A Proposal to Die For (19 page)

His expression contorted. ‘Nobody ever listened to me talk. Silly Wally, they say, Wally, who is not right in the head. So she told me everything, because if I ever told another, they would not believe me. She told me all he had promised to her, what he would give her, once they lived in the city. How she would even have a carriage of her own, with a team of snow white horses, like a princess from a fairy tale. That is what she said.'

He stared ahead, sadly. ‘He married her too, she said. It was legal and just. There was a paper to
prove it. That was why she allowed him to sleep with her and get her with child. Because he was her husband and it would be all right. His family would have to accept it.'

Jake shot Alkmene a glance. Neither of them said anything to drag the little man from his memories.

He let his hands dangle by his sides now, as he studied the moors ahead. ‘She sat there on the moor, weaving flowers into a crown, telling me all about it. The carriage, the horses and the pie she'd have, seven layers, all decorated with white marzipan flowers. And a bed for the baby with a lace curtain that would reach all the way to the floor. She laughed all of the time, so happy she was. She said she would at last leave this place, leave the people who never counted her for anything because she was just the hunter's daughter, from the marshes. She said she'd be somebody, that she'd have pretty clothes and pretty things. She just wanted to be happy.'

He looked at them with watery blue eyes. ‘Can that be wrong?'

Jake shook his head. A muscle pulled in his jaw. Alkmene wondered if he was thinking about his own mother and his father. How they had met and what might have been promised. Another sad case of a woman led astray by pretty promises about a future that had never been?

Wally said, ‘She was sad after he left her, but she was sure he would send for her. He had only gone to prepare everything, buy her all the things he had promised her, and then she would follow him. She often told me I could not tell a soul about what I knew, that they had married and she was with child, that she would push me into the marshes if I told anybody. Hold me down under the mud until I died. I never told them, I swear.'

The little man's face contorted with pain. ‘I never told anyone. I kept her secret. I cared for her. I would never have betrayed her. But she thought so. When that terrible man came from the city, with his heavy walking cane and his raised voice, she thought I had told and therefore he came. She yelled at me and then she ran away.'

‘So she fled from you when she vanished?' Jake asked.

Wally hung his head. ‘She was so angry with me. She said I had ruined everything because I always talk too much. But I had never talked about her and the baby. I could not have. I cared for her.'

Alkmene bit her lip. There was something genuine to the man's pain that made her believe him.

Jake said softly, ‘The man who came from the city had found out from his own brother. He did intend to take her to the city and give her all those things he had promised her. He did love her. But his family abducted him and made him forget her.'

‘How could he have? I would never have forgotten her.'

Jake said, ‘They forced him to marry another and then the brother came here to ask Mary to set her husband free. She believed it was your fault that they had found out, but it was not. I am sorry she thought so and she shouted at you.'

‘I saw her run away into the marshes,' Wally said in a sad tone. ‘She ran fast; it was like her feet never touched the ground. She wore a white dress and she looked just like a bride.'

Alkmene asked, ‘Where did she go to?'

Wally looked at her, his eyes sharp with reproach. ‘You want me to betray her again?'

‘You never betrayed her, Wally,' Jake said. ‘You loved her.'

The little man hung his head again. ‘People laugh at me about it. They think I was a fool to care for her, while she would never care for an ugly little dwarf like me. But I would have protected her, I would have…'

Jake waited a moment. ‘Is that what you told her? When she had met up with the brother and had heard her husband was not coming back, when she was sad and heartbroken and walking about here on the moor, did you tell her you would care for her and the baby?'

Alkmene held her breath. It was obvious that if Wally had told her something like that, it would have been the last thing Mary Sullivan had been open to. Raw with grief as she was, and fully believing Wally's loose tongue had caused her lover's abandonment of her in the first place.

‘Wally?' Jake prompted gently.

Wally nodded, his chin rubbing his chest. ‘I told her that I would always take care of her, and the child, but she laughed at me. She screamed I had ruined everything, on purpose, because I had never wanted to let her go, that I was just an ugly troll who stole people to live in his dirty swamp world.'

