02 - Mrs. Jeffries Dusts for Clues (21 page)

The woman looked taken aback for an instant, and then her bony face hardened. Mrs. Jeffries quickly shoved Luty to one side.

“Please forgive my friend’s rather bold manner,” she began pleasantly. She ignored Luty’s snort of derision. “But it’s terribly important that we speak to Mary Sparks. One could almost say it was a matter of life and death. This is Mrs. Luty Belle Crookshank, and she’s a dear friend of Mary’s. We’ve been so very worried about the girl. We must see her.”

The woman regarded her suspiciously for a moment and then stepped back and opened the door wider. “I’m Agnes Finch. Go on through to the parlor. I’ll see if Mary wants to see you.”

They trooped into the parlor, and a few moments later Mary Sparks appeared. Puzzled, she stopped in the doorway and gazed at the unfamiliar faces. When she reached Luty Belle’s, she gasped and rushed forward. “Oh, Mrs. Crookshank, it’s you. I’m so glad you’ve come.”

“Well, I reckon I had to come,” Luty exclaimed as she rose and gave the girl a hug. “You weren’t exactly bustin’ your horses to come see me, was ya?”

“I’m so sorry,” Mary pleaded. She bit her lower lip. “But I’ve been so scared. Everythin’s so mixed up. Garrett said I should just wait here until Mark come home before I did anything.” She paused and cast a quick, curious glance at the others.

“These are my friends,” Luty hastily explained. “If’n you didn’t murder Cassie Yates, then they’ve come to help.”

Mary’s eyes widened, and she paled. “Then she really is dead. I knew somethin’ had happened to her,” she whispered.

“You knew Cassie had been murdered?” Mrs. Jeffries interjected softly.

“No.” Mary shook her head. “I mean, I thought somethin’ bad might have happened to her, but I didn’t know it were murder.”

“Why’d ya think somethin’ had happened to Cassie?” Luty asked. “Dang and blast, this ain’t makin’ no sense at all. How’d you come to get mixed up with Cassie Yates and her troubles?”

“I didn’t want to get mixed up with her,” Mary said earnestly. “But I didn’t have no choice about it. Then, after she didn’t show up to collect her pouch, I knew somethin’ was wrong.”

Luty’s gaze sharpened. “What pouch?”

“The one she gave me to keep for her…”

Mrs. Jeffries stepped forward again. “I think it would be best if Mary sat down and told us what happened in her own good time.”

Mary looked at Luty for guidance, and when the elderly woman nodded, she sat down on the settee.

Betsy and Smythe leaned forward, Wiggins balanced on the edge of his chair and even Mrs. Jeffries was excited. She forced herself to calm down. “Now,” she said, sitting down across from Mary and Luty Belle. “Why don’t you tell us what happened?”

The girl chewed her lower lip and twisted her hands together in her lap. “I’m not right sure where to begin.”

“Why don’t you start with the event that led you to decide to leave the Lutterbank house?” Mrs. Jeffries suggested smoothly.

Mary nodded. “Well, it were the day before I went to Mrs. Crookshank. I were upstairs dusting the landin’ when all of a sudden, Andrew Lutterbank slinks up behind me and tried to put his arms around me waist.” She wrinkled her nose in disgust. “He’s done that before, but this time it were different.”

“Different how?” Mrs. Jeffries asked.

“Bolder. Like he didn’t care if I said somethin’ to his father. I slapped his hands and told him to leave me be, but he just laughed and lunged at me agin. This time I stepped back far enough to run if I had to, and that made him stop. I told him if he didn’t leave me be, I’d tell his father, and he just laughed and said he didn’t care.” Mary shook her head. “Said he didn’t need to worry anymore, that he had a bit of money comin’ to him. But I knew that were a lie. He’d been lickin’ his father’s boots for weeks tryin’ to get Mr. Lutterbank to give him back his allowance. Andrew hadn’t had as much as a farthing from Mr. Lutterbank since he got Sally Comstock in the family way,
and they used Andrew’s allowance to pay her off and ship her to Australia.”

“So you know about that,” Mrs. Jeffries said. She remembered that Mary wasn’t at the Lutterbank house when that incident had occurred. “Who told you?”

“Cassie told me,” Mary replied. “But it weren’t a secret. Everyone in the house knew what had happened. Oh yes, everyone knows. Especially with Cassie goin’ on about it all the time. You’d have had to been deaf as a post not to have heard the story.”

