Once Before (The Hero Next Door Series Book 3)

by Rebecca King

  Daniel had to concede that she had a point. ‘I do know that Reynold Muldoon has a reputation for paying his workers more than most. It is why his employees were devastated to hear he had died.’

  ‘And why you wanted to bring me here after dark so they cannot see me visit the place and start to ask questions,’ Tabitha added with an understanding nod. ‘It is unheard of for a woman to run a place like this.’

  ‘But not unheard of for you to hire a man of business to run it for you,’ Daniel said. ‘I am not suggesting that you should, but nobody would expect you to come here and attempt to oversee the business yourself. I think you would find that most factory owners, suppliers and the like, probably wouldn’t do business with you on account of the fact that you are a woman, but if you paid a man to manage the place for you there is no reason why the business shouldn’t continue to operate.’

  Tabitha sighed heavily. ‘It is my experience that few men are reliable enough to be trusted.’

  Daniel froze, but Tabitha was already making her way to a flight of external stairs which climbed the far wall and ended at a first-floor office overlooking the machinery floor.

  ‘It says here that this is the supervisor’s office,’ Tabitha called.

  ‘I think Muldoon’s office is on the next floor,’ Daniel suggested.

  Tabitha descended the stairs and followed him across the floor to another set of double doors through which was a staircase running all the way up the rear of the building.

  ‘How do you know where you are going? Have you been here before?’ she asked when they reached the second floor and stopped beside two ornate doors marked ‘Office’.

  Daniel shook his head. ‘I am just guessing.’

  His guess was accurate, and they soon found themselves in a rather resplendent suite of oak panelled offices which were completely different to the floor below.

  ‘What’s on the floors above then?’ Tabitha asked.

  ‘More machinery probably, or storage?’ Daniel suggested with a shrug. ‘We could get the old foreman to take you on a tour of the building if you like. I am sure he wouldn’t mind.’

  As he spoke, Daniel eyed the anteroom, a large reception room luxuriously furnished with leather chairs and a large fireplace for the weary traveller to warm themselves beside.

  ‘Its rather domesticated, isn’t it? For the middle of a factory, I mean.’

  ‘It is grandiose,’ Daniel agreed.

  Tabitha pushed against a highly polished door to the left of the fireplace and gasped when she saw a massive table around which were at least twenty elaborately carved high back chairs. A huge portrait of a dapper gentleman gazed proudly back at them from the far end of the long rectangular room.

  ‘That is Reynold Muldoon,’ Daniel whispered into her ear.

  Tabitha shivered but it had nothing to do with Daniel’s warm breath against her neck. She studied the man who was the cause of her current problems but couldn’t be at all sure how she should feel.

  ‘I don’t know him,’ she announced. ‘I have never met him. I would remember someone like him. He is rather handsome, isn’t he?’

  Indeed, Reynold Muldoon had a mop of sandy hair above emerald eyes which twinkled mischievously. Although in his portrait his lips were only slightly curved, Tabitha didn’t doubt that his cheeks dimpled when he smiled.

  ‘It’s a shame he has died,’ Tabitha whispered.

  A surge of jealousy slammed into Daniel when he heard the whimsical tone of her voice. He studied her before slowly turning a somewhat accusatory gaze on the portrait. The urge to make a possessive claim upon her was strong, and something he had never felt toward anybody before. Tabitha spelled trouble not least because she was up to her neck in it, had a father who was a potential murderer, and owned a factory she had no idea how to run. Despite all of that she had the ability to turn his life upside down purely because she was a woman.

  She has always had that ability because I love her, she just doesn’t know it yet.

  ‘Come on then, we don’t have all night to stand here gawping at that thing,’ he snapped in disgust before marching to the door.

  Tabitha jerked out of her revere and looked over her shoulder at him. For a moment, the hint of an accent, the blunt manner of speech, made him sound like he was thirteen years old again. He was annoyed, she could tell that much but she had no idea why. With one last thoughtful look at the portrait Tabitha followed Daniel out of the room.

