‘And has she been able to do so?’ Nicholas said, his voice full of suspicion.
‘Indeed she has. The information I just gave you concerning Mrs Belton’s character came from one of her friends.’
‘I believe you, since it would make sense for you to act in that way,’ Nicholas said. ‘It’s just that her sister is most suspicious. Miss Lucy refuses to tell her anything, it seems. She is all the more surprised since, while they were in France, Miss Lucy was first downcast and then angry at your failure to write to her or try to contact her in any way. She expected there would, therefore be little contact between you on her return.’
‘That is a matter entirely between the two of us,’ Foxe said. ‘I have apologised for my thoughtlessness and Miss Lucy has agreed we should move on. As for what she tells her sister of our discussions, that is nothing to do with me. I recall that I asked Miss Lucy to keep the matter of our discussions confidential. It appears she has taken my words literally.’
‘And this talking about your case is the only reason for your visits?’
‘What other reason could there be?’ Foxe said, trying to convey complete disdain for the whole topic. ‘Of course, sometimes I go to see her uncle and don’t spend any time with Miss Lucy at all.’
Foxe was fairly certain that his cousin had been asked by Maria Halloran to find out all he could, both from Mrs Crombie and directly from himself. Mrs Crombie knew nothing and Foxe had made it plain he wasn’t going to say anything further. Perhaps Nicholas would now decide he wasn’t going to get any further information from either of them and abandon any future attempts. He certainly appeared to, since he abruptly announced that he must be on his way as he had a good deal of business to deal with when he returned to his office. Mrs Crombie also helped matters along by saying that there were several fresh matters of business that she wished to discuss with Mr Foxe. Much to Foxe’s relief, therefore, he was asked no further questions about his visits to Colegate and his relations with Miss Lucy.
Foxe decided it was now too late to return to Belton’s warehouse that day. Instead, he went through the connecting door into his own house, handed his coat and hat to Alfred and asked Molly to bring him something to eat and drink. She would find him in his library, he told her, where he intended to read the day’s post and catch up with any matters concerning the sale or purchase of rare books. This was the most profitable part of his book-selling business by far and he was determined not to neglect it more than was necessary. All the same, he had breakfasted early that morning and was now feeling surprisingly hungry.
To his surprise, he found a letter from Mrs Belton amongst the others waiting for him on his desk. The greater part of it was taken up with effusive thanks for stopping the thefts from her warehouse and delivering the thieves over to justice. Then she added, almost as a postscript, the news that she had looked for the best of her jewellery but found it all missing. She had intended to see whether she could use it as security against another loan to provide extra working capital for setting the business on a better and more profitable track. Much of the jewellery, she wrote, had been inherited from her grandmother and great-grandmother and she believed it was quite valuable, although she did not know the precise market price which might be placed on it by a jeweller. There was a necklace, several brooches, earrings and a bracelet, all made of gold with diamonds, emeralds and similar precious stones inset. Exactly when it was taken, she could not tell him as she rarely wore it and most of the time kept it hidden in her jewellery case. Since there was no sign of a burglary, she could only assume that her husband had taken it to pledge it all against some loan taken out for his own purposes. Had he asked her to let him do so, she would have refused. He must have known that. He could hardly have given them to his latest mistress, she continued. She would never have attended any occasion at which she could’ve worn such jewellery. Naturally, she did not expect Mr Foxe to waste his time on what was a matter of importance only to herself. She had simply thought he should know about it.
‘More and more curious,’ Foxe said to himself, putting down her letter. ‘That Mr Belton took the jewels is quite obvious under the circumstances. Could he perhaps have been trying to raise money to make good the loss on the contract with the merchant in Riga? By doing so, he might have hoped to avoid anyone finding out that his much-vaunted deal had gone badly wrong. He would be bound to want to avoid the scorn and derision he would doubtless encounter from those who told him at the start that was exactly what was going to happen. And what’s this casual remark about his latest mistress?’
He turned the matter over and over in his head for several more minutes then, unable to reach any firm conclusions, tucked it away at the back of his mind and turned to wolfing down the food Molly had brought him.
16
Once again, Foxe left his house early the next morning and hastened through the town down to the river, over the Fye Bridge and up Magdalen Street to the lane which led to Belton’s warehouse. Apart from a few people going to their places of work, he met no one, so was able to walk briskly and enjoy the coolness of the morning.
To his considerable surprise, Comiston greeted him almost warmly while apologising that his mistress, Mrs Belton, would not be available that day. He thought she was visiting her bankers and lawyers for urgent discussions on several matters. Foxe was relieved by this news and hoped the bookkeeper would speak more freely without Mrs Belton’s presence. Foxe had already come to the conclusion that the staff were frightened of their new mistress. After Belton’s easy-going ways, his wife’s ruthless emphasis on cutting out waste and improving the ways in which the firm operated must have come as a considerable shock. Comiston’s next words amply confirmed this impression.
