‘I don’t think you realise quite how much trouble you’re actually in,’ Salter said sharply. ‘We are on the point of charging you with Rod Woodrow’s murder, for which you will hang.’
‘Hang?’ He face paled even more. ‘But I loved him. We were going to make a life together. Why would I kill him and destroy my own future?’
‘No, Mrs Kempton, Rod wasn’t going to give up his lucrative blackmailing business for you and your daughter. Or for any of his other women either,’ Riley replied. ‘He was in love with the lady you saw in the park today.’
‘No! That’s impossible.’ She dismissed the statement with a flap of one hand and a trill little laugh. ‘Rod had his standards.’ But her denial sounded less than convincing.
‘This is your opportunity to tell us what happened that night in Rod’s rooms.’ Riley fixed her with a frosty look. ‘For what it’s worth, I don’t believe that you went there with the intention of killing him. Matters got out of hand. It was a crime of passion. If you admit that, it just might save you from the hangman.’
‘I am admitting nothing. You have no proof.’
‘I should warn you that officers are currently searching your home for evidence of your culpability.’
‘What!’ She suddenly looked terrified. ‘You can’t do that. You have no right to search my home without my permission.’
‘We have every right. And when we find evidence of your guilt, it will be too late for you to claim that your argument with Rod escalated and that he died accidentally.’ Not that he could have accidently strangled himself, but still…Riley paused. ‘It’s now or never, Mrs Kempton.’
Neither detective said another word, and silence enveloped the room. Riley could almost hear Mrs Kempton’s mind working and was conscious of her laboured breathing. Before she could decide how best to absolve herself a tap at the door preceded Carter putting his head round it. Riley went out to see what had been found at the Kempton residence, feeling elated when he noticed Carter’s wide smile and the two lead crystal glasses that he held in his hand.
‘Where were they?’ Riley asked.
‘In a box in her ladyship’s boudoir, tied up with a pink ribbon, along with other bits and pieces,’ Carter said, grinning. ‘A man’s handkerchief, a dried flower, a necktie, letters, theatre programmes. She kept everything the man gave her by the looks of things. They never learn, do they?’
‘Her sentimentality will see her hang,’ Riley said grimly. ‘Well done, Carter.’
‘We found these too, sir,’ Soames added, dangling a set of keys from his forefinger. ‘I reckon they’re Woodrow’s missing keys.’
‘In the same place?’
‘Actually, no. They were thrown in a drawer in Kempton’s room. We couldn’t fit them to any locks in the Kempton household. We asked their butler but he’d never seen them before.’
Riley took a moment to ponder what he had just learned. It sounded as though they were both in on it—husband and wife.
‘Go round to Half Moon Street,’ Riley said to his detectives. ‘If those keys fit Rod’s rooms then arrest Kempton at his business premises and bring him in.’
‘Right you are sir,’ Carter said with alacrity.
Riley squared his shoulders and returned to the interview room.
‘I’ll tell you everything,’ Mrs Kempton said before he’d even resumed his seat.
‘Too late. You had your chance.’ Riley produced the glasses from behind his back and placed them on the table. ‘Why did you keep them?’ he asked.
‘Oh God!’ She leaned her elbows on the table and dropped her head into her splayed hands, shaking it from side to side.
‘He won’t help you now, love,’ Salter said. ‘Best make a clean breast of it.’
Mrs Kempton reached for her handkerchief, mopped her eyes and struggled to regain her composure. Both detectives watched her in silence.
‘I did go round to see Rod that evening, but I swear on my daughter’s life that I didn’t kill him,’ she said. ‘I just wanted to talk to him. To make him see reason. I didn’t tell you the truth when I said I wasn’t prepared to defy Papa when he declined his permission for us to marry. I would have done so in a heartbeat, but Rod said I’d never forgive myself if I became estranged from my own father.’
‘A father who threatened to disinherit you if you married Rod, I would imagine,’ Riley remarked with a cynical twist to his lips.
‘Well yes, that too. Rod and I were passionately in love. No one will convince me that he loved anyone other than me,’ she added, lifting her chin. ‘He said we needed to be patient and we’d eventually find a way to be together. But of course, we’d reckoned without Giles saying I would never see our daughter again if I divorced him. Rod said not to worry, that we’d work it out somehow. But I felt him drifting away from me. He cancelled our last two rendezvous without good reason and never seemed quite like himself when we were together. He was distracted all the time and…well, perfunctory.’ Two red blotches of colour stained her cheeks at the implication.
‘Go on,’ Riley encouraged.
‘I’d decided to sell the house without Giles’ knowledge and then we could have gone off together, Rod and me and our daughter, and Giles couldn’t have done a thing to prevent it. Without me to support him, he would have had too many financial problems to spare a thought for us. But Rod kept finding excuses, telling me there was no rush and that we had to do it right.’
‘So you decided to corner him in his rooms and have it out with him once and for all,’ Riley said.
