The Piccadilly Plot (45 page)

There was a silence in the library after Chaloner had made his accusation, the two culprits regarding him in astonishment
– although at his claim or his unanticipated appearance it was impossible to say.

‘How did you get in?’ demanded Hyde, startled. ‘I borrowed my father’s key, and Pratt owns the only other one in existence.
And I doubt
he
lent it to you.’

‘Never mind keys,’ snapped Oliver, glaring accusingly at Hyde. ‘You told me you had not been followed. You damned fool! You
should have been more careful.’

Hyde bristled. ‘Do not call me names! And no one followed me. You, on the other hand—’

‘I followed no one,’ interrupted Chaloner. There was no time for a silly spat. ‘Although I was certainly suspicious when Oliver
told me he was going home to Westminster, but then promptly set off in the opposite direction.’

‘I did not know he was watching,’ objected Oliver, when he received an accusing scowl in his turn. ‘I am not the distrustful
type.’

‘Then you are in the wrong business,’ murmured Chaloner.

‘How did you guess it was me you chased through the house the other day?’ asked Hyde. Chaloner blinked his surprise at the
question – he had expected at least some declaration of innocence – while Oliver’s gloomy face was a mask of disbelief at
his associate’s easy capitulation. ‘I disappeared without a trace.’

‘Yes,’ acknowledged Chaloner. ‘But that in itself is a clue – it meant there had to be secret rooms or tunnels. And
that
is where the “stolen” materials have been going – they have been used to build these devices. It explains why no one has
ever seen them carted away: they are still here.’

‘You cannot prove that,’ warned Oliver. ‘You will never find—’

Chaloner tapped on a panel that glided open to reveal a space behind it, large enough for a man to stand. ‘Of course I will.
I have been locating these contrivances for years. It will be easy.’

It was a bluff, because he still had no idea how Hyde had disappeared near the library. He walked to the desk and glanced
briefly at the plans. Then he rolled them up and slid them inside his coat. They would help him understand what had been constructed
where.

‘You reckoned without Wright, too,’ he went on. ‘He did not hesitate to say that he had been paid to stay away tonight. He
also explained how he has been taught to arrange the supplies so that Pratt will no longer notice what is missing.’

‘You paid him to stay away?’ asked Oliver of Hyde, unimpressed. ‘That was a waste of money – he is rarely here anyway. And
then he betrayed you! I told you he could not be trusted.’

‘I admit to teaching him how to re-stack bricks and wood,’ said Hyde stiffly. ‘But I certainly did not give him any money
tonight. The man is a liar and a villain.’

Chaloner regarded him in disgust, thinking that a son who put his father through such torments was hardly a saint himself.
He resumed his analysis.

‘You have been on my list of suspects since the
morning of the chase,’ he said, ‘because you opened the door with a key. Pratt’s was around his neck, so the man I dashed
after must have had the Earl’s. You are in a better position to borrow that than anyone else.’

‘Yes, but there must be
more
than two of them,’ said Oliver, looking hard at Chaloner. ‘Because otherwise you could not have gained access to—’

‘Most of the workmen are in your pay,’ interrupted Chaloner, loath to pursue that particular line of thought. ‘Which is why
the materials disappear during the day – your tunnels and passages are constructed during normal working hours, when Pratt
is away on other business. No wonder I did not see anything vanish when I stood guard at night.’

‘We were able to work in the evenings, too, before you appeared,’ said Hyde sullenly. ‘It was a damned nuisance when my father
summoned you back from Tangier.’

‘It is an impressive achievement,’ said Chaloner grudgingly. ‘Especially as I imagine Pratt is unaware of what is being done
to his creation. I suppose your architectural training came in useful?’

‘Very,’ said Hyde smugly. ‘My artifices are a masterpiece in their own right.’

‘Perhaps so,’ said Chaloner. ‘But I do not understand
why
you built them. What possible advantage is there in having your father’s house riddled with such devices?’

‘So he can spy on his enemies, stupid!’ said Hyde in sneering disdain. ‘He would never have agreed to these measures himself
– you know how conservative he is – so I decided to install them for him. You will doubtless take advantage of them in time.
Assuming you are still in his service, of course, which is looking increasingly unlikely
at the moment. He will dismiss you when I tell him you held me at gunpoint.’

