A Beautiful Blue Death Read Online Free PDF

cheaply at forty pounds.”
    James looked up at the mention of the sum. “What’s forty pounds?”
    “It’s no matter,” Lenox said. “Thank you, Thomas.”
    It was clear, when he looked up, that James had started crying during this interchange. He had tried to keep his head down but failed.
    “You loved Miss Smith, James?” Lenox asked.
    “Of course I—”
    “I did not intend to question it. I’m sorry to have been indelicate.”
    James looked at him and began to cry again.
    “Keep it together, man. Here, have another sip of gin,” Lenox said, and James did as he was told. Lenox sighed. “We can always speak again later.”
    He placed a hand on James’s shoulder and turned to go upstairs. Thomas approached the table and put two crowns in the young man’s hand.
    “Take a friend to the pub,” he said. “A doctor’s opinion.” He smiled, picked up his flask, and followed Lenox upstairs.
    “Forty pounds?” Lenox asked as they climbed the stairs.
    “If not more.”
    “It would be clever of a servant to use every halfpenny he could find to buy it, I suppose, but you’re probably right.”
    “I probably am.” Thomas took the last sip of gin in the flask. “Will you drop me a note when anything happens?”
    “Of course,” Lenox said. “Come to dinner this week, and we’ll talk it over.”
    “Just as you say.”
    They had reached the top of the stairwell, and the doctor stepped outdoors. He had forgotten his coat and came back in to retrieve it from the housekeeper. “Good luck!” he said, and went to the curb to find a cab.
    Jenkins and Lenox stood in the hallway. It was a vast corridor, with the myth of Bacchus painted around its walls, and a silver punch bowl on the center table that Barnard used only at parties, insisting it had belonged to Henry V.
    “Are you taking this case, sir?” said Jenkins.
    “I think I shall. For an old friend.”
    “I hope we can work together, then. The Yard must be involved.”
    “It must, I suppose.”
    “Yes.”
    “But all the same, it is fortunate for the dead that you did not leave here with Barnard’s verdict. I have no desire to reprimand—”
    “Of course, of course, you’re right,” Jenkins said hastily. “But I shan’t miss another trick, you may count on that.”
    Lenox smiled. “Then we’ll have it out yet.”
    He was lucky to have had Jenkins on the job this evening. High-ranking but young; one of the few people from the Yard who had anything approaching a good opinion of him. No doubt it would all change tomorrow.
    Barnard strolled into the front hall.
    “George,” said Lenox.
    “Have you reached a conclusion?”
    “Not quite yet. Shall we have a talk tomorrow morning?”
    “Lenox, I’m a busy man, you know—”
    “It is entirely necessary.”
    Barnard sighed in a martyred way. “Very well,” he said. “Shall we have breakfast here at eight o’clock?” He looked as if Lenox were asking him to chat with Daniel while the lions built up an appetite.
    “At eight,” Lenox said. “And before I leave, may I have a word with your housekeeper?”
    Lenox could see that Barnard was being pushed to the end of his tether, but Barnard walked over to the bell rope and pulled it. In less than a minute, a fat woman with an austere face and short gray hair, wearing a brown dress, came into the hallway.
    “Mr. Barnard?” she said.
    “This is Charles Lenox, and this is a man from the police. Answer their questions.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “I’m going to my club for supper. I’m tired of this. Girl committed suicide.”
    “Good night, sir.”
    “Good night, George,” Lenox said; Barnard walked out. “May I ask your name, ma’am?”
    “Miss Harrison, sir.”
    “Very good. Miss Harrison, can you tell me who the current occupants of the house are?”
    “Mr. Barnard, myself, two footmen, two upper maids, one of whom was Prudence Smith, two lower maids, a cook, a chauffeur, and a boy. In addition, Mr. Barnard has five guests this