by Oster, C. G.
“We do have enough circumstantial evidence to reclassify Mr. Stubbs’s disappearance as a suspected murder. Eleanor’s statement with regards to the call will be very damning for her if we can collect enough evidence to convince the courts that a serious crime has been committed against him. It would be much easier if we found a body, but there is a lot of land attached to that farm. And pigs.”
“Pigs?” Dory questioned.
Worthing cleared his throat. “Pigs can clear a lot of things away,” he said, and Dory realized he meant a body. That was sickening, and she wasn’t sure she would be able to view them the same knowing this. She certainly wasn’t going to do pork chops for supper. Speaking of, she needed to get going if she was going to have something ready for Michael returning home. “I’m afraid I have to go,” Dory said and stood. “But it would be interesting if others had heard of Ruben Stubbs’ ambitions to buy more land and to purchase a tractor.”
“Others will likely have heard him say so. I will ask.”
With a smile, Dory left and walked straight to the butcher, where she bought beef sausages to take home. Hurrying, she made her way home and went straight to the kitchen to start cooking. The sausages were soon frying and potatoes boiling, and she stood there with spatula in hand, thinking what an eventful day it had been.
No one had reason to murder Edith Wallis other than Eleanor. But how did Edith know? Other than the theory of Edith threatening Ruben Stubbs over a potential bigamy crime, they hadn’t found anyone with reason to want to hurt her. And it did seem as if Ruben Stubbs had never left the village. In this day and age, no one would do without their rations—except perhaps people like the Fellingworths who could purchase what they needed on the black market. Ruben Stubbs certainly wouldn’t be in that position, especially if he’d walked away from his farm without taking any money with him. Nothing indicated he was desperate enough to leave his life that he needed to be in hiding.
And really, that rumor of him being seen taking the bus from Aylesbury had been created because there would have been too many people who could say otherwise if he’d left the village by taking the train. At the time of his disappearance, the stationmaster would have been able to say definitively if he’d left or not.
Dory heard the door open and close. Michael wasn’t particularly noisy when he arrived, but she heard him coming into the kitchen, and Dory turned around. “Supper is only a few minutes away,” she said and walked over to kiss him.
“Wonderful,” he said and sat down at the table. “You were in London today.”
“Out of curiosity, who told you?”
“Mr. Midwich.” Which only went to prove that no one from the village could leave through the train station without it being observed.
“I went to Whitehall to see some of the evacuated young women about Mr. Stubbs, which turned out to be quite a revelatory account.”
Michael was quiet for a moment and Dory wondered if she was in for a telling off for being involved with this investigation. While he had at times skirted interest in the events unfolding, he was never encouraging. Dory knew he didn’t want her involved, but how could she not be? Alright, maybe she didn’t have to be quite as involved as she was, but Constable Worthing really needed to be prodded in the right direction at times. Granted, in the last few days, he appeared to be better. At least he opened the police station before lunchtime.
“Anyway, the details don’t need to be recounted, but they did lend themselves to suggest that Mr. Stubbs never left Beaconsfield,” she continued.
Scooping out the sausages, she placed them on plates along with the steaming potatoes, and then a portion of peas.
“You think he was murdered?” Michael asked when she walked over with the plates.
“I think he was murdered by his wife, but there is no body. And I suspect Edith Wallis knew about it. However, Eleanor Stubbs has a secure alibi for the time of Edith’s murder.”
“If I were to murder someone, I would make sure I have an alibi too,” he said and started cutting his food.
“Yes, that would be immensely helpful,” Dory said absently, thinking over the dilemma of how Eleanor could murder Edith and also be with the veterinarian. Unless she’d found some way of creating an illusion with the death. Really, was that possible? Would Eleanor Stubbs be so skilled? It seemed unlikely.
Eating his food, Michael seemed deep in thought. “I take it Constable Worthing is making enquiries in this direction?”
“Yes,” Dory said and decided to speak no more about it in case he grew upset with her. Understandably, he didn’t want to be regaled with more crime after spending the entire day dealing with it. “I was wondering if perhaps we should get a dog.” In truth, she hadn’t been wondering that at all, but it was a completely different topic of conversation.
“Do you feel as if you need a companion?”
“It would be nice to have someone here with me. It can get very quiet during the days.”
“We can look into it,” he said.
Actually, it would be nice to have a dog to care for and to play with, even to take it for walks. Especially as it was getting too cold and wet to deal with the garden. A dog could fill her days a little more.
Chapter 30
FROM WHAT DORY KNEW of Edith Wallis, her friends had been amongst the members of the WI. Had Eleanor Stubbs been one of them? Somehow Edith must have found out about the murder. They must have been friends, because she hadn’t said anything. It could have been she was in fear of retaliation—which turned out to be a correct assumption.
Something about Edith’s return to the WI just have changed things, but how? But Eleanor Stubbs didn’t attend meeting anymore. She might not even be a member, but somehow she must have found it. It was Edith Wallis’ first engagement with the WI and she’d been killed before it had happened. Was that significant? What would Eleanor Stubbs fear would happen?
