A study in scandal Read Online Free Page A

Watersfield, but I insist. Let me give you a scenario. Let us say that—what is the name of the servant who cleans this room?”
    “Penny.”
    “Very well. Let us say that Penny is in here cleaning, and while she is dusting the artifact, she accidentally knocks it to the floor, and it breaks. Now,Penny, being the loyal servant she is, knows how dear this piece is to your father, and she loathes the thought of revealing such wretched news to him. So instead, she takes the piece. Tosses it in the dustbin, or perhaps takes it to her room to try and repair it.”
    The frown dissolved from her face and a slow smile crept in. She narrowed her eyes playfully. “Inspector, I believe you have a knack for creating fiction.” She pointed one dainty finger at him. “Are you a reader, sir?”
    “I beg your pardon? It was not fiction, but rather a possible scenario.”
    “Hmmmm…I’m not so certain about that.”
    She was toying with him, and he had the sudden urge to tease back. Enjoy a bit of whimsical banter. But he did not engage in banter of any sort, and now was certainly not the time.
    “The servants, Miss Watersfield. Can we set up a time when I can come and question them?”
    “Why not allow me to ask them if they took it? That will work the same, wouldn’t you agree?” she asked.
    “No, I would not agree. They will lie to you,” he said flatly.
    She actually looked affronted, as if he’d accused them of something absolutely unspeakable. “They would do no such thing.”
    “Everyone lies, Miss Watersfield.”
    “I do not lie, Inspector.”
    She looked quite serious, not to mention insulted that he’d even suggested such a thing. She did not lie. That was quite unlikely. It was his experience that everyone lied. Even honest peopled lied if it served their purpose. He would not even entertain the possibility that she might be different in that regard.
    “I insist on being present when you question them.” She tilted her chin up with a notch of defiance.
    She was not budging on this issue. Perhaps they would save the actual questioning for another day. In the meantime, he would play the insistent inspector. “Your presence could make it a futile exercise. It is likely that if one of the servants is guilty, he or she will not freely admit it if you are in the room.”
    “But you believe they will admit it to you, a stranger, if I am not?” He would have taken those words with a heavy dose of sarcasm had he not glanced up to see her face. Her eyes were wide with surprise.
    “There are ways of encouraging people to talk. Even to strangers.”
    “You do not harm them, do you?”
    “No.”
    She gave him a thorough once-over. “Well, it’s only that you’re such a large man,” she said quietly, as if alerting him to a fact of which he was unaware. “You could certainly do considerable harm to some people. Although I wouldn’t have pegged you as a man of violence.”
    He shook his head. People rarely assumed anything about him, but no one ever claimed to know anything about him.
    She made him dizzy.
    Her circuitous logic. Her frank inspection of him. Her smile. Her scent.
    What was that fragrance? It was…sweet, similar to fruit. It mattered not what her scent was or of what fruit specifically it reminded him. He needed this case. He needed the money. Therefore he needed to keep his focus where it belonged.
    Which was on the case of the missing Nefertiti and earning his hefty retainer. Not how Miss Watersfield smelled, smiled, or tantalized him with her ankles. It made no sense that he even would have noticed her, much less allowed her to distract him. She was entirely too chatty and much too cheerful.
    More than likely his scattered thoughts were only nerves. This was his first client since opening his agency, and he’d only been called in becauseLord Watersfield knew his father. Well, that and the fact that the police had not been interested in the case since there was no real evidence of a disturbance.