Murder at the Dolphin Hotel

by Helena Dixon

  Much to her dismay, she noticed Walter Cribbs of the Torbay Herald making notes as he tried to eavesdrop on the conversation. Her grandmother would not be happy with negative publicity and ever since Christmas, when Kitty had turned down his advances, he had been looking for an opportunity for revenge. This was all she needed with Miss Delaware and her band due to arrive in the morning.

  The policeman nodded and scribbled some notes in his pocketbook. ‘Where were you this evening, Miss Underhay?’

  ‘Why do you need to know Kitty’s whereabouts?’ Matt asked.

  The policeman raised an eyebrow. ‘I’m sorry, sir, you are?’

  ‘Matthew Bryant, Miss Underhay’s security officer.’

  The policeman appeared to make another note in his book. ‘I’m trying to establish if anyone saw or heard anything earlier this evening.’

  ‘We were out, visiting someone at the hospital. We stopped for a drink and were about to return when we were told about the fire.’ Kitty could still barely take in the events of the evening. A soft drizzle started, leaving a fine film of water clinging to her hair and face.

  ‘You were in the kitchens earlier this evening, though, miss?’

  ‘Yes, my chef was having problems with the grill, I needed to call a man to look at it.’

  ‘If I could have a word with you, officer?’ Matt took the policeman to one side, leaving Kitty with the fireman. She moved a few steps away from Walter Cribbs and his busy pen.

  ‘Everything is secure now, Miss Underhay. We have all the evidence we need for our report.’

  ‘Thank you for coming so quickly. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t been able to put the fire out so fast.’ She shivered as she took in the soot deposits and black scorch marks on the rear red brick wall of the hotel, dangerously close to the storerooms.

  ‘We’ll be in touch and if you require the information for your insurance company, the station will have a report for you.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Kitty hugged her coat closer to her as she joined Matt and the police officer.

  Matt shook hands with the policeman as she approached. ‘Is everything all right?’ she asked.

  ‘Captain Bryant has been very helpful. We’ll be in touch if there are any developments.’ The officer stowed his notebook away in his top pocket and took his leave.

  Kitty folded her arms. ‘What was that about?’

  Matt shrugged. ‘He was simply checking out who was where and when.’

  She could tell from the way he didn’t meet her gaze that there was more to the conversation that he wasn’t sharing with her.

  ‘And?’ she asked as he went to turn away from her.

  His gaze found hers. ‘And nothing. We should go inside; this rain is getting worse again.’

  She caught hold of his sleeve as he moved to walk inside the hotel. ‘I asked a question, Matthew.’

  ‘Come with me.’

  She followed him through the kitchen, past the questioning eyes of her kitchen staff. He headed up the back stairs towards the landing and their rooms. Kitty hesitated for a second when he pulled his room key from the pocket of his trousers and opened the door.

  ‘After you.’ Matt stood to one side of the open door and waited for her to enter. She knew he had noticed her pause and it amused him.

  Folding her arms across her chest, she marched through the door. She placed her umbrella in the corner of the room and hung her wet coat and hat on the hook on the back of the door before taking a seat.

  ‘Well, Captain Bryant?’ She deliberately emphasised the ‘captain’.

  He took off his own dripping hat and coat and added them to the peg next to hers. ‘The war ended a long time ago. I prefer plain “Mister”, although I admit I find my rank useful when dealing with the authorities.’

  She wondered what had happened to him during the war, how he had been wounded and what exactly his post war government job had been. Her grandmother had said his service record was perfect, but many men had gone to war and come home as different people. Matt certainly appeared to have demons he was still fighting, like his fear of enclosed spaces.

  He reached into the pocket of his overcoat and removed a small object. ‘Do you recognise these at all?’

  She stared at the broken pair of black-framed spectacles. ‘Cora has a pair like those, she keeps them in her apron pocket. She’s dreadfully shortsighted. She had them earlier when she looked at my mother’s picture.’

  ‘Mickey spotted her earlier this evening and thought she appeared to be behaving furtively. I asked him to keep his eyes open for anything that appeared out of the ordinary. These were next to the bin where the fire started.’