Chaloner eyed him contemptuously. ‘How will these contrivances benefit him? He does not entertain enemies in his own home.
And I doubt he spies on his friends.’

Hyde opened his mouth to reply, but then closed it again, indicating that this notion had not occurred to him. ‘We shall see,’
he hedged stiffly.

‘There was another clue, too,’ Chaloner went on. ‘The note that enticed me into the strongroom was in your handwriting. I
recognised it when Oliver showed me the inventory of missing materials you had made. It was a nice touch: small jaws, death
and darkness.’

‘I
did
write those words,’ acknowledged Hyde, puzzled. ‘I have an elegant hand, and Oliver asked me to pen them as part of an anonymous
love poem to his woman. Curious phrases to express passion, but each to his own. However, I doubt he left such an intimate
item in the vault.’

‘Oliver does not have a woman,’ said Chaloner, recalling how the assistant architect had twice alluded to being at home with
no one but his pet. ‘And then there were the muddy footprints on the cellar stairs that same night. Most were human, but there
were an animal’s, too. They told me that Oliver had been there with his ferret shortly before I was locked inside.’

Oliver scowled when he saw he was cornered. ‘I only wish you had died there, as I had intended,’ he snarled. ‘Then we would
not be having this ridiculous conversation.’

‘Died?’ echoed Hyde, shocked. ‘No one is supposed to die! And no one is meant to be shut in the strongroom, either. It is
designed to be airless.’

‘It would have been deemed an unfortunate accident,’ said Oliver, malice suffusing his gloomy face. ‘If the lack of air had
not killed him, the rats would have done.’

‘
Rats?
’ cried Hyde in bewilderment. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Hyde’s note would have suggested otherwise,’ said Chaloner, ignoring him.

Oliver sneered. ‘It would have been eaten. Along with most of you. But if not, no one could have proved it came from me. Hyde
wrote it, after all.’

‘Stop!’ shouted Hyde, increasingly appalled. ‘Murder has no part in our plans. We will come to an arrangement with Chaloner.
Every man has his price, and my father is a wealthy man.’

Oliver smiled, but his eyes were icy cold. ‘You think we can let him go, do you?’

‘It may have escaped your notice, but I am the one holding the gun,’ said Chaloner, while Hyde gaped at the assistant architect
in disbelief.

Oliver’s grin widened. ‘And it may have escaped yours, but I have workmen at my disposal.’

He gestured around him, and Chaloner was horrified to see the barrels of several weapons jutting through holes in the panelling.
He counted at least four. Reacting quickly, he darted across the room and grabbed Hyde around the neck, putting the dag to
his temple and using the younger man’s body as a shield.

‘I still have the advantage,’ he said. He would have preferred Oliver as a hostage, but the man had been too far away. ‘Order
your people to stand down, or I will kill your accomplice.’

Oliver had predicted his move, and had ducked behind the desk, out of Chaloner’s line of fire. ‘Do it, then,’ he
said viciously. ‘I do not care. And then we shall dispatch
you
. You have been nothing but trouble ever since you came back from Africa. It will be a delight to end your life.’

Hyde had been thrashing about furiously, trying to free himself from Chaloner’s grasp, but he went rigid with shock when he
heard Oliver’s words.

‘What?’ he gasped. ‘We are in this together, Oliver, so you
will
care if I am harmed. And you can put me down, Chaloner. You will not shoot me: you would not dare.’

‘He might not, but
I
shall,’ called Oliver from under the table. ‘We do not want anyone else knowing what we have installed here. And as you gave
me your original drawings the other day, the only other record is in your head. In other words, you have gone from helpmeet
to liability.’

‘Liability?’ squeaked Hyde in confusion. ‘No! I am your
partner
. And Chaloner has the plans, anyway – he put them in his coat. He will give them to you in exchange for my life.’

‘We shall take them from his corpse,’ said Oliver disdainfully. ‘You cannot bargain with them.’

Chaloner released Hyde abruptly. ‘You should choose your associates more carefully – you are about to become the victim of
your own deceit.’

‘What do you mean?’ Hyde’s voice was unsteady with rising panic.

‘I cannot imagine these secret passages and spyholes were your idea,’ said Chaloner, thinking him a fool. He took a step towards
Oliver’s table, but the click of more guns being cocked stopped him from taking another. ‘Did
Oliver come to you with the notion, claiming they would work to your father’s advantage?’

