“I sent him away,” Mr. Li said. “So he would be safe.”
“Well.” Mr. Thanos breathed out. “I guess that’s that.”
“No.” Sutherland’s affable voice turned hard. “This man is a murderer. I don’t believe he sent Chancellor away at all. He must have killed him as well, to keep his cherished secrets.”
“The tea is not here,” Mr. Li said without heat. “I have looked.”
“Good for you, my friend,” Mr. Sutherland returned. “Forgive me if I don’t believe you. We’ll have the police here, and that will be the end of it.”
Mr. Li laughed. Not the evil laugh of a stage villain, but an amused chuckle. “Yes, I would like the police.”
“They’ll take you away in shackles. They took you once, and foolishly let you go. I’ll be there again, to interpret, and tell them what you’ve done.”
I’d heard enough. I no longer cared for the danger—Cynthia and I were strong young women, and Mr. Thanos would readily assist us.
I ran down the gallery, not worrying about noise, Cynthia directly behind me. The men looked up in amazement, and at that moment, Mr. Thanos struck.
He seized Mr. Sutherland’s walking stick with both hands, trying to yank it from him. Mr. Sutherland, taken unawares, lost his balance but regained it with surprising speed. He jerked the stick from Mr. Thanos’s grasp and slammed it across the young man’s back.
Mr. Thanos yelped and raised his arms as another blow came down. Mr. Li stooped, coming up with handfuls of dirt, which he flung at Mr. Sutherland.
Mr. Sutherland left off beating Mr. Thanos and swung on Mr. Li. Mr. Li sensibly fled.
By that time, I’d reached the bottom of the stairs. Holding my skirts out of my way, I raced down the walk, cutting to the right to intercept Mr. Li. Cynthia ran straight for Mr. Thanos.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mr. Sutherland produce a long-bladed knife, and Mr. Thanos fling himself frantically between him and Cynthia. I could not stop to see what happened, as I desperately needed to reach Mr. Li.
Mr. Li ran along the outer wall, behind wrought iron pillars that supported the gallery. I gave chase, calling his name. When we were almost to the end of the greenhouse, Mr. Li at last halted, sagging against a white-painted iron column.
“Forgive me,” he wailed. “I am a coward. I have left your friend—”
Behind us, Cynthia was cursing like a sailor, Mr. Thanos yelling for Sutherland to put away that knife, for God’s sake.
“Don’t be silly,” I said to Mr. Li. “What can you do against a strong and armed young man? Come with me.”
I grasped the sleeve of his robe and tugged him along as I ran to the door through which we’d entered and threw it open to the chill of the night.
“Constable!” I shouted. “Come quick. Murder! Help!”
To my relief, two young men materialized out of the darkness and ran toward me, probably more worried about me trespassing than anything else. It was truly dark now, and the constables’ lanterns bobbed like fireflies.
“You all right, missus?” the young man who’d first admitted me to the park asked when they reached me. He scowled at Mr. Li. “’Ere, you. Leave her be.”
The constable began to pull Mr. Li from me, but I shoved his hand away. “Stop that. Mr. Li is perfectly innocent. But my friends are being attacked. In there. Please hurry!”
Without waiting, I turned and dashed back inside, making for the place I’d left Cynthia and Mr. Thanos battling Mr. Sutherland. The constables pounded past me, and I heard Mr. Li wheezing as he tried to keep up.
One constable split off from the other so the two could surround the combatants. I followed their lanterns, but it was very dark. I blundered into branches and once headlong into a bush before I convinced myself to pick my way carefully along. I reflected that Mr. Sutherland must have brought a lantern to light his way the night he’d killed Zhen.
I nearly ran into Cynthia before I saw her. She caught me in a sturdy grip. “He’s run for it,” she said, her voice shaking. “Thanos went after him, the fool. I’ve lost them in the dark.”
“The constables will find them,” I assured her, trying to catch my breath. “They know this place better than we do.”
“Sutherland moves like the wind, blast the man. I knew there was something I didn’t like about him.”
Mr. Li staggered toward us. He’d lost his cap, and the top of his shaved head glinted in the shadowy darkness.
