A CONFESSION
Now, indeed, Lucian had his hands full. Rhoda, the red-headed servant of
Mrs. Bensusan, had run away on the plea that she was afraid of
something--what she did not explain in the note she left behind her, and
it was necessary that she should be discovered, and forced into
confessing what she knew of the conspiracy and murder. Mrs. Clear, not
having been paid her hush money, had betrayed the confidence and
misdeeds of Ferruci, thereby revealing an extent of villainy for which
neither Diana nor Lucian was prepared. Now the Count had to be seen and
brought to book for his doings, Lydia informed that her husband was in
the asylum, and Vrain himself had to be released in due form from his
legal imprisonment. How Lucian, even with the assistance of Diana, could
deal with all these matters, he did not know.
"Why not see Mr. Link?" suggested Diana, when Mrs. Clear had departed,
after making a clean breast of the nefarious transactions in which she
had been involved. "He may take the case in hand again."
"No doubt," responded Denzil drily, "but I am not very keen to hand it
over to him, seeing that he has abandoned it twice. Again, if I call in
the police, it is all over with Lydia and the Count. They will be
arrested and punished."
"For the murder of Clear?"
"Perhaps, if it can be proved that they have anything to do with it;
certainly for the conspiracy to get the assurance money by the feigned
death of your father."
"Well," said Diana coldly, "and why should they not receive the reward
of their deeds?"
"Quite so; but the question is, do you wish any scandal?"
Diana was silent. She had not looked at the matter from this point of
view. It was true what Lucian said. If the police took up the case
again, Lydia and her accomplice would be arrested, and the whole sordid
story of their doings would be in the papers.
Diana was a proud woman, and winced at the idea of such publicity. It
would be as well to avoid proceeding to such extremities. If the
assurance money was returned by Lydia, she would be reduced to her
former estate, and by timely flight might escape the vengeance of the
defrauded company. After all, she was the wife of Vrain, and little as
Diana liked her, she did not wish to see the woman who was so closely
related to the wronged man put in prison; not for her own sake, but for
the sake of the name she so unworthily bore.
"I leave it in your hands," said Diana to Lucian, who was watching her
closely.
"Very good," replied Denzil. "Then I think it will be best for me to see
Ferruci first, and hear his confession; afterwards call on Mrs. Vrain,
and learn what she has to say. Then----"
"Well," said Diana, curiously, "what then?"
"I will be guided by circumstances. In the meantime, for the sake of
your name, we had better keep the matter as quiet as possible."
"Mrs. Clear may speak out."
"Mrs. Clear won't speak," said Denzil grimly. "She will keep quiet for
her own sake; and as Rhoda has left Jersey Street, there will be no
danger of trouble from that quarter. First, I'll see Lydia and the
Count, to get to the bottom of this conspiracy; then I'll set the police
on Rhoda's track, that she may be arrested and made to confess her
knowledge of the murder."
"Do you think she knows anything?"
"I think she knows everything," replied Lucian with emphasis. "That is
why she has run away. If we capture her, and force her to speak, we may
be able to arrest Wrent."
"Why Wrent?" asked Diana.
"Have you forgotten what Mrs. Clear said? I agree with her that he is
the assassin, although we can't prove it as yet."
"But who is Wrent?"
"Ah!" said Lucian, significantly, "that is just what I wish to find
out."
The upshot of this interview was that early the next morning Denzil went
to the chambers of Ferruci, in Marquis Street, and informed the servant
that he wanted particularly to see the Count.
At first the Italian, being still in bed--for he was a late riser--did
not incline to grant his visitor an interview; but on second thoughts he
ordered Lucian to be shown into the sitting-room, and shortly afterwards
joined him there wrapped in a dressing-gown. He welcomed the barrister
with a smiling nod, and having some instinct that Lucian came on an
unpleasant errand, he did not offer him his hand. From the first the two
men were on their guard against one another.
"Good-morning, sir," said Ferruci in his best English. "May I ask why
you take me from my bed so early?"
"To tell you a story."
"About my friend Dr. Jorce saying I was with him on that night?" sneered
the Count.
"Partly, and partly about a lady you know."
Ferruci frowned. "You speak of Mrs. Vrain?"
"No," replied Lucian coolly. "I speak of Mrs. Clear."
At the mention of this name, which was the last one he expected to hear
his visitor pronounce, the Italian, in spite of his coolness and
cunning, could not forbear a start.
"Mrs. Clear?" he repeated. "And what do you know of Mrs. Clear?"
