Lord Charles made an effort to speak, failed to do so, and nodded his head. At last he managed to say: “We thought it better not to — not to try to — we didn’t know whether it might prove fatal to—”
“To remove anything? Quite so.”
“Is that all?”
“I shan’t trouble you much further, my lord, but I should like to ask if you know whether his lordship had any enemies.”
“Enemies! That’s an extravagant sort of way to put it.”
“It’s the way we generally put it, my lord. I daresay it does sound rather exaggerated but you see the motive for this sort of crime is usually something a bit stronger than dislike.”
To this bland rejoinder Lord Charles found nothing to say.
“Of course,” Fox continued, “the term enemies is used rather broadly, my lord. I might put it another way and ask if you know of anyone who had good reason to wish for Lord Wutherwood’s death.”
Lord Charles answered this question instantly with a little spurt of words that sounded oddly mechanical.
“If you mean, do I know of anyone who would benefit by his death,” he said, “I suppose you may say that his heirs will do so. I am his heir.”