Redemption (29 page)

“She
won’t come here if that is what you are thinking. She is under my
protection now.”

“At
McArthur House,” Trent nodded. It wasn’t a question and was
something he appeared to be a little relieved about.

“What do
you want with her?”

“How
much has she had to do with Pendlebury’s behaviour of late?” Trent
asked, blatantly ignoring Ben’s question.

Ben
decided to allow Trent to lead the conversation right now, but only
up to a point.

“Miss
Pinner was thrown out of Pendlebury House nearly eight weeks ago
now. She has only recently returned to London, at Julian’s request,
but is busy tying up private matters before she leaves town again.
She hasn’t been in contact with Julian since she left. He has
written to her a couple of times, but from prison asking for her
help. Her connection to him is nothing more than that. She is not
responsible, and cannot be held accountable, for anything Julian
Pendlebury has done.”

“Has he
told her anything?”

“About
what?” Ben frowned and wondered if Julian was hiding in prison
because he had seen Trent murder someone.

“Anything he has been up to?”

“What
business would that be of yours?” Ben countered, seeing no reason
why he should keep answering Trent’s questions if Trent wasn’t
going to answer his. The man was altogether too arrogant, and was
clearly mistakenly of the belief that he was directing the
conversation.

“I want
to know if he has confessed yet,” Trent replied.

“To
what? Witnessing you kill Samson?” Ben drawled conversationally. He
looked up in time to see the sudden flash of anger in Trent’s eyes.
Although he was aware of the cautionary hand he placed on his burly
employee’s arm, Ben didn’t remove his gaze from Trent’s.

“I
thought he would,” Trent murmured snidely as though Ben had just
confirmed his worst suspicions.

Determined not to give anything away, Ben remained perfectly
still and silent. He knew that if he pushed too much he could very
well not make it home tonight, even with the Star Elite at his
back.

“You
cannot silence him, you know. He is going to remain in jail until
they throw him out. Then he plans to leave town. What he does to
implicate you then is up to him, but his step-sister has nothing to
do with it. Take your beef to the man himself. Leave his distant
relations alone.” Ben’s voice was cold and hard as he stared across
the table at the crook.

“My, my,
you have lost some of your nabob smoothness. You are not as
civilised and refined as you would let us believe, are
you?”

“Don’t underestimate what you see,” Ben warned darkly; his
brows lifted in an arrogant manner that was more like a street
fighter than a member of the
ton
. “You are less likely to be
caught out.”

Trent
snorted, but lost some of his arrogance. He became almost amiable
as he leaned back against the seat and studied Ben.

“Oh, I know just how duplicitous your kind can be, McArthur.
Pendlebury himself is trying to frame me.” He laughed mirthlessly.
“Ha! Me! That odious oaf is trying to frame
me
for a murder I didn’t
commit.”

“You
have staff on your payroll who would kill if you told them to,” Ben
warned, and looked pointedly at the burly man beside Trent before
he slowly turned his gaze back to Trent himself.

“Samson
was a regular of mine. Why would I kill him?”

Ben knew
he was entering sticky area and wondered how to side-step the
question.

“Who
knows why people commit crimes? One thing is for definite, Samson
was a regular here and is now dead while another patron of yours,
Pendlebury, seems to like jail more than life on the streets and
nobody appears to know why.”

“Because
Pendlebury is a killer, that’s why,” Trent snapped. “Be wary of
him. He is a liar and a fraud. He has been involving himself in
things that don’t concern him. Nobody knows why; or why he suddenly
disappears just when someone he is known to despise turns up dead.
That I can just about ignore.” Trent sighed and stared at Ben.
“What I am not going to ignore is Pendlebury trying to frame me for
a crime I did not commit.”

“He said
you would say that,” Ben countered, hoping that someone from the
Star Elite was close enough to overhear the conversation. “If you
are as innocent in all of this as you claim, why did you move your
sister in to Pendlebury House?”

“I don’t
have
a sister,” Trent snorted. “I was raised in what constitutes
as an orphanage around here.”

Ben
stared at the tacky surroundings.

“Not bad
progress for someone with such a poor start in life,” he
muttered.

As far
as Ben was concerned, Trent’s current circumstance went some way
toward highlighting the highly questionable nature of his
activities. He was only in his late thirties, yet had supposedly
amassed enough wealth to afford a large gaming house.

“I do
what I can,” Trent replied modestly.

“So, you
have no sister and haven’t moved anybody into Pendlebury
House?”

Ben
sighed when Trent slowly shook his head. He had to wonder if Julian
had told him the truth about anything.

“So you
haven’t tried to force Julian to pay back the money he owes you?”
Ben watched Trent consider that for a moment.

“I am
the kind of man who would take Pendlebury outside and personally
teach him to show better judgement, McArthur.” Trent grinned
unrepentantly. “It is the best way to make sure people like that
don’t take advantage. Pendlebury owes me, but for nothing more than
a few drinks he didn’t pay for before he left.”

“You
haven’t loaned him any money?”

“All of
my clients, including Pendlebury, pay as they go. I don’t allow
people to owe me anything when they gamble in my establishments. No
cash; no gambling. It is as simple as that.”

“So, if
Pendlebury doesn’t owe you any money, and hasn’t been working for
you, why is he hiding in prison?”

“Exactly,” Trent replied firmly. “I apologise for scaring
Miss Pinner. However, I have it on good authority that someone saw
something the night of Samson’s death that points to Pendlebury
being the killer.”

“So why
haven’t they gone to the authorities with this?”

Trent
grinned. “They are a little shy.”