‘Well, yes he did,’ conceded Hyde. ‘But—’

‘Who commissioned you?’ Chaloner asked of Oliver. ‘Buckingham? Lady Castlemaine? Which of the Earl’s enemies is so determined
to harm him that he went to all this trouble?’

‘You will just have to wonder,’ replied Oliver, keeping his head well down. ‘Now drop the gun. You cannot hit me from where
you are standing, and if you try, my friends will shoot you.’

More men had gathered in the doorway; Chaloner recognised the sullen woodmonger Vere and the labourers who worked under his
supervision. All were rough, ruthless individuals who would happily commit murder for money. He knew he was unlikely to survive
the encounter, so with nothing to lose, he aimed at where he thought Oliver’s chest would be and pulled the trigger. There
was a loud report, and splinters flew from the table, but it was a sturdy piece of furniture, and Oliver’s startled yelp said
he was unharmed.

Immediately, there was answering fire from the spyholes, which had the men at the door wheeling away in alarm. Fortunately
for Chaloner, the angle of the apertures prevented them from aiming properly, and most missed, although one nicked his shoulder,
causing him to drop to his knees. Hyde hurled himself to the floor and covered his head with his hands.

‘Stop!’ shouted Oliver, as there came the sound of weapons being reloaded. ‘You will damage the panelling, and Pratt will
demand to know what happened. We cannot afford questions. Come in here and grab them – without bloodshed, if possible. We
do not want stains on the floor.’

Men poured into the library to lay hold of Chaloner and Hyde, but although Chaloner managed to club one with the now-useless
dag and disable another with a kick, it was not long before he was subdued. Then Vere relieved him of gun, sword and daggers.
Wiseman’s scalpel went undetected, though, tucked as it was in his cuff.

‘You cannot do this to me!’ shrieked Hyde. ‘We have been working together for months, and—’

‘Shut up,’ snarled Vere. He looked at Oliver, who was inspecting the shattered desk, obviously amazed that he had escaped
unharmed. ‘What do you want us to do with them?’

‘Put them in the strongroom.’ Oliver dragged his attention away from the table. ‘And this time, mount a guard outside to ensure
they do not escape. While they suffocate, we shall concoct evidence that proves Hyde has been stealing his father’s bricks,
and that Chaloner locked him in there to teach him a lesson.’

‘And became trapped himself at the same time?’ asked Vere doubtfully.

‘When they are dead, you can bury him in the woods. Everyone will assume he fled London when he realised his antics had brought
about Hyde’s demise.’

‘No!’ whispered Hyde, while Chaloner went cold at the thought of being shut in the vault a second time. ‘Please, Oliver. I
will not tell anyone what … There is no need to kill me.’

Oliver laughed, and Chaloner was stunned by the change in the man. Gone was the glum, shambling fellow, replaced by something
far less attractive.

‘You were never going to be allowed to live, Hyde,’ he said pityingly. ‘What would be the use of these devices if you blab
about them to your father? It means my
employer would have wasted his money. Use the wits you were born with, boy!’

His gloating voice, coupled with a determination not be to incarcerated again, served to concentrate Chaloner’s mind, and
a plan began to form. He went limp in his captors’ hands; they swore when he suddenly became a deadweight.

‘What is wrong with him?’ demanded Oliver impatiently.

‘He has passed out from the pain of his wound,’ said Vere. ‘He will not be any trouble now.’

‘Then I will deal with him and Hyde,’ said Oliver briskly. ‘Green and Berry can help. Vere – take everyone else to the Room
of Audience and start work. It is imperative that we finish tonight, because the house will be crawling with people once Hyde’s
corpse is found.’

Hyde started to cry, while Chaloner contrived to make himself as difficult to carry as possible. Green and Berry soon grew
exasperated, and frustration turned them careless. The moment their guard dropped, he plunged the scalpel into Green’s arm.
The man’s eyes widened in shock, but Chaloner was already spinning away, and had knocked Berry senseless with a punch.

‘Run!’ he hissed to Hyde, whipping around to deal with Oliver. Unfortunately, the assistant architect’s reactions were faster
than he had anticipated, and he had already snatched a gun from the reeling Green, his face full of enraged fury.