‘Many of us are feeling concerned about our continued employment, Mr Foxe,’ Comiston said. ‘Mrs Belton has already dismissed several people whom she’s accused of laziness and lack of ability. Since we have also lost all the warehousemen, it is proving extremely difficult to continue with business as usual. Mrs Belton does not seem to acknowledge this and blames the employees instead. For my own part, I am worried that she will decide to hold me responsible for the muddle and falling sales of the last few years, at least in part.’
‘That was hardly your fault,’ Foxe replied. ‘You are the bookkeeper not the manager. You could hardly tell the owner of the business that he was doing things wrong. If anyone was to blame for not reining him in, it would be Johnson. However, I doubt that he could have had much influence over Mr Belton either.’
‘None of us could. Mr Belton would never listen to anybody. Johnson and I discussed the situation on numerous occasions. We even tried our best to suggest to Mr Belton that he should take more time to consider the implications of his plans and think through the alternatives. It was of no use. Once he had an idea in his mind, his only interest was in carrying it out as quickly as he could.’
‘I shouldn’t worry about your continued employment, Comiston,’ Foxe said. ‘Mrs Belton can hardly do without you while she is getting the finances of the business back into some kind of sensible order. And if she does try to take her irritation out on you, I shall be happy to speak to her on your behalf.’
‘That is really most handsome of you, Mr Foxe,’ Comiston replied, relaxing visibly. Foxe could see that this expression of support had greatly pleased the bookkeeper. He expected he would now have no trouble in getting him to speak freely.
‘Please ask me anything you wish to know, anything whatsoever, and I will do my best to answer you,’ Comiston continued. ‘On financial matters, I will probably have all the answers at my fingertips. Concerning other aspects of the business, I may have to rely on what I picked up in conversations with Mr Johnson.’
‘The matter in which I am most interested concerns both those areas,’ Foxe told him. ‘I think we need to go back some six months, to the time when Mr Belton first began to take a personal interest in running the business again. I guess that must have been in mid-Jun
e.’
‘You’ll need to go back earlier than that, Mr Foxe. Johnson and I first noticed a significant increase in the frequency of Mr Belton’s visits to his office some three or four months before, I would guess in January or February sometime. At first, he revealed only a constant wish to know how the business was performing and whether we might be able to increase sales and profits. He still showed no interest in how the business ran or in keeping up with the necessary administration.’
‘I wonder what caused this change in his attitude?’ Foxe said.
‘As you can imagine, Johnson and I frequently wondered the same thing at the time. The only reason we could think of was that he had already realised, or been warned, that he was going to be chosen mayor. As you will know, sir, no members of the city government receive any payment for what they do. That includes everyone from the sheriff and the mayor down to the newest councillor. All are expected to pay their own expenses, which in the case of the sheriff and the mayor can be very considerable. As the most senior civic officers, the holders of those ranks are expected to entertain lavishly to promote the status of the city.’
‘I think I can see where you’re going,’ Foxe said. ‘I imagine nearly all the other aldermen, if not every single one, would be possessed of far greater resources than Mr Belton. Keeping up the standards expected of the mayor was sure to place a severe strain on his resources.’
‘Precisely. He had paid very little attention to this business for several years before, as a result of which sales and profits were in decline. His own income would also have fallen as a result. He doubtless knew that he was going to need far more money than the business could provide him in its current state. What he didn’t seem to realise was that turning a declining business into a steadily growing and profitable one cannot be done quickly. He demanded a substantial growth in income within a few months at the most. It was impossible and Johnson and I told him so.’
‘What did he do?’ Foxe asked.
‘Ignored us as usual. In his mind, one way of raising money was as good as another. If he couldn’t increase sales and profits, he’d borrow instead, never mind how or when he could ever pay back what he raised. He started by obtaining a substantial mortgage from the Norwich and Norfolk Bank. I’m sure he told the directors there that he wanted the money to modernise and improve this business. In fact, he devoted all of it to his initial expenses as mayor. When it ran out, he found himself back where he had started.’
‘Hence his disastrous attempt to sell a large amount of cloth to an overseas merchant,’ Foxe noted, ‘bypassing the agents in London whom he had always used previously.’
‘You are, of course, absolutely correct,’ Comiston replied. ‘The loan had been spent and he needed another large amount of money quickly, so he was prepared to take an enormous risk in order to get it. Johnson and I were quite alarmed by what he was doing. We knew that Mr Belton would have no idea how to obtain such sales overseas. Our only consolation was that his plan would never be turned into practice. He might relish the notion, but he would be quite unable to bring it about.’
‘What happened that allowed him to make this sale Foxe asked. ‘To make contact with the merchant in the Baltic area and persuade him to place a large order for cloth would be a considerable undertaking for anyone, let alone a person with no experience and little previous interest in doing any such thing.’
‘A gentleman arrived to see Mr Belton. He said his name was Cartwright and he claimed to be a buying agent for a number of major cloth merchants along the coasts of the Baltic and the German Ocean. He and Mr Belton conferred in private on several occasions, then Mr Belton suddenly produced a contract for the sale of a substantial number of rolls of our best cloth to a merchant in Riga. According to the contract, the merchant would pay one third of the price when the cloth was delivered and the remainder in equal instalments at three- and six-monthly intervals after that. Mr Belton was delighted. He hurried everyone about getting the cloth ready and loading it onto packhorses to be taken to London, where it was to be put on a ship sailing to the port of Riga.’
