Mistaken Identity (Saved By Desire 3) (23 page)

It was then that he realised she was holding something. His eyes popped wide, and he looked at her in astonishment.

“Jess? Where did you get that from?” He carefully relieved her of the gun that hung from her limp fingers and stared at it in shock.

Jess looked a little sheepish. “Well, I was a little busy while you were away.”

“What?” He grew worried.

She coughed and nodded toward the thicket. “Come and see.”

Aware that the men were staring at her, she led them over to where she had abandoned Lloyd.

Marcus knelt beside him and studied the large lump on the man’s temple, and shook his head in dismay.

“What happened?” He demanded.

Jess told him everything Lloyd had revealed to her.

“So, he has been trying to keep everyone away from Mr Grant’s house,” he murmured. He looked at Barnaby. “We need to get an interim magistrate here.”

“When you said he was corrupt, I just thought he broke the law around here. I didn’t realise he was part of Sayers’ mob,” Barnaby growled.

This time, when Barnaby looked at Jess, there was a deep respect in his eyes. Barnaby was relieved that Marcus had found a woman who was so calm, and strong. She astonished him. Her life was in tatters right now but, although she was upset, she still had the foresight and determination to thwart a much bigger man. Not only that, but she had been level headed enough to stay and keep guard over Lloyd while she watched her home burn to the ground.

He had never met a woman who had amazed him more.

No wonder Marcus fell for her
Barnaby mused wryly and turned a look on his friend.

He knew Marcus well enough to recognise the emotion on his friend’s face. Marcus adored the beautiful woman he just couldn’t take his hands off, and Barnaby couldn’t blame him.

“You have done an incredible job,” Barnaby assured her. “Thank you.”

Jess nodded, but couldn’t say much or she would burst into tears.

“What happens now?” she asked Marcus as she cuddled close.

Marcus kissed the top of her head and savoured having her against his side.

“The rest of the gang have already been arrested, but we need to go and take a look at Mr Grant’s house,” he murmured. “I am sorry about the house, Jess.”

“It’s alright,” she replied with a shaky smile. “Just don’t leave me here alone now.”

“Believe me, when I tell you that you will never be alone again,” he whispered.

“We need to go to Mr Grant’s house,” Barnaby began. He turned to Marcus. “Do you want to head to the tavern or something?”

“No, I am coming with you,” Marcus replied. He looked down at Jess.

“I am coming too,” she said firmly.

Marcus nodded. He couldn’t think of a better place for her to be.

Minutes later, they left Lloyd tied up next to Sayers body, and all set out for Mr Grant’s house.

As they walked, Marcus pointed out sharp sticks and dips in the pathway, and never released his grip on her hand. He treated her with such tender loving care that she felt the most protected person in the world, and it endeared him to her even more.

By the time Mr Grant’s house came into view, a few more kisses had been exchanged, and Jess had no doubt in the world he cared about her as much as she did him.

Her joy was short-lived, though, when the men drew their guns and that atmosphere turned menacing.

Barnaby threw Marcus a hard look. “You stay here with Jess.”

He nodded to Ben, who cocked his gun.

“Ben?” Jess gasped in astonishment.

He threw her a look that was considerably more mature than any she had ever seen from him before. It startled her. This was a new side to her brother that was simply him showing that he was no longer her little brother. At some point over the past few years, in fact, since Marcus’ arrival in the village, her defiant younger brother had turned into a man.

It was shocking to watch him move stealthily into the trees in the same way as she had seen Marcus do. She had to wonder what other change in her brother she had missed.

“He will be alright,” Marcus assured her when he saw the shock on her face.

He knew the formation of the team. The men flanked either side of the house, front, and back, while two men went in through the back door. At Barnaby’s whistle, the men all converged on the house in unison. Doors were kicked in at the front, and the back of the house and everyone stormed inside.

Marcus suspected from the silence that followed that there was either nobody in the cottage, or the demise of the occupant he knew had been in their earlier, was complete.

“What are they doing?” Jess whispered, unnerved by the silence.

“They are searching the house to make sure it is safe,” he explained and took the opportunity to drop a swift kiss on her lips.

Barnaby appeared in the doorway and gave Marcus the all clear signal.

“Where are the captives?” Marcus asked as he approached the house. He hadn’t seen any of them at all since they had been left trussed up in the undergrowth.

“They are under guard,” Barnaby replied. “Jacob’s around here somewhere with them. They won’t get away from him, even if they do wake up.”

Marcus nodded, happy to leave that part of the clean-up operation to the men.