  ‘One of these rooms must have been Mr Muldoon’s office,’ she murmured.

  ‘I think that is obvious, isn’t it?’ Daniel retorted.

  ‘Is something wrong?’ Tabitha lifted her brows at him, her direct gaze challenging.

  Daniel shrugged. ‘Why should there be something wrong? I just don’t want to stand around in an empty factory all night, and I don’t think it is wise for you to either.’

  ‘But I didn’t suggest this trip.’ Tabitha’s voice was silky smooth but held a hint of bite in it that warned him she was starting to get annoyed too.

  Daniel forced himself to calm down, but shoved the door marked ‘Mr Muldoon’ open a little more roughly than was warranted.

  ‘Jesus,’ he spat suddenly and slammed to a stop in the doorway.

  ‘What is it?’ Tabitha asked, standing on tiptoe to look over his shoulder into the room beyond.

  ‘Stay here.’ The dour tone of Daniel’s voice was enough to make her shove her way into the room anyway.

  Tabitha stared at the body draped over the desk in shock. ‘Who is it?’ she whispered, half expecting the man to be sleeping or something.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Daniel snapped, glaring at her. ‘I told you to stay out there.’

  ‘Oh, so I am supposed to stand in a room all by myself now, am I? When a second person has quite clearly died in here,’ Tabitha retorted. ‘You don’t have a chance in Hades of getting me to do that. You suggested this trip. Don’t expect me to stand out there by myself while you investigate.’

  Daniel rolled his eyes and edged toward the corpse. He quickly ran a wary eye over the desk, the floor beneath the dead man’s feet, the space between the desk and himself, the area behind the door. ‘Stand still,’ he whispered.

  ‘He is dead, Daniel,’ Tabitha snapped.

  Daniel growled a curse and glared at her. ‘I wasn’t talking to him.’

  ‘He is dead, isn’t he?’ She rubbed her hands up and down her chilled arms.

  ‘Seeing as he is blue and stiff, I should say so, eh?’ he retorted sarcastically.

  ‘You don’t have to be so rude about it. This is your forte not mine. I haven’t seen enough dead bodies to know what one looks for,’ Tabitha replied tartly.

  Daniel turned to face her but pointed to the body. The man’s eyes, set amidst a face that was mottled and pale, gazed blankly across the room at the book-lined shelving. ‘Does he look normal to you?’

  Tabitha gulped and carefully turned her gaze away. ‘I don’t know why you are being such a beast about it. It isn’t my fault.’

  Daniel placed his hands on his hips and dug deep for his patience. He was annoyed more with himself than with her because he had stupidly been the one who had suggested coming to the factory tonight. Now he wished he hadn’t, but it was too late to leave.

  ‘Has he committed suicide as well?’ Tabitha whispered.

  Daniel made his way around the desk and bent over to look more closely at the man’s face. There were no bruises to indicate he had been in a struggle or a fight prior to his death.

  ‘There is no blood anywhere,’ he murmured.

  ‘There is no gun,’ Tabitha announced from behind him.

  Daniel jerked and muttered a curse. He had been so busy contemplating how the man could have died he hadn’t realised Tabitha had been following him. When he turned around to glare at her he realised far too late just how close she was, and physically bumped into her. He had to cup her elbows to stop her from falling backwards. Daniel opened his mouth to chide her f
or getting too near the scene of the man’s demise, and potentially dislodging evidence, when a quiet click outside of the room stopped him. Putting a finger to his lips, Daniel crept toward the door. He removed his gun and leaned out of the room. The instant he heard the dull thuds of retreating footsteps, Daniel raced toward the door leading to the main staircase.

  ‘Someone is in the building. Stay in there. Lock the door if you can. Don’t unlock it again until you know it is me,’ he called back to her before racing into the gloom of the unlit stairwell.

  Tabitha opened her mouth to call out to him but by the time she reached the doorway, Daniel had already gone. She listened to his retreating footsteps in dismay. Her horrified gaze stared blindly at the body before she carefully backstepped out of the room. It wasn’t any better to have the door closed and blocking her view of the body because she knew he was in there. Still, at least she couldn’t see him.

