Dread Murder (17 page)

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Authors: Gwendoline Butler

BOOK: Dread Murder
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‘Hear me there? Leave things alone!'
Charlie did not answer. He recoiled from Fred – and not only because of what he had done to the dog that day; there were other things which the boy did not dwell on.
Passing Fred on his way out, Charlie gave him a brief nod, but got nothing back.
He walked down the hill away from the Theatre. Tonight there would be a performance of
A Midsummer Night's Dream
. Miss Fairface was playing the Queen of the Fairies.
He didn't hear anyone behind him, but he must have been conscious of movement because he began to turn round to see a shadow looming over him.
Then something hard hit his head and he fell to the ground.
 
‘You were lucky,' said Major Mearns.
‘Doesn't feel like it.' Charlie rubbed his head. ‘No blood anyway.'
‘If Denny and I hadn't come down from the Castle to get a drink at that little ale-house beyond the Theatre, you'd be dead. He was trying to strangle you but he ran off when he heard us coming.'
‘Or heard me,' said Miss Fairface. ‘I was there too.'
‘You were, ma'am, you were, but Denny and I are
stronger. You might have got done yourself.'
Miss Fairface blinked. ‘I'd have managed,' she said at last. But inside herself she was thinking that perhaps, after all, she was glad she had not got there in time to do anything.
Charlie struggled to sit up. ‘I want to know who did it.'
The Major pushed him back down. ‘Lie down.'
He looked at Denny, both of them exchanging the conviction of their suspicion about ‘who did it'.
Charlie suddenly realised where he was – on the big, long chair in the Major's sitting room in the Castle. Staring at him with eyes of sympathy were the dog and the boy.
‘You've got the lot of us,' said Charlie.
‘So I have,' agreed the Major, but in no unfriendly way.
Charlie found that, while he was unconscious, his mind had been at work and come to a decision.
‘I'll take us all away to London tomorrow.'
‘How will you do that, lad?'
‘I've got a bit of money. I saved it. It was what I was working for.'
‘But London …?'
‘You can do anything in London,' said Charlie with conviction.
‘London?' said Major Mearns. ‘Yes, it might be wise for you to get away there. I can get you a seat on the coach and see you right for money. I hope you know your way around?'
 
 
There are so many Londons. Charlie knew this, but he knew too that
your
London was the one you lived in. That way you could have, of course, several Londons, because the true Londoner liked to be on the move. But not outside a certain area.
He couldn't count himself as a Londoner as he had not been born there, and might not stay there; but he would think about it often and visit it often.
The dog and the boy would be a problem, but he had taken them over so he must look after them. He thought about the two of them and knew he could not let them down. Felix Ferguson would be looking for them. It could have been Felix who hit him on the head. Would he ever know?
More likely to have been the Theatre man, but he was not going to name him or ask. Just get away. He had never meant to stay in Windsor for ever; he had just been venturesome and felt it was a place he ought to see. He had seen it and liked it a lot. He would be back. But now he knew he must go.
Go to London.
Charlie had arrived in London with Tom and Jo, thanks to Mearns' help, and they were lodging in a small but clean house that the Major had insisted was safe for them till he came to see them. Tom was happy and Jo was finding life full of surprises and kindness. Tom had a job working in a stables where Jo was allowed in, and where he caught rats with great regularity. Charlie strolled about, absorbing this new western side of London. One day he saw the elegant red-headed man who Mindy had told him was a Lord-in-Waiting.
Charlie was not surprised when the Major arrived with Denny in tow. He had somehow expected that Major Mearns would want to know how he and Tom were getting on. The Major arrived in the morning on a bright spring day, although there was a suggestion of rain in the air.
‘You didn't come all the way to London just to see me?'
‘And the boy. And the dog.' He smiled. ‘All well, I see.
Charlie nodded. ‘Better than I would have expected.'
‘London suits him. And the dog. But we miss him in the Castle.'
‘He'd come back to Windsor, I daresay,' said Charlie thoughtfully. He himself might want to move on elsewhere, Charlie thought, and Tom and Jo might be able to come with him. ‘If you made him a good offer!' he added.
Denny said that he missed them both and would be glad to have them both in the Castle.
‘But what was it you came for?' asked Charlie.
‘You know the ways of the Castle,' replied Major Mearns. ‘I came to deliver a letter from the King by hand. I am on my way there now.'
Charlie said, with no question in his voice, ‘To Mrs Fitzherbert.' Then he added, ‘Can I come with you?'
He meant to go, having made up his mind at once. The Major knew this.
 
