All Monk's instincts were to retreat, but he could not afford to. He had everything to gain from winning Orme's trust, and everything to lose without it. He forced himself to speak gently. "Mr. Farnham says that there are people suggesting we are corrupt. We have to clear this up and prove them wrong-or liars, if that's what they are."

Orme paled, his body stiff. His eyes met Monk's in a puzzled, unhappy gaze.

"The River Police have had a name for honesty for over half a century," Monk went on, his own voice quiet and angry. "I won't have it changed now! How do we stop this, Mr. Orme?"

Orme snapped to attention. Suddenly he realized Monk was asking his help, not somehow challenging him, and far less blaming him.

"There's a lot fer us to do, sir," he said carefully, as if testing Monk's intent.

"There is," Monk agreed. "There are the usual fights and robberies in the docks and along the barges and moored ships, the accidents, the dangerous wrecks or cargoes, the thefts, fights, sinkings, and fires."

"And murders," Orme added, watching Monk's eyes.

"And murders," Monk agreed.

"Do you reckon as she meant to go o'er, Mr. Monk?"

So he was thinking of Mary again, as if he too was haunted by her courage, her loneliness, the unsolved questions.

"No, I don't." He was being more honest than he had intended, but there was no help for now but to go on. If he could not rely on Orme, he was lost anyway. "I think she knew of something in the tunneling more dangerous than just the engines, or even the speed with which they're cutting. I don't know what it is yet, but I think someone killed her-and her father-over it."

"Argyll?" Orme said with surprise.

"Not directly, no. I think he probably paid someone to kill James Havilland, and Mary found that out, too."

Orme's face was grim with the anger a normally gentle man feels when he is outraged. There was something frightening in it, unselfish and implacable. "I think as you should keep followin' that until you find out 'oo it was, sir," he said levelly. "It's wrong ter let that go by. If we don't see it right fer a woman like that, wot use are we?"

"And the thefts from the passenger boats?" Monk asked. "Our reputation matters, too. It's part of our ability to do the job. If people don't trust us, we're crippled."