02 - Murder at Dareswick Hall (24 page)

‘Ah,
thank you Mr Crabtree, you won’t regret it,’ Ricketts said, with an insolent
grin on his face.

Crabtree
sighed. He had a feeling that he was going to regret it very much indeed.

Dinner
was an uncomfortable meal for all concerned. Josephine had come down for it but
just sat there picking at her bread roll, eating very little, and saying even
less. It transpired that she had given her father a half-hearted explanation
for her disappearance. She had told him that she had left to attend a party in
town that she had thought he might not wholly approve of and that, in order to
disguise what she was doing, she had delayed setting off until everyone had
gone to bed, including the servants, with the intention of returning before the
house was up. No one would have been any the wiser had they not had the misfortune
to encounter a nail or some other such bit of metal in the road, which had
resulted in one of the tyres getting a puncture. This mishap had considerably
delayed their return. That no one, probably not even the baron, believed this
explanation seemed immaterial. It had been given and, to all intents and
purposes, accepted. Only Isabella, Rose noticed, glanced at her sister
suspiciously every now and then as if trying to work out from her expression
what had really happened. Hallam and Cedric, Rose supposed, were just grateful
that Josephine had returned safely and that the baron had not made too much of
a fuss about it all.

Rose
was somewhat surprised to see Sneddon’s valet, Ricketts, enter the room in a
rather ill-fitting livery. The man looked slightly more presentable than he had
done the last time she had seen him, although his hair was still unruly and he
appeared on edge. It brought back memories of Robert’s behaviour on the night
she had arrived and she noticed that the butler was watching him like a hawk,
as he had done the other young footman. She looked around at the others seated
at the table. If they had noticed that they were being attended to by a
different footman than usual then they gave no sign. Clearly they had not
noticed that the man was in an excited state or that Crabtree was watching his
every move with a look of barely concealed anxiety. Instinctively, Rose knew
that something was going to happen.

At
first it looked as if her fears had been unfounded. The first course of fried
whiting was served without incident, as was the entrée of veal cutlets. Rose
saw the butler visibly relax, for indeed Ricketts appeared an able footman
despite his scruffy appearance and insolent manner. Rose found herself
breathing a sigh of relief. But she had acted prematurely. The second course of
a haunch of mutton had just been served and Ricketts had moved to Isabella with
the dish of vegetables for her to help herself when catastrophe struck. Whether
it was his fault or hers was unclear to the observers, for one moment
everything seemed alright and the next the dish had become dislodged from
Ricketts’ grasp and buttered carrots and green beans fell onto the tablecloth
and a few onto Isabella’s lap. The girl let out a shriek and leapt up from her
seat. A contrite and humiliated Ricketts passed her a dinner-napkin to dab at
her soiled dress. Isabella grabbed the napkin, looked at it with disgust, and
threw it onto the table before hurrying out of the room. The gentlemen, who had
risen from their seats when she had, sat down and looked about them awkwardly.

‘Shouldn’t
someone go after her, Josephine?’ asked Cedric. ‘Shouldn’t you?’

‘Oh, she’ll
be fine,’ snapped Josephine unkindly. ‘You men do make the greatest fuss about
the littlest things. It was only some vegetables, for goodness sake. Her dress
is hardly ruined. Her maid will see to her and she will be back in no time,
you’ll see, wearing another wonderful creation.’

Rose
looked at her with surprise but said nothing. Meanwhile the baron was berating
poor Crabtree, who was looking utterly dejected and being very apologetic as if
the mishap had in some way been all his fault.

‘I
say,’ said Cedric, when he had managed to snatch a few words with Rose in the
dining room as they were having coffee, ‘have you heard the explanation that
Josephine gave her father for disappearing from the house like she did? It’s a
lot of old rot if you ask me. Josephine’s never been one for parties, at least
not the sort that the baron wouldn’t approve of, that’s more Isabella’s game. Did
she tell the police where she’d really gone? Have you been sworn to secrecy?’

‘No,’
answered Rose. ‘She didn’t want to tell them, especially when she heard about
what happened to Lord Sneddon. Inspector Deacon was called out of the room for
a few moments by one of the constables, and she took the opportunity to ask me
what she should say. I suggested she tell them that she had eloped with
Brimshaw and then thought better of it.’