Ben knew
that then that it was either Trent, or one of his employees who had
either killed Samson or witnessed Samson’s death at Pendlebury’s
hands and they just weren’t prepared to go to the authorities in
case their own activities were investigated.

“With no
proof, your hands are tied,” Ben murmured. “Why are you telling me
this, and what does this have to do with Miss Pinner?”

“I can deal with Pendlebury. Samson is – was – an
acquaintance of mine. He was a valuable friend to have,” Trent
drawled somewhat mockingly. Ben suspected that was because Samson
was providing Trent with information about something, only what
that information was, the Star Elite needed to uncover. “I don’t
take kindly to people interfering with my –
friendships
.”

“You are
after making sure that Pendlebury is held to account for killing
Samson,” Ben sighed. “That is no reason why you should pester Miss
Pinner.”

“I
wasn’t pestering,” Trent snapped, clearly affronted at the notion.
“I was trying to warn her to stay away from that brother of hers.
Pendlebury needs to stay in jail. I just wanted to tell her to
leave Pendlebury well alone. He is dangerous. He killed Samson.
From what I hear, he is also nearly destitute and that makes him
desperate. It is best she leaves town, and quickly. I just thought
that by scaring her she would want to go.”

“Pendlebury told me that he has plenty of money stashed away
somewhere.”

Trent
was already shaking his head before Ben had even finished
talking.

“His
account is empty. His purse is barren and his house has been
emptied of everything of worth. He cannot afford to gamble in my
establishment anymore. He was deeply upset when he ran out of funds
and I wouldn’t allow him to borrow any.”

“Did he
try to tap Samson up for a loan?”

Trent
shook his head again. “Samson hated Pendlebury because Julian
pestered Samson’s sister once, rather heavily, if you get my drift.
There was acrimony between the men because of that. Samson would
never associate with someone like Pendlebury.”

“You seem to know a lot about what is going on within
the
ton
,” Ben
drawled conversationally.

“It pays
to keep your ear to the ground in this game, McArthur. I should
warn you to do the same.”

There
was hidden meaning in his words but Ben didn’t look at that too
closely right now. He was too immersed in trying to unravel the
confusing web of lies Julian had told him.

“Why
would Julian go to the time and effort to put women’s clothing in
the spare bedroom to make it look like he had a mistress living
there? Not only that, but why tell Lizzie that his mistress was
your sister? Why would he want that connection there?”

“Who
knows,” Trent shrugged unconcernedly. “But I don’t have any
relations so whoever he has moved in, if he has moved anybody in,
are nothing to do with me. I don’t take kindly to anyone pointing
the finger of blame at me for something I didn’t do. I did not kill
Samson. Pendlebury did. How you go about proving that is up to you
but I should caution you not to believe what he tells you unless he
confesses to murder.”

“You
leave Pendlebury to me. He will remain in jail for a few more days
and we will get the authorities to speak to him about what really
happened with Samson.”

“We?”
Trent frowned and studied him suspiciously, but Ben merely stared
back blandly.

“Miss
Pinner and me.”

“Oh?”

Sensing
Trent was about to ask questions Ben would rather not answer, he
took his leave. Not too soon did he step out into the crisp evening
air. He immediately became aware of a tall man standing in the
shadows of an alleyway opposite, watching the front doors of the
gaming house. He wondered whether it was someone from the Star
Elite, but then discounted the notion and turned away
warily.

Conscious that time was passing he increased his stride as he
made his way down the street toward home. He needed to speak with
Barnaby, and then finally would be able to go home. Before he could
even hail a conveyance, a black and somewhat nondescript carriage
rumbled to a stop beside him. Ben tensed, and looked at it warily
until the coachman spoke.

“Need a
ride, guv’nor?”

Although
the voice was muffled, Ben immediately realised the driver was
Barnaby and rapped out White’s address before he climbed aboard.
Once inside, he thought over the conversation with Trent while he
waited for Barnaby to join him.

“Come
on,” Barnaby whispered once the carriage had rumbled to a stop in a
small side street. “Follow me.”

Ben’s
brows lifted but he willingly followed his friend into a large
garden at the rear of a huge town house. It wasn’t until they made
their way through the gardens at the back of the property that he
realised they were at Pendlebury House.

“I won’t
ask how you got in here,” Ben murmured with a grin when Barnaby
pushed open a window that didn’t appear to have been
locked.

Barnaby
smiled unrepentantly at him. “Come on, I am going to follow a
hunch,” Barnaby said quietly once they were inside, and headed to
the main staircase.

“Where
are you going?”

“Which
room did you see the woman’s clothing in?” Barnaby called as he ran
up the stairs.

“The one
to the left of the stairs,” Ben replied as he led the way to the
guest room in question.

“Well, I
may be wrong you understand, but if you wanted to hide something
incriminating, would you leave it amongst your own personal
belongings?”

Ben
frowned. “No, you would get rid of it. But what’s that got to do
with pretending there is a woman living in the house?”

Barnaby
began to pile women’s clothing onto the bed. He picked each one up,
shook it out, studied it and threw it into the centre of the
bed.

“Pendlebury told you the woman in here was Trent’s sister. He
has probably told others the same story too. To support his claims,
he put fake clothing in here too. If anyone happened to glance into
the room, or search it like we are, and you did, they would think
Julian was telling the truth. In reality, I suspect that some, if
not all of Julian’s prized possessions, are hiding in this room
somewhere. That way, anyone who found them would think they
belonged to a woman with gangland connections, and not
Julian.”

Ben
shook his head in disgust. “That way, if anyone in authority
searched the house, they would find everything incriminating
connected to this mystery woman.”