“We can’t continue our meeting with him in the room,” the oldest sister, Muireall, said.
Muireall rose to leave, indicating their meeting had ended. The younger brother, Payden, jumped to his feet, and Alexander could see the housekeeper hurrying away when Mrs. Murdoch called for tea and coffee.
“I think you should all wait and hear what I have to say,” Alexander said and took a hard look at James.
“You have nothing to say to us, Mr. Pendergast,” Muireall said.
“Actually, I do, and it concerns the men who followed Miss Thompson.”
Muireall Thompson reseated herself, and Payden dropped down on the arm of his sister’s chair.
“You know them?” James asked.
“Not personally, but I know of them.”
“Start talking, Pendergast.”
He took a deep breath and risked a glance at Elspeth. She was looking worried and unsure, and he had nothing to say to console her—in fact, everything he would say next would do the opposite of consoling her. He would disgust her. “Promise me when we are done here, you will allow me to talk to you and explain things that I worry will not be clear in this telling,” he whispered.
She nodded slowly.
Alexander looked at the Thompson family and plunged into to the story.
“Not long after Miss Thompson and I met the first time, Mr. Schmitt, the city councilman I work for, called me into his office after he’d had a meeting with three men. He asked me to check on a person, on Miss Thompson her siblings.”
“What did you say, boy?” Mrs. Murdoch asked over the gasps from the women in the room.
“I said no, that I would not do it, especially as he would not tell me why. Schmitt,” Alexander said and took a deep breath, “Schmitt also pressured me with a family secret I was unaware of that he threatened to reveal.”
“What secret?” Muireall asked.
“It is not mine to tell,” he said.
“You could be lying. You could be making this all up to insinuate yourself into our family,” Muireall said in a stern, cold voice.
“He is not lying,” Elspeth said at his side. “He told me the day he was told. He was upset, and rightfully so. It was not the thing anyone would want gossiped about. You may think he is lying, but I am sure he is not. And—” Elspeth stopped Muireall from speaking with an outstretched hand. “I believe he was telling me the truth at the time and now as well.”
“When the subject was brought up again by Mr. Schmitt, he threatened to reveal my family’s secret, but I refused.”
“And Schmitt accepted that?” James asked.
“I hinted at what I knew about his son’s dissolute habits and that the woman his son was courting was a close friend of the Pendergasts.”
“You threatened him back,” James said.
“I did.”
“Good,” James said.
“Did he ever say what he wanted to know?” Kirsty asked.
“Yes. He told me in the second meeting that he wanted to know what year your family emigrated from Scotland and if your name was always Thompson.”
Muireall surged to her feet, eyes wild, hands over her mouth. “Get out!” she said and pointed to the door. “Out!”
“Muireall!” both sisters said quickly. But Alexander noticed that James was saying nothing. Just staring at Mrs. Murdoch, a grim look on their faces.
“There is more to this story that all of you should hear,” Alexander said and watched Mrs. Murdoch pull Muireall down onto the seat beside her. Both women were white-faced. “Of course you know that we were followed on the night of the boxing match. I believe the men who followed us into that alley are the same men who met with Mr. Schmitt and visited him again just a week ago. I was not in his office with him for either visit, but I did overhear some of the second. Mostly, I heard Schmitt’s body slam into the wall. When I did speak to him about it, he was desperate for information—and scared, which is unusual for Schmitt.”
“Knocked him around, did they?” James asked.
Alexander nodded. “He begged me to find anything I could about your family through Miss Thompson. I told him I would.”
“I told you all,” Muireall said. “I told you not to trust him.”
Everyone in the room was staring at him, and he dared a glance at Elspeth. Tears pooled in her eyes, bewilderment as evident as the tremor in the hand covering her mouth. He shook his head.
“I never said anything. I just wanted to buy time to talk to you and see if there was a reason for all of it,” he said. “The only thing I ever told Schmitt was that your family came from Scotland, but that is not a secret, is it?”
Elspeth shook her head slowly, looking at him as if he’d stabbed her with a knife, betrayed and unsure of someone she’d wanted to trust.
Alexander looked at James. “I’ve told my father to add additional security around my mother and sister. I am concerned their safety could be used to compel me to do or say something. I would advise you to do the same.”
“What aren’t you telling us, Pendergast?” James asked.
“It does not bear repeating in front of ladies,” Alexander said. “We can speak of it later.”
“You will tell us right now, young man. We are not delicate flowers,” Mrs. Murdoch said. “And move your knee away from my niece’s skirts.”
Alexander shifted quickly from Elspeth. “If you’re sure, ma’am.”
“I’m sure. Now tell us the rest of what these criminals have done.”
He proceeded to tell them of the visit by the police.
“A woman died?” Muireall asked.
He nodded. “Yes, and Schmitt had . . . visited her on the night of her death.”
“Did she trip and fall or eat some bad fish?” Kirsty asked. “Surely it isn’t something diabolical.”
“She was strangled to death, and her body was mutilated,” Alexander said and looked directly at James. The brother stared back, grim-faced.
He heard the gasps from the females in the room and a muttered swear word from the younger brother. James continued to stare at him until Mrs. Murdoch cleared her throat.
“We’ve got to tell them, Muireall,” she said, tapping her cane on the floor.
“Tell us what?” Kirsty asked.
“No! No! It is not safe!” Muireall shouted.
James pushed away from the mantel. He dropped to one knee in front of his sister. “It is time. They’re adults, and they can’t protect themselves unless they understand everything.”
Chapter 12
Silent tears streamed down Muireall’s face, and she would not look at James or Elspeth, even though she sat directly across from her. Elspeth could tell Muireall was far, far away.
“It was the last thing I promised them,” she said finally. “Aunt was there. She will tell you. It was the last thing.”
“It was, Muireall,” Aunt Murdoch said quietly. “The very last thing after they told you that they loved you and all of your siblings . . . and James too.”
“James too?” Kirsty said.
“Tell them,” James said.
Muireall took a deep breath and looked at Alexander. He rose quickly and nodded.