  An eerie silence thickened the air and left every nerve stretched taught. For once, the sound of her own heartbeat was too loud, too persistent. The small hairs stood up on the back of her neck. Someone was watching her she was sure of it. But who? How? From where? It couldn’t be Daniel. She had heard him running down the stairs just now. Was the intruder still here? Had he not run away like Daniel believed he had?

  Casting a wary look into the darkness of the room, Tabitha began to get scared. Over the last few minutes dusk had given way to nightfall. The empty night became more sinister, the shadows more threatening.

  Anybody could hide in them and I wouldn’t know.

  Looking around the outer office, Tabitha tried to locate something – anything – she could use to light the room. Making her way into the clerk’s office, she stumbled toward the large fireplace where there was a candlestick.

  ‘Now what?’ She held the lit candle aloft to peer at the room she was in. ‘I don’t know what is worse, the room with the light or without it. Without the light at least I couldn’t see the dark shadows.’

  But the thought of snuffing the candle out again was enough to give her a fit of the vapours, so Tabitha cupped a protective hand around the delicate flame to stop it going out. With nowhere else to go, she retreated to the relative safety of the large meeting room she had found earlier and settled into a chair to wait. It was then that an icy draft swept over her shoulders. It was sufficiently strong that it blew the candle out and surrounded her in darkness once again. The faint creak of a door, the soft rustle of movement, warned her that she was no longer alone.

  Daniel crept quietly through the door leading to the ground floor machinery room. Keeping his back to the wall, he studied the still and silent workspace. Strangely, it felt empty. Nothing moved. The retreating footsteps he had chased had disappeared about half-way down the stairs, which was damned odd as that meant there was nobody on the staircase except him. He knew that wasn’t possible. He had just chased someone he was sure of it. But the stillness of the room was unnerving because it pointed to the fact that he had been mistaken. He couldn’t even hear the rasping of someone’s breath and could see enough of the room, thanks to the moonlit night, to know he was alone. He knelt to look under the machinery, but it was too dark to see much. Shaking his head, Daniel decided not to leave the staircase and give the intruder the chance to go upstairs to Tabitha.

  It was only when he turned to leave that he caught sight of a dark shadow dart toward him from his right. Before he could duck out of the way, a thick arm swept around his neck while a heavy fist slammed into his back. Cursing fluidly, Daniel tugged ineffectually at the tight restraint only to find himself propelled backward into the main factory space. The intruder was not alone. The second that he was dragged away from the door by his attacker, the machinery behind him came alive. The entire factory floor began to hum with the clatter of the machines which chugged in a rhythmic clanging motion that was deafening. Daniel gritted his teeth and dug his heels in to try to stop his assailant dragging him into the wicked spikes of the nearest machine, the main frame of which was sliding backward and forward along the floor. He was immediately assaulted with all the tales he had heard throughout his childhood from other occupants of the workhouse who had once been employed in cotton mills like this. From children who had been swept to their deaths by the relentless weight of the machines they had been unable to stop from crushing them, to the women whose skirts had been caught in the machines which had dragged them underneath the framework to meet a grisly fate. Even men, despite their brawn, had been helpless to prevent themselves from having limbs smashed to pieces between the steam-driven machinery. Now, it seemed his attacker had also heard the stories because he didn’t just know how to start the machines but that they would kill anybody who was near them in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  ‘Damn you,’ Daniel hissed, bending the fingers of the hand closest to him far further back than they were naturally meant to go.

  Immediately, more fingers lifted off him giving Daniel the chance to yank the arm away from his throat enough that he could duck away from the man’s tight hold. As he stepped sideways, he turned and slammed a booted heel onto his attacker’s toes and was rewarded with a hissing grunt of pain. Daniel felt the man make a grab for him again and slammed a heavy fist straight into the centre of the thug’s face. In that moment, Daniel saw the man who was attacking him. He didn’t recognise him, but he knew the type: a backstreet brawler whose fists were for hire to anybody who paid the right price. The non-existent neck, the bent and twisted nose – the consequence of several lost brawls – the myriad scars and spiteful, merciless eyes all combined to present Daniel with a man who had no hesitation ducking his head and charging at Daniel’s stomach like an outraged bull.