The fact that the murder coincided with the WI meeting had to be telling. Or it could have been meticulously planned that way, in order to give her an alibi. As Michael said, it was the one thing a person would do when planning a murder.
Or was there another person linked to this that hadn’t attended the meeting? Who exactly were the people Eleanor was friends with, someone who would act in such a grave way on her behalf to protect her?
If Ruben Stubbs was as awful as some people said, then it could be that someone would help end his reign of violence. Not everyone said he was awful, though. Marjorie had called him a coward. Then again, maybe she considered a man who beat his wife to be a coward. The case could certainly be made for it. Cowards picked on persons weaker than themselves, persons who couldn’t fight back.
In the end, Eleanor must have fought back. Or someone else had and Eleanor was covering for them when she discussed the time he’d called her. That made more sense, and it was a person they hadn’t gotten a bearing on yet—someone Eleanor would lie to protect. She needed to put these questions to Constable Worthing, but that would have to wait.
With some degree of trepidation and anxiety, Dory walked to the hall where the WI meeting was being held. She couldn’t even remember the topic they were to discuss today. But in her gut, she knew the answer to Edith Wallis’ fate had to be amongst these women. Someone had to have the answer, unwitting or not. Not Mary or Sue, because they didn’t really know Eleanor or Ruben Stubbs. The older women did.
Arriving in the hall, she heard gentle chatter as she walked in. The chairs were being put out by Mary, and Dory surveyed the women present. Penelope was there, wearing a smart hat which Dory hadn’t seen before, standing talking to Victoria Dirkley with a cup of tea in her hand. She looked cheery and light. Could she be involved? No, Dory had herself seen her sitting farther along the entire time throughout the presentation when Edith Wallis had supposedly died. It couldn’t have been her.
Searching her mind, Dory tried to recall who had been there that day and who hadn’t. At the time, she hadn’t expected it to be i
mportant, so she hadn’t paid attention. Sue had been sitting next to her, and the very quiet Mrs. Beech, who came to the meetings but seemed painfully shy.
Penelope had definitely been there. Hesta had opened the meeting, so she had been there. Had Marjorie been there? Sophie? Had Ruth? Dory couldn’t recall if she’d seen her. Ruth was actually of an older generation, so Dory wasn’t sure she was close friends with Eleanor and Edith. There did seem to be some stratification by age within the group. The ladies tended to gravitate to the women their own age, which was understandable. Dory herself was closer in age to Mary and Sue, albeit slightly older, and married.
“Hi, Dory,” Sue said brightly. “How’s your week been?”
In fact, it had been surprisingly eventful. Much had happened. So many things had come to light. “It was good. I made a quick trip into a London a few days back.”
“That’s nice. I rarely go. Don’t really have much call to. I suppose if I had money to spend, I’d be more keen on the occasional trip.”
“I caught up with some acquaintances.” Again she was stretching the truth. “Oh, and I saw Eleanor Stubbs. I hadn’t really met her before.” Granted, it had really been the week earlier.
“Eleanor’s nice. Poor thing has so much to do running that farm all on her own. She hardly ever attends meetings.”
“Did she attend regularly before?”
“Honestly, she hadn’t attended more than once since I’ve been a part of the WI. My mother knew her more. Always said she made bad choices.”
“Really?”
“According to her, Ruben Stubbs always was a bruiser of a man. It was common knowledge he treated her badly.”
“Was your mother a member of the WI?” Dory asked.
“She used to be, but she doesn’t attend much anymore. With my siblings, after my father died, she just didn’t have the free time, and I think she just got out of the habit. Still, says it’s the best way to learn things. I think it was much the same thing for Eleanor. So busy and they already know the things they need to know. One can always learn, I suppose. She always says she means to come back.”
“Eleanor?”
“No, my mother. As I said, I don’t really know Eleanor.”
“I would love to meet your mother one day,” Dory said.
“You should come for tea one afternoon.”
“I’d like that. I’ll bake something.”
“My mother would appreciate that.”
Mary joined them and they started talking about some man in the village. Clearly Mary was sweet on him. Instead of following the conversation covering all the details of how Mary had said hello to him, and how he’d greeted her back, Dory looked around to see who congregated with whom. Penelope and Mrs. Dirkley were still chatting, clearly enjoying each other’s company, like old friends who hadn’t caught up in a while. Marjorie and Hesta were together as they normally were, speaking to Sophie Mullbury, who Dory hadn’t seen for the last few meetings. She had, however, been there the day Edith had been killed.
Ruth sat with a few of the older ladies, preferring to sit while they drank their tea.
Those were the major groupings. Some of the others seem to be more pairs, seeking each other out at meetings. Dory didn’t know some of them well.
“Time to come to order,” Hesta said, drawing everyone’s attention. “We have an exciting day ahead, and it’s a pertinent topic with Christmas not too far away. Candle making. Mr. Harley will be joining us soon,” she said, checking her watch, “and he has kindly offered us some of the beeswax he collected from his hives. Beeswax is, of course, the premier wax for candle making, but we’ll get into that in a minute. Firstly, we will officially open the meeting. Marjorie, could you please recap last week’s meeting? We also have some notifications we need to mention.”
