Three Nights of Sin

by Anne Mallory

  He saw her shiver, but she shook her head. Her eyes were clear, her expression determined. “I’m coming.”

  He nodded. “Get dressed. Call if you need help. We are leaving in ten minutes.”

  They left in eight.

  The streets were foggy and dark. The early morning shadows from the gaslights cast odd shapes against the buildings and stones.

  Gabriel watched Marietta stare through the window at the passing streets. Last night had been…interesting. He had taunted and seduced her and found himself falling into his own trap.

  She was…interesting.

  She made him laugh.

  She didn’t hold her tongue around him. Most women bent over backward to please him. Oh, there had been a few who hadn’t in the past, but none of them had produced a pull, a desire to continue a liaison for the pure joy of it. And even if her face went moon-eyed with want like so many others, he wanted to see the expression on her.

  Strange.

  His driver pulled up to the curb. There were a lot of people milling around the area, and the watchmen were trying to keep them away from the corner, a daunting task with the two streets converging and four directions to watch. Dresden was roaming the crowd, sharp eyes taking in each face.

  “Dresden is here.” He tapped a finger against the window. “If we exit, he will know who you are without a doubt.”

  “You said he probably already does.”

  “He will hunt you.” He thought about confining her to the carriage.

  Her shoulders straightened. “Kenny is going to be exonerated. He will have nothing to hunt me for.”

  Gabriel wondered what she would do after her brother was freed. Try to get back into society? Retire to the country? Find some young man to marry who didn’t mind her tongue or the fact that she would try to be the strong one in the relationship?

  He wondered if he could continue a liaison with her. He was strangely unwilling to let her go.

  He had worked with scores of women over the years. He had even been interested in a few. But the attraction ultimately fizzled. Every time.

  This one was still going strong. He had known it before taking her to bed too. Had scared him witless for a moment.

  What was it about her that kept his attention? He watched her clutch her hands as she looked out to the crowd, nervous and excited to see her brother freed. She wasn’t the prettiest. She wasn’t the smartest or the tallest or the bravest. But she was all of those things wrapped together in a package that just seemed to fit him. How utterly terrifying.

  He had never imagined Marietta Winters walking in and blowing a hole in his well-planned life.

  He pushed open the door. He would see what happened. And if she didn’t come to him…he would bring her to him.

  He helped her down from the carriage and they walked toward the scene. Dresden’s eyes focused on them immediately and narrowed. Gabriel snapped his fingers for Billy to follow. The young footman jumped down from his spot on top with the driver.

  Pushing through the crowd, Gabriel saw the outline of blood on the ground, but no body.

  “Cor. Where’s the gal? Anyone know her name?”

  He sent a silent thanks to the older woman hovering nearby for asking the questions he wanted answered.

  “Moved to Coroner’s Court already. Heard she was broken and unrecognizable.”

  “Like the others. They caught the wrong man!”

  A murmur went through the crowd, and he saw the relief in Marietta’s stance. The Runner clapped his hands. “Actually, that is not entirely true.”

  Marietta stiffened and Gabriel fought from doing the same.

  “It looks like an internal maneuver, and we are bringing in the Middlesex murderer’s brother for questioning.” He looked directly at Marietta. “The whole family is suspect.”

  Gabriel tamped his shock. Dresden was no fool. He knew that cutting off the pleas of innocence and giving the crowd an alternative that would make them feel as if the problem were under control would stave the tide. And if the savage look Dresden had leveled in their direction was anything to go by, now that he had an acknowledgment of who they were, he was taking their actions personally. Gabriel turned and gave Billy swift instructions. The boy darted through the crowd, and Gabriel pulled Marietta closer.

  “Mark.”

  “Shhh. Let’s get to Coroner’s Court.”

  He didn’t look away from Dresden. The Runner’s dark smile across the crowd boded ill. “In fact, the sister of—”

  Gabriel signaled abruptly to his driver, and the edges of the crowd screamed as the horses went wild and the carriage careened off. His driver would be receiving an increased wage soon.