  She stared at him. ‘You’re suggesting that Cora had a hand in this?’

  ‘I think we need to speak to her.’

  ‘Cora has always been a loyal employee. I’ve known her for years, since I was a child. I don’t understand.’

  ‘Cora was the one who identified the place on the moor. Do you think she was telling you the truth or is it some kind of wild goose chase to get you out of the way for some reason?’ Matt asked.

  ‘I don’t know, why would she mention where she thought the picture had been taken? I would never have guessed Cora would be involved in any of this. The very idea makes me feel sick.’

  ‘What do you want to do about it?’

  Kitty stared at him. ‘I don’t understand.’ It was hard enough trying to believe the evidence of her own eyes without thinking what she should do next.

  ‘Do we question her ourselves? Hand her over to the police to question? Do you want to dismiss her? Or do you want to set a trap and see what happens?’ Matt waited for her to reply.

  ‘Finding her glasses is hardly a presumption of guilt. She could have noticed something herself and been investigating. She’s terribly nosey. What do you suggest we do?’ She knew from the look on his face that he was several steps ahead of her and he clearly already had his own ideas on what should happen.

  His eyes narrowed as he considered. ‘It’s a tricky one. Technically, all we have are her glasses at the scene and Mickey’s assertion that she was behaving oddly out near the bins shortly before the fire started.’

  ‘Unless someone opened the gate from this side with a staff key, no one could open it from the other side.’ Kitty hoped Cora had merely gone out to the bins for some innocent reason.

  ‘Someone had oiled that lock recently, and it wasn’t Mickey.’

  ‘I can’t believe Cora would attempt to burn down the hotel. It doesn’t make sense. She relies on her employment here and certainly has no reason to bear a grudge of any kind.’

  Matt jumped up and began to pace about the room. ‘I agree. She has had other opportunities to set fires. This was something designed to frighten you rather than do any actual harm. Whoever set the fire knew the rain would make a lot of smoke without the fire being able to take a proper hold. Someone wants you out of the hotel for a while, almost as a distraction. The question is who and why.’

  ‘The jazz evenings begin tomorrow. Do you think whoever this person is wanted to spoil the events? A rival hotelier perhaps?’

  Matt glanced at his watch. ‘I don’t know. It’s getting late. I think we need to talk to Cora tomorrow and I think I also need to talk to Mr Farjeon. His booth is near the lower ferry and he’s been linked to Dartmoor with his tours. It seems too much of a coincidence that his name has popped up a few times now.’

  Kitty rose and collected her umbrella. ‘Miss Delaware arrives at lunchtime. I shall be tied up with arrangements for the evening for most of the day. The launch of the new summer visitor season is a big event, the local people look forward to it as much as the guests.’

  Matt handed over her hat and coat. ‘I’ve asked Mickey to let me know when Cora arrives for work. I’ll talk to her and see what she has to say.’

  ‘I do believe my poor hat is beyond saving thanks to all the rain.’ She grimaced as she twisted the limp, felt
brim between her fingers. ‘Walter Cribbs from the Herald was buzzing around outside so I expect the fire will be in the newspaper. I hope we can get to the bottom of all this nonsense before anything else happens.’

  Matt opened the door for her. ‘Or before anyone else is hurt.’

  Chapter Twelve

  Kitty expected Matt to contact her when Cora arrived for her shift, but it was time for luncheon, and she’d heard nothing. Unusually, she hadn’t seen Cora all morning either. She left Mary in charge of the reception desk and headed for the dining room, intending to ask one of the staff if they had seen either Matt or Cora. She passed Mickey in the corridor, carrying his tool bag.

  ‘Mickey, have you seen Mr Bryant this morning?’

  The older man touched his cap as she approached. ‘No, Miss Kitty. I did hear as how he’d been called to the police station, though. Probably be about that bother last night I expect.’

  ‘Oh, thank you. Have you seen Cora today?’ She wondered what had happened to her. Usually Cora would have brought a cup of tea for her mid-morning, but she hadn’t appeared.

  The maintenance man shook his head. ‘No, Miss Kitty, her hasn’t come to work.’

