Читаем A Dangerous Fortune (1994) полностью

He went to the cloakroom. His nose was red from Solly's punch but otherwise he just appeared a little rumpled. He straightened his clothing and brushed his hair. As he did so he thought about Hugh Pilaster. If Hugh had not been right there on the doorstep at the wrong moment, nobody would have known Micky had even left the club--he had been gone for only a few minutes. But did it really matter? No one was going to suspect Micky of killing Solly, and if they did, the fact that he had left his club for a few minutes would not prove anything. Still, he no longer had a watertight alibi, and that worried him.

He washed his hands thoroughly and hurried up the stairs to the card room.

Edward was already playing baccarat and there was an empty seat at the table. Micky sat down. No one commented on the length of time he had been away.

He was dealt a hand. "You look a bit seasick," said Edward.

"Yes," he said calmly. "I think the fish soup may not have been perfectly fresh tonight."

Edward waved at a waiter. "Bring this man a glass of brandy."

Micky looked at his cards. He had a nine and a ten, the perfect hand. He bet a sovereign.

He just could not lose today.

Section 2

HUGH WENT TO SEE MAISIE two days after Solly died.

He found her alone, sitting quiet and still on a sofa, neatly dressed in a black gown, looking small and insignificant in the splendor of the drawing room at the palatial Piccadilly house. Her face was lined with grief and she looked as if she had not slept. His heart ached for her.

She threw herself into his arms and said: "Oh, Hugh, he was the best of us!"

When she said that, Hugh himself could not keep the tears back. Until this moment he had been too stunned to cry. It was a dreadful fate to die as Solly had, and he deserved it less than any man Hugh could name. "There was no malice in him," he said. "He seemed incapable of it. I knew him for fifteen years and I can't remember a single time when he was unkind to someone."

"Why do such things happen?" Maisie said miserably.

Hugh hesitated. Just a few days ago he had learned, from Tonio Silva, that Micky Miranda had killed Peter Middleton all those years ago. Because of that, Hugh could not help wondering whether Micky had had something to do with the death of Solly. The police were looking for a well-dressed man who had been arguing with Solly just before he was run over. Hugh had seen Micky entering the Cowes Club at around the time Solly died, so he had certainly been in the neighborhood.