Bethlehem Road by Anne Perry

months.”
    “And before that?”
    “A backbencher, on various committees. Why?” He frowned. “Surely you don’t think this was political?”
    “I don’t know, sir. Has Sir Lockwood been involved in any issues or legislation that might arouse strong feelings?”
    “He hasn’t proposed anything. For Heaven’s sake, he’s a Parliamentary Private Secretary, not a minister!”
    Pitt realized he had made a tactical error. “Before you appointed him to this position, sir,” he went on, “you must have known a considerable amount about him: his past career, his stand on important issues, his private life, reputation, business and financial affairs ...”
    “Of course,” the Home Secretary agreed somewhat tartly. Then he realized Pitt’s purpose. “I don’t think I can tell you anything of use. I don’t appoint men I consider likely to be murdered for their private lives, and he wasn’t important enough to be a political target.”
    “Probably not, sir,” Pitt was forced to agree. “However, I would be neglecting my duty if I didn’t look at all the possibilities. Someone unbalanced enough to think of murder as a solution to their problems may not be as rational as you or I.”
    The Home Secretary gave him a sharp glance, suspecting sarcasm, and he did not like the impertinence of Pitt’s equating a Cabinet Minister with a policeman in an estimate of rationality, but he met Pitt’s bland blue stare and decided the matter was not worth pursuing.
    “We may be dealing with the irrational,” he said coldly. “I hope so most profoundly. Any society may be subject to the occasional lunatic. A family or business crime would be unpleasant, but it would be a nine-day scandal, forgotten afterwards. Immeasurably worse would be some conspiracy of anarchists or revolutionaries who were not after poor Hamilton in particular but bent on generally destabilizing the government and causing alarm and public outcry.” His hands tightened imperceptibly. “We must clear up this matter as soon as possible. I assume you have all available men on it?”
    Pitt could see his reasoning—and yet there was a coldness in him that Pitt found himself disliking as he stood there in the elegant and well-ordered office, which smelled faintly of beeswax and leather. The Home Secretary would prefer a private tragedy with all its pain and ruined lives to an impersonal plot hatched by hotheads dreaming of power and change in some back room, and he felt no compunction about saying so.
    “Well?” the Home Secretary demanded irritably. “Speak up, man!”
    “Yes sir, we have. You must have considered other men for the position of your Parliamentary Private Secretary, as well as Sir Lockwood?”
    “Naturally.”
    “Perhaps your secretary would give me their names.” It was not a question.
    “If you think it necessary.” He was reluctant, but he took the point. “Hardly a position a sane man kills to achieve.”
    “What sort of position would a sane man kill to achieve, sir?” Pitt asked, his voice as devoid of expression as he could manage.
    The Home Secretary shot him a look of chill dislike. “I think you must look outside Her Majesty’s government for your suspect, Inspector!” he said acidly.
    Pitt was unruffled: it was faintly satisfying that their dislike was mutual. “Can you tell me Sir Lockwood’s views on the most contentious current issues, sir? For example, Home Rule for Ireland?”
    The Home Secretary pushed out his lower lip thoughtfully, his irritation submerged. “I suppose it could be something to do with that, not directed at poor Hamilton so much as at the government in general. Always an issue that raises heated emotions. He was for it, and fairly outspoken. Though if people were going to murder each other because they disagreed over the Irish question, the streets of London would look like the aftermath of Waterloo.”
    “What about other issues, sir? Penal reform, the poor laws, factory conditions, slum