by Beth Byers
“Did you get our wedding present?” Denny demanded. “The one Lila and I sent?”
Ham’s brow furrowed and he glanced at Rita. She shrugged and Denny gasped.
“You didn’t,” Vi said. She couldn’t help the rising humor despite all this horribleness.
“Oh I did.” Denny’s grin was both wicked and proud.
“What did he do?” Rita asked, pressing her fingers to her forehead.
“He sent you a chalkboard. Take an aspirin, love. It’s just going to get worse.”
“I had it specially made,” Denny announced with a giggle. “It’s extra wide, it has a piece that moves to the side, so you can layer your thoughts without turning it around, but you can turn it around if you need to. It’s in a cabinet, so you can also close it. Remember that one time Rita got hurt because the wrong fellow read the board? That won’t happen now.” It was a glee-filled description and even Ham snorted.
“And,” Lila added with lazy humor, “It has Mr. & Mrs. Barnes etched at the top.”
Rita stared and then slowly shook her head. “Someone needs to find it, I suppose.” She started to stand, and Kate jumped up instead.
“That’s a job for me,” she said.
“Thank you, Denny, Lila.” Rita glanced at them and tried for a smile, but she failed.
“You aren’t alone in this,” Vi told Rita. “You aren’t alone at all. Not anymore than I was when it was my wedding that was falling to pieces. Having come out the other side, all that matters is that you make Ham yours.”
Rita’s watery laugh at Vi’s phrasing was what Vi had been looking for. Rita met Vi’s gaze and squeezed her hand and said, “If Reese weren’t dead already, I’d really like to wring his neck for doing this to me.”
Vi glanced at Jack and he nodded once to her. They could do this. Scotland Yard might be coming, but Vi, Jack, Ham, and the rest, they could get things started. Maybe they could even get things finished.
“Where’s Smith?”
“Slithering his way among the guests and ferreting out the gossip,” Victor said. “Beatrice had already inserted herself with Loopsie and even Gerald made his way over to the other friends Reese had spent most of his time with. I didn’t have to ask for anything.”
Jack muttered something low and his gaze met Vi’s with a sort of unsurprised respect. “What do we know about this Reese fellow? Rita, are you ready to focus? Do you need a stiff drink?”
Rita shook her head. “I want coffee, lots of it.”
She rang the bell for a servant and then turned to face the others. “Reese…um, he’s a second son. His older brother lives in India still. He’s quite successful there. His parents are dead but there’s money from someone. Enough to get by and travel, not really enough for a home too. He said he couldn’t afford to marry more than once.”
“Is Loopsie his lover?” Vi asked. Vi wondered if Loopsie knew there hadn’t been money to marry. Or perhaps Loopsie had money? Vi somehow doubted it. Poor Loopsie, Vi thought. Though it was followed up by the idea that Loopsie might have been trying to force something that would never have happened.
Rita paused and then nodded. “Ah, yes. I think she was his lover. Sometimes? For a while there, Loopsie was wrapped up in Melvin Lissow. I’m not sure when that ended and she switched to Reese. It’s been a long time since she and I were close.”
“What about friends in attendance who might have been close to him?” Jack asked. “The ones who would have known his secrets? Maybe who had a surprise motive for killing him?”
“Why is it always the friend?” Lila asked. She sniffed and then said, “I wouldn’t murder any of you, and I think I have the least morals of us all.”
Chapter 10
The chalkboard arrived with all the pomp and circumstance of a new child. It was wheeled into the room slowly and put together by Jack and Ham, who sent the servants on their way after requesting immediate refills of the coffee they’d already received.
Unlike when Hargreaves was taking care of them, the coffee didn't automatically come with sandwiches, biscuits, and scones. Rita scrunched her nose at it and then sent the servant for nibbles to see them through however long this would take. It was already after midnight, but Ham wanted them to identify the questions they had before they went to bed, so they could all ruminate on them.
“Who knew Reese before this event? Outside of us?” Ham asked. The moment he’d finished the questions, the constable stepped into the library.