  He pulled Marietta through the back of the crowd as everyone was distracted and running about. She didn’t say anything as he pulled her around the corner. Her eyes were empty and unfocused. He reached down and gripped her hand as they rounded another corner, turning back and moving parallel to the scene they’d just left. His carriage was waiting at the end of the street in response to his clockwise signal.

  He lifted her into the carriage and motioned to the driver. “Coroner’s Court. Quickly. We have about twenty minutes to keep ahead.”

  He was barely seated when the carriage took off.

  “Mark,” Marietta whispered.

  “He will be fine. Billy will get him out of your house, if possible. Focus.” He snapped his fingers in front of her glazed eyes. “I am going to run into the court to see what I can find.”

  A bit of spirit returned to her eyes. “I’m coming with you.”

  “Fine.” Frankly, he would have been worried if she hadn’t argued. “We need to be quick, though. I have a contact in the building who has already been alerted. We can work from there.”

  She was standing much taller when they entered the building. Not like a woman who might lose both brothers to mob madness.

  They walked into the court. A crowd of people were positioned around a body in the corner.

  “Sorry, sir, but you aren’t allowed in here.”

  He flashed a smile at the guard. “Assistant to Nathaniel Upholt. Rory Carney.” He shook the bemused guard’s hand. “He sent me ahead to gather the initial information. I see that you are doing a fine job maintaining order.”

  The guard puffed up a bit. “We try our best, sir.”

  “Do you think we might have a look before the mob appears? It would be very helpful.” The man looked to be above a bribe, but there was a tattered edge to his trousers. Taking a chance, Gabriel palmed a note and shook the man’s hand again.

  The guard’s hand closed around the note, and he looked undecided for a second.

  “We will be out of the way. Five minutes is all.”

  The guard looked around and nodded. “Five minutes.”

  Gabriel flashed another smile. “Thank you, my good man.”

  He walked over to the milling crowd, Marietta pressed behind him. Members of the court, patrolmen, and watchmen all gathered together talking. He recognized a few from their recent excursions and his previous case encounters, so he kept his head bent.

  There was soaked blood on most of the cloth covering the body. He tucked Marietta farther behind him. She could look if she wanted, but he wasn’t going to force her to stare if she didn’t.

  A man was cleaning the woman’s bloody face, which was bared above the cloth. Another man was making notes, and they were talking back and forth.

  “Bruising on her wrists. Matches the second victim. The other two were without. Blow to the head. Slit throat. Open at the midsection…”

  Gabriel let the words wash over him. The wet cloth was moving along the victim’s cheek and something was stirring inside him. A sliver of fear.

  The cheekbones of the woman were both bruised, but there was something very familiar about her. Her brown hair was matted, but he could see a pearl comb hanging from a tangled lock of hair.

  “Interesting cuts along her necklace—”


  No.

  “—emeralds, do you think? Someone with money.”

  It couldn’t be.

  “As if someone was outlining it. Taunting? Her money? Maybe a gift from a lover?”

  A gift from her rich father. Flaunted and taunted. The report from his investigator had said she’d never parted with it even after the family money had dwindled away.

  A forehead was uncovered, a pointed chin. The sheet slipped to the side and he could see the emerald and gold necklace heavy and dull at her throat. Covered by blood and set on a crusted red riverbed.

  He heard a crash and looked to see the small table at his side on the floor, felled like an uprooted tree.

  He had to get out of here.

  He stumbled out of the room, barely registering Marietta at his side asking him if he was sick.

  “Poor bloke. Some men can’t handle the sight, ’tis true enough,” someone said.

  One of many faces he had hoped never to see again. Not that he particularly cared that she was dead. He hated her. Hated them all. But he had separated himself from his past long ago. What the devil was going on?

  “Gabriel?” Marietta whispered.

