”
