“That would be lovely, wouldn’t it?” I say. “As for this case, we’re focusing on it as a theft. Finding who stole the letters will lead us to the blackmailer.”
“Miss Mallory will ask most of the questions,” Gray says. “This is far more her area than mine.”
“An excellent partnership, then,” Simpson says. “Before we begin, while it has no bearing on the case, you must forgive me for needing to get it off my chest.”
He sets his cup into the saucer. “I am horrified by what has happened. It is entirely my fault. I thought I had properly secured Patricia’s letters, and clearly, I had not. I desperately wish that this scoundrel had sent the demand to me instead. I would have paid it with Patricia being none the wiser.”
“It went to her because her reputation is the one at risk,” I say.
“I know,” he says mournfully. “She is in danger because of my mistake. I only wish she would allow me to pay this scoundrel.”
“She prefers not to pay at all,” I say. “If you wish to make it up to her, then the best way to do that is to help us find the blackmailer.”
“Certainly. You have my full cooperation.” He pulls a piece of paper from his pocket. “I have recorded all the details here. I kept the letters in my room, in a locked box on my dressing table. I know that it was locked December twentieth, as I also keep some jewelry in there and opened it to retrieve that for a seasonal gala. I returned the items that night and relocked it. I did not realize it was unlocked until Patricia notified me of the theft.” He checks his notes. “On the morning of December twenty-third.”
“You didn’t notice the box had been opened?” I ask.
“The lock is not an obvious one. I will show it to you. It is impossible to tell at a glance whether it is locked or not.”
“You said it’s kept in your bedroom. Is that door locked?”
He looks confused by the question. I don’t blame him. In a world of household staff, a bedroom door is rarely locked. Maids and valets need access to it.
“No,” he says. “There is a lock, but I rarely use it.”
“So everyone on your staff has access.”
He shifts in obvious discomfort. “Yes. I...” He coughs. “I am about to say something that distresses me. I am very aware of how quick people are to blame the servants for anything that goes missing, and normally, that infuriates me.”
“But...” I prod.
“I dismissed my valet on the twenty-first. I am planning another trip abroad in the new year, and he... is not properly suited to continental travel. I told him I was happy to keep him on until I left, but he said he would rather spend the holidays with family. I gave him a quarter’s wages, and it all seemed very amicable, but then Patricia received this demand two days later...”
“Do you know where we might find this valet?”
Another shift of discomfort. “I do, but might I ask that you do not say I sent you?”
“We will say that we required a list of all staff employed at the time of the theft, and that you assured us none of your staff would have done this, but we insisted.”
He exhales. “Thank you. I have spoken to all of my staff. I said that private correspondence had disappeared and asked if any of them might have seen it. I was hoping that if one did take the letters, they would quietly return them, and we could be done with the matter. That did not happen.”
“You also have a brother, I understand, who lives with you.”
Simpson blinks. “Arthur? Of course, but he would not have done this.”
“We’ll need to speak to him. I’ll also need a list of every guest who was in the house between the twentieth and the twenty-third.”
“No one,” he says. “I went out a fair deal, but Arthur and I did not entertain.”
“So no one came to the house? No friends? No business associates?”
“It is not the time of year for business. Lady Inglis visited on the twenty-first, but that was it.”
“No one else?” I meet his gaze, my look silently reminding him of his promise to cooperate.
“No one,” he says firmly. “You may ask the staff. I had a guest on the nineteenth, but that was before the theft. I hosted a small luncheon on the twenty-fifth, but that was after the letters were taken.”
“Your guest on the nineteenth...”
