Lord Scoundrel Dies Read Online Free PDF Page B

The house was silent, not a
footstep to disturb his equanimity. If some butler or footman did
tumble to him, why he’d just bluff his way through. Tell them that
he was expected and where the devil was Sutton, that kind of thing.
They’d probably apologize for their master’s absence and he could
slope off without any damage being done.
    So it was that as he walked through the door
into what looked like a library, he was fully expecting to find it
unoccupied. Which wasn’t entirely true for it appeared that Lord
Sutton was in residence, after all.
    Three steps into the room, Charlie stopped
and tried to take in what his eyes were telling him. Before him,
sprawled awkwardly on the rug lay Arthur Sutton. He was lying on
his back, eyes open to stare sightlessly at the ceiling. One arm
was bent beneath him, as if he had fallen on it.
    That must
hurt , Charlie thought automatically,
then , actually I doubt he feels a
thing…
    For it was clear that his lordship was
beyond feeling. The staring eyes and slack mouth were entirely
explicable when one took in the pool of blood beneath the fellow’s
head. It had soaked into the Aubusson rug, creating a dark, ugly
patch on the woven pattern of flowers. Not far distant was a heavy
candlestick that appeared to be sticky with a substance he
preferred not to dwell on at the moment but which had clearly been
used to smash his lordship’s noggin. A rather macabre touch had
been added by the single red rose that lay beside the man’s
head.
    Charlie opened, then closed, his mouth. This
was an unexpected turn up for the books and he wasn’t at all sure
how to approach the matter. Clearly, Lord Sutton had been making
friends everywhere, so much so that some person had caved the
beggar’s head in. He glanced around him quickly but the room was
devoid of anything but the body on the floor.
    An audible gasp behind him brought his heart
into his mouth and Charlie spun around quickly. A face, looking at
him through the doorway. A servant! Clearly, the sight of Charlie
contemplating the corpse of Arthur Sutton had scared the stuffing
out of them but Charlie had no desire to have some plodding member
of the Watch brought in, not when he was just an innocent
bystander. An innocent bystander who was intending to rob the
place…
    He scooted forward in pursuit. ‘Hold on
there!’
    The lad, in his haste to reach the front
door, had tripped on the edge of the hall runner and collided with
a walnut bureau. Charlie snagged his collar before he could regain
his equilibrium and yanked him back into the room. ‘Just you wait
one minute if you please.’
    ‘Let me go!’ a voice, breathless and edged
with alarm replied.
    ‘Not likely. I don’t want all the world in
here.’ Charlie shut the door and leaned against it before freeing
his captive. The boy lurched a little on his feet, staggered
forward and then sideways, cringing away from the body on the
floor.
    ‘You killed him.’
    ‘Now that is where you’re wrong,’ Charlie
corrected the new arrival. ‘Somebody killed him, I will admit. It
just didn’t happen to be me.’
    ‘But you were in here. Standing over the
body!’
    ‘Coincidence. I just happened across the
fellow. Arrived not three minutes ago myself.’
    The boy paused. ‘You found him here?’
    ‘And then you found me here,’ Charlie agreed,
slightly relieved that his explanation didn’t require further
elaboration.
    ‘But who killed him?’
    Who killed him? Charlie shrugged. ‘I have no
idea.’ More to the point, he didn’t care. At least, not
particularly. Sutton was neither a friend nor a relative and was a
bounder to boot and, as such, his loss was of no great
significance. It was awkward, of course that he happened to be in
the house with a murdered man but as he wasn’t the murderer, he was
inclined to think the best thing was simply to go about his
business.
    ‘Well if you didn’t kill him… are
you sure you didn’t kill him?’
    ‘I think I’d remember