‘I did. I’d had enough of his excuses and I needed to know what the real problem was. He seemed surprised to see me and didn’t want to invite me in, but I threatened to scream the street down if he did not. Once we were inside he poured himself a glass of whisky, sat down and laughed himself silly when I insisted that we finalise our plans. He called me naïve, said he’d never loved me and never would. He didn’t intend to waste his life on a woman with loose morals.’ Her bosom swelled. ‘Loose morals! I ask you. I gave myself to him because I was passionately in love, and he convinced me that we would marry as soon as Papa was persuaded to see reason.’
‘But you realised then that his sole purpose had always been to get his hands on your money,’ Riley suggested.
She nodded. ‘The humiliation. I cannot begin to tell you how angry and foolish I felt. He told me not to upset myself. I was not the only woman who had made an idiot of herself over him and he laughed at the ease with which we all fell for his lies. He told me it was over and to go away and be a good little girl. He wanted one more large payment from me and then I would never see him again. If I didn’t pay, all the letters I had written to him would find their way into the public domain, my reputation would be in tatters and the small foothold I’d managed to retain in society would be lost to me.’ Tears spilled down her cheeks. ‘Honestly, Lord Riley, it was as though I had never known him.’
‘I can well imagine.’
‘I asked him why he had done it. Deceived so many of us, I mean, and he said because he could. At first it had been a game, an easy way to keep the wolf from the door without actually working for a living, but then he fell in love with that…that girl, and everything changed. He held up his whisky glass and said she was as pure and as precious as hand-blown crystal. It was the ultimate insult and I’m afraid a red mist of anger coloured my vision. I grabbed one of his precious glasses and whacked him on the back of the head with it while he sat in his chair, openly laughing at me. I have no idea where I found the strength. Anyway, he gave me a look of absolute shock and then slumped to the floor.’ She shuddered, presumably as she remembered what she had done.
‘I thought at first that I had killed him. When I regained my wits I felt for a pulse, which was there, but he was out cold. I didn’t know what to do, but did know that my dreams, my desires, would never come to fruition. I also knew he would never stop demanding money from me; unless I got my letters back.’
�
�You searched for them?’ Salter asked.
‘No. I was too afraid to linger. There were other tenants in that house. I wasn’t sure if anyone had heard anything or what Rod would do if he regained consciousness. So I grabbed Rod’s keys, let myself out and ran home. Our house in not far from Half Moon Street, an easy walk. I woke Giles up and told him everything. He ordered me to go to bed and said that he would handle things. I knew he would too because he’d asked me for money to support the business and I’d declined. Naturally I promised to reconsider. I knew he would help me even without the offer of financial help. He hated Rod, suspected that I was still seeing him and besides, he wanted to protect my reputation and put a stop to the blackmail once and for all.’
‘Did he tell you what he did?’
‘No, we never spoke of it, but when I heard that Rod was dead, I knew. He said he’d looked for the letters but there was nothing in that room.’
‘Which was your real reason for accosting Alice in the park today.’
‘Yes.’ She lowered her head. ‘I intended to offer her money in return for whatever she’d kept for him. I didn’t mean her any harm, even though I disliked her intensely.’
‘Then why try to get her alone in a quiet spot?’ Salter asked.
Mrs Kempton merely shrugged and had the good sense not to condemn herself further.
‘Why, if you were in such a panic, did you take two of Rod’s glasses when you fled his rooms and then keep them?’ Riley asked, having always known somehow that they would be the key to solving the case.
‘I wish I knew.’ She looked genuinely bewildered. ‘I wasn’t thinking clearly. I suppose I looked upon them as a symbol that summed up Rod’s existence. He wanted the best of everything, which is what those glasses represented. I’d never been to his rooms before, but he told me once that they’d been a gift from his father and cost a small fortune. He was inordinately attached to them, but his greed cost him his life.’
When they had extracted everything from Mrs Kempton that she had to tell them, Riley had her sent back to the cells.
‘You were right then sir,’ Salter said a little later, after Kempton had admitted his part in actually carrying out the strangling. ‘A woman didn’t commit the crime.’
‘She caused it though, Salter, and then invented an elaborate charade that she hoped would throw up so many suspects that they’d get away with the crime. She knew he was a blackmailer and that those letters would come to light sooner or later, so she told me about her relationship with Rod, pretending that her husband was ignorant of the particulars, and insisted I call when he wasn’t at home. Very clever.’
‘But not clever enough.’
‘Well done, Rochester, Salter,’ Superintendent Thompson put his head round Riley’s door, beaming, and offered both men his hand. ‘I knew you’d manage to get to the bottom of things.’
‘Thank you, sir,’ Riley replied.
‘Get off home, guv,’ Salter said once Danforth had stopped by to add his less than fulsome congratulations. ‘I’ll get the paperwork started. I dare say Mrs Cosgrove is feeling neglected. Can’t have that now, can we?’
‘Thank you, Jack, I think I’ll do just that. But first I am going to ask Tom Morton to offer his services to Alice. Since you managed to have it confirmed that she’s Rod’s beneficiary, it also means that she’s now a wealthy young woman. Beautiful too. A volatile combination. She will need a guiding hand from a dependable person like Tom, who just happens to be well versed in the law.’
Salter hitched a bushy brow. ‘Not matchmaking are you, sir?’
