Under the Guise of Death

by Under the Guise of Death (epub)

  “I don’t plead with people,” Arundell hissed.

  “No.” Jasper’s voice was cold and final. “And you do not offer money either. You only take it.”

  Arundell’s chest grew tight. He forced himself not to look at Larissa. Had she informed Jasper of the way in which he had taken her emeralds? That wouldn’t have been very clever of her, as it would also have put her in a spot. But perhaps she had not believed his ruse with the fan?

  Jasper said, “You have a very interesting source of income, Mr. Arundell. Gold. It has such a mythical ring to it. Everyone wants to know something about it, and perhaps even touch some of it? Your claim is in Goldfield, Nevada, is it not? I’ve asked for some information about it. A nice place and good finds. Thought to become even bigger over the years.”

  “What of it?”

  “You have interested people in Lord Bantham’s acquaintance for this mine.”

  “What?” Bantham said. “You told me it was a secret tip you only gave to me.”

  Arundell could just smack his loud mouth. “I never—”

  Jasper cut across him, “You told every man you dealt with that he could not tell another soul as it was his secret tip. A favour from you to him. You asked all of them for an investment in this mine and… oh, if they had all paid up, you would have made a bundle.”

  “You cheat!” Larissa hissed at him.

  Jasper looked at her. “Did you also consider investing in gold, Miss Kenwood?”

  “No, in diamonds,” she said, throwing Arundell a meaningful look. He realized that she might not speak up about the emeralds but that he could forget about ever getting anything else from her.

  Jasper said, “Upon your return to England my colleagues will be waiting for you, to look into this further.”

  “I haven’t received money from anyone yet,” he lied. “It was just a topic of conversation when it came up and… I didn’t mean to make anyone any promises.”

  “You needed money,” Jasper continued, “to keep up your lifestyle. Because you like the good living. Posing as Lady Bantham’s brother has given you access to—”

  “Posing as?” Bantham cried. “You mean, he is not her brother?”

  “It helps to have contacts in the police,” Jasper said with a smile which Arundell could just wipe off his face. “I had a friend of mine contact Goldfield with an official inquiry and they do know an Arundell there, but he was a prospector who had a small stake in a plot that ran empty. With just a few clumps of the elusive gold he left to try his luck elsewhere. I guess then the idea was born to use the finds to make others believe that there was more? In London, he came across a young lady who had ambitions to marry into the peerage, and together they came up with the romantic story of their childhood on the ranch and their father’s success in gold mining. The clumps they did have, they showed off to selected people they lured with their ‘secret tip’. As the gold was genuine and the paperwork about the plot in Goldfield bore official stamps, no one ever doubted that there was more to find. Why would they?”

  Arundell laughed. “If they are dumb like that, why would I not take advantage of it? I have not lied about having found the gold.”

  “I’ll leave that to the police to be sorted,” Jasper said.

  Arundell shifted his weight. If Jasper believed he was going back to England, he was a fool. It was clear the game was up and he had Larissa’s emeralds to sell off. The gold clumps would work their charm elsewhere and… He would manage.

  Without a sister this time.

  * * *

  Lady Bantham stood with her head down. Their whole plan had fallen through. Arundell had promised her time and time again the deception could not be detected and now this. But she wasn’t married to Bantham anyway and… She could start over. She would have to.

  “Lady Bantham.” Jasper’s voice startled her. “Or should I say Miss Arundell? Or… whatever your name is? You have come without your costume. May I ask why?”

  She forced a shaky smile. “I thought it was rather eerie to come here dressed like that. I just told you the dead woman persecuted me while I was here. I’m convinced it was me the killer meant to murder that night. I just couldn’t bear the tension. You may be used to this kind of thing but I am not.”

  “I can assure you I do not enjoy this.” Jasper held her gaze. “I’m sorry you are so afraid. But then you should be.”

