Page 18 of Taken to the Grave
“The lack of blood around Givens’s body suggests he was brought there after he was killed,” Hugh said, then turned to Tyne. “Did you make the same observation for the other two victims?”
His caustic stare had not abated. “I did.”
“And where are you with the case? Do you have any suspects?”
He grimaced. “Not just yet, my lord.”
Thinking he was being crowded out of his own investigation, Tyne was reluctant to give up his information. If he wasn’t intent on being such an arse, Hugh might have taken pity on him.
“Which brothel was Madam Lee running?” Hugh asked instead, unwilling to back down.
Again, Tyne formed a smug smirk and directed his attention to Audrey. “The Red Lotus. Know of it?”
He was asking Hugh, of course, but keeping his eyes on Audrey was meant to fluster her.
“I don’t,” Hugh answered, beginning to change his mind about edging out Tyne and taking over the investigation. “However, I do know of Stromburg. I met him briefly at White’s. He was visiting the Austrian ambassador, Anton Esterhazy. A prince of some sort.”
Tyne snorted. “White’s, is it?”
“Thank you for your help, Officer Tyne,” Audrey said before Hugh could even consider a reply to the goading remark. “The viscount and I will be leaving now.”
Before the pair of them could come to blows, no doubt. It had been a mistake to mention the gentleman’s club. He should have known it would only nettle the officer. But what the Brown Bear was for Bow Street, White’s was for Parliament.
The officer gave them a thin, mocking grin and left the office. Audrey took Hugh’s arm, and only then did he realize how rigidly he was holding himself.
“I am going to assume Officer Tyne was one of the patrolmen who used to tease you by calling meyour duchess,” she whispered as they left the magistrate’s office and made their way toward reception.
Hugh opened the door for Audrey, and he breathed in deep as they came out into the afternoon sunlight. The weather was fair, the sky clear, and he was thankful to not have Tyne eyeballing Audrey any longer.
“He was,” Hugh replied. “The man annoyed me then and does even more so now.”
“At least he gave us some information to follow up on,” she said as her driver Carrigan and footman, Travers, spotted their approach. Travers opened the carriage door. “A brothel madam and an Austrian aristocrat… How has no one reported Stromburg as missing?”
Hugh questioned that, too. Bow Street staying quiet on the deaths was one thing, but surely the Austrian ambassador would have noticed the disappearance of his visiting friend.
“I’ll have to try and arrange an interview with Esterhazy,” he said. “Though I have no idea how I can explain my interest in Stromburg without revealing his fate.”
“What have they done with his body? Surely, they must need to return him to his family for burial.”
“They could be preserving it while the investigation is on, but I can’t see how they can cover things up for much longer, especially now that the three murders have been publicized.” Hugh shook his head, irritated at Bow Street’s silence, and Sir Gabriel’s acquiescence to Gye’s demands.
“If the bodies were transported to Vauxhall and left there, then it does stand to reason that visitors to the pleasure gardens are not in any danger,” Audrey said, as though anticipating where Hugh’s mind had gone. “Sir Gabriel was correct that inciting a panic would do no one any good.”
“All right, yes, I agree. But the silence likely hampered the investigation. And I can’t help but question if Tyne and Stevens are up for a case of this complexity. They don’t seem to have gotten anywhere.”
Her hand rested on his forearm, as if to stop his simmering agitation in its tracks. “You have other important concerns. Have you found Sir?”
He covered her hand with his own. “Not yet. He hasn’t been to his mother’s either.”
“He’ll turn up,” she said. “Give him time.”
Hugh nodded and was reluctant to see her into the waiting carriage. He held her hand against his arm for another indecently long moment. When they were married, he would never have to worry about such things again. It gave him a thought.
“I have news about Miss Bertram,” Audrey said.
He welcomed the excuse to not have to part just yet. “You can tell me on the way.”
She brightened with a curious grin. “On the way to where?”