‘You
never did!’ Cedric looked shocked. ‘Let’s hope that the baron doesn’t get wind
of that story or he’ll throw her out and the chauffeur too. Although,’ he
looked over at the baron, who was being comforted by his eldest daughter,
‘perhaps he has decided to let bygones be bygones. You know, because she came
back of her own accord. Perhaps he’d rather pretend that it didn’t happen. He’s
dreadfully worried, you know, that we’ll have crowds of pressmen here tomorrow.
We never did get hold of the duke to tell him about his son. His secretary was
right, he was at death’s door. He died this afternoon without hearing the news.
Perhaps it was a blessing. I say, I wonder who will inherit the title now. I
wonder if he’s a suspect, you know, in Sneddon’s murder?’

‘Mr
Crabtree, Mr Crabtree!’ Robert came running into the servants’ hall, narrowly
missing bumping into Doris in his haste. The maid, having rather an eye for the
young man, secretly wished that they had collided so that she’d have been given
an excuse to clutch on to him. Instead, she contented herself with giving him a
coy smile, of which he was, at that moment, totally oblivious.

‘Steady
on, lad, you’ll be bumping into the table and having my pots and pans over in a
moment,’ Mrs Gooden said. ‘And then where’ll all those breakfasts be? And
they’ll be hungry too, ‘em upstairs. ’Ardly ate anything last night, they did,
on account of the murder I reckon. Well, they’ll be wanting to make up for it
today now that it’s all sunk in, you mark my words if they don’t. They’ll have
empty stomachs the lot of ‘em. They won’t take too kindly having to wait for
their breakfasts on account of it being on the floor.’

‘Have
you seen Mr Crabtree, Mrs Gooden? I’ve got to speak with him, it’s urgent.’

‘He’s
in his pantry. But don’t you run, I don’t want you upsetting anything or
breaking anything and he won’t neither.’ But her words disappeared into thin air
for Robert was already gone. She sighed and decided to take her frustration out
on the unfortunate Doris. ‘And you, miss, you can stop going all gooey eyed
over that fellow. I’m sure you’ve got work to do. You don’t want to have Mrs
Hodges on your back again, now do you?’

‘Mr
Crabtree, Mr Crabtree.’

‘What
is it, Robert?’ asked the butler, looking up from his self-appointed task. ‘I’m
counting the silver if you wonder what I’m doing. I want to make sure nothing’s
gone missing. I don’t trust that Ricketts fellow as far as I can throw him, I
don’t mind telling you. Light fingered I’d say he is, and no mistake.’

‘That’s
just it, Mr Crabtree –.’

‘What!
Catch the blighter pinching, did you? Wait until I get my hands on him, I’ll
give him a piece of my mind.’

‘Mr
Crabtree, he’s gone missing. He ain’t here, not in his room, that is. I looked
around his door just as I were coming downstairs. He’s not there and his bed’s
not been slept in.’

‘He’s
scarpered! Well, that doesn’t surprise me at all. Right, you’d better give me a
hand. We’ve even more reason to count the silver now.’

‘Hadn’t
we better call the police? They were keeping ever such a close eye on him
yesterday. Seems strange they just let him go like that.’

‘Oh, I
suppose so,’ sighed Crabtree. ‘Though they’ll be back here soon enough anyway. I
was just hoping that we might have had a couple of hours when we could have at
least pretended that everything was back to normal, but apparently not.’

‘Sir,’
said Lane, hurriedly as soon as Deacon had walked into Dareswick police
station. ‘I’ve just taken a call from the butler at Dareswick Hall. It seems
that Ricketts fellow has gone missing. His bed hadn’t been slept in, so old
Crabtree told me.’

‘Well,
that’s hardly a surprise, Sergeant,’ replied the inspector, sounding relatively
unconcerned. ‘He’ll have been picked up by one of our lot trying to make his escape.
Hopefully they’ve discovered the blackmail stuff on him by now.’

‘But
that’s just it, sir. They’ve all telephoned in and none of them have seen
anything of him. He must have slipped through our fingers, sir.’

‘What!’
He had Deacon’s full attention now. ‘Get more men over there now. I want all
the attics and outbuildings, follies and boatsheds searched with a fine tooth
comb. No stone unturned, do you hear me, Lane?’

‘Yes,
sir. I reckon he’s still on the premises though. He must be hiding from us.
There’s no way he could have got away from Dareswick without our men knowing
about it, of that I’m sure.’

‘He’s a
slippery toad, alright. It’s possible that I may have underestimated him. But
let’s get to Dareswick and see, shall we?’

‘Have
you found him yet?’ Deacon asked the first constable he came to at Dareswick
Hall.