“Then what happened?” Luty asked impatiently.

“Well, after I told him to leave me be, he flounced out of the house and into the garden. Mr. Farnsworth and Mr. Clements were waitin’ for him. I watched from the window. I didn’t want to run into him, and I were hopin’ he’d be goin’ out with the other gentleman. They often went to their club and played cards—gamblin’ and the like.”

“But how could Andrew gamble?” Mrs. Jeffries asked. “You said he didn’t have any money.” She frowned as she remembered the gossip Mrs. Goodge had told her.

“He didn’t use money. Least he hadn’t been. He used the belongin’s he had in his room,” Mary explained. “He had a lot of nice things some old relative who’d died out in India had left him. Strange kinds of objects, gold candlesticks, jewels, a pair of ivory-handled daggers. His friends were quite willing to let him play with that instead of money. He’d already lost most of them because Sarah, the upstairs maid, weren’t complainin’ so much about how long it took her to dust.”

“All right, so we know that Lutterbank had a yen to gamble every now and agin,” Luty said impatiently. “But time’s awastin’. Git on with the story, girl. What happened next?”

“Well, after he went into the garden, I decided I had to leave. It were one thing to stay when Andrew was behavin’ himself, but after what he’d just told me about not carin’ what his father thought no more and not needin’ his allowance, I knew I’d best get out and find myself another position.” Mary paused and took a deep breath. “There was somethin’ not right goin’
on in that house. Somethin’ I couldn’t quite put my finger on, and I just wanted to go. I’d heard about another position, over in Putney, at a minister’s house.”

“Who told you about the position?” It was Betsy who asked that question.

“Cassie Yates. Miss Fiona had sent me out that day to get her a box of chocolates. I met Cassie when she was comin’ out the side gate of the garden.”

“Who’d Cassie been visiting?” Betsy interrupted.

“I don’t know. I never asked,” Mary admitted. “But anyways, she saw that I were upset and asked me what was wrong. I told her I’d decided to leave, and she told me about the Everdenes needin’ a new maid. She give me the name of the domestic agency that was doin’ the hirin’ as well.”

“Did Cassie ask you why you wanted to leave?” Mrs. Jeffries asked.

“No, she didn’t have to. I think she knew.” Mary made a wry face. “Not that she were ever scared of Andrew; she weren’t. But that’s neither here nor there. Early the next mornin’ I give Fiona Lutterbank the news that I were leavin’ and I wouldn’t be back. Then I went to Mrs. Crookshank.”

“Why’d ya lie to me about that broach?” Luty asked sharply.

“But I didn’t.” Mary turned earnest eyes to her friend. “You see, when I told Miss Lutterbank I were leavin’ she accused me of stealin’ her silver broach. But I never took no broach. I never took nothin’ from her. So I told her she were wrong and I left.”

Luty stared at the girl’s pleading face for a few seconds and then grinned. “Reckon you’re tellin’ the truth, child.” She reached over and patted Mary’s hand. “Git on with your tale.”

Relieved, Mary nodded. “Mrs. Crookshank wrote me a letter of reference and let me spend the night. The next day, I put on my best dress and went to the domestic agency that hired for the Everdenes. I got the job. They told me to get over to Putney as soon as I could. I went back and said good-bye to
Mrs. Crookshank, picked up my carpetbag and started for the Everdene house. On my way I happened to pass by the shop where Cassie Yates used to be employed. Well, she’d already give that position up, so I were right surprised when I heard her calling me to stop.” Mary swallowed and dropped her gaze to her lap. “I didn’t want to, but she said she had to talk to me, said it were important. We went to her rooms, and then she started askin’ me a lot o’ questions.”

“What kind of questions?” Mrs. Jeffries interjected.

“She started off by askin’ if I’d got the job and had anyone from Everdene house seen me. I told her I was to start that day and that the only person I’d seen except for the lady that did the interviewin’ was a well-dressed woman who come into the office just as I were leavin’.” Mary broke off and shuddered. “I didn’t know it then, but she had somethin’ in mind with all them questions. Before I could say Bob’s-your-uncle, she ordered me to change clothes with her.”

“Change clothes with her?” Wiggins looked positively scandalized.

“Yes. Then she told me I weren’t goin’ to be workin’ for the Everdenes; she was. She were goin’ to pretend she were me and take the post.”