  Her voice came from far away, though there was a hand on his arm and another around his waist. He forced his eyes closed, then opened them again slowly as he’d been trained to do. To show no emotion. To show no affect.

  He straightened, the hallway stretched in front of him toward the staircase. “Upstairs.” Better to keep communications short until he could truly take hold of his tangled thoughts.

  Where was his father? When had Jeremy’s break begun? Where had his investigator gone? He hadn’t received a report in almost…almost a month. No.

  No.

  This could be a coincidence. Could be a nightmare. He had to see the sketches from the other murders.

  He pounded against the door that read franklin lewis. It opened and a surprised Frank stepped aside. “Mr. Noble. I received your note. Are you unwell, sir?”

  “I’m not unwell, Frank. I need a favor. I can pay.”

  “’Course you won’t pay! My last favor didn’t pay my due. What can I do for you?”

  “Can you obtain sketches from Coroner’s Court?” He tried to keep the desperation, the abject terror, from his voice.

  Frank looked thoughtful. “For how long will you need them?”

  “Ten minutes, that’s all.”

  “Then, of course. That shouldn’t be a problem. I can have them here and back before anyone notices. And there’s a bloke who owes me in case I can’t. Now’s the best time, while everyone is in a tizzy. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  Frank exited the room, leaving him alone with Marietta.

  “What happened downstairs? I couldn’t see around your shoulder very well. What I did see was gruesome, though.” She shuddered. “Nightmare inducing.”

  “Yes,” he said absently, thoughts coiling and refusing to connect.

  “Gabriel?” She touched his chin and turned his face toward her. “We can leave. I’m sure we can come back later.”

  A fierce surge of something passed through him. “I’m fine. We need to get through here before Dresden puts a halt on our ability to move freely.”

  Dear God. What was he going to do if his ugly suspicions bore fruit?

  Frank huffed into the room. “Darn circus down there. I think ten minutes is about all we can spare.”

  Gabriel nodded and took the sketches from him. Cold fear coiled in his gut as he looked at the first one. Yes, with what he knew now, this woman was familiar. Older, but he could fit her features on his memories, his nightmares. He flipped the page. Fear turned to ice. He fiddled with the edge of the paper. He didn’t want to flip to the last page. To confirm.

  From the corner of his eye he saw Marietta look at him.

  He flipped the page. The paper wavered in his view, and he placed the pages on the desk before his shaking hands could scatter them to the floor.

  A woman with a different name. The one identified victim. Anthony would surely be sending him a note any day with her original name. Amanda Forester. A rushed wedding, Marietta had said. He should have received a note from the man who was paid to keep track of the women for him. To let him know that one of them had changed her name. What would he have done had he known the victim’s original name earlier? Before the investigation had begun?

  “I see.” He forced a smile. “Thank you, Frank. This was very helpful.”

  Helpful in the way that someone helped you dig a grave in a cemetery plot that just happened to have your name on the headstone.

  “Come.” He turned to Marietta. “We must be out before Dresden appears.” He turned back to Frank and shook his hand, forcing the steady calm he had mastered to deal with any situation involving them. “Thank you. Please let me know if there is anything I can help you with.”

  Frank smiled and gathered the papers. “It was no problem, Mr. Noble. I’m always available to help with your cases. Especially the ones like mine. I appreciate all you do to help us. The ‘Protector,’ we call you.”

  Protector. Would he still retain that goodwill if his past were to become common knowledge—especially now with four dead women from it lying in the coroner’s office either on a table or in a sketch?

  He forced his lips into a smile. “Miss Rose here will be forced to tease me from my arrogance for a week now.”

  Frank smiled at Marietta. “Good luck to you, miss. I’m sure that whatever you need help with will be resolved soon. Problems always are when Mr. Noble is involved.”

  Such faith. He had developed a network to make sure that those who sought help would not find themselves in the same position he had once found himself. Helpless. He shuddered, covering the involuntary action by gripping the door handle. Everything was coming full circle.

  He strode from the room.