  Kitty continued on her way, deep in thought. It was most unlike Cora not to come to work, and especially without sending a message. The implications of her absence made her feel quite ill and her appetite for the steak pudding that was on the day’s luncheon menu was considerably diminished. Only the knowledge that she had Miss Delaware’s imminent arrival to prepare for and a long evening ahead of her forced her to eat.

  The rain of the previous evening had given way to a fresh, bright day. Miss Delaware’s burgundy Rolls Royce Phantom Continental drew a small crowd as it temporarily blocked the street in front of the hotel. The statuesque personage of Miss Delaware herself emerging from the car drew audible gasps from the gathered people.

  Kitty hurried out to meet her star entertainer, curious to greet her in the flesh. Miss Vivien Delaware had to be at least six feet tall, not including her rather marvellous hat. Her skin was the colour of dark chocolate and she was swathed from head-to-toe in magnificent white fox fur stoles.

  ‘My dear child, let me look at you. The last time I saw you, you were an itty-bitty baby in your mama’s arms.’

  Kitty was swallowed up in the furs as Miss Delaware swooped to embrace her. Exotic perfume surrounded her senses. She struggled to make sense of the woman’s statement.

  ‘I’m sorry. I don’t recall…’ Kitty stammered.

  ‘Of course not, honey. I mean I am pretty unforgettable, but you were just a babe in arms back then.’ Vivien released her and stood back to look at her. ‘I can’t believe it, Eddy and Ella’s little girl all grown up. You are just the very image of your mama.’

  There was a strange buzzing in Kitty’s ears as she stared back at this remarkable woman. ‘You knew my parents?’

  Vivien had turned her head to supervise her chauffeur and Albert, the porter, who were struggling to unload her luggage from the car. ‘Sure thing, honey. That’s why I agreed to come here. As soon as I saw the address and your name on the bottom of that letter, I said to my agent, Bobby, I just got to do that little pre-season slot before we go back to America.’

  Vivien turned her attention back to Kitty in time to see her swaying on her heels. ‘Baby girl, are you all right?’

  Kitty was vaguely aware of a strong arm supporting her and leading her inside the hotel and Vivien calling for water.

  ‘Breathe, honey. Are you all right? Don’t you go passing out on me, you hear?’ She had a soft American accent as smooth as honey.

  Kitty managed to nod as Vivien steered her onto a nearby chair, while someone pushed a tumbler of water into her hand.

  ‘Take a sip now.’

  ‘Did you say you knew my father and mother?’ She knew she’d already asked the question, but Vivien’s response had been so unexpected it made her quite faint.

  ‘Sure thing, honey. I last saw your mama before she caught the boat home. I waved her off at the dockside. Your pa was staying behind in New York as he had some kind of business to fix up. Nineteen fourteen, I think it was, right before the start of the war. You must have been what, four? Three? You had those great big eyes.’ Vivien’s dark brown eyes were filled with concern. ‘Is something wrong?’

  ‘I’ve never met anyone before who knew my parents when they were together.’ Kitty’s teeth chattered on the edge of the glass. ‘My mother disappeared when I was six, only a couple of years after you last saw her, and I don’t remember my father at all.’

  ‘Oh, my goodness.’ Vivien leaned back in her seat, before calling out to Albert. ‘Be careful with that bag.’

  Kitty took a deep breath and tried to give poor Albert a reassuring smile as he hauled Miss Delaware’s baggage to the elevator. The remainder of her staff beat tactful retreats at her apparent recovery. ‘When did you last see my father? Do you know where he is?’ The whole thing was surreal.

  ‘Do you know, honey, it’s the strangest thing, I hadn’t seen Eddie Underhay for over twenty years. We lost touch with moving around so much, but then a few weeks ago, who should I see at the club? Your pa. Older and, I don’t want to upset you, looking a little worse for the wear. I didn’t notice him at first, he was closeted up with some guy in the shadows. Looked like they were having an intense conversation. By the time my set finished, the man had disappeared.’

  ‘My father was in London? But you’re sure it was him?’ It was impossible. No one had been able to locate her father for years.