He made a strangled sound. ‘Then she ran away from me. I wanted to go after her, but I was afraid that if I hunted her, she might take a wrong step and drown in the marshes.'

Jake waited a moment before he asked softly, ‘Have you ever seen her again?'

Wally stared at the ground and did not speak.

‘Have you?' Alkmene pressed.

He looked up, his eyes on fire. ‘I tell all of them that she died there. All of them. To protect her. To make sure they cannot find her and hurt her. I told that fancy lawyer from the city. That she was dead for sure and the baby with her. I showed him the place. He was so happy. He offered me money and he went away rubbing his hands. Like he was glad she was dead.'

His voice pitched on the latter words. ‘Glad! I should have pushed him into the marshes for it. Made sure he never left this place. Glad that she was dead…'

Alkmene looked at Jake.

Jake said, ‘How old was this lawyer?'

‘Young. Handsome.' Wally's voice was full of resentment.

‘Must have been Walker,' Jake mouthed at Alkmene. She nodded.

Jake said to Wally, ‘So you tell people Mary Sullivan is dead, because you want to protect her. I understand that. But what do you think yourself?'

Wally looked at him. ‘Why would I tell you? What are you to me? You offered me drinks last night to get me talking. You think I am dumb like they all do. But they gave you a soaking, yes, they did. For all your nosy questioning.'

The childish glee in his voice made Alkmene smile, but also put a shiver on her spine. This man was mentally twisted. Or at least he lived in a world of his own, holding his version of the past close to his chest like a sacred thing. Anyone who tried to interfere with it did so at his own risk.

She said carefully, ‘The woman at the inn is very unfriendly to strangers and she even said we should go away again. Why?'

Wally looked at her with his small red-rimmed eyes. ‘Why, she is Mary's sister. Did you not know?'

Alkmene shook her head. She had not been able to guess the woman's age correctly as her red hair had seemed so fiery still, without a trace of grey. She didn't seem old enough to be the sister of a woman who already had a grown son. The mysterious young man, from the theatre. Returned from the dead…

Wally continued in a rush, ‘She also hates me for talking about Mary, keeping her memory alive.
She would rather act like she had never existed. And I know why. She never liked her; she hated her. Because Mary was pretty and Mary was bright and all the men looked at Mary and never at her. She made Mary do all the work at home; she forced her to scrub floors so her pretty hands got red and rough. She made her do the cooking, so she would burn her fingers and cry. She would make her do the laundry so she had to stand hunched over the washing board and her back would ache. She told me oh so many times.'

Wally clenched his hands into fists. ‘They all treated her wrong. And they should remember her, remember what they did, how they did not want her to live and be happy. They are all to blame for her death. Not me. I cared for her.' He lifted his pale eyes to look at Jake. ‘I loved her.'

Jake nodded. ‘We understand.'

Wally stood a moment, fidgeting with his hands. Then he turned away and ran off, with his strange gait.

Jake did not go after him. He looked at Alkmene and sighed. ‘So we have confirmation here of everything Pemboldt told us. There was a Mary Sullivan, she was married to Silas Norwhich's brother and she was pregnant with his child. She vanished into the marshlands, and Wally has been telling people ever since that she is dead. But he himself doesn't know for sure. Or he knows something he doesn't want to tell.'

‘He told Fitzroy Walker that she was dead,' Alkmene said.

The wind was strong upon the moor, and she untied the scarf around her neck and put it over her head, tied it with a knot under her chin. The material made a soft rustling sound as the wind played with it. ‘He showed the place where it happened and all. I bet Walker didn't get any cooperation elsewhere like we experienced yesterday and he believed Wally. He wanted to believe it badly, so his plans for Evelyn Steinbeck would succeed. The real heir was dead, buried in the marshes here, and the fake heiress could be produced and could cash in and then deliver to him, via the marriage. That's why he was rubbing his hands in glee when he saw the spot.'