“You may want to stay out here,” Barnaby warned with a cautious look at Jess.

Jess saw what he meant but wasn’t going to be thwarted. She didn’t want to be prevented from witnessing the harsh reality of what she had accommodated in her home.

“I need to see for myself what they have been doing. These criminals have dragged me into this. I deserve to know who they truly are.”

Barnaby opened his mouth to object, and looked at Marcus worriedly, but Jess swept past him. Neither man had the time to haul her back, and stop her entering the kitchen.

Marcus followed her and swore at the scene that awaited them.

Placing his gun into his cloak pocket, he put his hands on his hips and surveyed the contents of the table Kieran and Joe were rifling through.

“Now why would you do that?” he murmured as he eyed Smithers’ body swinging silently from the rafters. “Or did someone else do it to you?”

He knew the dead man wasn’t going to give him any answers so turned his attention to the rest of the room. It was clear that the gang had abandoned it quickly. Papers and drawings were strewn haphazardly across the floor in a trail that led straight to the fireplace. The flames that had once burnt there had died down now. However, visible in the ash were the edges of the unburnt papers. Marcus scooped the untouched papers out of harm’s way and put them on the table before he turned to the rest of the contents that littered the wooden surface.

“What is it?” Jess asked, staring at the various pieces of equipment that helped cover the entire surface of the table-top.

“Forgery,” Marcus replied.

Barnaby peered up into the face of Smithers and shook his head. “He must have a lot to hide.”

Reassured by the calm, unflappable manner of the well-armed men in the house, Jess began to relax for the first time that morning. Wandering around, she studied the ghost of the life of Mr Grant, and the left-over items of the men who had used it for their crimes.

Eventually, she returned to Marcus’ side.

“They look like gems,” she whispered as she studied the tiny pieces of brilliant stones Marcus was poking through.

“They aren’t the gems they had stashed in your house,” Marcus replied. “Ben found those. Thankfully, he had the foresight to remove them before the house collapsed. Unfortunately, we do not have the evidence they were in Sayers’ possession at some point.”

“We can continue to call him Sayers’ for the time being until we have proof of his real identity,” Barnaby warned.

Jess picked up what looked like a plate of some kind that was still in the process of being carved. “It looks like a banker’s note.”

“The man you know as Ball is nothing more than a thug. He is as dumb as anyone could be. He doesn’t have the intelligence for something like this or the patience. Ball is a fighter; a bully. This is too intellectual. This is Abernathy’s work, or Brammall’s.”

“Where is everyone?” Jess asked hesitantly.

“They are all seated in a line at the bottom of the garden. I have sent someone to the gaol to fetch the cart. It should be here within the hour,” Barnaby replied. “We can gather everything up and take a look at all of the evidence once they are behind bars.”

“Carruthers is with them,” Marcus said.

Jess’ gaze flew to him. “Lloyd can go too.
”

Marcus nodded and smiled. “You know the man was apt to bend the law to serve his purposes. Well, he has now lost his job, and his reputation. When he does get out of prison, he will never get a position of authority again.”

“Good,” Jess replied with an emphatic nod.

Ben stepped back into the room. “You need to come and see this.”

He nodded toward the room behind him and led everyone to it. Not all of them could fit inside because Kieran was already in the cramped confines. They did manage to get close enough to see that inside the room was a long bench littered with all sorts of paraphernalia. What drew everybody’s attention was the table in the centre of the room, and the unfinished sparkling diamond and ruby necklace that lay right in the middle of it.

“That’s why they wanted the gems,” Marcus murmured.

“We had the missing pieces,” Ben added with a sigh. “They couldn’t finish it without those gems they had at the lodgings. This piece must be worth a small fortune.”

“There must be several ounces of solid gold in that,” Barnaby added.

“It would earn them a heck of a lot of money,” Marcus sighed. “Not only that but those undoubtedly re-cut gems are now untraceable. We have no idea where they came from.”

“Just how much more is this Sayers person involved in?” Jess asked, deeply troubled at the thought that she had been living in such close confines with hardened criminals.

“All sorts of things,” Marcus replied, dragging her into his arms again. “It is over now, and guaranteed never to happen again.”

“He is dead,” Jess said with no small measure of satisfaction.

Unfortunately, Marcus hesitated.

She looked at him. “He is not dead?” she asked in confusion.

“We don’t know if Gillespie is Sayers after all,” Marcus murmured. “Sayers is a chameleon. He changes persona so smoothly that nobody can be sure just yet. We need to investigate the man we called Gillespie. Until we have questioned his co-conspirators and find out their true identities, it is difficult to find out who our dead man is.”

