He tossed three twenty-pound notes on her bed, then regardedthe dead men on her floor.
As such, he pulled out another two bills, both hundreds, andthrew those down too.
“Thank you for a memorable evening,” he said.
And then he walked away.
The Next Morning
“Loren, I simply cannot believe I have totell you again,you are not at liberty to kill people willy-nilly,”his father admonished.
“They’d stolen my wallet.”
“Yes, that happens at Avon Bordello.Everyone knows that,”Ansley Copeland returned.“As such, you have two choices.Don’t go to AvonBordello.Ordon’t go to Avon Bordello.”
“I sense, Father, that they will not be stealing anotherman’s wallet in order to extort a higher charge for their services as theydetain him and expose him to his wife, his children, his employers, hiscommanding officer, or simply detaining him from his life until he agrees topay for his own release.All of this on the weak excuse they provide to theconstabulary that he intended to partake of their services for free, when hehad no such intention at all.”
“It’s my understanding the constabulary was as aware aseveryone else about this situation and working to sort it,” Ansley retorted.
Briefly, Loren thought about what he knew the constableswould find in Winnow’s desk.
He then replied, “I’ve saved them that trouble.”
Ansley blew out a breath.
Loren was seated at the front of his father’s desk, huncheddown, legs stretched in front of him, booted ankles crossed, elbows to thearms, fingers steepled before him.
His father was behind the desk, scowling at his son.
“Winnow Dupont is furious,” Ansley noted.
“Winnow Dupont is an unscrupulous crook,” Loren saidquietly.“And sometime this morning, if she hasn’t been already, Winnow Dupontwill be detained by the authorities and asked to explain some of the activitiesshe gets up to in Avon.”
The regard his father was treating his son to changed.
“Did you…go there in order to…handle this?”Ansley asked.
Loren started studying his fingernails.
Ansley waited.
When the silence stretched, Loren broke it.
“The constabulary sometimes dawdles,” he murmured hisanswer.
Ansley’s voice was rising.“That’s because they must actwithin the letter of the law!”
Loren straightened in his chair and leveled his attention onhissire.
“Is it not the letter of the law that a man has the right todefend his own person?”
“Yes, however—”
“And is it not the letter of the law that a man has theright to defend his property, in this case, my purse?”
“Son—”
“They connived to steal from me, detain me, and I can assureyou, Father, that the men who confronted me at the door to the lovelycreature’s rooms were not there to politely ask me to sit down over a smoothwhisky with Winnow and sort these matters.They intended me harm.I defendedmyself.A possession of mine was stolen from me.I retrieved it.That is theend of the matter.I’ve already talked to the inspector.They’ve put a lineunder it.It’s done.”