  ‘Uh-huh. I’d have thought he’d have stuck around to say hello or something, but he’d gone. I checked with the doormen to see if he’d left me a note or a message, but nothing. I thought since he came to my club, he would’ve made contact. You feeling better, sweetie? I’m so sorry, I had no idea about your parents or that I’d upset you so much.’

  ‘I’m fine, really. It was just such a shock. I wasn’t even sure my father was still alive. He never came forward when my mother disappeared. I’ve no photographs or letters, nothing.’ Her pulse seemed to be resuming its normal rate now the startling news had begun to sink in. Surely Miss Delaware must have been mistaken.

  ‘I expect he wasn’t in England at the time so I guess he wouldn’t know, especially if you say he hadn’t seen your ma since she came back here. He has dual citizenship I think; his mother was from Boston, and he always spent most of his time in the US. I’m so sorry about your mother, Elowed was one of a kind, and she was a good friend to me.’

  ‘Thank you.’ If what she’d just heard was true, then where was her father now? Why hadn’t he come to see her? Surely he knew where she was, even if she had not been able to find him.

  Kitty asked Mary to show Miss Delaware to her room and to provide her with refreshments. She needed a little time to gather her thoughts. She had hundreds of questions she wanted to ask, but right now she simply needed to think about what she had just learned. Her father was alive, and had been in London so recently. She needed to talk to Matt as soon as he returned, then later she would need to call her grandmother.

  ‘Thank you for attending, Captain Bryant. Mrs Cora Wakes’s only known relative is her son, Colin, and we are having some difficulties locating him. It didn’t seem right to ask Miss Underhay.’

  Matt nodded and waited for the mortuary assistant to uncover the woman’s face. This was the part he had been dreading. Memories of other dead faces, bloated and swollen, flashed back into his mind. He took a deep breath and tried to fix his mind on Cora, alive, in the hotel. ‘Yes, I can confirm that is Cora Wakes.’

  The assistant re-covered Cora’s face and Matt slowly released the breath he had been holding, glad the ordeal was over. He was thankful that Kitty had been spared the onerous task of identifying her late employee.

  ‘You say she was found in the river?’

  The sergeant grunted an affirmation as Matt followed him from the room. ‘Yes, sir, near the lower fer
ry. Normally you’d have expected the tide to have took her out and round the bay this time of year but she got caught up in the reeds, probably took there by the backwash off one of the boats. Same as the other gentleman.’

  ‘Accident?’ Matt drew a cigarette from his case as soon as they were outside the building and offered one to the sergeant.

  ‘Police doctor reckons not. Large wound on the back of her head. No water in her lungs. She would have been dead before she hit the water.’ The officer accepted the cigarette and the two men strolled a short distance together.

  ‘Murder?’

  ‘Her still had her purse in her coat pocket, so it doesn’t look as if she were robbed.’ The sergeant’s expression was grave.

  ‘Nasty business.’

  ‘Very bad.’

  ‘Do you have any more leads on the other murder?’ Matt asked.

  The sergeant sighed. ‘Beyond identifying him, we don’t know very much more than that. They’ve sent an inspector up from London to deal with your Mr DeVries, and I reckon he likes him for the murder. A nasty piece of work by all accounts.’

  ‘Perhaps he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. I hope you catch the culprit soon.’

  ‘Thank you, sir. I expect Miss Underhay and Mrs Treadwell will be upset, Mrs Wakes has been at the Dolphin for a good many years. What is this town coming to?’

  Matt blew out a narrow stream of smoke. ‘Yes, I’m sure they will be. What was Mr DeVries’s line of business exactly?’ He would have welcomed a chat with the mysterious ‘Mr Smith’, if only to rule him out of involvement in the anonymous letters.

  ‘He’s an expert in his field but on the shady side. Specialist gem cutter. Whisper is, he was here to do a cutting job. And that Mr Blaas, the man we fetched out the river, is a gem buyer.’

  Matt stubbed out his cigarette and let out a low whistle. ‘No idea what the cutting job could be, I suppose? No ladies been relieved of their jewels hereabouts lately?’ He knew there were several country houses in the area as well as the well-heeled guests at the grand hotels in Torquay.