“It’ll cost you.”
“I’m well aware that you do nothing unless there’s a reward.”
He smiled around the cigarette before removing the short stub with his thumb and forefinger. “I can’t afford principles.” He blew out smoke, not bothering to direct it away from me. “So what task do you have for me?”
“Lord Wrexham keeps an appointment diary in his office. I caught a glimpse of it today. I want you to look through it and see where he was on the afternoon of Monday the fifteenth.”
He contemplated his cigarette before drawing on it again. “I don’t go into his office. The maids clean it, and Wrexham sends the butler if he wants something fetched from there.”
I gathered up my purse and rose. “Then I’ll ask one of the maids.”
His hand shot out and grabbed my forearm. “Sit.”
I sat.
He let me go. “I can do it, but it’ll cost you more than last time.”
I plucked a sovereign coin out of my purse and slid it across the table. “I’ll give you the same. If you don’t like my terms, I’ll ask a maid. I believe they get paid less than you and do more work, so I’m sure I’ll find a willing spy. Probably a friendlier one, too.”
“You don’t want someone friendly. You want someone devious.” He pocketed the coin which I took to mean he accepted my terms.
“Report back to me here at the same time tomorrow.” I rose. “I expect a good return on my investment.” I strode out of the pub, feeling much better about this encounter with Mr. Adams than the last one.
The following morning,Harmony arrived to do my hair. She was not alone; Danny accompanied her.
He hovered at the entrance to my bedroom, looking uncertain as to whether to proceed. It was understandable, considering I wore my dressing gown with my hair tumbling past my shoulders.
Harmony had no such qualms. She grabbed his arm and pulled him into the bedroom. “Danny’s got something to tell you.”
Danny studied the dressing table as if he’d never seen anything so interesting. “My friend, Perry Alcott from the Playhouse, wanted me to tell you he found something that might interest you.”
“Oh? What is it?”
He cleared his throat and his gaze quickly met mine before he looked away again. “He was cleaning out Miss Westwood’s dressing room at the theater and found a letter which he thinks proves she was with someone else.”
“Someone other than Rumford? Now that is interesting. Thank you, Danny. Do you know if Mr. Alcott is at the theater thismorning?”
“He’ll get there late morning, I expect. Do you want me to send a message letting him know you’ll meet him there?”
“Yes, please. Make it eleven.”
I managed to fill in my time with Flossy until it was time to leave for the meeting. She wanted to know where I was going and if she could come. She changed her mind when I said I was off to the Natural History Museum.
The main entrance doors to the Piccadilly Playhouse were locked, but a side door opened at precisely eleven and the debonair Mr. Alcott beckoned me.
“What a pleasure to see you again, Miss Fox. If only it were for happier reasons.”
“Danny tells me you found a letter.”
“I did. It could be a clue.” He spoke in hushed tones even though we were alone as we crossed the foyer.
Some of the memorabilia from Pearl’s memorial service remained, although most had been removed. The posters advertisingCat and Mousestill showed her face although a strip bearing Dorothea Clare’s name had been stuck over Pearl’s. I asked Mr. Alcott about it.
“Dotty hates that Pearl still features on them,” he said in a low voice. “She’s been on and on about it to Culpepper but he’s refusing to have new posters made.”
We passed through a door labeled STAFF ONLY and entered a long corridor. There was no one about, although I could hear hammering in the distance. We walked quickly past closed doors, some labeled, others not, our footsteps muffled by the carpet. Finally we reached a door with a piece of paper stuck to it. “Miss Clare” it read in neat handwriting. Mr. Alcott lifted the paper to show me Pearl’s name painted on the door underneath.
“Another thing Dotty hates,” he said.