He glanced at them, took in the chalkboard and asked, “Would it be all right if I stayed?”
Ham eyed the man and nodded once.
“This is our line of inquiry,” Ham said. “I’m not trying to be mean, and I know the Yard detective will take over, but we’re going to do what we can to move things along. Jack and I are aren’t interested in pretending we don’t have years of experience behind us even if we’re no longer official.”
“I can understand that.” Constable Elliott glanced among them and then said, “I’m not unaware that you have far more experience than I do. I’d be happy to have this chance to learn from you.”
Ham nodded and his gaze moved to Jack. The two of them were like a well-oiled machine. Ham had led part of the military police during the Great War, and Jack had been Ham’s protégée. Now, years later, they were as close as they’d been then. Closer even. Brothers in arms, brothers by choice, it would be enough.
It had to be enough, Vi thought. They needed it to be enough.
“Reese was with Loopsie, but it seemed that he knew Percival and Jerome.” Vi rose and crossed to the chalkboard. It had been her who started using these among their family, though perhaps the boys used them at Scotland Yard. Those first murders, Vi had used her journal, but it had become something of a group thing now, and they all needed to see and discuss.
“Reese, Percival, Loopsie, Melvin Lissow.” Rita frowned. “Jerome. Me. There were a few others who came and went. We were the main group of friends. We went to Africa together. We saw giraffes and lions and…now Reese is dead.”
Rita’s eyes filled with tears again, but she’d moved on from the shock of her wedding being disrupted to the loss of her friend.
Vi ignored the tears, letting Rita have her moment. There was no soothing away grief. So, Violet let her have it and turned to the board. She wrote:
REESE STAFFORD
Denny giggled. Vi turned to him, and he said, “I can’t help it. I love this part. I’m sorry someone is dead, but this is my favorite.”
Vi flicked him on the ear and ordered, “Coffee, please.”
He didn’t even object and when he returned, he had a few chocolates on a plate as well. They were united in their love and need of chocolate and Vi took a bite of one, letting it melt in her mouth as she wrote the next name.
JEROME ALBERTSON —
PERCIVAL BATTING —
GERTRUDE “LOOPSIE” GILES —
MELVIN LISSOW —
BETTY LISSOW —
Vi paused and stared at the board and remembered the faded version of Rita with the straight hair and unexpected strength. Vi fiddled with her wedding ring as she stared at the board.
“Put me and Ham on there,” Rita said. “We’d be suspects to anyone else. We will be suspects to the Scotland Yard detective. My father too.”
To humor her, Vi wrote:
PHILIP RUSSELL —
RITA RUSSELL —
HAMILTON BARNES —
“You can’t cross us out so quickly,” Rita said even as she cried over her friend. “No one else will.”
“It’s Thursday night, Rita darling,” Vi said. “Everyone here, except perhaps Constable Elliott, knows you didn’t kill your friend. You don’t have a motive. You don’t benefit. We aren’t messing around.”
Ham glanced at Constable Elliott and said, “If this were a formal investigation, you would have to justify crossing us out.”
The constable nodded and then dared, “You’re crossed off, but not Mr. Russell?”
Vi grinned and then reached up and crossed out Mr. Russell’s name.
“Why is he crossed out?” Constable Elliott asked.
Vi glanced at him, searching his face and then admitted, “We’re working on limited time here. The truth of the matter is Mr. Russell is a powerful man. Reese was…he was a fly to someone like Russell. If Russell wanted to get rid of him for some reason, he would have just asked him to leave. If it were more serious, something like Rita being affected, we’d know. There are so many pressure points for humans. Reese wasn’t powerful enough to reach any of Mr. Russell’s, and we are speeding ahead here.”
Constable Elliott glanced at Ham and Jack and then back at Vi. She could see him calculating in her sex and her lecture. But the gents weren’t countering Vi, and Constable Elliott must have been wondering if they were indulging her or if they agreed. Violet had little interest in worrying over what he thought. Instead she turned to Reese’s name.