Mrs Fitzherbert had a house in Tilney Street, not far from Bond Street. It was an aristocratic, smart area, but the house was not large.
Although where Charlie had a room was certainly not aristocratic, it was within walking distance of Tilney Street.
The Major pulled the bell chain. The door was opened by a maidservant, and he went in.
‘You don't go in with him?' Charlie said to Denny; they were watching from some way off.
‘Not wanted.'
Charlie absorbed this information in silence for a moment, and then said, ‘You come here though?'
‘Yes, Charlie, yes, because after this we shall go off and have a drink and meet a few friends. It is an escape from the Castle. Yes, I know; you liked it, and so do I – but not all the time.' Denny paused for a moment.
‘And Mindy's away,' he added morosely. ‘She's gone off with Princess Augusta and one of her Ladies-in-Waiting to Bath.'
‘And you miss her,' said Charlie with sympathy.
‘We both do. She does our washing apart from anything else. She cooks our supper too sometimes.'
‘I thought you got it from the kitchens, or you cooked.'
‘Oh, yes, that is something that life in the army does teach you – how to cook when you have to. But a woman is better, you know … But Mindy is due back soon.'
The door of the house opened and the Major came out. Behind him came a woman who must have been Mrs Fitzherbert. She seemed to be talking in a forceful way to Mearns, whose face was impassive.
‘He's not getting a pat on the back,' Charlie decoded from what he saw, ‘but a slap on the hand.' Then: ‘An interesting face,' he thought. ‘The sort of face that would get people writing about it. Not me, though.'
‘What did he come here for?' Charlie asked Denny.
‘Sent.'
‘Oh? Why?'
Denny shrugged. ‘I don't know exactly why, but the King sends him every so often. She's his wife.'
‘Not the
King's
wife?'
‘Yes. They were married years ago.'
Charlie studied the woman. ‘She's very fat, but the face is beautiful – her skin gleams.'
‘Yes, and it's natural – not like the King; his face is covered with grease and paint.'
‘I noticed he looks a bit done over,' said Charlie, then: ‘She looks as though she is being very sharp with the Major.'
‘Be over money,' said Denny. ‘Usually is; she wants more.
‘Well …' began Charlie thoughtfully.
‘The King gives her ten thousand a year.'
Charlie was silenced. He could hardly believe it.
‘But it's never enough,' Denny went on.
‘How do you and the Major know all this?'
‘Oh, we get to know most things.'
Major Mearns had made a slight, polite bow to Mrs Fitzherbert and then turned away. After all, the bow said, if things had gone differently she would have been his queen.
Perhaps she was the real wife, as she had certainly been the first one. ‘Queen Fitzherbert,' thought the Major. ‘What was her first name?' He found he did not know. Yes, he did: he remembered it was Maria Anne.
He saw that Denny and Charlie were there too.
‘You waited.' It was not a question.
‘We wanted to see how you got on,' commented Denny.
‘Oh, I got on,' replied the Major. ‘A message to pass
on to His Majesty. She made it clear what I was to say.' He looked around and asked Charlie: ‘How's the lad?'
‘Oh, he's working – takes it seriously. When it's work time then he works. Tom has changed — become more …' Charlie hesitated. ‘Well, more solid is the word I think.'
‘The dog too?'
Charlie considered. ‘Yes, and Jo too.'
‘You can all come back to the Castle with me if you desire.'
Charlie said thoughtfully: ‘Give us another two weeks or so; he's learning so much.'
But really Charlie said this because he was worried about what Felix Ferguson would do. He did want to be there to see for himself.
However, this was not the only reason to hold back for a couple more weeks so that Tom and Jo could develop.
The perplexing thing was that Charlie could not be sure if he wanted to be there to protect Tom and Jo, or if he wanted them there to protect him.
As the little party waited in the inn courtyard for the Windsor coach, Mearns was looking with some amusement and pride at his young protégés. Charlie and Tom were washed and clean, and dressed in neat suits and boots, and the Major had taken them to the barbers in Covent Garden where the two boys had been given smart haircuts, whilst he had had a shave. The boys had washed the dog, who seemed to find this new experience enjoyable and fun, and Jo now had a proper collar to wear. Denny saw Mearns' look: ‘You've taken a very fatherly view of our young team,' he grinned.
‘They're going to be more useful than we realised,' replied Mearns. ‘We must keep them safely with us till we solve our latest Windsor murders.'
The coach rumbled into the inn yard, and the ostlers ran to change the horses. The driver was the one who had first brought Charlie to Windsor, which seemed like years ago. He recognised Charlie. ‘Well, young Sir. You have come up in the world!' Then turning to the Major: ‘He does you credit, Sir.'
‘Thank you. Tell me, whilst we are waiting, when you
brought him here to Windsor, you kindly let him earn some money by bringing up two heavy parcels to me at the Castle. Did the ostler tell you who had given them to him?'
‘He said it was a very tall, very thin woman — like Miss Tux who came down with us that day.' The coachman recollected: ‘He did say this woman fair gave him the creeps. There was something he didn't like about her – “proper bullying type” he called her.'
