Cloche and Dagger

by Cloche

‘Are you all right?’ I asked.

  He just looked at me as if there really was no answer to that question. I couldn’t argue that.

  There was a pounding knock on the door below. I hoped it was the ambulance people and hurried toward the stairs across from the lift. I ran down the two flights until I was in the reception hall. I crossed to the door and opened it.

  Two people, a middle-aged man and a young woman, both wearing dark green uniforms with fancy patches on their left sides and the initials NHS on the right stood in the doorway.

  ‘Upstairs,’ I said. ‘Two flights. An older woman fainted and, well, there’s something else.’

  ‘Are you all right?’ The woman asked me as the man hurried past me up the stairs.

  I shook my head. ‘But it’s not me who needs care. Please upstairs hurry.’

  I knew the shock of the past few minutes was kicking in as my speech was becoming disjointed. The woman frowned and rushed past me to follow her colleague.

  I wasn’t sure whether to follow them or to wait for the police to show up. A knock on the door made the debate irrelevant.

  A uniformed officer, a constable, was at the door. He was young with a round face and concerned eyes. He was wearing the traditional rounded hat with his badge on the front of it. Mim always liked those hats. His uniform consisted of dark pants, a short-sleeved, white dress shirt with a dark gray vest over it which carried a radio on his shoulder and a Metropolitan Police patch on his left front.

  ‘Upstairs, second floor, hurry,’ I said and pointed.

  At this point, that was about all I could get out. To his credit, he asked no further questions but took the stairs at a run, yanking the radio out of his shoulder as he went.

  He was gone only moments when another constable appeared. He, too, went upstairs, obviously in communication with his colleague. I waited in the hall uncertain of what to do.

  Much like a middle-aged lady, the house was well cushioned with years of living. I heard no noise coming from above and was grateful.

  The second constable reappeared, looking pale and shaken. He had a long face and he had pushed his hat back as if trying to get some oxygen to his head.

  ‘I’ll need to ask you some questions, ma’am,’ he said.

  I nodded. There wasn’t much I could tell him, but I was willing to try. We began with my name and why I was here, and then I gave him a brief description of the events that led up to us finding Lady Ellis.

  His partner’s voice sounded in his radio and he excused himself to go back upstairs.

  Andre came down the stairs and stayed with me in the reception hall. He looked pretty weak and shaky, so we huddled together, feeling like intruders in the drama that was unfolding.

  I had left the door open after the second constable had arrived, knowing that more would be coming and that I didn’t really want to be the designated greeter.

  Sure enough, in minutes two plainclothes detective inspectors arrived. I was shocked to see that one of them was Inspector Franks.

  ‘Ms. Parker,’ he said.

  ‘Inspector Franks,’ I said. I was taken aback. What were the odds that he would be here? And then I had a horrible thought, and I felt all of the blood drain from my face as if someone had pulled a plug.

  ‘Is it Vivian?’ I asked. My voice was shaky. ‘Did you hear something about my cousin?’

  ‘Oh, no!’ He held out his hands in a ‘stop’ gesture as if he could wave me away from the bad direction my thoughts were going. ‘The Kensington Borough includes Kensington, Chelsea and Notting Hill. I just happened to be at the Kensington Station when the call came in. When I heard your name over the radio, I took the call.’

  I thought I saw him give me a speculative glance, but then he continued, ‘I’m sorry. I haven’t heard anything about your cousin.’

  ‘Oh.’ The air whooshed out of my lungs and I felt Andre’s arm brace me around the waist.

  ‘Sit, Scarlett, before you fall over,’ he said.

  He led me to a padded bench in the corner and I sat, feeling dizzy and a bit like vomiting myself. I briefly wondered what Andre had done with the vase but then I didn’t want to know.

  ‘This is my colleague, Inspector Simms,’ Franks said.

  I glanced up and gave him a faint smile. He was considerably younger than Franks and was built solid. He had a thick head of brown hair, ruddy cheeks and pale brown eyes under eyebrows that met in the middle, forming a unibrow. He looked very forbidding, which I supposed was a good thing for a detective inspector.

  ‘Can you tell us what happened?’ Franks asked.