Foxe could see immediately what had happened. A confidence trickster had either worked out or heard that Belton was in pressing need of a substantial amount of money. He had therefore offered him what appeared to be an ideal opportunity to make that money quickly and without effort. Like all of his kind, he would have painted the outcome of his proposition in such glowing colours that Belton was unable to resist. Foxe doubted that there ever was a merchant in Riga. The cloth was certainly not bound in that direction. It may have been loaded onto packhorses which were claimed to be heading for London but it almost certainly went somewhere else.
‘For almost two months, from late April to early July that would be,’ Comiston went on, ‘Mr Belton believed that his troubles were at an end. Then, about the beginning of July, he received a letter from this man, Cartwright. It said that the ship carrying the order had been sunk in a storm off the coast of Denmark with the total loss of the vessel and all hands. Unfortunately, the shipowner had neglected to insure the cargo as well as the vessel itself. Since Mr Belton had agreed to bear all liabilities, no payments would be received.’
‘Did he see he’d been tricked?’ Foxe asked.
‘Instantly. There never had been an order, a ship or a Riga merchant. Whoever Cartwright was, that wasn’t his real name. He had vanished as swiftly as everything else connected with the deal.’
‘How much was it all worth?’ Foxe asked.
‘Nearly two thousand pounds.’
Foxe whistled quietly. ‘That’s an extremely substantial bad debt,’ he said. ‘How was Mr Belton proposing to cope?’
‘First of all, by hiding it,’ Comiston replied. ‘He threatened Johnson and myself with immediate dismissal without references if we breathed a word of the matter to anyone. The loss was bad enough, of course, but what truly infuriated Mr Belton was the derision he would face if the affair became known. He’d been boasting to all his contacts about the clever piece of business he’d been able to arrange. Almost without exception, I believe, they had expressed great scepticism, warning him to make sure to verify the identity of Cartwright and the standing of the Riga merchant before parting with any goods. Mr Belton, naturally, had ignored their warnings, as he ignored anything he didn’t want to hear. Now they would not only laugh at his predicament, they would believe it strengthened their certainty that he was a fool.’
‘You agreed?’
‘We had no choice. I am too old to find other work that would let me live as I do at present. Johnson had to think of his sick and dying mother. If he could no longer support her, her last days would be most wretched. He would never contemplate treating her in such a way.’
‘Did Belton know this?’
‘Probably,’ Comiston replied. ‘Whatever he knew or guessed, he had the two of us at his mercy. What really stuck in Johnson’s throat and mine, however, was the instruction to remove any mention of the sale from the firm’s books. That meant falsifying the accounts. Mr Belton justified it by saying that he would find a way of replacing the lost money quickly, at which time we could make the accounts correct again with no harm done.’
‘What did you do?’
‘Under the threat of dismissal, we had to agree to do as we were asked. When Belton had gone, we discussed it between us and decided we wouldn’t alter the books in any way. Mr Belton never looked at the accounts, so we were pretty sure he wouldn’t notice. That way, we were both free from the accusation that we were part of a deliberate conspiracy to conceal the true state of the business’s finances. There was still that massive mortgage, you see. If the bank knew what had happened, they might very well demand immediate repayment.’
‘Of course,’ Foxe agreed.
‘Poor Johnson railed again and again against being forced to act so deceitfully,’ Comiston said sadly. ‘He was a man of the strictest morals and the situation caused him constant pain. All we could do to bring ourse
lves some degree of comfort was to keep hoping Mr Belton would manage to produce enough money from elsewhere to cover the bad debt. Then we could mark the debt as paid and all would be square.’
‘But you didn’t think he would,’ Foxe said.
‘Not in the least. Where was he going to get such an enormous sum? He was already short of funds again. The only things he could have pledged as security would be the remaining stock in the warehouse. If he did that, and anyone was prepared to accept it, we would be prevented from trading. We couldn’t sell goods pledged as security for a loan, could we? Nor would our weavers be able to produce more in an instant to allow us to fulfil existing orders, let alone new ones. This entire business, like all the cloth merchants in Norwich, operates on credit. Typically, buyers are given three months to pay. Our creditors usually allow us the same period. We have debts falling due for payment all the time. Delay payment for too long and you destroy trust and, with it, your future credit.’
‘Did you have any idea how the mayor planned to make up this loss?’ Foxe asked.
‘None,’ Comiston said sadly. ‘So long as we could meet the interest on the mortgage we could carry on, but it was touch and go most of the time.’
‘Do you think that Mr Belton went the rounds of the banks in the city trying to raise another mortgage?’ Foxe said. ‘If he did, it seems no one was willing to take the risk of agreeing to what he wanted.’
‘We thought that’s what he was most likely to do. Mr Belton always wanted the easiest answer to any problem. As Mrs Belton is now showing, if you add good organisation to hard work, this business is in far better shape than might appear at first. Her husband would never have acted as she has. Too much effort over too long a time.’
Foxe and the Path into Darkness Page 17