Once Before (The Hero Next Door Series Book 3)

by Rebecca King

  ‘So we don’t know if Muldoon was murdered and his death was staged to look like he had killed himself, or if he did genuinely kill himself,’ Peregrine growled.

  Daniel sensed a growing tension in the room when Roger hesitated.

  ‘Jesus, tell us,’ Hamish snarled when Roger looked worriedly at Daniel.

  ‘Muldoon left a will. In it, he has expressly stated that he wanted everything he owned; his personal belongings, his wealth, and his major stake in the factory, to go to one person.’ Roger took another swig of his brandy.

  ‘Who?’ Daniel prompted impatiently.

  ‘Lynchgate’s daughter: Tabitha Lynchgate. Miss. Miss Tabitha Lynchgate.’

  ‘I am sure David Lynchgate is delighted about his daughter’s recent good fortune,’ Daniel muttered sarcastically.

  Surprisingly, Roger shook his head. ‘Lynchgate asked his cousin, Sminter, to get the will dismissed as not legally binding because Tabitha is a woman. Unfortunately, Sminter was so threatening to Muldoon’s solicitor, Stanley Turner, that he complained to Wardle about the judge’s behaviour. Unsurprisingly, Wardle sided with Sminter and ordered Turner to do as he was told even though it would be illegal.’

  ‘Is the will legally binding because Tabitha is a woman?’ Ronan asked.

  ‘Yes, but I will get to that part in a moment. Rodgers, Lynchgate’s nephew in London who is the solicitor, has also written to Muldoon’s solicitor, Turner, and said that the will isn’t binding as Muldoon was quite clearly not mentally stable given that he killed himself. But Muldoon’s solicitor knows that Muldoon was mentally and physically in good health. Stanley was so alarmed by Sminter and Wardle’s behaviour that he told Squire Delaney. Squire Delaney reported all of this to the Lord Chief Justice as well. The Lord Chief Justice is so worried about the number of reports he is receiving about Lynchgate, Sminter, and Rodgers, that he has ordered us to investigate as a matter of urgency. He has now deemed the will as legally valid and told Turner it must be acted upon. Not even Judge Sminter can over-rule it.’

  ‘What about Tabitha? Has she been forced to hand her shares over to her father anyway? Does Lynchgate now own the whole factory?’ Daniel murmured, his tone grave.

  ‘No,’ Roger snapped. ‘I am sure Lynchgate would like to get the shares off his daughter, but I am afraid the law now stands in his way. Tabitha Lynchgate owns the majority of the cotton mill but her father owns ten shares of it.’

  ‘Has Lynchgate threatened Tabitha, or demanded she hand over the running of the business to him? Has she found evidence that he is stealing from her?’ Daniel asked.

  ‘What we know is that given their relationship, it is unlikely Tabitha would willingly give her father anything of hers, even the business she cannot hope to run herself,’ Roger said.

  ‘We know that things started to go wrong at the mill not long before Lynchgate appeared and bought shares in the business,’ Peregrine mused. ‘Then did everything improve?’

  ‘Then Muldoon died,’ Roger confirmed.

  ‘We have an ally in Tabitha if she still hates him,’ Hamish declared with an approving nod.

  ‘Indeed,’ Roger agreed.

  ‘Where does Tabitha live now?’ Daniel asked.

  ‘She is living with an aunt in Rutland, coincidentally in the same village as Muldoon’s cotton mill. Apparently, she still doesn’t speak to her father.’

  ‘So, we can get into the cotton mill and look for financial irregularities Lynchgate might be involved in. It might help us understand how he is siphoning money out of the workhouse,’ Luke said. ‘I mean, is he stealing goods, falsifying accounts, paying fake bills, miscalculating income?’

  ‘That is what we have got to find out,’ Roger warned.

  ‘Is the factory now operating again?’ Hamish asked.

