“Of course you did,” Jonny said with a tight smile. “Let’s go, then.”
The other officer extended his handcuffs, and Jonny stared him down before turning to Finch.
“Those aren’t necessary, are they?” he said, lifting a brow. “I’ll be no trouble.”
Finch paused a moment before he nodded. “Put them away, Knightly,” he instructed the other officer, who looked conflicted but did as he was told.
Jonny walked out of the shipping office with the police officers on either side of him as though they were walking him down the aisle of his wedding.
He inwardly cursed. All he had worked toward, everything he had done to build a respectable life, to leave the stain of his past behind, was being erased with one walk to the police wagon.
As they rode to the station, he tried to think of how he could possibly explain his way out of this. Of course, Sharpe and Will had set him up. But how could he prove it? Finch knew his history, and he’d always be a suspect.
In the station Jonny had come to know so well from when he had prepared to rob it, Finch led him into a small room, bare but for a table with a chair on each side.
Finch let him wait a few minutes, likely to make him sweat, until he finally entered, sittingheavily in the wooden seat across from Jonny, concern — or suspicion — etched into the lines of his weathered face.
Jonny’s jaw clenched as Finch sat there, staring him down, the injustice eating away at him. All he had done to overcome his past, and none of it mattered anymore.
The flimsy wooden chair creaked beneath Jonny’s weight as he shifted. At least he didn’t have manacles biting into his wrists. Still, he was fighting every urge to push out of the chair and flee from this room, this station. He hadn't felt this trapped or powerless, since his days working the docks under Blackwood's fist.
"You were seen leaving the card room shortly before Lady Harcourt discovered her jewels missing," Finch finally said, his tone deceptively mild. "Care to explain yourself?"
Jonny met the inspector's gaze steadily. "I had to meet someone. You can ask my friends. They will tell you that I was watching the time.”
“That’s good,” Finch said, actually looking relieved. “Tell us who it is, and we can verify where you were.”
“I cannot tell you,” Jonny said calmly, staring at Finch.
“Just why not?”
“I was with a woman. I can’t share her name. If word got out, it would destroy much of her life.”
“I see,” Finch said, glancing down at his notes. “Wouldn’t be Miss Jones, would it?”
“I never said that,” Jonny countered, his gaze hardening.
“No, you didn’t, but it seems fairly convenient to me, considering the eight of you banded together against Blackwood last year.”
“You will not question Miss Jones because of me,” Jonny said firmly, his nostrils flaring, hot anger burning in his chest.
Ada had become one thing in his life that actually meant something, even if he would never admit it to anyone, most especially her.
And now Finch, because of Sharpe and Will, was ruining that for him, twisting it into something wicked.
“I believe I can question who I want, Mr. Tate,” Finch said mildly.
“I am telling you the truth," Jonny ground out. "I had nothing to do with this robbery."
"Then how do you explain this?" Finch reached into a folder and withdrew a monogrammed handkerchief – the initials J.T. embroidered on the corner. His mother had given it to him. "Found in Lady Harcourt's bedchamber. Yours, is it not?"
Jonny stared at the damning scrap of fabric. Itwashis, but it was old, hardly ever used. He did, however, have an idea how it ended up there. He had predicted this. He was being set up.
Will's face with his knowing smirk flashed through his thoughts. He would never have thought that Will would stoop so low, especially against him. How far they had fallen from who they had been as boys.
"I'm being set up," Jonny said tightly. "I've made enemies trying to leave my old life behind." He shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not sure what else to tell you.”
Finch leaned back, eyebrows raised. "Those are bold accusations, Mr. Tate. I hope you have more than conjecture to back them up."