“Was he one of your want-to-be lovers, Rita?”
Rita glanced at Ham and then nodded. “At one time, they all tried to propose.”
Vi scoffed. “Money grubbers.”
“Perhaps Mr. Barnes should be a suspect then,” Constable Elliott said.
Vi glanced at him and said, “Add him to your list. We all know better here.”
“You don’t think Mr. Barnes could kill a person?”
“I think we all could,” Vi said easily. “But why would Ham kill Reese? What’s his motive?”
Constable Elliott gestured at Rita.
“But they’re getting married,” Lila said lazily. “Rita already chose Ham.”
“Maybe she changed her mind?” Constable Elliott said. “I don’t mean to be offensive, Mr. Barnes, but you are much older than your betrothed and Mr. Reese was quite handsome.”
Vi laughed, surprised by the real humor, but she couldn’t help it.
“It’s not very attractive to only be wanted for my pocketbook,” Rita told the constable. “Perhaps if I had been having an affair with Reese, Ham might have a motive. But there’s no evidence of that.”
“Yet,” said the constable.
“The confusion here,” Vi said, “is that we all know Rita quite well. We already know how she spends her time and evenings. We’re not questioning her because we know where she slept and with whom.”
“Well, I never,” Lady Eleanor said.
“Quiet Ellie,” the earl ordered. To the constable, the earl said, “Outside detectives have to learn the things that they already know. They’re not bypassing steps. They have already taken them.”
Vi didn’t bother to nod, she turned back to the board.
REESE STAFFORD — One-time lover of Rita. Long-time friend of many others in attendance. Was at the table with most of those friends. Did someone poison his food? Was he poisoned earlier in the day?
Vi scrunched her nose and considered. Her head tilted as she thought back. And then she added:
Probable lover of Loopsie Giles.
Vi turned to Ham. “It was Loopsie and Reese who were shoving with the Lissows, wasn’t it? Mrs. Lissow shoved him down to the ground, didn’t she?”
Ham nodded and Vi wrote:
Why was Reese fighting with the Lissows? Could that be the reason for the murder?
“He was pretty focused on that snipe hunt prize,” Victor added. “I didn’t talk to him much, but I saw him walk the ruins a good half-dozen times the first day of the picnic. He was in and out of that hedge maze. He was there to get the clues the moment the hunt started.”
Vi lifted her brows and realized her twin was right. “He did want that prize. What was it?”
Vi glanced at Rita who shook her head. “I have no idea.”
“Your father said it was expensive,” Ham told her. He’d moved to be closer to her, and he had one hand on the back of her neck while he watched Vi catalogue what they knew.
“Given this party,” Kate added, “I think we can be assured of that. And he’s rather known for expensive prizes, isn’t he?”
“He is,” Rita agreed. “He’s got enough pirate in him to be obsessed with treasure and enough wealth to like throwing that treasure around.”
“How much was your father’s last prize worth?” Vi demanded.
“At least five hundred pounds,” Rita said.
“And Reese would have known that?” Victor asked.
Rita nodded.
Vi glanced at her brother who whistled low. That was a lot of money. Quite a lot of money. Enough for someone to kill over.
“You’ll need to add all of those who thought they might have a chance at the prize,” Kate said, speaking for all of them. “Not just those who were close, but those who thought they might have won.”
Vi nodded, but her thoughts were encompassed with the fellow who Jack had chased out of the ruins. Her gaze met his and he nodded. “You should add him, but I don’t know his name.”
Vi just wrote:
OBSESSIVE TREASURE FELLOW -
“We need a name there,” Ham muttered.
“I’ll just need to look the guests over and we can let Rita find it for us.” Jack glanced at Rita and asked, “Your father was supposed to announce the winner after the dinner. What would he have done if the person hadn’t come to the ball?”
“They wouldn’t have won,” Rita said. “Father would want to present the prize and have it exclaimed over. There’s no way he’d have let someone take their prize and go.”