"As much as Dr. Jorce could tell me, Count."
Ferruci's brow cleared. "Then you know I pay for keeping her miserable
husband with my friend," he said composedly. "It is for her sake I am so
kind."
"Rather it is for your own you are so cunning."
"Cunning! A most strange word for my goodness," said the Count coolly.
"The most fit word, you mean," replied Lucian, impatient of this
fencing. "It is no use beating about the bush, Count. I know that the
man you keep in the asylum is not Clear, but Mark Vrain."
"La! la! la! You talk great humbug. Mr. Vrain is dead and buried!"
"He is not dead," answered Lucian resolutely, "and the man who was
buried under his name is Michael Clear, the husband of the woman who
told me all."
Ferruci, who had been pacing impatiently up and down the room, stopped
short, with a nervous laugh.
"This is most amusing," he said, with an emotion he could not conceal
despite his self-control. "Mrs. Clear told you all, eh? She told you
what, my friend?"
"That is the story I have come to tell you," replied Lucian sharply.
"Very good," said Ferruci, with a shrug. "I wait to hear this pretty
story," and with a frown he threw himself into a chair near Lucian.
Apparently he saw that he was found out, for it took him all his time to
keep his voice from trembling and his hands from shaking. The man was
not a coward, but being thus brought face to face with a peril he little
expected, it was scarcely to be wondered at that he felt shaken and
nervous. Moreover, he knew little about the English law, and hardly
guessed how his misdeeds would be punished. Still, he did not surrender
on the spot, but listened quietly to Lucian's story, in the hope of
seeing some way of escape from his awkward position.
"The other day I went to Dr. Jorce's asylum," said Lucian slowly, "and
there I discovered--it matters not how--that your friend Clear was Mr.
Vrain; also I learned that he had been placed in the asylum by you and
Mrs. Clear. Jorce gave me her address in Bayswater, but when I went
there I could not find her; she had left. I then put an advertisement in
all the papers, stating that if she called on me she would hear of
something to her advantage. Now, Count, it appears that Mrs. Clear was
in the habit of looking into the papers to see if there was any message
from yourself, or your friend Wrent, so she saw my advertisement at
once, and came in person to reply to it."
"One moment, Mr. Denzil," said Ferruci politely. "I know no one called
Wrent, and he is not my friend."
"We'll come to that hereafter," answered Lucian, with a shrug. "In the
meantime I'll proceed with my story, which I see interests you very
much. Well, Count, it seems that Michael Clear was an actor, who bore a
strong resemblance to Mr. Vrain, save that he had not a scar on his
face. Vrain, at Bath, was always clean shaven; now he wears a long white
beard, but that is neither here nor there. Clear had a moustache, but
when that was shaved off he looked exactly like Vrain. For purposes of
your own, which you can easily guess, you made the acquaintance of this
man, a profligate and a drunkard, and proposed, for a certain sum of
money to be paid to his wife, that he, Michael Clear, should personate
Vrain and live in the Silent House in Geneva Square, under the name of
Berwin. You knew that Clear was slowly dying of consumption and drink,
so you trusted that he would die as Vrain; that Mrs. Vrain--who I
believe is in the plot--would recognise the corpse by the description in
the newspapers; and that, when Clear was buried as Vrain, she would get
the assurance money and marry you."
"That is clever," said the Count, with a sneer.
"But is it true?"
"You know best," answered Lucian, coolly. "However, all turned out as
you expected, for Clear died as Vrain--or rather was murdered at your
command, as he did not die quickly enough--his body was recognised by
Mrs. Vrain, buried as her husband, and she got the assurance money. The
only thing that remains for your conspiracy to be entirely successful is
that Mrs. Vrain should marry you; and--as I was told by Mr. Clyne--that
has pretty well been arranged."
"Do you think, then, that Clyne would let his daughter marry a man who
has done all this?" said Ferruci, who was now very pale.
"I don't believe Clyne knows anything about it," replied Lucian coldly.
"You and Mrs. Vrain made up this pretty plot between you. Vrain himself
told me how you decoyed him from Salisbury, and took him to Mrs.
Clear's, in Bayswater, where he passed as her husband, although, as she
confesses, she kept him as a kind of prisoner."
"But this is wrong," cried Ferruci, trying to laugh. "This is most
foolish. How would a man, of his own will, pass as the husband of a
woman he knew not?"
