“The opposite. He wants to retract his statement about hearing a cry on the morning of the second abduction. He is no longer sure what he heard. It could have been a bird.”
The detective heaved a sigh. “Tell him to come and see me. I want to hear it from him.”
Redmayne headed out of the building. Without a word exchanged between the three of us, we also followed. Finding Redmayne alone was a golden opportunity none of us wanted to waste.
Redmayne had other ideas. He increased his pace. His long strides took him well ahead of Miss Wheeler and me, but not Oscar who kept apace.
“Is Mr. Kinloch all right?” he began.
“Fine, thank you, sir.”
“Good, good. He must be unnerved by all this attention, as I’m sure all of the staff are.”
Miss Wheeler made a face. “I thought Mr. Barratt was a journalist.”
“He was,” I said, my tone defensive.
“Did he write about sports? Or perhaps he wrote the social page?”
I bristled. “He was a very good journalist and wrote on all manner of topics. He is simply being polite to numb the source into trusting him.”
“Numb him into boredom, you mean?” She forged ahead, closing the gap. “Mr. Redmayne, you were there when the two women were abducted.”
Oscar shot her a glare. She ignored him and focused on the butler.
“I was in the house, if that’s what you mean, Miss Wheeler.”
“Has there been a suspicious stranger in the street or mews lately?” she pressed.
“The abductor.”
Oscar tossed her a smug look.
She continued to ignore him. “Anyone you actually saw?”
“If I had seen someone, I would have reported it to the police.”
“Do you know if either of the women had an admirer?”
“I do not. If I did, I would have mentioned it to the detective. His questions were very thorough.”
We weren’t going to learn anything by asking the same questions as D.I. Smith. If Redmayne saw anything, he would have reported it. If he was hiding something, he would keep it from us, just as he had kept it from the police.
Instead, I tried a question I didn’t think the detective would have asked, because it focused on opinion rather than fact. “Why do you think a straw effigy was left at each scene?”
Redmayne’s pace slowed. A crease formed across his brow as he considered his answer. “To incriminate Mr. Kinloch, which it has done.”
“So you believe the abductor knew Kinloch was a descendant of the infamous witchfinder and decided to use that to distract everyone.”
“Precisely.”
“Do you think the women were taken because they’re magicians?”
Redmayne’s pace quickened again. “I don’t know.”
Miss Wheeler lifted her skirt with her free hand and hurried after him. “Or were they taken because they are female magicians?”
“I have no opinion on a motive,” Redmayne snapped. “Since I do not know who took them, I can’t possibly suggest a reason why. And before you ask, I do not believe it was Mr. Kinloch. Aside from the fact I know he was in bed at the time of Miss Juliette Buchanan’s abduction, he is a good man. An excellent man, in fact. He does not judge harshly or too quickly, he doesn’t listen to gossip, and never evaluates a person before meeting them.”