‘No,
sir, we’ve checked all the rooms in the house, even the ones that have been
shut up, as well as the basement and the attics. There’s no sign of him. One
man’s even been onto the roof to see if he’s hiding up there. We’ve spread out
and are searching the grounds now. Wherever he is, he can’t have gone far. He’s
here somewhere.’

‘Lane,
I don’t like this,’ the inspector said, turning to his sergeant. ‘I’ve got a feeling
something’s wrong. The sooner we find this fellow the better. Go and help them
with the search, will you, I’d feel better if I knew you had your ear to the
ground and were making sure they’re doing it thoroughly. I don’t want the man
to make a run for it as soon as their backs are turned.’

Deacon
wondered into the study, rang the old bell pull and requested coffee. He then
proceeded to flick through the notes of the interviews Lane had made in his
notebook, pausing every now and then to scribble down a salient point on a
separate sheet of paper. How long he was engaged in this task, he did not know,
but the noise of a disturbance in the hall made him look up at the same moment
that a wild looking Lane crashed into the room, his face white.

‘Good
God, man, what is it?’ Deacon had leapt up from his seat. ‘You look as if
you’ve seen a ghost.’

‘We’ve
found him, sir. We’ve found Ricketts. He was in the little boatshed by the
lake.’

‘Good
stuff. Well, bring him in here and we’ll see what he has to say for himself.
Did you find anything on him? Any blackmail material?’

‘I’m
afraid I can’t do that, sir. He won’t be telling us anything. You see, when I
said that we’d found him, I suppose it would have been more accurate to say
that we’d found his body. He’s dead, sir. He’s been murdered!’

‘Rose,
from now on I am not going to leave you for one moment by yourself,’ Cedric
said, holding her hand. They were sitting on a bench in the rose garden, the
day surprisingly warm after the cold of the day before. ‘It’s quite one thing
to have one murder at Dareswick but to have two! We can’t cling to the notion
that it could have been some strange madman who just happened to be in the
vicinity, however much we might want to. Although I have to admit that my money
was on that Ricketts fellow, which just goes to show how wrong I was. Your
mother’s never going to let you see me again. She’ll think I’m a terribly bad
influence or that my friends and family are the worst sort. They do seem to
have a tendency to get themselves messed up in this sort of thing. You know, I
bumped into that sergeant fellow, Lane, in the hall. He says there’s absolutely
no doubt in the police’s mind now that the murderer came from within, so to
speak. Apparently they had been watching Dareswick last night and no one from
outside could have sneaked in without them having known about it. They were
afraid Ricketts would try and make a run for it and they wanted to find out who
else he and Sneddon had been blackmailing. It’s a pity they weren’t watching in
the house rather than patrolling the various lanes and entrances to Dareswick.
They might have caught the murderer in the act then.’

‘So
they think he was killed last night, this Ricketts fellow?’ asked Rose.

‘Yes, either
very late last night or in the early hours of this morning, just like Sneddon
the night before. They’re busy doing tests and suchlike to try and narrow down
the timeframe. Apparently they think he had most likely arranged to meet the
murderer after everyone had gone to bed. Obviously he had in mind to do his own
bit of blackmail.’ Cedric paused to sigh at the man’s stupidity. ‘His bed
hadn’t been slept in. The police think that he’d arranged to meet the murderer
in the old boatshed down by the lake because he was afraid they’d be disturbed
if they met in the house, I suppose. Fancy being daft enough to try and
blackmail the fellow. A jolly risky and foolhardy thing to do, I’d say. The man
had already killed once.’

‘Or
woman,’ said Rose, thoughtfully. ‘Did you find out all this from Sergeant Lane?
He seems to have been awfully forthcoming.’

‘Well,
from him and Crabtree. I rather got the impression from the sergeant that he
was hoping that you would give them a hand like you did at Ashgrove.’ He held
her hand more tightly. ‘I say, Rose, why don’t we do it together, solve the
murders, I mean. Oh, I know I won’t be much good but I’ll be able to keep you
safe while you investigate. I’ll be Watson to your Holmes.’

‘You’re
right, Cedric. I’ve been putting it off rather, having a go at solving this
case I mean. It’s because I think the truth might prove rather unpalatable. I’m
afraid the murderer is going to turn out to be someone I rather like. But I’ve an
awful feeling that there might be more deaths unless they are caught.’

‘That’s
a girl. Right, so where do we start, Sherlock?’ Cedrick asked enthusiastically.