“Why did you go along with this?” Luty asked indignantly.

“I didn’t have no choice,” Mary explained. “When I tried to tell her I wouldn’t do it, she pulled that silver broach out of her reticule and dangled it under me nose; then she reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of pound notes. She said she’d taken the money and pin from Fiona Lutterbank, and she’d done it wearin’ my old gray cloak. She said she’d made sure several people saw her leavin’ the house wearin’ my cloak. If I didn’t do as she asked, she’d tell the Lutterbanks where I was goin’ and they’d have me put in jail.” Her voice trembled, and she broke off for a moment and turned to Luty Belle. “You were already gone to Venice, Mark was still at sea and I didn’t know what to do. I changed clothes with her and she left.”

“You poor girl,” Wiggins murmured. “All alone and frightened. It’s a cryin’ shame, that’s what it is…”

“Wiggins, please,” Mrs. Jeffries said. “Go on, Mary. What did you do then?”

“Well, I waited until it were evening and I went back to Knightsbridge. I were hopin’ that Garrett could help me. But he couldn’t do anythin’ until the next day. He couldn’t take me home with him—there’s not a spare bed at their house, and he couldn’t bring me here because Mrs. Finch weren’t home. So he told me to go to Magpie Lane. He said he overheard Mr. Clements tell Mr. Andrew and Mr. Farnsworth about the houses bein’ empty. Garrett said for me to go to the back of one of the houses and break a window. Said the whole street were deserted and no one would hear. So we waited a bit, and then I got a hansom and left.”

“Why did you delay going to Magpie Lane?” Mrs. Jeffries asked.

“I didn’t want Mr. Andrew to see me on the street. Garrett and I had to hide in some bushes until Mr. Andrew got his own hansom and went off. It took a bit of time. Hansoms were hard to come by that night. It were pouring with rain.”

“When you were there that night, did you hear any other cabs go up the road?”

Mary nodded. “Oh yes. For a deserted street it had a bit of traffic that evening. I were trying to sleep when I heard the first one, then right after that the second one, and then, a good hour later, the third cab come around the corner. After midnight, I was able to finally doze off.”

“When did you realize that Cassie Yates was missing?” Mrs. Jeffries asked softly. She watched Mary’s face closely, but the girl continued to gaze at her openly.

“The next day,” she replied in low voice. “I knew something was bad vrong the next day. Cassie had told me to meet her at a tea shop, but she never showed. I knew something had happened then.”

Betsy leaned forward. “What made you so certain?”

“Because Cassie had given me a pouch for safekeepin’. I was to bring it to her the next day. But she never came.”

“What was in the pouch?” Mrs. Jeffries asked.

Mary bit her lip again, and her eyes flooded with tears. “Money. Lots of it.”

Mrs. Jeffries ignored the gasps from the other occupants of the room. “Money,” she repeated softly. “Are you sure?”

Mary brushed at her cheeks. “I’m sure. It liked to frightened me to death, walkin’ about London with a pouch full of pound notes.”

“How much money are we talkin’ ’ere?” Smythe asked.

Mary turned to took at him and shrugged her shoulders. “Well, I didn’t count it, so I don’t rightly know. But it were a lot, more than I’ve ever seen before.”

“When Cassie didn’t show up,” Mrs. Jeffries asked softly, “what did you do with the pouch?”

“I took it to Knightsbridge,” Mary replied, giving Luty Belle an anxious glance. “I hid it in one of them tubs on Mrs. Crookshank’s terrace.”

“One of my tubs,” Luty repeated. “You mean one of them big fancy urns I’ve been plantin’ my orange trees in?”

“Yes. Garrett had told me he’d dug them out that day,” Mary explained hastily. “And I couldn’t think of any other place where the money would be safe. You know, in case Cassie showed up and wanted it back. So when I went to the gardens that day, I waited till there was no one around, then I shoved the pouch in the bottom o’ the tub and piled a bit o’ dirt on top to hide it. I didn’t know what else to do,” she wailed. “I couldn’t even tell Garrett about the money. I didn’t
want him involved any more than he was. But I didn’t want to keep it. Cassie’s money didn’t belong to me! I weren’t rightly sure that money even belonged to her. I don’t know how she got it, but when she didn’t show up, I knew I didn’t want to hang on to it.”