Page 57 of Taken to the Grave
“Already?” Audrey asked. “You’ve only been leasing Vauxhall for a year or two, haven’t you?”
Mr. Gye appeared green at the gills at the reminder. “Yes, and it appears I am finished here. Profits are plummeting, people are staying away, and I cannot count how many articles there have been calling me corrupt for trying to hush up the murders.”
Hugh sealed his lips. Those articles might not have been very far from the truth.
“If these are not signs from above that I should wash my hands of the place, I should call myself a fool,” Mr. Gye concluded.
Through the window overlooking the pavilion, the lack of people strolling demonstrated his concern.
“People are frightened to come here,” he said, following Hugh’s gaze.
It begged the question, yet again, as to why the Sanctuary had left the bodies here for discovery. Why not throw them into the Thames, or dump them out into a street gutter? There was a reason. Perhaps it had to do with Gye himself.
“Is there anyone you can think of who might want to damage your business here?” Hugh asked. “Anyone who dislikes you, or who might wish to make things difficult for you?”
The proprietor scoffed. “Not a soul. I don’t have any enemies.”
“Every businessman has enemies,” Thornton argued. “People you’ve passed on the way up, maybe never even noticing them.”
“I resent that,” he snapped. “I’m not some power-hungry ogre. I’m on good terms with all my workers. It is this dead body business that is ruining me.”
“The bodies were left at your establishment for a reason,” Hugh said. “There is purpose behind it. We’re trying to figure out what that is.”
Mr. Gye sighed and started back for his desk and the pile of papers that Hugh now suspected were letters of sale. “The Bow Street Runners say it is but a prank. One of the men I had posted on night security must have accepted a bribe. I’ve dismissed the lot of them, hoping to ease the sale of the lease, and hired a whole new detail, but I fear it’s too little too late.”
“Where is the Sanctuary, Mr. Gye?” Audrey’s question cut straight through, to the reason for their visit. Her unswerving focus on finding Gwendolyn overrode everything else. Even the smallest thread Hugh now had the impulse to pull, regarding the lease for Vauxhall being up for sale.
Mr. Gye screwed up his face. “Come again? What is the…what?”
“The Sanctuary,” Audrey repeated.
There was no flare of his eyes or nostrils, no loss of color in his cheeks. Only a grumble of impatience. “Is that some sort of church?”
Hugh peered at him, askance. “You’ve never heard of it?”
“I have not,” Gye said, patience ebbing. “Does it have to do with these murders?”
“Possibly,” Hugh answered.
Gye tossed his hands upward. “Why would a church want to kill people and leave them at my pleasure gardens?”
“It isn’t a church. But maybe the intent was to drive you out,” Hugh said, pulling at that thread. “Owning Vauxhall’s lease could be highly profitable, I imagine.”
Gye wrinkled his brow with a meaningful look, one that confirmed Hugh’s presumption. “It is also very costly,” he added. “I know it has only been a week since attendance felloff, but I pride myself on my business instinct. Recovery is not ensured, and this is too good of an opportunity.”
Hugh frowned, not understanding his meaning. Thornton, however, did.
“Opportunity? Do you mean to say you have a buyer?” he asked.
Mr. Gye brightened. “I do. As it turns out, my steward is still interested and quite flush.”
“Stillinterested? He wanted to purchase it before?” Audrey asked.
“Yes, there were several bids last year when the Tyers-Barretts put up the lease,” Mr. Gye said, shuffling through the papers. “But Vauxhall needed a true businessman at the helm, someone who would revive the place. I did exactly that.” He sighed as he set the papers down again. “For a little while at least.”
Hugh recalled the steward’s reaction to Mr. Gye on the night Givens was found, when Mr. Gye had tried to trundle Audrey off with him, believing the scene of a crime was no place for lady. His name escaped Hugh, but he did clearly remember the look of animosity he’d given the proprietor.
“If I recall, you said your steward had worked for the Tyers-Barretts?” Audrey said.