  I let Andre take the lead, and he explained that we had come to take photographs of Lady Ellis and had found her ‘in her unfortunate condition.’ I had never thought of being stabbed to death in such polite terms, and I gave him a look.

  ‘She was knifed,’ I said. ‘Through the heart.’

  As I said the words, Andre blanched and made a gurgling noise in his throat like he might be sick again, so I pulled him down to sit beside me and had him place his head between his knees.

  ‘Simms, go up and have a look, I’ll join you shortly,’ Inspector Franks instructed.

  The younger of the two detectives disappeared up the stairs while Franks turned to me.

  ‘Ms. Parker, may I ask you a few questions?’

  ‘Certainly.’ I nodded. I figured the sooner they were done with us the sooner we could get out of there. Honestly, the whole experience was giving me a case of the wiggins.

  ‘When did you last speak to Lady Ellis?’ he asked.

  ‘Tuesday night,’ I said. ‘She came by the shop and picked up her hat. There was a bit of an issue because I couldn’t find it at first, but then I did, and she agreed to have her photo taken.’

  He nodded and ran his index finger and his thumb over his mustache as he considered his next question. ‘Mr. Eisel, you’re the photographer?’

  ‘Yes, I own a studio in Notting Hill, near Scarlett’s shop. She asked me to take the pictures, and I agreed because Lady Ellis said we could use the photos for publicity purposes.’

  Franks raised an eyebrow as if that didn’t seem quite right. I couldn’t fault his logic. This wasn’t the sort of house where one expected the resident to go along with being photographed unless it was for the society page.

  ‘I only met Lady Ellis the one time,’ I said. I was picking my words extremely carefully, and he leaned closer, listening attentively. ‘But she struck me as being someone who valued appearances very highly.’

  He leaned back and studied me. He gave me a nod and I knew he understood exactly what I was saying, that Lady Ellis had been quite vain.

  ‘Can you two wait here?’ he asked. ‘I may have more questions.’

  ‘Of course,’ I said.

  Inspector Franks turned and headed up the stairs.

  Andre and I sat quietly for a moment and then I said, ‘‘Unfortunate condition,’ really? Chicken pox is an “unfortunate condition.”’

  ‘I didn’t want to overstate it,’ he said. He sounded a bit defensive.

  ‘Fat chance of that,’ I said. ‘What would you call a shooting, I wonder, a bellyache?’

  ‘No,’ he protested. ‘I would probably say they had lead poisoning.’

  My mouth popped open, and then I snorted. Andre looked back at me with an expression of comical horror on his face, causing me to snort again, which made him laugh. This made me chuckle so I clapped a hand over my mouth which made him laugh and clap a hand over his mouth, too. We turned away from each other, knowing that eye contact would probably set us off again.

  ‘All right, Scarlett?’ he said after a moment.

  ‘We’re going to blame that on hysterics,’ I said.

  ‘Agreed, it was terribly bad form,’ he said.

  I cautiously turned back to face him. We glanced at each other and we both nodded. We were okay now.

  ‘I wonder how the housekeeper is faring,’ I said.

  ‘I can’t believe
she didn’t hurt herself,’ Andre said. ‘Mrs. Stone certainly hit the floor like twenty stone.’

  I twisted my mouth to keep from smiling and gave him a quelling look for the hideous play on words.

  ‘Should we go up?’ he asked. ‘I need to get my equipment and get back to the shop. Plus, sitting here is giving me the crawlies.’

  ‘I don’t suppose there can be much more for them to ask us,’ I said.

  Together we made our way up the stairs. The constables and the detectives were huddled together while the paramedics seemed to be finished with Mrs. Stone. They passed us at the top of the stairs as they were on the way down.

  Inspector Franks looked grim.

  Andre and I waited uncertainly. I met Mrs. Stone’s gaze and crossed over to where she sat, looking distraught.

  ‘Can I get you anything?’

  ‘Thank you, miss, but no,’ she said.

  She looked as if she would be undone by the kindness, and I reached down and patted her shoulder. She waited a moment and then patted my hand in return.

  ‘Ms. Parker,’ Detective Franks called me over. ‘When you went into the dressing room, did you touch anything?’ he asked.

