"Easily!" Sacheverall said with amazement. "Perhaps in your circles, Monk, but hardly in the society in which he—she moved, and among the people who would be her patrons. I think you forget she practiced her profession among the very cream of society, not the sort of person who might regard that kind of... perversion ... as acceptable."

Zillah swung around to glare at him. "It was not a perversion!" she defended hotly. "She did nothing wrong or not... normal. She only dressed as a man; she didn't behave as one in—in a personal sense." The color was hot in her cheeks also, but for the embarrassment of having to seek words for something she was uncertain of and which it was indelicate to discuss. "You are trying to say that she was in some way mad, and that's not true."

"My dear Zillah, you have no idea what she may have done... in private!" Sacheverall expostulated.

"Neither have you!" she said instantly. "You are suggesting something ugly, but you don't know."

"We know she killed herself," he said gently. "That is unarguable. Young people in good health, with sufficient funds and a stable character, do not take their own lives. It is a crime against God, as well as against the state." He looked calm and satisfied with that answer.

Zillah looked back at Monk. "Is that true?"

"It is part of the truth," he agreed.

"And the rest of it?"

"Zillah ..." Delphine said warningly.

"The rest of it?" Her eyes did not deviate from Monk's.

"The rest of it is that I wonder if she did kill herself, or if someone else did in order to bring the case to a conclusion before I investigated any further and uncovered something unpleasant," he replied.

She looked completely confused, as if she could see no sense in what he had said.

Sacheverall let out a guffaw of ridicule.

"What were you investigating?" Zillah asked. "About Killian? I—I mean Keelin ... I don't understand a great deal about the law, but if there was something, surely if she told Sir Oliver, he would have kept it secret? Doesn't he have to, if he was her barrister? Anyway, what could it be?" Her brow darkened. "And why were you investigating her? Sir Oliver was supposed to be defending her. He was on her side!" She was indignant. She felt a trust had been abused.

"No, Miss Lambert," Monk said softly. "I was investigating you."

"Me?" She was amazed. "I have nothing to hide."

"What about Hugh Gibbons?"

"Oh!" She looked away and the color rushed crimson up her cheeks. "Well, that was all rather foolish. I suppose I was indiscreet—"

"Zillah!" Delphine said warningly.

Sacheverall frowned and stood perfectly still. It was the first time he had seemed uncertain of himself since Monk had come in.