  ‘No. Operation of the factory has been suspended because its new owner, Tabitha, has only just inherited it and has yet to decide what to do with it. So, gentlemen, it is ours to search thoroughly. I want every scrap of paper read, every ledger scrutinised, every record, stock list, and legal paper checked. I want to know why Lynchgate has decided to get involved with Muldoon’s factory. I want to know what worried Muldoon so badly he preferred to kill himself than deal with it. I am afraid that David Lynchgate is earning himself a reputation for being a proverbial bad penny. He turns up and people die, and financial discrepancies start to appear. He is a crook who is aided by his legal network of friends who are just as suspicious as he is. It is our job to find out what they are doing and make sure they all face justice.’

  Daniel puffed out a long, slow breath while he dug deep to try to battle his growing sense of disquiet. He had slowly become increasingly worried by what he was hearing. Setting his concerns about the workhouse to one side, he reluctantly focused on the one problem in his life he had never found a solution for: forgetting Tabitha Lynchgate. He was stunned that Tabitha had left her father’s house, by the sound of it the day after he had seen her for the last time. Had she left because of what had happened to him? Or had her father thrown her out in a fit of temper to try to break them apart for good? All sorts of questions flowed, but he had no answers for them. Daniel knew he wouldn’t get them answered until he was able to talk to Tabitha. Did he want to see her, though? Should he, if only so he could put her out of his mind, his life, once and for all? Could he see her again and then walk away, especially if it became apparent that there were still unresolved feelings between them?

  ‘Shouldn’t we start this investigation by searching Lynchgate’s house?’ Hamish asked. ‘I mean, there may be evidence of his crimes in his property.’

  ‘That is something we are unable to do right now,’ Roger countered. ‘If Lynchgate suspects that someone has been in his house we will lose the opportunity to prove his guilt.’

  ‘We have to go undercover,’ Joshua growled.

  ‘No. We have to be discrete. Daniel, do you think this Tabitha will remember you and be willing to talk to you?’ Roger asked.

  ‘I am not going to talk to her,’ Daniel retorted firmly. ‘She probably wouldn’t talk to me because I knew her. Someone else will have to go.’

  ‘But she knows you and will probably be more comfortable talking to you,’ Hamish argued.

  ‘Unless you fell out with her and she doesn’t like you either,’ Roger murmured.

  ‘I fought with her father not her,’ Daniel snapped. He knew his colleagues were wondering what history he had with Tabitha but had no intention of telling them because it was personal.

  But Tabitha is the reason why I am who I am today; why I work with the Star Elite.

  He owed it to her to do everything he could to help her, didn’t he? His conscience wouldn’t allow him to leave her to battle the likes of her father alone.

  I haven’t been able to forget her in nearly thirteen years and am not going to start now.

  ‘Daniel,’ Roger pleaded.

  ‘Fine. I will go and see if she will speak to me.’ When he looked up, Daniel found his colleagues looking at him. ‘What?’

  ‘You should tell us now what your connection to David Lynchgate is,’ Roger ordered.

  ‘I don’t have any connection to David Lynchgate. I hate the bastard as much as Tabitha.’ Even as he said that, Daniel struggled to put a name to the connection he still had with Tabitha. They weren’t childhood friends anymore, but they weren’t enemies either. Even so, Daniel knew exactly how he felt about her. He just had no idea how he could tell his colleagues that he had, as a young man, loved Tabitha Lynchgate with all his heart – and as a fully grown man, he still did.

  CHAPTER TWO

  ‘It is time,’ Roger suggested quietly.

  Daniel looked at him. ‘I didn’t realise Sir Hugo had told you.’

  ‘He has to tell me everything about all of you, just in case there is a conflict of interest, or something that might damage you in some way. Like returning to the workhouse.’ Roger didn’t expand any further because this was Daniel’s story.
It was up to him to decide how much he wanted to tell his colleagues. ‘Just remember that we have all been through our fair share of trials and tribulations, some harsher than others. All of us carry scars in some way or another. We have all killed. We have all had at least one brush with death and have done things our families would be horrified about. However, we have only done what we have because of our work with the Star Elite.’

  ‘This has nothing to do with the Star Elite,’ Daniel bit out, but he knew he had to be honest and tell them if only so they would understand how difficult this investigation was going to be for him.

  ‘This goes no further than us,’ Roger warned. ‘All of our personal information is highly confidential, so is not to leave this room.’

