Death at Apothecaries' Hall (29 page)

‘Miss Gill was extremely hysterical,' John answered, straight faced. ‘I believe the physician was hard put to it to quieten her.'

‘I wish you would not speak about me as if I were not here,' Clariana said grumpily.

She really was a sullen baggage, the Apothecary considered, staring at her truculent face. The only time she had been even reasonably pleasant was when she had been full of opium and ill because of it.

He bowed in her direction. ‘I have taken up enough of your time. Now that I am assured you will be properly cared for, I shall take my leave. Good morning Miss Gill, Mr Cruttenden.'

The Liveryman heaved himself to his feet. ‘Allow me to recompense you for your services.'

The Apothecary raised a dignified hand. ‘No, Sir. I would not hear of it. It is my calling to heal the sick and I only make a charge to those who send for me. To administer to those who have met with an accident is part of my duty. Good day to you.'

And with that he swept from the room, feeling rather proud of the way he had conducted himself.

‘Do you mean to say that bloody button belonged to Clariana?' said Samuel, flushing angrily. ‘Just as I feared. There's our one and only clue gone out of the window.'

John stroked his chin. ‘She certainly
said
it belonged to her. Told me it had come off her evening gown.'

‘It's possible. She probably went into the compounding room to tell her father she was leaving for the Assembly, and it fell off then.'

‘The trouble is I don't remember her evening clothes having diamond buttons on them. But then I didn't look at her all that closely. Quite honestly, I don't care for the girl.'

‘There's one person who would know,' said Samuel cautiously.

‘Who?'

‘Coralie. Women always observe one another's fashions with a hawk's eye.'

‘Well, I can hardly ask her. Our relationship has reached its inevitable conclusion.'

‘John,' said Samuel earnestly. ‘You may marry another, have children, do what you will, but your association with Coralie will never conclude, not as long as there's breath in your body.'

The Apothecary turned away impatiently. ‘I don't wish to hear that. I have begun a new connection with a woman to whom I am violently attracted. I speak of Emilia of course. In fact I like her so well that I intend to go to Chelsea then take her to Kensington to meet my father.'

‘I wonder what he will think.'

‘He will like her. He told me that my affair with Coralie had run its course. Now stop trying to annoy me.'

‘Very well. No more talk of ladies. What do you intend to do next?'

‘To take the button to Mr Fielding this very night. Do you want to come with me?'

‘I certainly do,' Samuel answered eagerly. ‘I wouldn't mind another eyeful of that damned pretty niece of his.'

John looked shocked. ‘She's a child, Sam. A horrible, snivelling child.'

‘She's fifteen if she's a day. My mother married when she was fifteen.'

‘That was then. Things are different now.'

‘In two years that girl will be a bride, mark my words.'

‘God's mercy! What with Nicholas hankering after her and now you. I'd like to throttle the little witch.'

‘You probably fancy her yourself'

‘I think,' said John vehemently, ‘that I am about to be violently sick.' And with that he slapped his hat on his head and made to leave.

Fearing that they might interrupt the Fieldings at dinner if they were too early, the two friends walked to Bow Street, breathing in the frosty December air, grateful that the cold was killing some of the smells that usually rose from the streets. They did not speak much, both preoccupied with the thought of the two deaths and who could be guilty of the crimes.

Eventually John said, ‘I still can't see how the person responsible for poisoning the flour managed to contrive that Master Alleyn had more than anybody else.'

‘He must have been present at the dinner.'

‘And made himself ill? Yes, he must.'

‘Do you think it was Master Cruttenden?'

‘He's unpleasant enough most certainly, but there's absolutely no motive. He was Josiah's friend and had been for years.'

‘Perhaps they had a quarrel that nobody else knew about.'

‘Even Mrs Alleyn? I don't really think so. She was very close to her husband.'

‘Yet he must have kept some secrets from her.'

‘I suppose so,' John answered. Once again something intangible was nagging at him, some fact that he really should have thought of by now but had still failed to do.