  Her heart skipped a beat. “Am I in danger? Is the killer after me? I knew all along he meant to kill me. Not her.”

  “Oh, he meant to kill her. Or should I say – she meant to kill her?” Jasper came over with long prowling steps. “Is it not so that the real reason why you are not wearing your dress is because everyone present here might see it is stained? Blood stained.”

  She cringed but tried to hide it under a quick reply, “I have no idea what you mean.”

  Bantham said, “I know it is true. I’m sorry but there is no point to denying it. He can ask for a servant to go and fetch it and then…”

  “You’re enjoying this!” she screeched at him. “You’re enjoying this just to humiliate me and make me look guilty. But the dress didn’t get stained that night. I’m certain. I put it away in the closet and it was clean.”

  “You checked to see if blood was on it? After you murdered Olivia?” Bantham glared at her.

  “I always check my clothes before putting them away. If something is stained or torn, I hand it over for washing or mending. Women, in contrast to men, are careful with their clothes.”

  Jasper gestured to the girl standing outside their circle. Rose. The treacherous creature.

  “Will you come forward, Rose,” he said gently, “and tell all of the people present what you saw?”

  “There was blood on my mistress’s dress. I hung something else in the closet two days ago, before I left the house, and there it was. On the skirt.”

  “Rose explained to me exactly where it was and I think it would be the spot where blood would get if you had extracted the dagger with which you had stabbed Lady Bantham to death and held it by your side.”

  “Why would I hold it by my side? I would have dropped it into the water.”

  “You may have done so afterwards.” Jasper looked her over. “Rose was very particular about the location of the stain on your dress. And right after she happened to have discovered this stain, you found a psalter proving she was related to the late Lady Bantham’s vanished maid, Agnes, and drove her away from the house. You had not meant for me to find her. You had meant for me to think she was guilty of Lady Bantham’s murder.”

  “Her sister died in that car, in Lady Bantham’s stead. We can all understand that. She must want revenge. That is why she came to work for us. She lied about the blood on my dress. Or she put it there herself to incriminate me. But Rose has killed her.”

  Rose shook her head. “I didn’t put blood on the dress. I only saw the stain. And then she came to my room to look among my things and found the psalter.”

  “It was open on the table,” Lady Bantham cried. “All I had to do was pick it up to see.”

  “Yes,” Jasper said, “that is still a problem. We have two contradictory statements. Rose says the psalter was in a bundle among her things and Lady Bantham looked for it, while Lady Bantham declares she found it open on the table. Who is telling the truth?”

  Rose said, “I am. I’m certain. I never took it out unless it was night-time and I was alone. I would never have left it open where someone could see it and discover…” She fell silent.

  “So you admit it,” Lady Bantham cried. “You admit that you expressly hid who you were, using another name—”

  “It’s my husband’s name. I didn’t lie.”

  “You hid that you were her sister. You should have mentioned it when you applied. But you did not. You hid it. Why? Because you meant us harm. You killed Olivia. You realized she had killed your sister to take her place in the car and you killed her under the cover of night. You left a rose in he
r hand as your calling card. Your token of revenge.”

  Jasper nodded slowly as he looked at Rose. “The idea that the rose might be a link to the killer was suggested to me earlier. The possibility that the victim, on death’s door, plucked the rose from the vase to leave a clue for the police as to the identity of her murderer.”

  “What nonsense,” Sir James said. “The body lay on the highest point of the bridge. The vases with roses are at the steps leading onto it. Did Olivia stagger down to the vase to grab a rose and then back up to fall down where she did?”

  Jasper waved a hand. “Regardless of whether it was possible for her to complete these actions after she had already been fatally stabbed, we must consider Lady Bantham’s accusation that Rose wanted revenge for her sister’s death. Is it not clear that when you heard about the woman in red at the party, you knew your sister had died in the car in Lady Bantham’s stead? What other answer to the problem was there? And the victim of the car accident had been pregnant, fitting perfectly with your sister’s letters to you describing her being in a difficult situation?”