“Did you see Mr. Sutherland the night Sir Jacob was killed?” I asked him. “Is that why you disappeared from your house arrest? Why didn’t you tell us?”
“No, I did not see him,” Mr. Li said, shaking his head. “I did go to Sir Jacob’s house after I gave you my gift that night, I admit it, but Sir Jacob was already dead. I meant to speak to him, to explain to him what taking the tea would do to my family, the villagers. Or perhaps I wanted to wrest the whereabouts of the tea from him—I am not certain now. I took you the box as an excuse to be in that area in case anyone saw me. I am sorry. I found the kitchen door unlocked and slipped inside and upstairs, but Sir Jacob was dead, as I say. I fled.”
“Bloody hell,” Cynthia broke in. “So Chancellor really did see you in the street.”
“They will not catch him,” Mr. Li said, watching the constables’ lanterns flit to and fro. “Your friend Mr. Thanos is in great danger.”
“He is, damn him,” Cynthia said. “Thanos!” she shouted. “Run this way!”
Mr. Li watched for a moment then turned and faded into the darkness.
The front doors crashed open. Men ran inside, lanterns swinging, Daniel, grim faced, leading them. Behind him came more constables and Inspector McGregor, along with James and Tess, both of whom it seemed had refused to remain sensibly at home.
The men spread out, searching. They shone lights in all corners, but nowhere did I see Mr. Thanos or Mr. Sutherland. They could easily have slipped out the far door while the constables were banging their way in the front.
I imagined Sutherland plunging the knife into Mr. Thanos before he flung the body aside, much as he’d done with Zhen and Sir Jacob, and fear squeezed me.
I heard a faint step overhead and jerked my head up. “There!” I cried, pointing.
Mr. Sutherland was racing along the top gallery, pulling Mr. Thanos with him. Mr. Thanos fought and twisted but was unable to break the man’s hold.
Daniel charged up the spiral staircase, McGregor and a few constables after him.
“Stop!” Sutherland roared. In the glimmer of the rising moon, I saw his knife at Mr. Thanos’s neck. “Back away, or I slice his throat.”
Mr. Thanos continued to struggle, but Sutherland’s raw, long-armed strength defeated him.
Daniel halted, breathing hard. “If you hurt him,” he said evenly, “I won’t be able to stop myself from killing you.”
“Threats of murder in front of the police?” Mr. Sutherland shoved Mr. Thanos gut-first into the rail. “Leave now, or his dead body goes over.”
“Rot it,” Thanos said, voice hoarse. “I admired you, you cretin. I suppose overweening ambition corrupts the soul.”
“I’m not after plaudits, my old friend. I’m after the money. That tea is worth more by weight than gold. I’m going to go find it, and you are coming with me, Thanos, to protect me.”
He wrenched Mr. Thanos from the railing and dragged him along the gallery. Constables fanned to the far side of the greenhouse to intercept him when he came down, but Sutherland, as Cynthia said, was quick. He’d reach the other set of stairs before they did.
I saw a flurry of robes behind Sutherland, and then Sutherland staggered under a blow to his back. Mr. Li, likely ashamed of his earlier flight from danger, had crept behind Sutherland and struck him with his fists.
Not hard enough, unfortunately. Sutherland stumbled and went down o
n one knee, but he was up again with amazing rapidity, his knife now slashing at Mr. Li.
Mr. Thanos tried to tackle Sutherland as Daniel raced toward them. Sutherland abandoned Mr. Li for the more formidable threats of Mr. Thanos and Daniel—Mr. Li sagged to the floor of the narrow gallery and was still.
Sutherland fought off Thanos, his knife flashing. Cynthia ran for the staircase—I couldn’t stop her.
Mr. Thanos gave a great cry, then cursed, and then toppled over the wrought iron railing. I watched as he tumbled down in a flurry of limbs, heard the crash of brush as he landed in the dark.
“Elgin!” Cynthia shouted. She hurtled back down the spiral staircase, and rushed toward the place he’d fallen, slashing priceless plants out of her way in her haste.
A groan sounded. Cynthia fell to her knees in mud and water, gathering Mr. Thanos to her where he lay in a tangle.
I reached them, my breath coming too fast. “Lie still,” I gasped at Mr. Thanos as he tried to sit up. “Cynthia, we should check him for broken bones.”