Jake nodded. He stared at the place Wally had indicated. ‘It is possible to get through moor or marshland unharmed if you know the tracks. If her father was indeed familiar with them all for his profession, she could have run off and lived on, some place. But how? She probably had no money.'

‘Wally suggested her lover had given her gifts. Maybe she sold those off? Maybe she found another man who took her in? Wally made it sound like she was very pretty. Combined with vulnerability, she might have enticed a man to care for her.'

‘You make it sound like something dirty,' Jake observed with a smile.

Alkmene shrugged. ‘I never like to use my looks, that's all.'

The wind pulled at her scarf, and suddenly the silk slipped off her hair and the scarf flew off on the gust, across the heather and dirt, flapping like it was resisting its abduction.

‘Hey!' Alkmene called.

Jake rushed after it, jumping over clumps of heather.

‘Be careful!' Alkmene called. ‘You could step into marshland.'

Jake didn't seem to hear or care. He ran on, leaping and bounding like a horse in full flight, until he could pluck the scarf out of the air. Holding it up, he waved it at her like a banner. ‘Saved!'

She waved back, calling again, ‘Careful! You don't know how unstable it is.'

Jake nodded and began to pick his way back, trying his footing before each step. It took him much longer to get back than it had taken him to catch the scarf. Alkmene stood hands on hips, watching his
progress with her head tilted.

At last he was on the path again. She reached out for the scarf, but he shook his head and folded it and put it in his pocket. ‘I don't intend to chase it again. You can have it back in the village.'

Before she could protest he looked around them. ‘Not much else we can do here. We know now Fitzroy Walker has been here and left, assured there was no real heir to fear. But he was wrong. There was. At least if the young man who appeared at the theatre had any claim.'

‘He knew of Cunningham.' Alkmene frowned. ‘He might even have had a birth certificate that he showed Silas Norwhich right before he died.'

Jake nodded. ‘But why kill Norwhich?'

‘If he indeed killed him.' Alkmene turned her back on the cold wind and gestured to the village. ‘We had better return and think it over with some coffee and apple pie. I think I smelled something baking before we left.'

Jake shook his head. ‘It is a miracle to me that someone with such a healthy appetite can have such a slim figure.'

Alkmene cast him an appraising look. Was he criticizing her figure or complimenting her on it?

If she could not even tell which was which…

Shaking her head to herself, she began to walk back across the seemingly endless moor.

Chapter Eighteen

By the time they were back at the inn of the hunted boar, the church tower struck one, and Alkmene's stomach was growling. She wanted a big slice of apple pie, preferably with whipped cream, and coffee.

Or no, hot chocolate.

She already savoured the taste on her tongue.

But as they came in, the innkeeper himself was behind the reception desk, gesturing at them with a cream-coloured envelope in his hand. ‘This message has been delivered here for you, sir.'

Jake took it and studied it. ‘By whom?'

The man shrugged. ‘I have no idea. I was in the back tending to some chores and when I came back here, it was lying on the desk.'

Jake turned the envelope over but there was no sender recorded on it. It just read Mr Jake Dubois on the front in print letters that could disguise a man or woman's handwriting.

Jake thanked the innkeeper and walked into the room, slipping his little finger under the edge and tearing open the envelope. Alkmene followed him curiously, one hand on her hair to feel if it had grown very wild in the wind.

Jake whistled softly as he read what was written on the single sheet he had pulled out. Then he handed it to her.

It said, ‘Come to the ruins of the old keep on the moor. Anybody can explain the way to you. Information will be waiting for you there. Do not share this message with anyone and do not bring any locals.'

There was no name under it.

Alkmene said, ‘I suppose we are not going to see what this is all about? It seems rather fishy. If somebody wanted to give you information, he could have enclosed it in this envelope. He left it without being seen, so anonymity can't be an issue.'

Jake shrugged. ‘You never know why people are extra secretive. It could be worthwhile. I will go. Alone of course.'

‘Oh, no. We are in this together. I brought this whole case to your attention.'