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘Well, I’ve been trained in first aid, so I did check her pulse point in her neck, but that was it. I didn’t move her or touch anything.’

  ‘And when you went in she was unclothed?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Except for the hat.’

  ‘And that is your hat?’ he asked. His sharp brown eyes were trained on me like two laser points on my face.

  ‘Not mine, no,’ I said. I didn’t mean to be obtuse, I was just hitting overload and not processing as well I should have been.

  ‘Let me rephrase that. Is that hat from your shop?’

  ‘It is the hat my cousin designed for her that she picked up on Tuesday, yes,’ I said.

  ‘And you still haven’t heard from your cousin?’ he asked.

  ‘No, not a word,’ I said.

  ‘Do you know what sort of relationship your cousin and Lady Ellis had?’ he asked.

  Oh, I didn’t like where that was going.

  ‘As far as I know, it was purely business,’ I said. ‘Honestly, Viv never mentioned Lady Ellis to me, and Lady Ellis never said anything when I met with her about knowing Vivian in anything other than a millinery sense.’

  ‘It’s interesting though, isn’t it?’ he asked.

  ‘What?’

  ‘She was in her dressing room, a robe would have been appropriate attire or even a towel, but there is no evidence of either. The only thing Lady Ellis was wearing was the hat from your shop.’

  Chapter 19

  By the time Andre and I were done with the police, I was more than ready for a pint or three. Sadly, I’d left Fiona in the shop alone all morning and my conscience was refusing to let me take any more time away even to self-medicate.

  Inspector Franks had made it quite plain that he would be stopping by the shop to discuss Viv’s whereabouts. I tried not to worry. After all, it wasn’t as if the two situations were connected. Perhaps it was the universe taking charge of getting Viv to come home. I would call my Aunt Grace and tell her what happened and she could tell Viv, assuming she heard from Viv, and then Viv would hurry home and all would be well.

  ‘Is your cousin really missing?’ Andre asked. We were once again in his compact car, crawling our way through the midday traffic back to Notting Hill.

  ‘Her mother says she’s been in touch and her business manager—you remember Harrison from the other night—said she does this all of the time,’ I said. ‘They think it is perfectly normal for Viv, which it is, but Harrison did admit that she doesn’t usually stay out of touch with him.’

  ‘But you don’t think it’s normal?’ he asked.

  ‘No, I remember when she took off to go buy satin ribbons from a textile house in France once, and then there was the time she took off to Belgium because she became obsessed with a lace maker over there, but this, this feels different to me.’

  Andre turned to look at me. His dark eyes were worried. ‘If there’s anything I can do…’

  His voice trailed off and I patted his shoulder.

  ‘You are so kind, Andre. I’m so sorry I got you into this mess,’ I said. ‘What an awful morning.’

  ‘Most especially for Lady Ellis,’ he said.

  ‘Indeed,’ I said.

  He turned onto our street and I was relieved to see Mim’s Whims looking just fine. Not that I’d had any doubts, but my anxiety was in overdrive.

  ‘How is your stomach?’ I asked. ‘Have you leveled out?’

  ‘I got sick into a coil glass piece by Adam Aaronson,’ he said. He sounded shocked and appalled. ‘I may never eat again.’

  He stopped on the curb and I climbed out. ‘I’ll call you later.’

  ‘Do,’ he said. ‘If I don’t hear from you, Nick and I will be over later to check on you.’

  ‘Bring wine,’ I said, and he smiled.

  I closed the door and hurried into the shop. It was empty, which, while not great for business, was good for me, because I was thinking I might need to go have a little cry to get myself together.

  I was halfway across the floor when Fee came rocketing out of the back room with Harrison on her heels. I hadn’t seen him since our chat the other day, and I found that I was irritated with him for not being in touch with me.

  ‘You might want to go upstairs,’ Fee said. Her eyes were wide with alarm.

  ‘What did you think you were doing?’ Harrison spoke at the same time as Fee. His eyes were narrowed in anger.

  ‘Huh?’ I asked. I couldn’t process both of them at the same time.

  ‘Too late,’ Fee said with a sigh and she slipped back behind Harrison.