  Marietta followed behind. “What did you learn from the sketches?”

  And Marietta. Completely in the dark. Trusting him like they all trusted him. Not knowing that she could be the first one to whom he might betray that trust.

  “I was looking for age, physical characteristics, anything that might tie them together.” It wasn’t a lie, it just wasn’t the full truth.

  “And?”

  “They mostly look to be the same age. I will see if I can get someone to copy and circulate the pictures to discover more about them.”

  He wasn’t sure he was going to do any such thing. He didn’t want anyone to recognize the victims. He couldn’t believe no one had yet, even though, at the same time, he would have been hard pressed to identify them himself if he hadn’t been presented with pictures of the matched set. He wondered if it was the murderer’s intention to make them unrecognizable.

  Why hadn’t anyone claimed them missing? He’d have to see where the hell his investigator was and what he had to say. The man was well paid to keep track of them. He should have received word concerning Amanda’s marriage weeks ago.

  He balled his fists. The man was paid exorbitantly to keep track of their whereabouts so that Gabriel could forget all about them—unless one was up to her old tricks. He dealt with any of those tricks swiftly and financially. That was definitely one reason a few of them wouldn’t have been missed yet—tossed from society and penniless as they were.

  He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he never saw the man step in front of them until he stepped on his foot.

  He cursed when the man’s face came into view and moved to sidestep him.

  “Going somewhere, Mr. Noble?”

  Arthur Dresden’s face was set in lines somewhere between satisfied and comically enraged.

  “Finally figured it out, eh, Dresden? Congratulations. Now, if you’ll pardon us.” He reached a hand behind to Marietta and tried to step around. The main door and freedom were only twenty paces away.

  The Runner stepped in his path again. “Going so soon? I don’t think so. I have questions, you see.”


  “How extraordinary for you. But you can’t detain us here. We’ll be on our way.”

  “You think I cannot?”

  “I know you cannot, Runner.” Some people might be scared by a Bow Street Runner and the tactics they used, but Gabriel had read all their codes. All the laws concerning them. Unfortunately for the man in front of him.

  Dresden’s eyes were scorching. “I’ve heard all about you. Using the law as you desire. Bribing people to do your justice. It’s outrageous. The law is not to be trifled with. I will be watching you, Noble, make no mistake.”

  “I’m touched by your interest. Now if you wouldn’t mind moving out of our way?”

  Dresden turned to Marietta. “You are trying to free your brother. Admirable as that sentiment may be to some, how does it feel to obstruct the workings of the law, Miss Winters? It is rather apparent that you were the one, Mr. Noble, to orchestrate the bid for the trial to be repositioned to a later date.”

  “Your detective skills are keen, I must say. How anyone is denied justice in a land where you make arrests is baffling.”

  “Laugh all you want, Noble. The truly pernicious thing is that you believe yourself to be helping others. To skirt the laws, to obfuscate justice to your own demands.”

  “The truly pernicious thing is that you believe in your own world of hypocrisy, Dresden.”

  It was obviously the wrong thing to say, if he cared about such a matter, as Dresden’s color changed from white to red. “If I can lay any of this at your door, I will, Noble. As for you, Miss Winters, your older brother will be keeping your younger brother company very soon.”

  Her hand tightened on Gabriel’s and a tingle of rage ran through him at Dresden’s bullying tactic.

  Dresden leaned toward Marietta. “If you weren’t a woman, you would join them posthaste.”

  The Runner obviously didn’t think much of women. A monumental mistake to underestimate them.

  “How terribly insightful.” Gabriel started walking, and this time when Dresden got in the way, Gabriel shoved him to the side and kept moving. The sound of a body hitting the floor behind him was terribly satisfying.

  Dresden roared his name.

  Gabriel pushed through the doors and hurried down the steps, Marietta held firmly in his wake as he strode through the crowd, paving a path. More people were filling in the area around the court, onlookers trying to discover advanced news they could pass on to their neighbors. Any morsel of gossip.