"A sane man would not; but none knew better than you, Count, that Vrain
was not sane, and that you dosed him with drugs, and let Mrs. Clear keep
him locked up in her house until you put him in the asylum. Vrain was a
puppet in your hands, and you locked him up in an asylum a fortnight
after the man who personated him was murdered. You intended to marry
Mrs. Vrain and keep her wretched husband in that asylum all his life."
"The best place for a lunatic," said Ferruci.
"Ah!" cried Lucian. "Then you admit that that Vrain was mad?"
"I admit nothing, not even that he is alive. If what you say is true,"
said the Italian, cunningly, "how came it that the murdered man had the
scar on his cheek? He might have been like Vrain, eh, but not so much."
"Mrs. Clear explained that," replied Lucian quickly. "You made that
scar, Count, with vitriol, or some such stuff. You don't know chemistry
for nothing, I see."
"I am quite ignorant of chemistry," said Ferruci sullenly.
"Jorce heard a different story in Florence."
"In Florence! Did Jorce ask about me there?" said the Count in alarm.
"He did, and heard some strange tales, Count. Come, now, it is no use
your trying to evade this matter further. Jorce can prove that you put
Vrain into his asylum under the name of Clear. Miss Vrain can prove that
the so-called Clear is her father, and Mrs. Clear--who has turned
Queen's evidence--has exposed the whole of your conspiracy. The game's
up, Count."
Ferruci sprang from his seat and began to walk hastily up and down the
room. He looked haggard and pale, and years older, as he recognised his
position, for he saw very plainly that he was trapped, and that nothing
remained to him but flight. But how to fly? He stopped opposite to
Lucian.
"What do you intend to do?" he demanded in a hoarse voice.
"Have you arrested, along with Mrs. Vrain," replied Lucian, making this
threat to force Ferruci into defending himself or confessing.
"Mrs. Vrain is innocent--she knows nothing about this conspiracy, as you
call it. I planned the whole thing myself."
"You admit, then, that the so-called Vrain was really Michael Clear?"
"Yes. I got him to personate the man Vrain, so that I could get the
assurance money when I married Lydia. I chose Clear because he was like
Vrain. I made the scar on the cheek, and I thought he would die soon,
being consumptive."
"And you killed him?"
"No! No! I swear I did not kill him!"
"Did you not take that stiletto from Berwin Manor?"
"No! I never did! I am telling the truth! I do not know who killed
Clear."
"Did you not visit Wrent in Jersey Street?"
"Yes. I was the man Rhoda saw in the back yard. I was waiting for Mrs.
Clear, to take her to Hampstead; and in the meantime I thought I would
climb over the fence and see Clear. But the girl saw me, so I ran away,
and joined Mrs. Clear up the road. I was not aware at the time that the
woman who saw me was Rhoda. Afterwards I went to Hampstead with Mrs.
Clear, to see Jorce."
"Did you buy the cloak?"
"I did. That girl in Baxter & Co.'s told a lie for me. I was warned by
Mrs. Vrain that you had made questions about the cloak, so I went to the
girl and told her you were a jealous husband, and paid her to say it was
not I who bought the cloak. She did so, quite ignorant of the real
reason I wished her to deny knowing me."
"Why did you buy the cloak?" asked Lucian, satisfied with this
explanation.
"I bought it for Wrent. He asked me to buy it, but what he wanted it for
I do not know. He had it some days before Christmas, and, I believe,
gave it to Mrs. Clear, and afterwards to the girl Rhoda. But of this I
am not sure."
"Who is Wrent?" asked Denzil, reserving the most important question for
the last.
"Wrent?" said Ferruci, smiling in a sneering way. "Ah! you wish to know
who Wrent is? Well, excuse me for a few minutes, and I'll bring you
something to show who he is."
With a nod to Lucian he passed into his bedroom, leaving the barrister
much astonished. He thought that Ferruci was Wrent himself, and had gone
away to resume the disguise of wig and beard. While he pondered thus the
Count reappeared, carrying a small bottle in his hand.
"Mr. Denzil," said he, with a ghastly smile, "I have played a bold game,
and, thanks to a woman's treachery, I have lost. I hoped to get twenty
thousand pounds and a charming wife; but I have gained nothing but
poverty and a chance of imprisonment; but I am of noble birth, and I
will not survive my dishonour. You wish to know who Wrent is--you shall
never know."
He raised the bottle to his lips before Lucian, motionless with horror,
could rush forward, and the next moment Count Ercole Ferruci was lying
dead on the floor.