  “Yes,” Lady Bantham shrieked. “You sneaked out in the night and killed her. You!”

  “No.” Rose shook her head violently, shrinking back from the woman’s accusing eyes. “No, I did not.”

  Jasper said, “It’s possible. We must consider it.”

  “Have you brought her here to accuse her?” Luigi cried. “I will defend her.” He stood with his fists up ready to jump into action.

  Jasper shook his head. “You need not defend her. We will look closer at the psalter and the place it was in. You see, I have it now.” He produced a book and held it up.

  Rose blinked. “How can you have it? Did you take it from my room?”

  “Sir James gave it to me. He got it from a woman who delivered it to him, dressed in dark clothes and wearing a mask. She claimed it contained information incriminating people. It was in a bundle then.”

  Jasper let his gaze roam the room. Rose was completely confused. “What woman? What mask?”

  Jasper pointed at Lady Bantham. “Will you not admit it was you? After you had found the psalter among the maid’s things and used it to drive her away, you decided you could further use it to create confusion and suspicion. You took it to Sir James and forced him to give you bonds in exchange for it. In exchange for proof of the things Agnes had been looking into.”

  Before Lady Bantham could reply, Jasper continued, “Come now, do not deny it. Sir James recognized you. He has met you often enough to know your voice, your mannerisms. And your perfume. You should have washed it off.”

  Lady Bantham didn’t hang her head or look ashamed at being discovered. She said, “I need money now that my marriage is over. I have no illusions my husband will wed me again. He said so only to make a good impression with the police. I know I have to fend for myself now. I handed the book to Sir James to help him find his daughter’s killer.”

  “How selfless of you,” Lord Bantham sneered.

  Rose wet her lips. “Does the book say something important? I never could make sense of the notes in the back.”

  * * *

  Sir James tried to breathe evenly as it was now coming down to the difficult part for him. Claiming he had recognized Lady Bantham’s perfume had worked, as she had now admitted it had been her offering him the psalter. That gamble had paid off. Now for the second one.

  “The notes in the back of the psalter,” Jasper said, “record what Agnes was looking into in the household. She was called Saint Agnes because she was considered a timid and overly righteous girl, who even offered to pay for a broken perfume bottle from her wages. But in reality she was conniving, having set her sights on the steward and wanting to move up in life. She was in a position to overhear things and made notes of them thinking that someday they might come in useful. The notes are very cryptic, as she herself knew what persons and matters they referred to; she only had to record the dates to make it more credible once she was ready to confront her victims with what she knew.”

  It was very silent in the room, and Sir James believed everyone could hear his heart beating.

  Jasper said, “I call them ‘victims’ as Agnes was of course after money to stay silent about what she knew. The notes refer to happenings when ‘B is absent’. When Sir James came to me with this book, he pointed out to me that Lord Bantham was letting the maid Agnes spy on her mistress for him in his absence and that she had to list when lovers were visiting.”

  Bantham spluttered, “I did no such thing. Confiding in a servant?”

  Jasper continued as if he hadn’t heard him, “This would prove that Lord Bantham knew that his wife was unfaithful to him and that the marriage was about to end in a scandal. All the more reason for him to cooperate in letting his wife disappear, while also getting rid of the maid Agnes who knew too much. However…”

  Sir James froze at the innocuous word posing a sudden contradiction.

  “However,” Jasper repeated slowly, “I called England and I consulted with the butler at the estate. As you may know, butlers keep lists of guests. I asked him to check the dates and they all matched. At all the occasions listed by the maid, you, Sir James, visited your daughter.”

  “I visited my daughter often. She was my only child.”

  “Yes, but do you not think it significant that the maid Agnes would list the dates of your visits in the back of her psalter? What for?”

  Sir James stood motionless, rooted to the floor. He had hoped it wouldn’t come to this. He had handed the book over to incriminate his useless son-in-law: Get the bastard convicted for his daughter’s murder.