The pensive silence was not broken until they arrived at the Public Office and were duly shown up the stairs to the salon where the Fieldings received guests. Seated on either side of the fire were John and Elizabeth, while Mary Ann perched at a table demurely doing her embroidery. She raised her long lashed eyes as the two young men came into the room, and shot them a look that was quite unmistakeable.

‘Behave,' mouthed John, but Samuel bowed and made much of greeting her.

The Blind Beak moved his head in the direction of the newcomers. ‘Mr Rawlings?' he asked.

‘Here with Samuel Swann, Sir.'

‘How fortuitous. I have news to impart. Let us repair to my study. Elizabeth, my sweetheart, would you arrange for refreshments to be served us?'

‘Certainly, my dearest.'

As they walked up the stairs to the Magistrate's snug, John found himself strangely moved by the tenderness the couple obviously felt for one another and he wondered what it must be like for a blind man to fall in love with a voice and make love to someone he had never seen. The thought of never having been able to set eyes on Coralie's shimmering beauty or Emilia's heavenly looks made him cringe, and yet again his admiration for one of the most brilliant but challenged men in London soared.

They sat as they had done before, Mr Fielding behind his desk, his two visitors facing him.

‘You said you had news, Sir.'

‘Yes, the body of George Griggs has been found. It came up in Limehouse Reach near Cuckold's Point. It is lying at present in Poplar Mortuary.'

‘How do you know it is Griggs? Has someone been to identify it?'

Mr Fielding gave a humourless laugh. ‘Sotherton Backler was given the unpleasant task. Apparently he fainted clean away at poor Griggs's greenish condition.'

‘God!' said Samuel under his breath.

John leant forward. ‘Were there any signs of attack, Sir?'

‘There was a bad blow to the head but whether this had been delivered after death is anyone's guess. I'm afraid that the poor fellow has been too long in the water for us to tell.'

‘A strange coincidence, though, that he was night-watchman at the very place where the poison was put in the flour.'

‘I quite agree with you about that,' answered the Blind Beak.

There was a short pause while a servant appeared with a claret jug and three glasses and served the assembled company. When they were alone once more the Magistrate turned in the direction of John. ‘You have something to tell me?'

‘Yes, Sir. I found a diamond button, real at that, in Tobias Gill's compounding room. His daughter claims that it was hers but I am not so sure.'

‘But why should she lie?'

‘To protect another. Francis Cruttenden perhaps.'

Mr Fielding chuckled gently. ‘Mr Rawlings, my old friend, may I comment that you seem somewhat obsessed with that man. We are, after all, attempting to find the murderer of Master Alleyn and Tobias Gill, a task with which all of us are being singularly unsuccessful. There is nothing whatsoever to link Master Cruttenden, however much you might dislike him, with those crimes.'

‘No, you're right, of course. And yet …'

‘Yet what?'

‘He seems to sit in the centre of the web, a silky grey spider that hastens away whenever you try to approach it.'

The Blind Beak was silent for a while, then he said, ‘I agree with you that the attack by what appears to have been a lackey of the Marquis of Kensington demands further explanation, though I do not see the connection with the two deaths. To me they are a separate issue altogether. However, I intend to beard the Marquis in his den and travel to Kensington to do so.'

‘Sir, I have a better idea,' John said boldly. ‘My father has written to me to say that the building work on the place we have acquired is moving along splendidly and he desires me to stay for a day or so to inspect it. Why do you and Mrs Fielding not come down at the same time and take rooms in a local hostelry? I would then wager a goodly sum that Sir Gabriel can arrange an invitation for us to call on the Marquis. Why, he only has to be in a place a few days and he is on the visiting list of every hostess for miles around.'

‘Capital,' the Blind Beak answered with enthusiasm. ‘Far better than visiting officially. A very good plan, Sir. however, we shall have to bring Mary Ann. The girl's too young to be left in the care of servants.'

‘It all sounds most amusing,' put in Samuel heartily. ‘Has anyone any objection if I join the party?'