“If Reese won,” Jack clarified, “someone just lost a prize of about 500 pounds. Now that Reese is dead, perhaps they’re going to end the winner instead. Perhaps it’s just about the prize.”
“But who would commit murder over a maybe?” Lila asked. She had put up her feet and was leaned back, eyes half-closed. “I wouldn’t. It’s not worth the risk. Just find the treasure and steal it.”
“Russell insisted on a quite secure safe,” Ham inserted as the friends stared at each other, wondering if it was possible that murder had occurred for such a…a…stupid reason.
“Then they should have waited until the winner was announced and taken it later. Why go straight to murder?”
“It certainly wouldn’t be the first time a person had been killed for something valuable,” Ham countered. “Just because it seems more logical to us to steal it doesn’t mean it seems that way for the other person.”
“Reese is a cheater,” Rita added, almost sick at what she was saying. “He was the type of man to cheat at cards, in relationships, all of it. When we were in Africa, he’d get up early just to crow about what he saw that we missed. He lied about it too. I heard one of the local guides mocking Reese for bragging about seeing things that he hadn’t seen just to be…I don’t know…the winner of the safari.”
Vi rubbed the back of her neck and then added under Reese:
History of cheating. Did he cheat at Russell’s snipe hunt? Did he win? If he cheated and won, is it possible that whoever came next murdered him in a flash of anger?
“We have too many questions about Reese,” Ham said. “How long had it been since you’d seen him, Rita?”
“A while,” Rita admitted. “For longer than a dance at a nightclub? At least a year and a half. That group of my friends was the most adventurous. They’d been discussing Antarctica and the Galapagos Islands for the longest time. I think those who could afford to had just gone to Egypt together.”
“If they did,” Victor said, “they might have carried over an argument we know nothing about. Traveling with friends is something that needs to be done carefully. Friendships could so easily be destroyed on the back of a camel in the middle of a desert.”
They all looked at each other. They traveled together all the time. Even when they had houses in the same city, they had rooms in each other’s homes. They preferred to breakfast together than to not, but they’d also traveled with those who didn’t feel like family.
“I ca
n easily imagine that,” Denny muttered. “I could have murdered Martha when she was with us on our last trip.”
“Me too,” Rita agreed. “I regretted taking her with me within days. I’m still angry about our last trip.”
Vi agreed.
“We need to find out who was on the last trip and if there was a fall out among the friends.”
Chapter 11
Vi turned to her notes on Reese. They read:
REESE STAFFORD — One-time lover of Rita. Long-time friend of many others in attendance. Was at the table with most of those friends. Did someone poison his food? Was he poisoned earlier in the day? Probable lover of Loopsie Giles. Why was Reese fighting with the Lissows? Could that be the reason for the murder?
History of cheating. Did he cheat at Russell’s snipe hunt? Did he win? If he cheated and won, is it possible that whoever came next murdered him in a flash of anger?
She glanced it over and then wrote:
Did he travel with his friends recently? If so, was there a problem they brought home?
She blinked and then glanced at the next name. It was Jerome Albertson. Vi carefully didn’t look towards her stepmother when she started making notes.
JEROME ALBERTSON — Long-time friend of Reese Stafford. Claims to have an income that doesn’t require a working position.
“He does,” Rita said. “Something from his parents who have passed away and something from an aunt, I believe. He isn’t wealthy, but he doesn’t have to work. Though he helps his limited income along with gifts from wealthy lovers and staying with friends.”
The group of friends was awkwardly silent as they all looked at each other and didn’t look at Lady Eleanor who was very carefully silent. Then Vi wrote:
Perhaps Jerome tried to take a wealthy lover from Reese?
Vi scrunched her nose. That didn’t feel likely to Vi. She didn’t know the man well, but he seemed comfortable enough in her presence to not bother hiding who he was. Perhaps, Jerome didn’t get attached, and given what he’d said to Percival about Rita, Jerome used his friends as freely as his lovers.