William Monk 13 - Death of a Stranger

in his careful eyes and slightly pinched lips, and above all in the tightness in his body as he sat, one leg still crossed over the other. His fists were closed, his muscles rigid. They were opponents still. That would never be forgotten.
    “Nolan Baltimore has been murdered,” Monk stated. He saw Colman’s start of surprise, then a gleam of satisfaction, and immediately afterwards guilt for it, even a flush in his cheeks. But he was in no haste to express the usual regrets. There was an honesty in him which prevented it.
    “By a prostitute,” Monk added. “While in the pursuit of somewhat irregular pleasures.”
    Disgust was plain in Colman’s eyes.
    “And that brings you here?” he said in disbelief.
    “Not directly,” Monk replied. “But it does mean we cannot question him about anything to do with what very much appears to be another fraud in Baltimore and Sons, almost exactly like the first.”
    Colman sat upright with a jolt. “Another? But Dundas is dead, poor soul. You, of all people, must know that. Surely your memory cannot be so affected . . . I mean . . .” He stopped.
    Monk rescued him in his embarrassment. “I remember that. But what I don’t recall is how the fraud was discovered . . . not in detail. You see, it seems this time as if a man named Dalgarno is responsible, only the person who was his main accuser is also dead . . . murdered.” He saw the pity in Colman’s face, this time unmixed with anything else. “A woman,” Monk continued. “She was betrothed to him, and because of her privileged position as his fiancée, discovered certain things about the business, overheard conversations, saw papers, which made her realize there was something seriously wrong. She brought it to me. I investigated it as far as I was able, but I could find no fraud. A little questionable profiteering, but that’s all.”
    “But she was murdered?” Colman interrupted, leaning forward with urgency.
    “Yes. And Dalgarno is charged with it. But in order to prove his guilt we need to show the fraud beyond question.”
    “I see.” It was clear from his expression that he understood perfectly. “What is it that you want of me?”
    “You were the one who first suspected fraud. Why?”
    Colman frowned. He was clearly fascinated by the concept of such total loss from the mind of something in which Monk had been passionately involved. “You really remember nothing of it?” His voice thickened with emotion; his body became rigid. “You don’t remember my church? In the valley, with the old trees around it? The graveyard?”
    Monk struggled, but nothing came. He was picturing it in his mind, but it was imagination, not memory. He shook his head.
    “It was beautiful,” Colman said, his face tender with sorrow. “An old church. The original was Norman, with a crypt underneath where men were buried nearly a thousand years ago. The graveyard was full of old families, over fifteen or twenty generations. It was the history of the land. History is only people, you know.” He stared at Monk intensely, reaching for the man behind the facade, the passions which could be stirred—and wounded—deeper than the analytical brain. “They sent the railway right through the middle of it.”
    Now something clicked in Monk’s mind, a bishop mild and reasonable, full of regret, but acknowledging progress and the need for work for men, transport, the moving forward of society. There had been a curate, shy and enthusiastic, wanting to keep the old and bring in the new as well, and refusing to see that to have both was impossible.
    And caught between the two of them the Reverend Colman, an enthusiast, a lover of the unbroken chain of history who saw the railways as forces of destruction, shattering the cement of family bonds with the dead, vandalizing the physical monuments that kept the spiritual ties whole. Monk could hear voices raised—shouting, angry and afraid, faces twisted with rage.
    But Colman had done more than protest, he had proved crime. Was this it, the elusive memory at last—the proof? Who would it blame—Baltimore, or Monk himself? He cleared his throat. It felt tight, as if he could not breathe.
    “They destroyed the church?” he asked aloud.
    “Yes. The new line goes right over where it used to be.” Colman did not add anything; the emotion in his voice was sufficient.
    “How did you discover the fraud?” Monk forced himself to sound almost normal. He almost had the