“We have to rely then on the co-conspirators being honest. To say they are prepared to lie to protect themselves is an understatement,” Barnaby added. “They are, after all, the very dregs of society.”

They all returned to the kitchen. Marcus then turned his attention to the papers on the table.

“These are drawings of plates, notes of equipment they needed, and some bills for something. We need to take a closer look at these later. Right now, we can get the others to jail and let them understand the harsh reality of their future,” Marcus reasoned.

“They will get hard labour for this,” Barnaby growled.

Marcus nodded. “I hope they do. For now, they need to be questioned.”

“What happens to Lloyd now?” Ben asked. “He is, or was, the magistrate around these parts.”

“We will notify the War Office, and someone will be sent up to act as magistrate until a permanent replacement is found,” Barnaby assured him. “There is a lot of clean-up work to do here. By the time we have finished, the interim magistrate should have arrived. We can then hand over to him, and take our investigation back to London, most probably.”

“Or onto wherever the investigation leads us,” Joe added.

“This is a major coup for us. Whether Sayers is alive or not, we have cost him, and his network, a considerable amount of money today,” Marcus added quietly with no small air of satisfaction.

“Good,” Jess sniffed defiantly. “I hope they suffer.”

“Meantime, we need to go and get cleaned up at the tavern. Then we can have something to eat, get some rest, and we need to talk.” Marcus said the last meaningfully at Jess and waited for her to nod.

“You can go too, Ben. You need to get some sleep while we gather this lot up. Then we can go over to the jail and start to question the convicts. We will catch up with you later, Marcus,” Barnaby said.

He suspected Marcus was going to be busy for a while, but that didn’t bother him. Both he and Joe deserved a well-earned rest for this massive achievement.

In Marcus’ case, he rather suspected that rest period would precede a permanent change in circumstance. He hoped so anyway because Marcus had been a good friend for many years. He deserved a little happiness.

Hours later, Jess lay in Marcus’ arms while their bodies cooled. They had been fed and were now clean, warm, and blessedly safe.

Now that she was away from danger, she was able to look back on the events of the day with something akin to shock. It felt like it had all been some kind of bad dream. However, she knew the lingering effects of what had happened to her would remain with her for the rest of her life.

“What happens now?” she asked, staring across his chest at the raindrops slithering down the window.

“We have a day or two here while we clear everything up. Mr Grant’s body has been found in the woods at the back of the house. We will try to find out if the man has relatives nearby. If not, we will hand over the body to the interim magistrate to arrange the burial, and deal with trying to trace the wider family. Meantime, we have to question the prisoners. As soon as we find out just who their contacts are, and who supplies the gemstones, we can move on.”

Jess sighed and rolled onto her back. Marcus rolled with her and prevented her from leaving by draping one leg over her flat tummy.

“I need to decide what to do about the house,” she whispered.

“There isn’t much you can do with it now,” he cautioned. “Not after the roof collapsed.”

“I know,” she replied sadly. “I just need to try to salvage what I can out of the store at the back of the house. Most of what we wanted to keep but didn’t need to use were put in there when the roof of the house started to leak. I can’t just leave it all behind but then I have no way to transport it, even if I do know which way to go.”

“Wait a minute,” Marcus interrupted. “What about me? Us? Don’t I feature in your plans?”

“Well, you have your work with the Star Elite. You will have to go where that takes you.”

“Yes, but I am also a man,” he said. “I deserve a life outside of the Star Elite. It is my work; it is not my entire life. I am not going to spend my whole life traipsing up and down the country after criminals. There are men in the service who have found wives.” He glanced at her and smiled. “In the most unusual of circumstances, and they have beaten insurmountable odds to forge relationships, and have been extremely successful. They have married, and some of them have children now. They live and work within a stone’s throw from home so they can have a life outside of work. I deserve the same. It doesn’t mean I have to stop doing what I am doing. For my own peace of mind, I have to finish what I started with this. I can’t walk away until Sayers, and his network has been broken up. It is going to take a couple of years, but that doesn’t mean my whole life has to be put on hold.”

“I know you need to follow leads, and will inevitably move on. But I cannot traipse around with you. You are sometimes gone in the dead of night for hours on end.”

“I don’t expect you to,” Marcus assured her. “We are going to stay here, in this tavern for now.”

Jess gasped. “Oh, we can’t.”

“Yes, we can,” Marcus assured her.

“What will people think of me?” She wriggled around so she could see him more clearly.