They travelled to Kensington in Mr Fielding's coach, Mary Ann squeezed between her aunt and uncle, John and Samuel on the seat opposite, the luggage stowed on the roof They journeyed by daylight and so considered it safe to traverse the park, notorious for highwaymen and duellists. Indeed it was so dangerous to use at night that bells were rung at the various gates to allow coaches to gather together and proceed in convoy. Yet even though it was day time, an armed Runner sat beside the coachman as a safeguard.

Passing Hyde Park Wall, the driver took the coach road crossing the park which led through to Knight's Bridge and eventually brought them into the village of Kensington, where they stopped at The New Tavern to deposit the Fieldings, the Magistrate considering the inn more in the centre of things than The Dun Cow, pleasant though that hostelry was. The coach then continued along the High Street before turning right into Church Lane, where it drew to a halt before the house at the end of the terrace near the King's kitchen garden.

‘Mighty fine, if I might say so,' said Samuel, alighting and taking his bag from the carriage roof.

‘My father insisted on something a little rural but not too far removed from the great houses. This seemed to fit the bill.'

‘It's splendid.'

But there was even greater pleasure to be discovered within. John, fully aware that Sir Gabriel would be spending more time in the house than he would, had left the entire design of the interior in his father's hands. But any slight fear that the whole place would be done throughout in black and white was immediately allayed as the two friends stepped into the long, thin entrance hall. A sensuous shade of saffron covered the walls and this was repeated within the principal salon, its long windows overlooking the royal domestic garden. To complement the colour, the cornice had been picked out in warm amber, a shade repeated with topaz and cream in the moulded ceiling. The curtains, made of velvet, rich gold in hue, hung to the floor.

‘A triumph,' said John. ‘Father, you have performed a miracle.'

‘When one considers what a dingy little place it was, perhaps.'

‘You are too modest, Sir,' said Samuel enthusiastically. ‘You have a gem here. A palace in miniature.'

‘Wait till you have seen it all,' Sir Gabriel answered, and with ill-concealed pride took them on a tour of the rest of the house.

There were more delights in store. A dining room of deep damson, the colour lifted by the use of silver; while white and green provided a splendid foil for the vivid red walls of the master bedroom.

‘Your room, John,' said Sir Gabriel, throwing open a door on the first floor landing. It was all the Apothecary could have wished for, painted a deep yellow throughout, with blue and white curtains and bed hangings, and china of the same colour combination, decorating the walls and shelves. By contrast, the guest room was the palest shade of green, highlighted with salmon pink. On the top floor dwelt the three servants in far simpler but perfectly comfortable accommodation.

‘I am more than impressed,' said Samuel as they returned to the salon. ‘I intend to visit frequently.' He burst into hearty laughter and slapped John on the back, then bowed and wrung Sir Gabriel's hand. His exuberance was so infectious that the popping of a champagne cork seemed the only suitable accompaniment and the three men sat with full glasses by the fire, while the conversation turned away from the house to other matters.

‘How are you proceeding with the investigation?' asked John's father.

‘There has been another murder, Sir.'

And the Apothecary described to Sir Gabriel all that had happened since the older man had departed for Kensington, including the extraordinary attack on Francis Cruttenden and the even more extraordinary departure of his assailant.

Sir Gabriel refilled everyone's glass. ‘The Marquis of Kensington, you say? Surely the fellow who claimed he saw this must have been mistaken.'

‘It's possible of course, but the fact remains for all that.'

‘Extraordinary! I have met the Marquis. A regular sort of chap in my opinion.'

John smiled to himself. His personal wager that his father would know everyone within days of his arrival, just won. ‘I thought you might be acquainted. Tell me what he's like.'

‘He's young, in his mid thirties. He came into the title following the death of an uncle. He's quite good looking in a dark, fleshy sort of way. Loves playing cards, in fact he's invited me over for whist. Would you care to meet him?'

‘I'd love to – and so would Mr Fielding.'

‘You wrote me that they intended to stay near by. Are they at The Dun Cow?'

‘No, The New Tavern. The whole family is with him. They have made an excursion of it.'