Cynthia, not noticing I’d put no honorific before her name, competently ran her hands over Mr. Thanos’s shoulders, arms, wrists, ribs. Thanos lay quietly, his dark eyes clouded with pain.
“It’s a doctor for you, man,” Cynthia said. “You feel whole, but who knows what you broke open inside.”
“Hell.” Mr. Thanos let his head loll against Cynthia’s shoulder, unembarrassed for now. “First, I am poisoned with arsenic, then I fall thirty feet and land in a great lot of bushes. McAdam has much to answer for.”
“Hush,” I said gently. “You are a hero, Mr. Thanos.”
“For falling over? Jove, I’ve been a hero all my life then.”
“Stop talking, dear idiot.” Cynthia pressed her cheek to his dark hair.
She said nothing more, and Mr. Thanos closed his eyes, something like peace settling over him.
22
I left Mr. Thanos in Cynthia’s care and climbed the large staircase to assist Mr. Li.
The constables had surrounded and trounced Mr. Sutherland. He continued to struggle but was dragged down the gallery by several robust young policemen, followed by a hard-faced Inspector McGregor.
I stepped well aside so the constables could take their captive down the stairs. McGregor stiffened when he spied me then let out a resigned sigh and descended after them.
Daniel had an arm around Mr. Li and was helping him to his feet. I lifted a lantern one of the constables had left behind and went to them.
“Very brave of you,” I told Mr. Li. “But foolish. How did you get up here so quickly?” I eyed Mr. Li’s slight frame and shaking limbs doubtfully.
He gave me a tremulous smile. “There was a ladder against one of the trees, very near the railings, and I was quite a climber as a lad. Not as much now.”
“I saw you knock him over,” I said. “Do not tell me that was not an athletic endeavor.”
“More luck than any skill,” Mr. Li said modestly. “Mr. Thanos already had him nicely off balance. Is Mr. Thanos all right? That young man saved my life.”
“I hope so.” I clutched the lantern’s handle more tightly. “He’s with Lady Cynthia, who will take him to a physician. A good one.”
“Which I will pay for,” Daniel said. “Thanos will have the best—as usual.”
I flashed the light upon him. “He is a bit put out with you.”
“I am a bit put out with me. I was too slow, Kat, and not paying attention.” Daniel’s expression darkened, and I took pity on him and moved the light away.
We started down the stairs, taking Mr. Li slowly around each turn. A spiral staircase might look graceful and airy, but it can be an unwieldy thing to get up and down.
At the bottom, we sat Mr. Li on the nearest bench, and I sank wearily next to him.
Daniel gazed down at me, the lantern at our feet playing shadows over his face. “As always, Kat, you are where the danger is, and I nearly didn’t reach you in time—again. Please busy yourself with pastry and cease putting yourself in peril.”
“There are few places more dangerous than a kitchen,” I argued. “Sharp knives, fire, burning fat . . . I won’t be safe in there, my friend.”
“A bookshop, then,” Daniel said. “Become a seller of books and do nothing more dangerous than brew tea.”
“Books are weighty things,” Mr. Li said, his dark eyes twinkling. “They can crush one. I know this from experience.”
Daniel gave an impatient growl and turned away to seek Mr. Thanos. Tess and James had joined Cynthia in ministering to him, and their voices filled the hall.
McGregor and Sutherland were already gone. Sutherland had not acknowledged me as the constables had hustled him past me, and I’d heard him snarling invective at McGregor, threatening lawsuits and worse, as they’d dragged him away.
“Dear lady.” Mr. Li’s soothing voice brought my attention back to him. “Danger draws you, like a light draws a moth. Your friend Mr. McAdam is right to worry about you.”
“Goodness, I worry far more about him,” I said. “He chases bad men right and left, and expects me to stay behind and feed him scones upon his return.”
“It is the way of the world, Mrs. Holloway.”
“It is a silly way,” I said decidedly. “But you must tell me everything. Where have you been hiding? I feared your demise. How did Mr. Sutherland know you would be here?”
Mr. Li shook his head. “He did not follow me—he brought me. I have been a captive in his house these last days.”
