“Ah,” said Lavien. “I’m sorry to keep you, but I’m glad you are here. I want you to meet this man. Albert Turner, may I present Captain Saunders and his associate, Leonidas.”
Turner bowed very deeply. “Yes, very good,” he said. “Captain Saunders, yes. Of course, sir. Your name is well known to me.”
Rarely could that be desirable. I bowed, and we all sat. Lavien called for drinks.
“I am always pleased to make a new acquaintance,” I said, though it was a wretched lie. I could not have desired less to meet this man. “Yet I suspect there is some particular reason I have been summoned. Something out of the way of ordinary sociability.”
“Mr. Turner lived in Philadelphia during much of the war,” said Lavien. “Indeed, he was not always the greatest friend of the United States, for he served the British cause.”
Turner smiled sheepishly once more, this time opening his mouth, and showing me that the better portion of his teeth were but a memory. “Many people did, you know, and had things gone otherwise we’d have been heroes. Merely the chance of history. You cannot blame a man for taking up the cause of his native land.”
“All in the past,” said Lavien, careful to affect an air of easy civility. “The war is over, and we have no interest in punishing one set of men because their consciences dictated a course of action different from another set.”
“Exactly so,” said Turner. The tankards of beer had now arrived, and he drank quickly and deeply, as if afraid he might soon be asked to leave and wished to take as much drink as he could first. The end result was a rather large spill on his coat, which he brushed at with evident embarrassment. “These questions of loyalty and allegiance during the war are but matters of curiosity now, though they were of the greatest import then.”
I believed I now understood what this was about. It concerned Fleet. I stood up. “I told you, Lavien, that I didn’t want you looking into this.”
“Yes,” said Lavien, “but I didn’t listen. I see in you an asset to this government and to Hamilton, but as long as your name lies in shadow, the government cannot make use of you. It is my duty to ignore your wishes.”
I would not dignify his flattery with a response. “Come, Leonidas.”
Lavien stood. “Sit down, Captain Saunders. You do wish to hear this.”
I did not like to be ordered around, but I knew from how he spoke that regret would eat away at me if I did not listen. I had no choice, really. I sat down.
“Mr. Turner,” said Lavien, “is the British agent to whom you and Fleet were alleged to sell messages. It was his correspondence that was found in your things. He, of course, fled once he received word that you had been apprehended and only returned to Philadelphia after the war.”
I stared at him and then turned to Lavien. “He can say nothing I want to hear.”
“You believe that,” said Lavien, “because you believe he will condemn Fleet, but it is not the case.”
I felt myself biting the inside of my cheek, but I said nothing.
“Very right,” said Turner. “I never had anything to do with you or Major Fleet. Yours were the names I was directed to use by my contact. I did not know why, nor did I care. It sounds rather unkind, I know, but it was war, and we did not trouble ourselves with such things. You were no better than I, I am sure, for it is easy to overlook the harm to innocents when you cannot see or know them.”
It was true enough. “Go on.”
“I was authorized to buy secrets from various contacts, and one of them insisted that I contact him using your names instead of my own. It was these letters that Mr. Lavien informs me were found in your things, though I cannot say how they made their way there. When I heard of your capture, I did not think of it, for I presumed that my contact was but the middleman, though I was surprised to learn that you and Major Fleet were real men. I always presumed they were noms de guerre.”
“You are saying that our betrayal was planned?” I asked. “For how long did you use these names before we were accused?”
“Oh, six months at least. Maybe nine. Then we were betrayed, each in our own way.”
Lavien leaned forward and then back. This was as much enthusiasm as he ever demonstrated. “For the betrayal to have happened in such a manner, it would have had to have been done by your contact. Who else could have known enough to ruin all involved?”
I did not like it that Lavien had proceeded without my permission, but I could not deny my excitement. This conspiracy had been the great mystery of my life, its principal turning point. It seemed that now I was to learn the truth behind it, and the truth would not condemn Fleet. “Did you know his name?” I asked, keeping my voice steady.
“I was not meant to,” answered Turner, “but I was cleverer than he thought. He believed me nothing but a blunderer, and I suppose I was, but even so, I was no fool. And he was always too impressed with himself. Still is, I suppose, but vicious too. I have no doubt he would kill me if he were to see me, for though it would be but my word against his, and the war is long over, he would not like it if I were to tell the world what I know.”
I tried to speak, but my breath caught. I tried again. “What is his name?” I did not need to ask. I already knew.
“His name is Pearson, Jacob Pearson.”
I was on my feet and halfway out the door when I felt Lavien’s hand around my arm, pulling me back to my table. He must have weighed a third less than I did, yet his strength was great, his weight perfectly proportioned. I do not know that I could have broken free of his grip.
“Wait.” His voice was quiet but undeniably commanding.
“Do not tell me to wait,” I answered, though I had stopped without meaning to. “You cannot preach caution to me. He destroyed my life, and now he destroys hers. He destroys his own children, for the love of God! How can you bid me wait?”
“You misunderstand me,” said Lavien. “I do not ask you for restraint. Do you forget to whom you speak? I only ask you to wait.”
“For what am I to wait?” I asked, my teeth nearly clenched.
“You are not thinking clearly,” he said. “You have allowed your reason to be clouded by rage. You do not see what I see.”
“And what do you see?” I demanded.
He looked over at Turner. “He’s not telling us everything.”
I glanced over at the old man, nervously twisting a ring around his finger. I had not visited any anger upon him. No, not so much as a single harsh word had I offered him, for I heard his original plea, and though I could not love a traitor, I could not condemn a man who loves his own country, even when it is in the wrong. I had said as much, and he had believed me, he had seen it in me. And yet he nervously twisted that ring about his finger. I looked at him, and he looked away. I now turned to Lavien.
“He’s not telling us everything,” I said.
I sat down. Lavien sat down. Leonidas had never arisen, yet he seemed to understand our mood at once. “There’s more,” he said.
I nodded. To Turner I said, “There’s more.”
Turner continued to twist his ring. His skin turned red. “I have told you all-all you can care about. Of course there are more secrets. I was a spy, and it was war. But I have nothing else to say that would concern you.”
“There’s more,” I said. “Where shall we take him, your house, Lavien?”
“I cannot bring violence under the roof where my wife and children live,” he said. “I am a different man at home. It must be that way.”
“I live in a boardinghouse,” I said. “We cannot question a man there.”
“Rent a room here,” said Leonidas. “It is a loud tavern. Nothing will be heard.”
“Clever man,” I answered.