“I see,” Rathbone repeated softly. “And you are afraid your actions will hang a man who may be innocent.” That was not a question. He knew Monk well enough for it not to need to be.

Monk looked at him steadily. “Yes. Please?”

“He may have his own barrister already,” Rathbone warned. “But I will do everything I can, I promise you.”

Monk started to say “You’ve got to,” and realized how foolish that was. He was asking a favor for which he could not pay, perhaps an impossible one. “Thank you,” he said instead.

Rathbone smiled slightly, like a moment’s sun on a winter landscape. “Then let us begin. If Dalgarno did not kill her, and you did not, then who did? Do you have any idea at all?”

“No,” Monk said simply. It was the bare truth. He realized how very little he knew about Katrina Harcus. He could have described her to the minutest detail—her hair, her face, her remarkable eyes, the way she moved, the inflections of her voice. He could have told Rathbone what she had worn almost every time he had seen her. But until the day of her death he had not even known where she lived, let alone where she came from or anything of her daily life, her family or her past.

Rathbone tightened his lips for a second, then with an effort forbore from making any comment on Monk’s gullibility. Perhaps if he considered it, he knew as little about some of his own clients. “Well then, the first thing you can do is find out everything else you can about her, and as rapidly as possible,” he said bleakly. “Go wherever it takes you, but report to me every day.” He knew he did not need to emphasize that.

Monk stood up. Rathbone had been light in his condemnation, saying nothing of criticism or blame, but Monk knew him well enough to be aware of his thoughts. He felt as crushed by the mere fact of them as if they all had been put into speech.

Rathbone handed him the funds he would need.

“Thank you,” Monk accepted, hating it. Whether Rathbone would get any of it back from Dalgarno was still an open question, but Monk could not afford to refuse. He had no idea where his search would take him. Not only would Dalgarno’s life depend on it, but his own conscience, his identity, and if things came to the worst, his life too. If it seemed Dalgarno would be convicted, then he would have to tell the court of the paper he had found at Katrina’s rooms, and destroyed, and show them that the coat button was his. Then how could even Rathbone save him from the rope?

And yet he was innocent. Perhaps Dalgarno was also.

“I need to start with Dalgarno himself,” he said aloud. “Get me an interview with him.”