  Daniel grunted as a beefy shoulder slammed into his stomach and propelled him backwards, toward the still clanking machinery. He glanced worriedly over his shoulder at it, and wasted no time slamming a fist into the spine of the man trying to ram him into the deadly machinery. Daniel then lifted his knee and slammed it into the man’s beefy chest while forcing another blow into the man’s ear. This created enough pain to make the man grunt. Daniel punched him again as he side-stepped out of the way and watched the man stagger uncertainly forward. He put his hands out to the machine which lumbered toward him. As if sensing that the machinery would ensnare him and drag him to his death, the thug jerked his fingers out of the way and rounded on Daniel, who kicked upward with his foot, slamming the thug’s head back with a merciless crack. Daniel watched the thug’s eyes roll back as he slid silently onto the floor.

  Before he left him, Daniel checked the man’s pockets but apart from a few coins there was nothing to give him any clue as to who the man was. Rather than allow the man to escape, Daniel went in search of some rope, then secured the man’s wrists before propping him up against the wall beside the door. He then removed the intruder’s jacket and wrapped it loosely around the thug’s head so that if he did wake up, he wouldn’t be able to see where he was. Moreover, if he called for his co-conspirator his voice would be muffled. Over the sound of the machinery it would be almost impossible to hear.

  When he had finished, Daniel wasted no time racing back into the stairwell. It was then that he was hit by the intruder’s accomplice, who raced down the last flight of stairs and threw himself bodily at him. As he fell, Daniel’s head slammed into the unyielding wood of the closed doors behind him with a heavy crack – and the world went black.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Tabitha immediately slid onto the floor under the table and cowered there like a frightened rabbit while she studied the empty meeting room with wide eyes.

  I can’t see anything, but something has caused that draft. Something made the candle go out.

  She couldn’t see what ‘it’ was and that was what was more alarming than being on her own. Her thoughts flew from the man in the portrait to the dead man in Muldoon’s office tonight. She wondered if they had any connection although suspected they must have given that they had die
d in the same room. Was the dead man behind the desk someone who worked at the factory? It couldn’t be one of Muldoon’s relatives. Daniel had said that Reynold Muldoon did not have any surviving family. He had been all alone in the world, just like Daniel.

  Just thinking Daniel’s name was enough to make Tabitha start worrying about him. Where had he gone? Had he found the intruder yet? Had he caused the draft? Tabitha didn’t think so. If Daniel was there, he would have called out to her by now.

  When silence fell all about her, Tabitha slowly eased out from under the table. She paused and looked around the floor under the desk but all she could see were the legs of the chairs and table. Peeping up to look at the wider room, she made sure she was all alone before awkwardly clambering to her feet.

  ‘Well, I am glad Daniel didn’t return to find me like that or I would have had some explaining to do,’ she muttered feeling rather foolish. ‘Nobody could criticise me for being jumpy though seeing as there is a dead man sitting in the office and the murderer is still in the building.’

  Tabitha shivered when another icy draft snuck down her back. Her frown deepened. She checked the windows, but they were all closed tightly. Tabitha studied the courtyard several feet below. All was still and quiet – as it should be – but nothing was all right.

  ‘Maybe we are both wrong? This is an old building. I suppose there are all sorts of creaks and groans as it settles into the night,’ she muttered.

  But she knew that the creaks and groans of a building adapting to the change in temperature wouldn’t cause the awful draft she felt. The temperature in the room was colder than it had been when she had found it earlier, she was sure of it. With one dark glare at the door to Mr Muldoon’s office, Tabitha crossed to the far end of the room, to a single door in the corner. The closer she got to it the colder Tabitha became until she was positively shaking by the time that she cautiously nudged the door open. Her heart pounded as she peered into the side room. It was another office. Thankfully, this time there was no dead body lying across the desk, but a window was wide open.