I stared at him in shock. “But how could you have been? Mr. Thanos and Cynthia escorted Mr. Sutherland home from a lecture. They would have seen you, surely.”
Mr. Li lifted his thin hands, which were still shaky. “I was locked in a room high in the house and they did not come there. I was foolish, dear lady. I sought refuge with Mr. Sutherland, believing I would be safe with him. I do not trust your police, and I worried the murderer would find me. Mr. Sutherland welcomed me, but within an hour of conversing with him, it became clear that he had killed Sir Jacob, because he wanted my tea. I do not know how he found out about the tea, but when I worked for him, he came to my lodgings—perhaps he found the letter from my father among my things. Mr. Sutherland is well literate in Chinese characters, of course. When I tried to flee Mr. Sutherland’s house, he imprisoned me, badgered me to tell him where the tea was, and even began to torture me. Yesterday, Mr. Thanos paid an unexpected call, to make sure all was well, and found Mr. Sutherland beating me in his back bedroom. And so Mr. Thanos was imprisoned too.”
I listened in dismay, imagining Mr. Thanos’s bewilderment, surprise coupled with Mr. Sutherland’s strength allowing Mr. Thanos to be locked away.
The lantern’s flicker brushed Mr. Li’s face, shadowing lines of so much weariness that I put a hand on his thin shoulder. “You have nothing more to fear. I will take you home and get some nourishment into you, and then you will rest.”
Mr. Li shook his head, his look one of shame. “I have failed my father. I have searched high and low—and Mr. Sutherland made me search this place when we arrived—but I have not found the tea.”
“That’s quite all right too,” I said, with a lightness I hadn’t felt in days. “I know where the tea is. At least, I believe I do. I will return it to you, and as the saying goes—all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”
* * *
• • •
I wanted to see to Mr. Thanos before we went home. Cynthia had become brusque and commanding, and she had the Kew constables running for a hired carriage. Not a hansom, but a landau with wide seats, plenty of room, and shelter from the weather.
Daniel and James half carried, half supported Mr. Thanos out of the Temperate House, and I followed, the cold wind cutting after the stillness of the greenhouse. Cynthia and Daniel bundl
ed Mr. Thanos into the landau, while I watched, feeling ineffective.
“I’ve got him,” Cynthia told me from where she sat beside him. “You go on, Mrs. H. Help Mr. Li. And don’t let Sutherland use his position to weasel his way out of things.”
Daniel gave the driver directions, but waved them on, remaining with me. “Not leaving your side until you’re home,” he told me with a scowl.
“Very well,” I said meekly.
Daniel gazed at me in sudden suspicion. “What are you up to, Kat?”
“Not a thing. I believe we should return to Mount Street. And take Mr. Li with us.”
“The police will need to speak to him.”
“I don’t doubt. They can do so later. This is important.”
Daniel gave up. He hired another carriage for us, again a rather luxurious landau, and soon Daniel, Mr. Li, Tess, James, and I rolled through the dark roads toward Mayfair. Anyone peering into the coach would be astonished to see a man-of-all-work in dusty clothes, a cook in a soil-splotched frock, an errand boy, a kitchen maid, and a Chinaman.
Tess made the most of it. “Ooh, ain’t I the Queen of England.” She made a motion of pouring out into an imaginary teacup. “More tea, Madame?” she asked me in an exaggerated upper-class drawl.
James laughed out loud. Daniel smiled tolerantly, his hand twined through mine. Mr. Li must not have known what to make of us, but he looked on with polite amusement.
When we alighted at Mount Street, Tess started for the scullery stairs to our kitchen, but I grasped Mr. Li’s arm. “Come with me. Please,” I added, not wanting to sound sharp.
Tess hurried back to us, not wanting to miss anything. I led the way to the house next door and down the steps, where I knocked on the kitchen door. A curious scullery maid opened it, and Mrs. Finnegan craned from her stove to see us. Mrs. Redfern came out of the servants’ hall, keys clinking, eyes widening in surprise when she beheld our party.
“Mrs. Redfern, will you allow us upstairs?” I asked her. “It is very important, but I do not wish to disturb your mistress. How does she fare?”
Death in Kew Gardens Page 23