‘You
know, just because I managed to work things out at Ashgrove doesn’t mean that I
will here. It could have just been a fluke. I’m not sure I’ve got a knack for
it.’

‘Well,
I have every confidence in you and your abilities, Rose, I really do. And
Sergeant Lane does too. It sounds to me like they’re pretty stumped by the
whole thing.’

‘I
suppose,’ said Rose, ‘that we should just go through everything that’s happened
since we first arrived and what our impressions have been. I must say, I think
the key to all this is Josephine. I’m not saying she’s the murderer, of course,’
she added hastily, catching the look on Cedric’s face. ‘All I’m saying is that
I think she knows more about this business than she’s letting on. I think she
may even have a very good idea who the murderer is. But it’s no use trying to
ask her about it, she won’t say anything.’

‘You’re
right. Hallam has been trying to get out of her what she was up to in London, and
so has Isabella, I think. But she’s refusing to say anything. She’s shut
herself up in her room and won’t come out. They’re both awfully worried about
her.’

‘Surely
the police managed to speak with her about Ricketts’ death?’

‘Yes, I
think she spoke to them briefly, but probably she just told them exactly what
we all said. I mean, we all retired to bed rather early last night, didn’t we?
I think we were all feeling rather drained what with the shock of Sneddon’s
murder and everything. I assume everyone took the precaution of locking their
doors and went straight to bed, I know I did. I’d be jolly surprised if anyone
took part in any midnight wanderings last night, wouldn’t you?’

‘All
except the murderer and Ricketts, of course,’ Rose agreed. ‘I assume Ricketts
had arranged to hand over the letters, or whatever they were, for a tidy sum.’

‘But
why go to the trouble of killing the chap?’ asked Cedric. ‘Do you think
Ricketts refused to hand over all the stuff or asked for more money, or
something like that?’

‘No, I
think the murderer probably always intended to kill him. Think about it,
Cedric. If the murderer killed Lord Sneddon because of this blackmail business
then he probably wouldn’t think twice about killing a servant. And the stakes
were much higher this time, weren’t they? It wasn’t just that Ricketts had got
hold of some information that could embarrass or humiliate them. No, he had in
his possession a motive for the murder of Lord Sneddon. The murderer couldn’t
risk leaving him alive. Even if Ricketts did hand over all the incriminating
evidence, there was nothing to stop him from telling the police all about it afterwards,
was there, especially if he thought he might get a reward. Or he might have
decided to tell them about it next time he was arrested for something. Did I
tell you that Inspector Deacon thought he was some sort of petty criminal? No,
while he lived he was always going to be a threat to our murderer.’

‘Gosh,
Rose, you’re right. I hadn’t thought about it like that.’

‘I
doubt whether Lord Sneddon’s valet had either, otherwise he would never have
agreed to meet the murderer in the boatshed, no, he’d have chosen somewhere much
safer to make the exchange. He probably asked for a ridiculous amount of money
or jewellery or whatever, and when he had received that he was happy to hand
everything over and think no more about it. He can’t have seen the danger he
was putting himself in.’

‘And so
all the murderer had to do was just wait until Ricketts turned his back and then
stab him?’

‘We’ll
get nothing out of them, sir,’ said Lane, as soon as all the interviews were
over. ‘Josephine Atherton refuses to tell us what she knows and none of the
others have seen anything. I doubt anyone slept very well last night but, even
so, they are sure to have locked themselves in. They won’t have ventured out so
they won’t have seen anyone else creeping about when they shouldn’t have been.’

‘You’re
right, Sergeant, I think it’s Sneddon’s murder we’ll have to concentrate on if
we want to catch the murderer. I just wonder who else in this house Ricketts
could have been blackmailing.’

‘And
apparently he was stabbed from behind again, wasn’t he, sir?’ said Lane, ‘So it
definitely looks like the same chap killed both Sneddon and his servant.’

‘It
does indeed. In fact, the murderer was jolly clever. Ricketts was not only
stabbed in the back but he was also crouching on the floor when he was killed,
so the police surgeon thinks. The fellow was stupid enough to place himself in
a very vulnerable position. Do you know what I think, Lane? I think our
murderer dropped some of the money or trinkets that he had taken with him to
pay off Ricketts. I think he did it on purpose to make the task of killing Ricketts
that much easier.’

‘And of
course Ricketts fell for it because he was exactly that sort of greedy, money
grasping sort of scoundrel. His first instinct would have been to scurry around
on the ground scooping the stuff up rather than putting his own safety first.
Our murderer must have banked on that.’

