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out of very wide dark gray eyes. He seemed still to be suffering from shock at the events, or else he was embarrassed by the situation. Pitt thought it quite likely it was the latter. It was never easy to know what to say to the bereaved. When the death is violent and as fraught with darkness as this one, it was doubly so.
    “How do you do, sir,” Victor said stiffly, then retired a pace or two to stand a little behind his mother.
    “How kind of you to come,” Mina asserted herself, leaning forward with a fragile smile, first to Thora, then to Victor. “Please do sit down. It is a very warm day. May I offer you some refreshment? You will stay a little while, won’t you?” It was more than a polite invitation, it was definitely a request.
    “Of course, my dear, if you wish it.” Thora arranged her skirts so as not to crush them, and perched graciously on one of the bright red overstuffed chairs. Victor remained standing behind her, but he adopted a pose in which he looked quite at ease.
    “The superintendent was just asking us if Oakley could have called upon anyone in the neighborhood last night,” Mina continued. “But of course we do not know the answer.”
    Thora looked at Pitt with wide sharp eyes. She was a very comely woman, fair-skinned, her features regular and full of intelligence and humor and, he thought, a very considerable underlying strength.
    “You surely cannot imagine anyone Captain Winthrop knew could have done such a—an insane thing,” she said critically. “That is inconceivable. If you had had even the merest acquaintance with him, such a thought would never enter your head. He was an entirely excellent man….”
    Mina smiled nervously. Her hand jerked up as if to her face, then instead touched the black lace at her throat.
    Bart winced and his hand tightened on her shoulder, almost as if he were supporting her, even though she was seated.
    Victor stood perfectly still, his expression unchanging.
    “He was a naval officer,” Thora went on, still looking at Pitt, and apparently unaware of the emotion in the room. “I think you cannot realize what sort of life such men lead, Superintendent. He was not unlike my late husband.” She straightened her shoulders a fraction. “Victor’s father. He was a lieutenant, and would certainly have reached captain had he not been taken from us in so untimely a fashion.” Her face lit with an inner radiance. “Such men have great courage and are powerful both as to character and person. And of course you cannot command in dangerous situations, such as obtain at sea, if you are not an excellent judge of men.” She shook her head to dismiss such a weakness. “Captain Winthrop would not have kept the acquaintance of anyone of such violence and instability as to attack another person in so heinous a fashion. He must have been set upon by lunatics, that is the only possible answer.”
    “I was not imagining it to be an acquaintance, ma’am,” Pitt said, not entirely truthfully. “I was wondering if anyone else might have seen him, and thus know where he was and at what time he was last seen alive.”
    “Oh—I see,” she conceded. Then she frowned. “Not that I understand how that would help. There can hardly be hordes of
criminal
lunatics in Hyde Park. I know London is in a fearful state.” Her eyes did not move from Pitt’s. “There is anarchy everywhere, talk of sedition and rebellion, and Lord knows, enough trouble in Ireland, what with the Fenians and the like, but one may still walk safely in the better streets of London! Or at least one had supposed so.”
    “I’m sure one can, my dear,” Mina murmured. “This is all a nightmare. I still think it may have been some sort of hideous accident—or foreigners perhaps.” She looked at Pitt. “I have heard that the Chinese take opium, and it does all sorts of—well …”
    “It sends them to sleep,” Bart contradicted. “It doesn’t make them violent.” He glanced at Pitt. “Is