The car disappeared round a bend in the road, and a second later there was a tremendous explosion, and plumes of dark gray smoke rose in a huge billow, followed immediately by a gout of scarlet flame.
“God! I hope they didn’t hit anybody else!” Patrick gasped. “I thought it would just go flat!”
The pavement was filling with people: Jemima, Thomas and Charlotte, Tobias and Rebecca Thorwood. Jemima ran instantly to Patrick, her face white. “Patrick! Are you all right?”
“Yes. It’s not much,” he said, mumbling over the handkerchief, blood now seeping through it. “I’m all right.” He turned to Daniel and was about to speak, when a constable in uniform came round the bend from the direction of the smoke. “All right, ladies and gentlemen,” he said authoritatively. “Nothing to see here. Just some damn fool who took too much to drink and drove into the bollards of the turnoff. Doesn’t know the road, I expect. Foreigners!”
Daniel collected his wits. “Was anyone hurt?”
The constable looked at him incredulously. “Hurt? Not anymore, sir. I’m afraid the car’s finished, and the people inside it, too. Friction must have caused a spark and the fuel tank burst and went up instantly. Burned to…” He stopped, aware of what he was saying. “Hope it wasn’t anyone you know. Sir? Unreliable things, them motorcars. Would never have happened with a horse! Now move along, please, ladies and gentlemen.” He looked more closely at Patrick. “Seems like you’re hurt, sir. Perhaps you’d better go inside and sit down. We’ll send for a doctor.”
“Yes, please,” Jemima answered before Patrick could speak.
“I’m fine,” Patrick mumbled through the handkerchief. “We’re in the middle of a trial. I’m police. For God’s sake, man! What happened?”
The pavement was rapidly filling with people, including more police. Pitt and Charlotte looked at Patrick in alarm. Charlotte went to Jemima, and they both stood close to him.
Pitt went to the constable. He produced his card and showed it to him.
“Yes, sir. Seems as they came round the corner too fast and ran straight into the bollards that block it off. Don’t know London, maybe. Going too fast to keep control. Man and a woman. I’m sorry, sir, but there was no chance either of them survived.”
Pitt acknowledged it silently and stepped back to Charlotte, Patrick, and Jemima.
Behind them, Miriam was holding Rebecca in her arms. She let her go so she could comfort her father, touching him gently, as if she were the stronger.
Kitteridge came up to Daniel. He looked as if he had been close to the explosion himself, jacket crushed, tie half undone, and hair flying. “That has to be the final defense! Armitage! Why in hell…? I know, don’t tell me. Mrs. Thorwood’s affair all that time ago was with him. She never got over it. And he was a traitor all along. How long have you known?”
“About half an hour,” Daniel answered, smiling ruefully.
To Victoria Zackheim, for her friendship
and immeasurable help
BY ANNE PERRY
FEATURING DANIEL PITT
Twenty-one Days
Triple Jeopardy
FEATURING CHARLOTTE AND THOMAS PITT
The Cater Street Hangman
Callander Square
Paragon Walk
Resurrection Row
Bluegate Fields
Rutland Place
Death in the Devil’s Acre
Cardington Crescent
Silence in Hanover Close
Bethlehem Road
Highgate Rise
Belgrave Square
Farriers’ Lane
The Hyde Park Headsman
Traitors Gate
Pentecost Alley
Ashworth Hall
Brunswick Gardens
Bedford Square
Half Moon Street
The Whitechapel Conspiracy
Southampton Row
Seven Dials
Long Spoon Lane
Buckingham Palace Gardens
Dorchester Terrace
Midnight at Marble Arch
Death on Blackheath
The Angel Court Affair
Treachery at Lancaster Gate
Murder on the Serpentine
FEATURING WILLIAM MONK
The Face of a Stranger
A Dangerous Mourning
Defend and Betray
A Sudden, Fearful Death
The Sins of the Wolf
Cain His Brother
Weighed in the Balance
The Silent Cry
A Breach of Promise
The Twisted Root
Slaves of Obsession
Funeral in Blue
Death of a Stranger
The Shifting Tide
Dark Assassin
Execution Dock
Acceptable Loss
A Sunless Sea
Blind Justice
Blood on the Water
Corridors of the Night
Revenge in a Cold River
An Echo of Murder
Dark Tide Rising
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ANNE PERRY is the bestselling author of two acclaimed series set in Victorian England: the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels, including Murder on the Serpentine and Treachery at Lancaster Gate, and the William Monk novels, including Dark Tide Rising and An Echo of Murder. She is also the author of Twenty-one Days, the start of a new series featuring Charlotte and Thomas Pitt’s son, Daniel, as well as a series of five World War I novels, sixteen holiday novels, most recently A Christmas Revelation, and a historical novel, The Sheen on the Silk, set in the Ottoman Empire. Anne Perry lives in Los Angeles.
anneperry.co.uk
To inquire about booking Anne Perry for a speaking engagement, please contact the Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau at speakers@penguinrandomhouse.com.
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