Page 81 of A Conspiracy in Belgravia
“On that I do not have reliable intelligence, only speculation.”
“And what is your speculation?”
“There might be something in those plans that could be used for blackmail—Moriarty pays well but not so well that a man wouldn’t still dream of a fortune.”
“Surely, such dreams must be tempered with fear of crossing Moriarty.”
“Which is why I’m not entirely sure of my own conjecture. Another possibility is that they wanted to leave Moriarty’s service—and believed that having the plans in their possession might ensure their safety.”
“Why have you involved yourself in all this? Shouldn’t it be your goal to stay away from Moriarty as much as possible?”
“For fifteen years, we’ve rarely remained more than three monthsin the same place—and when we did, when we thought we were safe and hidden...” He took a breath. “We want something on Moriarty. Something that would make him anxious aboutusinstead. Something that would force him to leave us alone, because it would destroy him first.”
“And how did you hope to achieve that by impersonating Mr. Finch?”
“We couldn’t find him. So we had to hope that he would find us.”
“By approaching his family?”
“We thought that if we were blatant in our attempts to contact your family, perhaps it would vex your father enough to send strong words via solicitors, which would make Mr. Finch realize that there was an imposter.”
“And then what?”
“We wrote your father three times and gave our address each time. Our hope was that Mr. Finch, after he had heard from Sir Henry, would find us. Then we would offer him a bargain: the dossier in exchange for his safety.”
“How can you guarantee his safety? You can’t even guarantee your own.”
“And yet we are still alive, still more or less in one piece, after years of being wanted by Moriarty. Who else is better positioned to help him keep body and soul together?”
That much might be true. Mr. Hayward-cum-Jenkins certainly hadn’t been able to live as long after quitting Moriarty’s service.
“Speaking of keeping body and soul together... what happened to Miss Marbleton?”
“We went back to my place tonight at Mrs. Woods’s. After your midnight visit, her first thought was that it was Mr. Finch. She sent me a cable the next day. As she was trying to slip back into the house, she saw you speaking with Mrs. Woods. Since it was onlyyou, we didn’t think there would bethatmuch danger in going back. In fact, our main concern was to avoid being seen by Mrs. Woods.
“We wouldn’t have anticipated the ambush at all. Fortunately, Dr. Vickery arrived home from an evening out and entered his room while we were waiting in the service stairs for the passage to clear. That was when we saw our door open and close from the inside.
“We still thought most likely it was either you or Mr. Finch. But at least our guard was up... Long story short, we were able to shake our pursuers loose, eventually.”
“You are sure about that?”
“It happens to be our specialty.”
She certainly hoped so, since they were already on Mrs. Watson’s property. “Why did you come here, then?”
“I saw the letter my mother wrote you, toward the end of the Sackville affair. She is an excellent judge of character. If she trusts you, then I can trust you, too.”
“You weren’t concerned that this place might be watched?”
“Tonight Moriarty’s minions are watching the railway terminuses, since they expect us to flee.”
“I take this to mean that you’ve been to a railway terminus and found it under surveillance.”
“Precisely. Besides, I wanted to ask you a question.”
“Go ahead.”
“Why areyoulooking for Mr. Finch?”