‘If it was a “her”,' muttered the Major.
The coachman stared. ‘That might explain the big hands he saw. Came from near the Theatre, too.'
Charlie heard all this without letting the men see he was listening. He was being cautious. He had been attacked. He had seen Mindy nearly burnt to death. He remembered the chef and the actor who both had strange affectionate ways. Could women kill? Could a woman killer cover her tracks? Could she kill again?
Charlie pondered these matters on the very comfortable journey inside the coach – to the Windsor he knew was now becoming more and more important to him. On arriving at the inn yard there, he noticed it was the same ostler as the coachman had pointed out to Mearns. Charlie asked him about the mysterious woman and the two heavy parcels.
The ostler told him she had been hanging around near the inn or near the Theatre for some time. The heaviness of the parcels hadn't seemed to worry her, and she had held them all the time as if they were valuable. Yes, he had noticed the large hands: ‘Now you mention it, they
could have been the hands of a man. That could explain why she just didn't seem right.'
Mearns and Denny took the two boys and Jo to the Castle, where they found them a room in which to sleep, and then gave them a good meal from the Royal kitchen. Then they brought them into Mearns' room for a talk.
Firstly, Charlie told the Major that he had seen the red-haired Lord near Mrs Fitzherbert's house in London. Then he explained about the privy at the Theatre, which no one used because of the awful smell — much worse than most privies. The Major sat up like a hound straining at the leash – enough to startle Jo who sat up with equal alertness.
‘Yes, you can come with us too, Jo,' said Mearns. ‘Dol killed in the dressing room. The attempt to kill Mindy – saved thanks to you, Charlie. The actress slain as well – or instead. The attack on you, dear boy … There's something rotten in the state of Denmark! – as the players might say.'
The two men, the two boys and Jo walked swiftly to the Theatre and entered the yard quietly. Charlie got the spade and Denny started digging by the privy in fits and starts. Although the Major scattered flowers around, and smoked a pipe vigorously, the smell was now even worse.
As he dug deeper into the earth, Denny gently dug in smaller spade-fulls. Soon clothes could be seen – a waistcoat, then the body of a headless and legless man. ‘Traddles, poor devil! Get a wheelbarrow, Charlie. We must take him away. God be thanked the new mortuary
attendant is one of my ex-soldiers, and an honest man. We'll not tell the Theatre they can use this privy again – not for the moment.'
They wheeled the body to the mortuary, having covered it with a sack. Jo was so interested in the whole proceedings that Mearns could not help thinking the dog was indeed proving to be a useful member of his team.
On the way back Charlie told the Major he felt strongly it was Beau who had hit him, though he could not be sure why. They turned back to the Theatre and were lucky to find Miss Fairface in her dressing room – obviously relieved to see them. She informed them that Beau had been out of breath and very agitated when he had arrived at the Theatre that day. She also told them she was sure the ‘creature' who had given Charlie the parcel near the Theatre was the same man or woman she had noticed in the green room at the time of the dressing room murder.
Charlie suddenly remembered that Willie, the ex-actor who knew Tosser, had seen the parcel being handed to him. They found Willie sitting in one of the nearby coffee shops with a small cup of coffee. Mearns immediately brought him another and a slice of ham to go with it. Willie's tongue was loosened by this unexpected sustenance, for which he was full of gratitude.
‘I tell you, Sir, Tosser was a devious fellow – very devious! And looked not to the order of his going. One day I came up to sup with him, and as I reached his door I heard shouting. Tosser was demanding money, or he could make life difficult for the other man. Blackmail to
my mind. Hoist the black flag and begin slitting throats! – my own words, from a speech I wrote.'
‘What other man, did you see him?'
‘That I did, Sir. I hid round the corner as he was coming out, and saw him striding away; but he didn't see me. It was Felix, the Crowner.'
As they were leaving, after giving a coin to Willie, Charlie told the Major that he had seen the man-woman's dress, shawl and bonnet hanging in the cupboard in Felix's house when he had climbed up to speak to Tom – or Spike – and Jo.
‘Corruption — corruption! It's spreading like a stone thrown into a pond,' muttered Mearns. ‘And how are we going to prove who is the spider lurking in the centre of this web?'
They decided to return to the mortuary to search for any clues left with the bodies.
‘If Felix killed Dol, then who let him into the Theatre, and why did he kill her?' asked Mearns.
‘Surely it must have been Henrietta,' offered Miss Fairface.
Mearns, who had been turning out the pockets of Tosser and Traddles, found a stained and crumpled note in Tosser's coat. It was signed F, fixing an appointment. ‘Ha!' he exclaimed. ‘Suppose Dol had been demanding money as well?'
Miss Fairface commented: ‘Sometimes I could smell Dol on Beau when we were on stage together, and I taxed him about it.'
 