‘Exactly,’
agreed Deacon. ‘And do you know what else that tells us, Lane?’

‘Oh, I
think I’m right up there with you this time, sir,’ laughed the sergeant. ‘It
means that not only was Ricketts killed in exactly the same manner as Sneddon
but, just like last time, it wouldn’t have required much force if Ricketts was
scrabbling about on his hands and knees. So what you’re thinking, sir, is that
it could just as easily have been a woman who killed him, as a man?’

‘You
know, Cedric, I think something was worrying Josephine even before we arrived,’
said Rose, as they wandered through the grounds. ‘She seemed awfully nice, but
dreadfully preoccupied a lot of the time. Something was definitely distracting
her.’

‘Hallam
said she was awfully interested to find out who Isabella was bringing down with
her. He didn’t give it much thought at the time. I say, do you think she was
afraid that it might be Sneddon? Perhaps she still had some feelings for the
blighter after all.’

‘Or
perhaps he was blackmailing
her
too, you know as well as Isabella.
Perhaps she had written letters to him that were compromising. Finding out that
he was also blackmailing her sister could have been the final straw.’ Rose
walked in silence for a while, deep in thought. ‘No,’ she said at last, ‘that
simply will not do. When Sneddon first arrived she was just as shocked as
everyone else to see him. In fact probably more so. I remember that she went
very pale and looked as if she might faint. Hallam was most concerned about her
if I recall. But do you know what? Something quite strange happened.’

‘What
was it?’ Cedric stopped walking and was looking at her intently.

‘I know
it sounds silly, given the circumstances, and perhaps I was just imagining it.
But after Josephine had got over the initial shock of seeing Sneddon again I
could have sworn that she looked relieved.’

‘Relieved?’
Cedric sounded incredulous.

‘Yes, I
know it doesn’t make any sense, but I’m sure for a moment she looked very
relieved. Perhaps she was afraid that Isabella was bringing someone else down
with her. And then almost immediately she looked worried again, but I think
that was more to do with being concerned about how Hallam might react than
anything else.’ They carried on with their stroll. ‘You know, Cedric, I don’t
think Josephine was nearly as fond of Sneddon as everyone’s made out. Yes, I
think she was flattered by his attentions, but nothing more. Why, she said
almost as much to me on Saturday morning. In fact I have been rather wondering
whether it might not have been the other way around.’

‘You
mean Sneddon was more fond of her than she was of him? Do you think, then, that
she was the one to give him the brush off?’

‘Yes,
that’s exactly what I mean. It would help explain why he went and had a
dalliance with that unfortunate maid. He was put out when his advances were rejected,
unrequited love and all that. That’s why, I think, Sneddon felt so badly about
the maid when he found out what had happened to her. He knew he had used her very
ill. But it also explains something else he said to me on Saturday night, when
he was being all melancholy in the library.’

‘And
what was that?’

‘He
talked about hurting the people he cared for and only realising how very much
he cared for
them
when it was too late. He rather dismissed Isabella and
your sister, Lavinia, I’m afraid as being able to look after themselves. I
thought at the time he was just talking about the maid but he definitely said
them,
so I think he was also referring to Josephine.’

‘But,
in which case, it could just as easily have meant that he had let Josephine
down and now regretted it. It was the sort of thing he’d do, after all.’

‘It
could, yes, but I don’t think so. I mean, I think he let her down to the extent
that she realised the sort of fellow he was before it was too late. But I still
think she broke it off. Either way, I don’t think Josephine ever held deep feelings
for him.’

‘Then
why did everyone think she did? Hallam said she became quite withdrawn after
the business with Sneddon.’

‘I
think she felt guilty about the maid. I think she felt that had she not spurned
Sneddon’s advances he wouldn’t have got the maid into trouble. But there’s
something else.’ Rose stopped and looked at Cedric earnestly. ‘I think she
deliberately let everyone think that she had been fonder of Lord Sneddon than
she had been and that he had let her down and not the other way around.’

‘Why on
earth would she do that? She knew how upset Hallam was about it all. I can’t
believe she’d be so unkind as to distress him unnecessarily.’

‘She
wouldn’t have wanted to, of course, but I think she felt she had to. You see,
Cedric, I think she had a secret of her own to hide and that it suited her
purposes very well for people to think she was in love with Lord Sneddon.’

‘But
why?’

‘Because
then they wouldn’t think she was in love with someone else.’