“Vulnerable,” he suggested. “She is vulnerable beneath that façade of confidence and strength. Perhaps I…I did not honor that.”
“Do I need to intervene?” Stalwood said softly. “Remove you from her care?”
Lucas’s stomach tensed at the very idea that he would be separated from her at this juncture. He pushed back at the feeling. That was silly. He was confused by her behavior and that turned everything upside down. He only wanted to be well and she was helping with that. There was no other reason not to want to walk away.
“I think she could still do me good,” he said. “Ten days with her and I am already feeling closer to whole again.”
Stalwood leaned back in his chair. “Just have a care.”
Lucas ignored the warning and handed over his superior’s tea before he took a place in a chair across from him. “I’ve been looking over the case files.”
Not as much as he wanted to, of course. Diana had been a distraction, but he’d taken the time where he could find it. The thrill of the hunt had returned immediately.
Stalwood leaned forward, his eyes lit up with interest. “And?”
“I have some questions and some observations,” he said. “First, did…did George Oakford ever get assigned cases?”
Stalwood blinked and the confusion on his face answered the question even before he stammered, “Oakford? He was a surgeon—why in the world would I put him on a case?”
Lucas drew a sharp breath. “So I thought.”
“Why would you ask about that?”
“Diana said something about her father having a visitor. She believed the man to be a spy and she thought they were working on a case together.” He said no more about her confession. That was a line he would not cross.
“No,” Stalwood said. “Ineverassigned him a case. Of course, he put himself in the middle of your mission six months ago, so I cannot say for certain that he hadn’t done the same in the past. But he never confessed as much to me. Could she have been mistaken?”
“I suppose so. After all, it was an impression she had, not something her father actually said to her. Still, it stood out to me. Made me wonder…” He trailed off. He had a nagging feeling in his chest. Something that felt incomplete.
“I can look further into it,” Stalwood suggested. “Check my records. When did she say this occurred?”
“Two years ago,” he said. “I don’t know more specifics and the story was not relayed to me in a fashion that would allow me to press her.”
Stalwood’s gaze narrowed. “Very well. I trust your instincts on that. I’ll investigate further. What else?”
“The more I look at the case file, the more I think that not only was the man on the estate that day our traitor, but that he might not have worked alone.”
Stalwood jerked. “You think I might have more than one bastard in my ranks?”
Lucas nodded. “Perhaps. Though this man’s partner may have been of lesser rank. When he killed Oakford and injured me, probably believing I would also die, it spooked him. That is why it has taken so long for him to return to his wicked ways. But now that he is…”
He stopped himself. He’d been pondering something in the past few days. Now Diana’s change of attitude made him think even more about it.
“What?”
“I’ve been hidden for months, protected so that I could not be found by this person, yes?” he asked.
Stalwood nodded. “I felt you might be in danger. You still likely would be.”
“I agree. But that could be just the way for this man to be drawn out.” Lucas stood and paced the room slowly. “Think of it, Stalwood. Returning to the field in the shape I’m in would be out of the question—I know that, even if I hate to admit it. But there is nothing that says I could not return to some kind of public life.”
“As bait?” Stalwood asked.
Lucas faced him, unable to keep the excitement from his voice. “Bait is one way to put it. Torment is another. Think of this man, feeling he’s in the clear, uncertain what the one potential witness to his crimes is capable of doing. Then I return. He might not be able to resist me.”
Stalwood pressed his lips together. “It’s not a bad idea, really.”
“You sound surprised,” Lucas said with a chuckle. “My good ideas are exactly why you brought me the case files in the first place.”