  The men around the table all nodded.

  ‘I used to live in the workhouse,’ Daniel announced. ‘Marlton Workhouse was the only home I knew until I was sixteen years old.’

  ‘It is no shame that your family struggled financially,’ Hamish assured him. ‘Mine weren’t affluent either. In fact, we were downright paupers. With eight siblings there were far too many mouths to feed. It was damned ridiculous. We barely had enough to eat at the best of times, yet mother kept having children – until the day one took her with him during childbirth.’

  ‘My father died,’ Daniel said quietly. ‘He was struck down with influenza one particularly harsh winter. My mother tried but couldn’t afford to pay rent or feed us. We had no choice but to go to the workhouse. She used to work in the laundry, washing clothes for everyone, or so I am told. I think I was about six or seven when we arrived there. As happens in those damned places I was sent to live in the men’s block across the yard and hardly ever saw her. She used to wave to me from one of the windows in the laundry in the women’s wing. It was our only way of communicating. Then, one summer, she stopped coming to the window. When I asked where she was, I was told that she had been moved to the sewing room, the windows of which were on the opposite side of the building. I asked why but was told it was none of my concern. At that time, I was about twelve and doing errands for the Master. He used to get me to light the fire in his office or go into the village and fetch things and take messages to people. He was always kind. Anyway, one day I asked him why my mother had been moved to the sewing room. He reluctantly told me that she had died; that she taken ill suddenly and died within hours. There was nothing they could have done for her. I asked why I hadn’t been told about it. He said it was because it didn’t change my circumstances. Carpenter, the master, told me that because I had nowhere else to stay I had to remain in the workhouse and do jobs for him. It was the only life I knew so couldn’t really argue or demand something different.’

  ‘So how did you come to leave it? Did you get kicked out? What happened?’ Hamish prompted when Daniel lapsed into a thoughtful silence.

  ‘Lynchgate started to appear at the workhouse. He was introduced to the Master by one of the Governors at the time, a Reverend Inderson. Lynchgate made it clear that he wanted to be on the Board of Governors but there wasn’t a space available on the Board. He donated money and began to visit the Master more often. I am not sure what went on, but the Master didn’t like him and made no bones about the fact that he didn’t like Lynchgate calling by so often. Lynchgate had some sort of connection to the Master anyway because the Master, a man called Keith Carpenter, frequently sent me to Lynchgate’s house with messages. It was there that I met his daughter, Tabitha. She is stunning but so completely opposite to her father that I have always wondered if he really is her father. Where Lynchgate is a complete and utter bastard, Tabitha is the exact opposite. She is loving, gentle, and kind. One day, when I was about fourteen, she was in the kitchen when I arrived with a message from Mr Carpenter. She invited me in for a drink. I told her I had to go but she insisted. She said she got lonely in the house all by herself. She was curious about me, and my life in the workhouse, and I was curious about her. Under the watchful eye of the cook, I soon became a frequent visitor to the kitchen. Whenever I had to take messages, I went around the back, the cook let me in, summoned Tabitha, and we had a drink at the table, or something to eat.’

  ‘You became friends,’ Hamish murmured.

  ‘I knew to keep my distance because she was the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the county. The differences between us didn’t go just as far as the width of the kitchen table.’

  ‘Then one day her father found out what you were doing, objected to having a lad from the workhouse under his roof, and tossed you out,’ Hamish guessed.

  ‘Almost.’ Daniel’s smile was fleeting. ‘Tabitha and I became close over the next couple of years. Our talks in the kitchen soon turned into walks around the garden. I was always careful to keep my distance from her in public on account of me always wearing the workhouse uniform. I knew her father would take exception to me being anywhere near his precious daughter because of how he used to treat me whenever he appeared at the workhouse to see Master Carpenter.’

  ‘You were always lowly and made to understand your place,’ Joshua growled.

