Page 29
“Miss Delacourt left early,” Electra stated.
“She did,” Potter agreed. “A few too many gents crowded about, I think, and then she was off.”
“Did she return?”
“No, miss. She never did.”
“Was Miss Collier not concerned that her friend had departed?”
Potter grimaced. “To be quite honest, Miss Poole, we’d both been dancing when Miss Delacourt departed. We only noticed she was gone later.”
“So you have no knowledge of how she made her way home or whether anyone met her after she departed?” Gideon asked.
Potter shook his head. “No, sir. I’m afraid not.”
“You are aware that Miss Delacourt cannot currently be located,” Gideon stated.
“Yes, sir. Read about it in papers, and of course I noticed when she didn’t arrive as usual. She was kind…after news came about Calliope.”
“Did she take that news hard?”
“Yes, sir. We both did.”
Electra reached out and brushed her fingers across a paintbrush lying on the worktable. “And how have people reacted to Miss Delacourt’s absence?”
“It’s been a topic of gossip here. Of course, everybody’s fretful. Seems hard to comprehend after Calliope.” He drew in a deep breath. “I still expect to walk in and see her again. So I was stunned that Miss Delacourt is missing now.” He glanced at the paintbrush Electra had touched. “Miss Delacourt was so diligent. Always arrived on time.”
Electra turned more fully in her chair to face Sam Potter. “We are trying to find Miss Delacourt. Do you have any notion where she might be? Any person or place you heard her mention, or something that came to mind when you heard she had gone missing?”
The young man immediately shook his head, but then tipped his face down as if pondering the question. “No, miss. I wish I knew something that would help you, but I don’t know where Miss Delacourt might be. Don’t know why Calliope did what she did to herself either.” His voice broke when he spoke of Miss Collier.
Gideon felt Electra’s gaze on him. The inquest had been held the previous afternoon. Perhaps Samuel Potter, like the Delacourts, had not read of the results in the papers yet. He suspected Mr. Potter would take it as even more of a blow than the family who’d seemed to hold a bit of disdain for the young woman.
“These details were in the morning papers, so I should inform you,” Gideon began, “that Miss Collier did not harm herself, Mr. Potter. Her death was a result of foul play.”
The young man’s flushed skin drained of color, and he swallowed convulsively. “She was…murdered?”
Gideon met the young man’s wide-eyed gaze and nodded.
“Good God,” he murmured. “I would have protected her. I would have done anything to help her.” He gave Gideon a panicked look. “Who’s done this to her? Have you caught him?”
“No. Another detective is attempting to answer that question, but Miss Poole and I are curious whether any conflict Miss Collier was involved in could have somehow spilled over to affect Miss Delacourt.”
“You’re referring to the matter with that blighter Frye, aren’t you?”
“Explain what the matter with Mr. Frye was, please,” Electra urged him.
“Nicholas Frye. He was a cleaner like me. And he took to Calliope the way many of us did. There was some ruckus about his thieving. Frye claimed he’d taken something from the museum. Calliope found out, or maybe he told her. I’m not certain which. At first, I thought perhaps he was lying. But I heard Miss Delacourt warning Calliope to have nothing more to do with him.”
The young man looked haunted when he added, “He threatened Calliope, I think. She’d gone to the Keeper. Mr. Kerrigan. But Calliope told me she wasn’t afraid of Frye, regardless of his bluster.”
“Did you ever witness any altercation between them?” Gideon asked.
“Never. If I had, I would have given him what for. Made sure he would never lay a finger on her.” The lad covered his mouth a moment.
Gideon thought he might finally break down into tears, but he collected himself and looked up a moment later.
“I would have intervened if I’d imagined he would harm her. I swear it. But Frye was gone soon after Miss Collier accused him of stealing and Mr. Kerrigan gave him a talking-to. Assumed he didn’t like being reprimanded. Then, shortly after he left the museum, rumors were that he was arrested for stealing some jewelry from a stall in Covent Garden.” He twisted his hands together. “So he was a thief after all, it seems.” After taking a deep breath, Potter asked, “Do you think he’s done this to her?”