 
Back at the Castle, Mindy – who had returned from her trip to Bath — joined them for a glass of wine as she returned another of Denny's shirts. She offered to mend any of Mearns' shirts, and those of the two boys as well. Mearns smiled fondly at her, not unnoticed by Denny and Charlie.
Mindy questioned them so relentlessly that Mearns told her the whole story – not displeased to see the admiring look she gave him when he had finished.
‘I think I can help you,' she said thoughtfully, and rather timidly. ‘I will meet Felix. Let him think I am, shall we say, not ignoring him, and see what he tells me – more importantly, what he does not tell me.'
Mearns regarded her anxiously. He noted her bright, intelligent eyes, her colouring, the elegant picture she made in another high-waisted blue dress that fitted her slim figure well.
‘It won't be a risk. I will take Jo with me, and Charlie can keep in the background to watch over my welfare.'
Charlie and Jo sat up eagerly. Mearns caught Denny's eye – the thought in both their minds that they, too, would be in the vicinity. On that note of agreement they fixed a time for the morrow, in the morning.
 
The next morning Mindy and Jo, whose lameness was now cured, walked past Felix's office, pretending indifference, but hoping that he was in the front room. From out of the corner of her eye she saw Felix notice her and the dog, and she walked on. A few moments later she heard Felix running after her.
‘Mindy, my dear, what brings you out this morning, and with this dog?'
‘There is so much bustle and worry going on in the Castle, I cannot stand it, so I offered to go to the mantua-maker's, and took the dog for a walk.'
‘What sort of bustle is going on?'
‘Perhaps you have heard of it. Indeed perhaps you can set my mind at rest a little. They are all talking of Mrs Fitzherbert, and there are strange officers here now, and the most frightening rumours. Have you heard aught of it?'
Felix frowned and glared at her, then made a threatening gesture, at which she pretended to be so in fear that she and Jo ran away — not past Felix's house, but towards the town.
Charlie dodged down an alley behind the house to a sidestreet so that he was at the corner as she ran towards it. Mearns and Denny were hiding round the opposite corner. Meanwhile, Mindy had been letting all three of them know she saw them, with a flirtatious wink and smile.
Felix turned back to his own house, scowling furiously. By a roundabout way, past the mantua-maker's in case Felix was having Mindy followed, the party returned to the Castle. As they walked along Mindy gave them her impressions of Felix's words and demeanour.
Mearns pondered. ‘So! Felix is worried about Mrs Fitzherbert. And we know that Lord Maken is visiting Mrs F in London – thanks to you seeing him there,
Charlie. And Mrs F's message to the King, which I have not yet given him, is not what I thought a beleaguered woman would threaten.'
Charlie enquired, ‘Sir, what about the house near the Theatre where Mrs Fitzherbert stayed?'
‘We'll go round there now. 'Tis only a few yards out of our way, and we'll see what we can learn.'
On arriving there and finding the house empty, they called in on the neighbours and found out that it was only a rented house. They learnt that it was currently let to a Mr Montresor, a tall, red-haired man, with a very condescending air.
‘Maken — or I'm a Dutchman!' grunted Mearns, slapping one fist into the palm of another. ‘Now, why is he doing this? Is it a plot against Mrs F by the King?'
‘Could it not be the other way round?' suggested Mindy excitedly. ‘Can it be a plot against the King by Mrs F and Lord Maken, with Felix doing all their dirty work while they keep safely in the background?'
‘Aye! And this must be why they sent me those bits of poor Traddles' body – to discredit me. But we beat them on that because we haven't let them know all we know. Good girl, Mindy. We'll make a Watcher of you yet!'
She blushed and lowered her eyes lest Mearns read too much in them. Mearns continued to ponder: ‘Why should Beau visit Dol? Rather than any other ladies of the night? Is it because of who she knows? Or is it
because of where she lives – on the top floor of that house, overlooking the Castle?'
‘What about Henrietta's other lovers?' queried Denny.
 