They spent about five minutes opening the meeting. There was more news about fundraising for the WI college, and there was also the upcoming selection for who should go to the national conference.
It turned out to be quite a practical session where they repeatedly dipped strings into melted wax until it built up a candle large enough. While sounding very interesting, the practicalities of it were a bit tedious, but Dory did come away with two yellow candles at the end of it.
As usual, the meeting ended quickly and people dispersed. From an investigative point of view, she was left disappointed as she hadn’t learned anything of importance with regards to the case, but she was hopeful that Sue’s mother knew more of the history of the ladies and how they interacted, particularly Eleanor and who she counted as her friends. It felt like an avenue she could pursue.
As Dory made her way home, she took the slow route. Constable Worthing didn’t seem to be in. She had no idea where he was, but he wasn’t obliged in any way to inform her of his plans. Maybe he was in Aylesbury reporting to his superiors. Would they accept that Mr. Stubbs’ absence was likely the result of a crime? It might give Constable Worthing additional resources, or maybe a proper investigator would be assigned to the case. What were the chances that Michael would be? Obviously, it would be convenient as he lived here.
The house was silent as she got home, and she at times hated coming home for that reason. Nothing was happening there. A quiet house on a quiet street. Sometimes it reminded her of the quiet mornings on the canal when she’d driven her canal boat down the placid waterways of the country. At least the scenery was everchanging, and eventually she would get to a town. The canal authority had had shops specifically for them in certain places. For the people living on the canals, and those temporarily there as she had been, it was hard to tie their rations to one particular shop as they may not see it for months. Hence specific shops had been set up by the authority.
Obviously, Dory didn’t miss the war in the least, but there was something to be said for floating around the country. She’d seen more of it than most had.
To ease the pressing silence, Dory turned on the wireless, even as she couldn’t really hear it well in the kitchen. The background noise was soothing, however, as she started preparing supper.
Her mind returned to the case. It all hinged on who Eleanor was close to, the person she would turn to in time of crisis. Had it been Edith? The only explanation for this was that Edith had known, and of late, that had become a problem for Eleanor, or whoever had killed Ruben Stubbs, and they’d felt they needed to take care of the problem Edith posed. Had there been threats? How had Edith known? How had she found out?
Dory remembered that Edith had been distressed enough that she had cancelled her beauty appointment with Penelope. Had Penelope known? Penelope had definitely been at the meeting. Perhaps that had been deliberate as to draw attention to herself and her alibi. Had she at some point snuck away to Edith’s house, to harm her and then sneak back unnoticed? Was that even possible?
The Wallis’ house was only a few minutes’ walk away. At least, it could be possible to run there, and return without it being particularly noticed. The meeting itself was the distraction. But then it could also have been someone who hadn’t attended the meeting at all.
The answer lay amongst Eleanor’s acquaintances. Dory was sure of it.
Chapter 31
IT WAS A COOL DAY AS Dory made her way into the village square to the general merchant. Sugar rations were available, she’d heard, and she thought she’d get her allocation before it ran out. The supply for sugar was irregular.
“Mrs. Ridley,” a woman said, drawing her out of her thoughts. Ruth.
“Hello, Mrs. Camphor. How are you today?”
“Well as can be expected. I think we are in for a cold winter.” The woman shuddered in displeasure. “I can’t abide winter.”
“We’ll have some of the lovely jam from the summer to see us through.”
The woman gave her a harsh look as if she’d said something wrong. “We will all simply make do. We always do. No sign of a child yet? How long have you been married now?”
Dory felt her smile
falter slightly, but she reestablished it. “Just over a year now.”
“It takes time for some people. You mustn’t worry. It took three years for my cousin. We were all quite worried for her, but it happened in the end. And there’s always adoption if it doesn’t. Not the end of things. There are many children, these days, who need a good home.”
This was supposed to be encouraging, and the words were encouraging, but something in it felt accusatory—as if she was failing somehow. Granted, Michael had expected a child to come along well before now, but it just hadn’t happened. Dory was disappointed each month, but not to the point where she was distraught.
The suggestion, however, was that she was barren. To some it was the worst fate for a woman. It would be awful if it was true, as she’d always imagined she’d have her own family one day. Now existed the specter that she was barren. How long did it go before one had to suspect it? Clearly Mrs. Camphor suspected or she wouldn’t have said anything.
Now Dory didn’t know what to say. Should she be encouraging back, saying she was sure the woman’s worries were unfounded? How did one respond to the kindly put accusation that one was barren?
A convoy of cars distracted her. A number of them, driving through the square, one after the other.
“Those are police cars,” Ruth pointed out.
“Yes,” Dory said. “Something must be happening. Where are they going?”
“It looks like they’re going out on the western road.”
That was the way to the Stubbs farm. It looked like a whole division of Police was heading out there. Had something happened?
The police station door was shut, so Constable Worthing wasn’t there. This must be men from Aylesbury.
“How curious,” Ruth said. “I wonder what they’re here for?”
Why were there so many? Too many for a simple arrest. This must be related to a search. They were looking for Mr. Stubbs’ body.