I held my breath as the door was pulled open, then let out a gasp.
It was none other than Mrs. Langham. “Hello there,” she said curiously before noticing my companion. “Oh. Oh dear.”
I turned to Mr. Dorian, but he was slack-jawed with surprise. Then he seemed to catch himself and shook his head in disbelief. “What are you doing here, Mira?” he demanded.
Mrs. Langham blinked in panic. “I—I—”
But before she could formulate an answer, someone inside the house called out to her. “Who is at the door, my love?”
Mrs. Langham flinched and glanced back. “Uh … it … it is your brother,” she replied in an uncertain voice.
An ominous silence followed until Mr. Dorian cleared his throat. “Well. Aren’t you going to let us in?” he asked in a dangerously polite tone.
Mrs. Langham’s cheeks turned pink, and she stepped back to let us inside. She didn’t meet either of our gazes as we entered. Detective Inspector Dorian was in the hall in his shirtsleeves, with his necktie draped around his shoulders. I noticed his hair was damp, and I guessed we had interrupted him in the middle of dressing for the day. But he didn’t look at me once. Instead, his eyes were firmly fixed on his older brother.
“Good morning,” he said evenly. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this unannounced visit?”
“Don’t be an ass, Miles,” Mr. Dorian growled. “You know we are here because of the murder.”
The inspector twisted his lips in a petulant frown and gestured to a small sitting room to our left. “Fine. But make it quick.”
Mr. Dorian immediately stalked into the room, while I followed a few steps behind. “You have a lovely home,” I said to the inspector.
“Thank you,” he murmured distractedly, his gaze never straying from his brother.
“I’ll make us some tea,” Mrs. Langham chimed and then hurried down the hall before anyone could reply.
Mr. Dorian stood by the mantel, while I sat on the sofa. The inspector also stood parallel to him, and I had the feeling this was a strange kind of competition between them. “Will you both sit, please?” I said, exasperatedly.
They each looked a little chastened, but said nothing.Mr. Dorian was the first to move and took the seat beside me, while the inspector occupied a chair. He then crossed his arms.
“I suppose you’ve come here to plead your sister’s innocence?”
“You know she couldn’t have done it,” I said, but the man merely shrugged.
“I will acknowledge that it is unlikely she possessed the strength needed to wield the murder weapon, but not impossible. And she has the clearest motive by far.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Pray tell, Inspector, what is that?”
Then he tilted his head. “She would hardly be the first person to react badly after learning her intended is already married.”
“Bad enough to suddenly muster the strength to bash his head in?” Mr. Dorian asked.
The inspector shot his brother a dark look, and I cleared my throat. “Before you decide to charge her, will you at least hear me out?” He inclined his head, and I continued. “It has come to my attention that Lord Linden has been lying to me about knowing my late husband. And I believe that he may be doing so for nefarious reasons.”
The inspector raised a skeptical brow. He looked so similar to his brother in that moment that I nearly laughed. “What kind of reasons?”
“I suspect it may be connected to the death of Charles Pearson, though admittedly I have not sorted through all the particulars yet. But I do know that they were well acquainted with one another, and both had an interest in the antiquities trade.”
“We’ve already spoken to his lordship, and he has an alibi for the evening of the murder,” he replied. “Over a dozen, in fact.”
“But for the exact time?” I pressed. “You don’t think it’spossible he could have slipped away, killed Charles, and then returned?”
The inspector let out a huff. “I suppose it’spossible, Mrs. Harper. But what reason would he have?”
I pressed my lips together. “Admittedly, I am not certain. But I believe something happened that night between him and Charles Pearson.” I had been thinking through all the seemingly disparate pieces of information I had learned over the last week, and the one thing that continued to connect them all was Charles. “I want to confront Lord Linden and see if he admits to anything.”
Out the corner of my eye, Mr. Dorian turned sharply to me, but the inspector was more measured. “Confront him about what?”