  ‘Fee said you were at Lady Ellis’s,’ he snapped.

  He stepped forward until he was looming over me. Here’s a new discovery: I don’t like it when people loom.

  ‘Yes, but—’ I began, only to be interrupted.

  ‘And that you were having that photographer from down the street take pictures of her for the shop’s Web site?’

  ‘That’s right, but—’

  ‘Are you mad?’ he asked.

  ‘No, but I’m getting there,’ I said through gritted teeth.

  ‘What could you be thinking?’ he cried. ‘Don’t you know the history between Viv and Lady Ellis?’

  I froze. There was a history between them? I glanced at the wardrobe. I swear the raven was smirking at me. Oh, sweet Ferd the bird, please tell me it was a grade-school scuffle, a rivalry over the best pigtails. Please!

  ‘What history?’ I asked. I noticed my voice sounded faint, and I hurried over to one of the sitting areas before I toppled over.

  ‘Simply put, Victoria Ellis hates Viv because her husband, Rupert Ellis, has been in love with Viv since they went to university together.’

  ‘What?’ I cried. This was not happening.

  ‘Which part didn’t you grasp?’ he asked. ‘Lady Ellis hating Viv? Or Lord Ellis still being in love with Viv? Or the insane fact that you’re going to put Victoria Ellis on the Web site?’

  His tone was sharp and I might have taken offense if I wasn’t already completely freaking out.

  ‘All of the above,’ I said faintly.

  ‘I didn’t know either,’ Fee said. I think it was to make me feel better, but Harrison’s green-eyed glower was having none of that. He gave her a scathing look and she pressed her lips together lest she say anything else of comfort.

  Lady Ellis hated Viv. Lady Ellis had been wearing Viv’s hat and nothing else. Inspector Franks had already remarked upon it. Oh, no!

  Before the floor came rushing up to meet me and I fell face-first off the seat, I put my head in between my knees much as I had instructed Andre to do earlier.

  This was bad. This was very, very bad. I’d had no idea.

  ‘But why would Viv have designed a hat for Lady Ellis if they hated each other?�
�� I asked from my crouched position.

  ‘Lady Ellis hated Viv,’ Harrison said. ‘Viv couldn’t really care less about Lady Ellis. You know how she is.’

  I nodded, keeping my head down. Viv was the original I’m-rubber-and-you’re-glue girl: nothing ever stuck on Viv because she genuinely didn’t care how people felt about her.

  I could only imagine what Inspector Franks was going to make of this. Maybe he wouldn’t find out. Maybe if Harrison kept his big mouth shut, no one would find out.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Fee asked. I must have looked pretty bad, because she pushed past Harrison to get a better look at me. ‘It’s not that bad. You can put Lady Ellis off about the photo being on our Web site, yeah?’

  ‘Oh, no, it is that bad—worse actually,’ I said. I looked up and found them both watching me. ‘When Andre and I arrived at Lady Ellis’s estate to take her picture, we found her dead.’

  Chapter 20

  They stared at me. Fee’s mouth formed a perfect O and Harrison looked as if I’d slapped him.

  ‘When you say “dead,” you’re not talking dead tired, are you?’ he asked.

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘I’m talking stabbed-in-the-heart, fatally-wounded dead.’

  ‘A crime of passion,’ Fee said. ‘It had to be.’

  ‘Did you talk to the police?’ Harrison asked. He looked stiff, as if his body couldn’t move because his mind was churning through the facts as I shared them.

  ‘Yes,’ I moaned. I pressed my forehead into my palms as I remembered. ‘And, of course, the inspector who showed up on the scene was Inspector Franks.’

  ‘Of course it was,’ Harrison said. His tone was bitingly sarcastic and it scraped on my very last nerve.

  ‘Do you mind?’ I asked.

  ‘Mind what?’ he demanded.

  ‘Not being so damn condescending!’

  ‘I would if you would stop mucking up every situation you find yourself in,’ he retorted.

  ‘How is this my fault? How could I have possibly known that Lady Ellis would be murdered?’

  ‘You couldn’t have,’ he said. His voice was scathing. ‘But if you knew anything at all about your cousin, you would have known about her relationship with the Ellises.’