  But it had not worked.

  Instead he was now himself ready to be led into the dock.

  Jasper said, “I also asked the butler for lists of purchases made by Lady Bantham. And always, after you came to visit her, she had money to spend. You paid her money to protect some secret she knew about you.”

  Sir James laughed, a shrill sound to his own ears. “Whenever I went to see her, she told me of little trifles she wanted that her husband wouldn’t buy for her. I may have indulged her too much but that is no crime.”

  “Trifles?” Jasper repeated. “Silk dresses, a desk inlaid with ivory, a golden cigarette holder with her name engraved in it, a large standing Tiffany lamp with a peacock pattern. You weren’t buying her small presents, Sir James, because she was your only child and you spoiled her. No. You were buying her silence.”

  “Agnes overheard her on the phone once,” Rose said. “She wrote it to me in a letter. ‘If you don’t give me the money, I’ll tell everyone about it.’”

  Sir James’s hands clenched together.

  “So you see, Sir James,” Jasper said, “You had a very good reason to want your daughter dead. She knew a secret about you, she was blackmailing you with that secret, and her return from the dead was the last thing you wanted.”

  “Do you think I did not mourn her when she was dead?” Sir James croaked.

  “Yes, I think you mourned her. She was your only child. But I also think you were very relieved that the payments had stopped. It wasn’t just about the money, but also the humiliation of being at your daughter’s mercy. At the mercy of someone you couldn’t really trust. Her death shut her mouth, for good. And then she returned. You had to act. You had to go after her and…”

  “I did not go after her.” Sir James spoke with careful emphasis. “If anyone knows, it’s you. I spoke with you for a long time here in this house.”

  “Oh yes. That was extremely clever. You talked to me and you showed me how distraught you were, a broken old man. But what if she had passed you a note earlier in the evening, asking you to meet her later that night and pay her money, again? She would need funds to live off. You went to see her, taking a dagger or pen knife with you, and walking up to her, pretending to want to embrace her, you put your arms around her and dug the blade in her back.”

  Gasps resounded.

  �
��Yes,” Jasper said, “that is how it could have happened. Stabbed in the back but while facing the assailant. Killed by someone she knew, trusted, even loved.”

  “Loved?” Sir James’ voice almost broke on the word but he wanted to say this, needed to say it. “She never loved anyone. Only herself. She was a cold, heartless creature. It was like her to kill her maid and let her sit in the car to die for her, in her stead, so she could go free. It was like her to come back, casually almost as if it was a joke, something to laugh about behind a politely raised hand. Amusement, theatre, like life was to her. She never could be serious. I hated her for what she had become and I could have killed her. But I did not. You must believe me. I did not.”

  He staggered back and felt for support, but there was none. No one came to his aid. They all looked at him with wide, horrified eyes as if he had made a full confession. But he had only admitted he had wanted her dead.

  Not that he had actually killed her.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Jasper gestured to two footmen to come and support Sir James, bring him a chair to sit on. He surveyed the watchful group. “So we come back to the beginning. We’ve looked closely at all the players involved, the fancy dress partygoers in their costumes. Well thought out or badly chosen, looking back on it. They have all had a chance to speak up, have their say. Even those who were not at the party.”

  He glanced at Rose. “But still had a part in it. A substantial part. I had to take your word for all of it. The letters Agnes allegedly sent you, but you had to destroy on her orders. Her love affair with the steward. Her having confided in Lady Bantham about a difficulty she was in and Lady Bantham promising her a solution. The psalter being hidden in a bundle.”

  Jasper waited a moment. “There was so much in all of your stories I had to believe, as I could not verify it without a doubt. And so we have – a dead body in a car three years ago and a dead body on a bridge a few days ago. And suspects who all deny having anything to do with the killings. Oh, they may be swindlers…” He looked at Arundell.