The Final Recollections of Charles Dickens by Thomas Hauser

Dickens.”
    â€œI did not know that police inspectors travel with newspaper boys.”
    â€œMr. Dickens is assisting me. His shorthand skills are of great value.”
    There was an outward calm on Wingate’s face, though a bit more colour in it than I had seen before. He understood at that point that the inspector and I were united. Whatever either of us knew separately, itwas likely to be worse for him now that our knowledge was joined.
    Ellsworth sat uninvited in a chair. I followed his lead and took a transcription pad from my coat pocket.
    Wingate leaned back in his chair, settled into a position of repose, and looked at the inspector with an expression that seemed to say, “This is an amusing fellow. I will hear him out.” Then he yawned.
    Ellsworth began. “It is my duty, sir, in the position which I hold, to inform you that—”
    â€œI’m a busy man,” Wingate interrupted with the air of one who, by reason of his superior place in society, has the right to speak condescendingly to another. “My time is precious even if yours is not. Come to the point, and I will imagine all that ought to have been said before.”
    â€œI speak to you from the heart—”
    â€œDon’t be absurd,” Wingate interrupted again. “The heart is the center of the blood vessels, an ingenious part of our formation. Men are some times stabbed in the heart or shot in the heart. But as to speaking from the heart or being warm-hearted or cold-hearted or broken-hearted, those things are nonsense. The heart has no more to do with what you say or think than your knees have.”
    â€œI am not as clever as you are,” Ellsworth continued. “But the truth raises me to your level. Let me ask you first about Owen Pearce.”
    â€œHe had the misfortune to die, as all of us shall some day.”
    â€œBut he died rather young. And I find it curious that you are in possession of so much that belonged once to another man.”
    â€œThe legal papers were in proper order. I conducted no business that was not to the full satisfaction of the court. I find your questions rather dull.”
    â€œBlunt tools are some times of use where sharper instruments fail.”
    â€œAnd you misjudge the limits of my patience.”
    â€œYour patience is not my concern. Let me be plain with you and play a fairer game than when you held all the cards and Owen Pearce saw only the backs.”
    Wingate glared with eyes as cutting as swords. “You fail to understand who I am,” he said with an air of patronage.
    â€œTo the contrary, Mr. Wingate. You are no stranger to me. I understand your kind well.”
    â€œAnd you have no idea of what went on in Owen Pearce’s home. Perhaps you have spoken with Lenora Pearce. I am sure she did not tell you that she had a lover.”
    Ellsworth sat silent.
    Wingate smiled a dark wicked smile.
    â€œThat is correct, sir. A lover. At times, I have wondered whether Lenora was not complicit in Owen’s murder. He loved her and confided in me that he was hurt terribly by her conduct. It was the reason he changed several financial instruments in the months before his death.”
    â€œThe instruments are fraudulent,” Ellsworth said calmly. “Through procedures of detection developed only recently at Scotland Yard, we have determined that a forgery was committed. And there is more. We have found a witness who saw Owen Pearce and another man walking together and then heard a gunshot moments before the body was found.”
    Wingate started when Ellsworth spoke those words. It was a slight start, quickly repressed and checked. But he did start, though he made it a part of taking a handkerchief out of his pocket and blowing his nose.
    â€œThe witness will identify you as that man who was walking with Owen Pearce.”
    â€œMy dear Mr. Ellsworth. Have you really lived to your present age and remained so simple as to approach a