Mearns left the others safely at the Castle, and walked back to the Theatre. Beau was in his dressing room, so Mearns was able to question him fiercely and searchingly – particularly about Dol, Felix and the attack on Charlie. He told Beau that he suspected that he had killed Dol before going on stage that night. And that Henrietta had dragged the body out of their hiding place before ‘finding' her. Beau spluttered angrily but without conviction. Mearns left him red in the face and slipped into Miss Fairface's dressing room. He told her the position to date and was not surprised to learn that Henrietta did have other lovers besides her mysterious Lord, and also that she had been seen whispering with Felix. Miss Fairface offered to adopt the ploy of Mindy and make up to Lord Maken in order to see what he might let slip.
 
Next morning over a breakfast of Royal ham and coffee and a carefully held newspaper, Mearns and Denny summed up the case.
Denny reported to the Major: ‘I have not been idle. I have learnt that Traddles had been heard to say he was on to something that would make his fortune, and give the Castle something to worry about; also, it was rumoured that it was Felix who killed and buried the baby found in the Theatre back yard. People say it was
the offspring of Mrs Fitzherbert and Lord Maken, and that it was buried some time ago. They must have employed Felix to get rid of it. He's been doing their dirty work for them ever since, and buried Traddles's dog in the same hole. If it was so widely talked about in the Theatre, perhaps it was also heard in the town.' Mearns told Denny to make his usual quiet walk round the town after returning
The Times
to John, the King's top dresser. Meanwhile, he, the Major, would watch the Theatre.

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