“All right, then,” Richard said. “I’ll answer your questions. And then you’ll answer mine.”
“Very well,” Thomas said.
“But be quick,” Henry urged. “Remember, we have only half an hour, and then we have to take our leave. We don’t want another argument with that constable.”
“When debt collectors came looking for you,” Thomas said. “How much did you owe?”
“Well, that’s a very personal question.”
“Answer him,” Duncan said.
Richard sighed and named a figure.
“What do you think?” Henry asked Thomas. “Do you owe that much?”
“No,” Thomas said. The surprise in his tone was evident. “Not by half. And they didn’t come looking for you until your debt had grown that large?” he asked Richard.
“That’s right,” Richard said.
“And when they did,” Thomas pressed on, “what was it like?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean… the experience of it. Did they threaten you? Try to interfere in your life? Were your loved ones threatened?”
“Well, it started out small,” Richard said. “Monitoring my income, insuring that I paid a certain percentage every week—things of that nature. Then the collection began to escalate. The sum the collector had been happy with at first didn’t make him happy anymore. He demanded more and more from me, until finally I had no choice but to find a way to supplement my income.”
“Why do you think his demands increased?” Thomas asked.
“I don’t know,” Richard said.
“If you had to guess.”
“That’s just the kind of man Crowle is,” Richard said. “He has to have control over everyone. He uses situations like the one I was in to gain power and leverage. I’m guessing he wasn’t going to be happy until he had forced me into criminal activity somehow, because that meant that even after my debt was paid, he would be able to continue demanding payments from me, and I would have to make them, or risk my crimes being exposed and my reputation ruined.”
“Did you say Crowle?” Thomas asked.
“That’s right,” Richard said. “That was the name of the debt collector who visited me.”
Even in the barely-there light of the prison, Henry could see that Thomas had gone white. He backed away from the cell and said no more.
“Is your friend done asking questions?” Richard asked Duncan.
“I think so,” Duncan said quietly. Henry knew that Duncan, too, realized that Thomas had been badly shaken by something in the interview.
I can’t wait to get him to the pub after this and find out what it was.
“It’s my turn, then,” Richard said.
“Your turn?” Duncan asked.
“I was promised answers. I want to know what’s happening with Valeria.”
“You have no right, you know,” Duncan said. “Whatever you were promised. You don’t deserve to be told anything about her.”
“She’s my sister.”
“I’m aware of who she is. Who you are to her. I also know what you did to her. Did you think she wouldn’t tell me?”
