Benedict took the stairs two at a time. There was only one room that looked as if it had been recently occupied. The furniture in the others was covered with heavy dust cloths. Norcott lived alone.
He saw the letter on the bedside table as soon as he turned up a lamp. He read it quickly and then went swiftly back down the stairs. When he walked into the study, Logan was in the process of closing a drawer.
“You found something?” Logan asked.
“The killer wasn’t in Scotland.” Benedict held out the letter. “He was a patient at a hospital called Cresswell Manor. Two days ago he was taken away by his mother.”
“Let me see that.” Logan snapped the letter out of Benedict’s hand and read it quickly. “Cresswell Manor is an asylum. It is common for respectable and upper-class families to send their mentally ill relatives to such institutions under false names in order to protect the privacy of the patient.”
“To say nothing of the family’s privacy,” Benedict said. “The patient’s relatives will do whatever they can to bury such a secret.”
“And they will pay any price to guarantee silence.” Logan held up a ledger. “According to these financial records, Dr. Norcott received a very nice commission for referring the patient known as V. Smith to Cresswell Manor.”
“If the referral commission was that large, one can only imagine the size of the fees that were paid directly to the proprietor of the Manor.”
“Bloody hell,” Logan said softly. “I very much doubt that Virgil Warwick willingly checked himself into an asylum. Someone else in the family was no doubt responsible for paying the fees.”
“We need to track down Virgil Warwick’s parents,” Benedict said.
“That shouldn’t be too difficult now that we’ve got a name.” Logan looked around. “I think we have done all we can here. I’ll call a constable and arrange to have the body removed.”
Benedict went back into the hall. He glanced once more at the body and the trunk.
“Interesting,” he said.
“What?” Logan asked.
“I wonder what happened to the doctor’s satchel. I can’t see a man of medicine leaving it behind, even if he was trying to flee from a killer. Medical instruments and medicines are a doctor’s tools, his stock-in-trade, the means by which he makes his living. They are valuable.”
“We’ve established that Norcott was in a hurry, probably fleeing for his life.”
“Yes, but if he hoped to practice medicine after leaving London, he would have taken the instruments of his profession with him,” Benedict said. “I think the killer stole the doctor’s medical supplies.”
Logan eyed the bloodstained scalpel. “Which would include sharp blades like that one.”
“And chloroform,” Benedict said. “Warwick is preparing to take his next victim.”
Twenty-nine
It was not hard to create a list of Virgil Warwick’s close relatives,” Penny said. “I checked with Mrs. Houston to confirm my own recollections. She went to see a friend of hers who once worked for the family. Warwick’s father died a few years ago. Virgil has no brothers or sisters. There are, I believe, some distant cousins, but they moved to Canada. As far as we could determine, he has only one close relation here in town. His mother.”
“Warwick is the sole heir to a sizable inheritance,” Amity said. “Which explains the trappings of luxury that I noted when I was kidnapped.”
The four of them were in the study. She and Penny had been closeted there, scouring the guest list one more time in a search for answers, when Benedict and Logan had returned with the news of Dr. Warwick’s murder. One look at their grim, determined faces had been enough to tell her that the discovery had deepened their concerns. But the steel in their eyes made it clear that they were closing in on the answers.
Benedict pulled a letter out of his pocket. “According to this, Warwick was referred to Cresswell Manor—which appears to be a private asylum—for unspecified treatment a little more than three weeks ago. Warwick’s records indicate that it was the second time Warwick had been admitted to the Manor.”
“Let me hazard a guess,” Amity said. “The first time was approximately a year ago.”
“Yes,” Logan said. “Immediately after the body of the first dead bride was discovered. It appears he was sent back after the attack on you, and now he has been released again.”
Penny frowned. “Why would his mother take him out of the asylum again?”
“In her heart she probably knows or at least suspects that he is capable of terrible things, but she continues to hope that he can be cured by modern medical knowledge,” Amity said.
“She certainly didn’t allow much time for him to receive therapy on this last occasion,” Penny said.
“Perhaps she has been convinced that he is not guilty of murder, after all,” Amity said. “I’m sure he told her that I attacked him, not vice versa.”