  Daniel nodded. ‘Anyway, as Tabitha and I got older, we grew closer. So close, in fact, that during one winter when it was too cold for us to walk in the garden, Tabitha found a way for me to sneak into the house. We then met in the attic, where we could be alone to talk. She always wore a cloak on account of it being cold up there, and I would stay for as long as I dared be away from the workhouse. I think Master Carpenter knew what was going on, where I was going and who I was meeting, but never tried to stop me. He always used to say; ‘there are people in life who will always try to keep the low in their places because they want to feel better about themselves.’ I never understood what he meant by that – until now. Anyway, one winter, one of the staff must have seen the footprints I left in the snow because we were up in the attic and were found by not just David Lynchgate but his man of business, and the rather burly butler Lynchgate employed at the time.’

  ‘You got thrown out,’ Peregrine murmured.

  ‘I was beaten to within an inch of my life. I cannot remember much about what happened except that Tabitha was screaming and trying to get back into the attic throughout but couldn’t because her father had locked the door. I think the butler and the man of business would have kept kicking until I was dead but Lynchgate knew his daughter was listening and told them not to kill me. When they were discussing what to do with me, and whether to take me back to the workhouse or let me crawl, I ran. I got out of there the same way that I snuck in. By the time I managed to find my way back to the workhouse, Lynchgate had already been to the workhouse and instructed Carpenter never to let me out again. I was to stay there, and he would find work for me somewhere else. Carpenter told me that Lynchgate wasn’t a man I should defy, and it was best if I left the workhouse immediately, before Lynchgate could send me away. He gave me the details of somewhere I could go, a lodging house where I could find a room. The woman running it was his sister. Carpenter gave me a few coins and even bought me a ticket. By dawn the next day, I was on the first carriage out of the village, battered and bruised, very angry, and hating David Lynchgate with a fury that hasn’t eased over the years. If I am to be involved in investigating that bastard, I will do everything in my power to make sure that he doesn’t evade justice for what he has done, and it isn’t just because of the thefts from the workhouse. He hates the workhouse’s occupants. Treats them like dirt, in fact. It is disgusting. He is disgusting. It serves him right that he has to face the indignity of being put behind bars by someone he once deemed worthless,’ Daniel murmured. ‘A worthless occupant of the workhouse.’

  ‘He meant to kill you, didn’t he?’ Joshua asked.

  Daniel nodded. ‘I don’t doubt he would have had it not been for Tabitha’s refusal to go to her room. It might have been the presence of the other staff. If I suddenly disappeared, or died, he wouldn’t have been allowed to get away with it no matter how much he paid them. It was Tabitha’s ru
ckus that kept everyone on guard and watching Lynchgate and stopped the man from murdering me.’

  ‘Do you think he might have taken to beating the workhouse’s occupants?’ Roger asked.

  Daniel nodded. ‘I don’t doubt it, but Lynchgate is clever about covering his tracks.’

  ‘You make it sound as if you are still there,’ Hamish whispered sadly. All the concern he felt was in his steady gaze and sympathetic smile.

  ‘That is because I don’t think there will ever be a time in my life when I am not one of the workhouse’s occupants. It is where I grew up. It is my past. It shaped me and made me determined to do something more with my life, to work harder than most, to leave and never go back.’

  ‘But you are back. You are back in Leicestershire and have to return to the workhouse to investigate what is going on there,’ Peregrine murmured.

  ‘Why did you choose to join the Leicestershire Star Elite? You must have known that your work would eventually take you back to Marlton if not somewhere nearby,’ Ronan asked.

  ‘At the time I decided to make the move from London, I wanted Lynchgate to know what I have done with my life, so he knows now that I am not bloody worthless,’ Daniel replied firmly. ‘Now, I know that this is where I should be, where I belong, where is best for me.’

  ‘We are all with you in this, Daniel,’ Luke assured him. ‘From the sounds of it this Lynchgate is a real criminal who has just carefully surrounded himself with thugs and people in authority who are prepared to lie for him. He is a coward who is quite clearly terrified of having to face justice for his crimes. But a crime is a crime and there is nobody who can commit a crime and not face justice for it eventually. Lynchgate has made the very real mistake in fooling himself into thinking that he can do what he likes, be as conniving and as much of a thief as he likes, to anybody he likes, and not have anybody challenge him over it.’