‘I wouldn’t dream of such a thing, sergeant,’ Riley shrugged into his coat and plonked his hat on his head. ‘Good night.’
‘Good night, sir.’
Chapter Sixteen
Christmas Eve came two days later, and Riley sat with Amelia in her drawing room in a reflective frame of mind. He watched the flames from a roaring fire leaping up the chimney, listened to the sweet harmony of the carol singers outside the window and savoured the peaty taste of the single malt that had just been served to him.
‘What are you thinking about?’ Amelia asked.
‘Jealous and manipulative women.’
Amelia affected an expression of wounded dignity. ‘Present company excepted, I trust.’
Riley smiled. ‘Of course.’
‘Susan Kempton, I take it. Put her from your mind. You have solved the case and she has no one but herself to blame for the situation she now finds herself in.’
‘True, but in spite of everything, I feel a certain amount of sympathy for her. Rod Woodrow really did string her along.’
‘Her and many others.’
‘True, but Mrs Kempton was his first. When she paid up so willingly it gave him a taste for what he could achieve. Mrs Kempton genuinely thought that he was investing the money she gave him in their future together. It transpires that he was certainly investing it in his future, but Susan Kempton didn’t form a part of it. Imagine how humiliated she must have felt.’
‘I barely can, but even so, to kill him…’
‘I don’t think she intended to. She simply lashed out in anger, then panicked.’
‘And involved her husband, well aware that he would finish Rod off,’ Amelia said in a disapproving tone.
‘Exactly. Kempton denied having anything to do with the murder until we pointed out that we’d found Rod’s keys in his room. He went as white as a sheet, clearly having thrown them in a drawer and forgotten about them. That must be the case, otherwise he would have used them instead of picking the locks when he returned to have another look for his wife’s letters.’
‘If he had, you would have found them on his person and his wife’s involvement wouldn’t have come to light.’
‘Perhaps not. Anyway, he told us that Susan had come home in a terribly distressed state. She woke him in hysterics, saying Rod had tempted her to his rooms and then attacked her. She had struck him in self-defence and managed to get away.’
‘That is not what she told you? Perhaps she should have used that excuse.’
‘She’s nobody’s fool and knew we wouldn’t have believed her. Rod seldom invited anyone to his rooms and Susan must have realised we’d be aware of that. But her husband believed her story because he wanted to. If not for the mistake with the keys, we never would have got him to confess.’
‘I still fail to understand why she kept those glasses and other things of Rod’s.’
‘They were convinced that they were too clever for us and would get away with it. Besides, I think Susan still loved Rod, in spite of everything. That collect was her shrine, if you like. She kept everything he’d touched. I’ve seen that sort of thing before. She told me in a subsequent interview that she offered to carry on paying him if he would continue with their affair. She would have pretended that Alice didn’t exist and make the best of things, confident that Rod would eventually tire of what she described as his rough diamond.’
‘The poor woman sounds desperate.’
‘She knew Rod was passionately in love with Alice but still hoped to tempt him away from her. When he laughed in her face she finally lost her composure and lashed out.’
‘Will they both hang?’
‘Almost certainly, I’m afraid.’
‘It’s sad, and tawdry and I feel sorry for the child. What will happen to her?’
‘Mrs Kempton has an aunt who will take her. Susan Kempton’s money will be kept in trust for her, I suppose.’
‘There. My curiosity is satisfied and I don’t want to think about all that unpleasantness any more.’
Riley slid an arm around her shoulders. ‘Then we shall not.’
‘Just tell me that the offending letters have been returned to their writers and I will have nothing left to worry about.’
‘They have, including Celia’s. Stout sent them for me this morning.’
‘And you didn’t have to read them.’ Amelia reached up and kissed Riley’s cheek.
‘I’m glad about that.’
‘Celia will never believe that I did not, but I refuse to spoil this moment by thinking about my future relationship with her.’
‘How is Alice?’
Riley chuckled. ‘Being taken the best possible care of. I asked Tom Morton to offer his legal advice regarding her inheritance. He seems very keen to be of service to her since making her acquaintance.’
Amelia laughed. ‘I am sure he is. But still, I am glad she has someone whom she can depend upon to give her sound advice. She must be feeling lonely.’
‘Not if Tom has any say in the matter.’
The clock struck midnight, heralding the onset of Christmas Day. Riley put his drink aside and felt in his pocket for the diamonds he had commissioned as Amelia’s gift.
‘Happy Christmas, my love,’ he said, handing her the box and watching her lovely face as she eagerly tore the wrapping aside.
The End
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About the Author
Thank you for reading Death of a Scoundrel. If you enjoyed the novel, please take a moment to leave a review. It would be greatly appreciated.
I was brought up on the Isle of Wight, off the Hampshire coast of southern England, surrounded by castles, stately homes and history at every turn. I must have unwittingly absorbed the historic atmosphere because I write mostly about bygone days, living vicariously alongside my strong heroes and independently-minded heroines.
When not letting my imagination flow over a hot keyboard I spend my time walking my beloved dog – a rescued mutt of indeterminate pedigree – and make half-hearted efforts to hold back the years through regular visits to the gym.
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