She agreed to that, and Nick was quick to pour out.
“Milk? Lemon?”
“No. Nothing, thank you.”
He handed her the steaming cup, and she took a sip. It seemed to help.
“I’m sorry to come here like this, Mr. Farthering, but you said I might call on you if I needed to.”
“Certainly.” Drew gave her an understanding smile. “How can I be of help?”
The newspaper with her photograph was lying there on the table. She did no more than glance at it.
“Obviously, you know why I’ve come.”
“Yes.” Drew pulled out a chair for her. “Won’t you sit down for a moment? I promise you, things will look better after you’ve finished that tea. And our Mrs. Devon makes strawberry jam that can mend nearly anything, broken hearts included.”
She sat heavily, closing her eyes and trembling so much that he thought she would drop her cup. He sat down beside her and pushed the rack of toast and the jam pot within her reach.
“Just take your time, Miss Allen. I’m sure this must be difficult for you.”
“I’m ruined. I knew already that I was foolish, but now I’m ruined.”
“Surely it’s not as bad as all that, is it? I know a scandal is never easy, but they do blow over in time.”
“Mrs. Hirsch dismissed me after she saw that headline.” The girl gave Drew a trying-to-be-brave smile. “It’s hard enough to find a decent position these days and harder to keep one. I’ll never find another respectable place.”
“Perhaps there’s something I can find for you at my company.”
“No. I don’t want that. There or anywhere, I don’t want people staring at me. Talking about me. I couldn’t go anywhere in the whole country now and not be known.”
“I’m sorry your name came into it.” Drew filled the girl’s cup again. “I believe I know who might have leaked it to the newspapers, and I mean to have a word with the guilty party.”
“You know Mamie?”
“Mamie?”
Miss Allen nodded. “Mamie Blankensop. She has the flat next to mine and we’ve been rather good friends for a while now. She came over yesterday to borrow my rhinestone brooch when she was going out. I couldn’t help it, I told her everything. I had to talk to someone or I knew I’d absolutely die.”
“Quite understandable,” Drew murmured.
“She knew I was seeing someone already, just not who it was. Anyway, she came back first thing this morning, crying and saying she didn’t think this would happen and showing me the headline. She had told her young man what I said, not thinking it would go any further, but he works setting type for the newspaper. He thought if he gave them the story, it would be a way for him to get into reporting as he’s wanted to for so long. Reporters have been calling at the flat and ringing up on the telephone ever since. It’s been horrid.”
“I can imagine.” Drew stirred more honey into his tea. “How did you manage to get over here without them following you?”
“Poor Mamie, she wants ever so much to help me now. She was talking to the reporters through the door of my flat, pretending to be me and telling them to go away. That gave me a chance to slip out my back window and into hers and out her door. I took a taxi over. I don’t know how I’ll ever pay for it.”
“Don’t you worry about that.”
Drew gave Nick a glance, and he was quick to excuse himself.
“Now,” Drew continued, “tell me how I can help.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I was just thinking about poor Mrs. Montford.” The girl looked up at him for the first time since she had sunk into the chair, her expressive eyes swimming in tears. “I wouldn’t dare call on her, but she doesn’t deserve this. It’s hard enough for her to lose her husband, but the scandal . . .”
Drew handed her a napkin, which she crumpled into her hands and pressed to her face. After a moment she calmed herself and sat upright in the chair.
“I’m sorry.”
“No need to apologize, Miss Allen.”
“I’m not sure how all this even happened. I wasn’t brought up this way.”
“No, to be sure.”
“I suppose it’s an old story, and I wasn’t clever enough to realize it until it was too late.” She managed a wan smile. “I guess every girl likes to think she’s different, that a man’s talk of love to her must be sincere.” Tears again filled her eyes. “Oh, God . . .”
Drew patted her hand. “He wouldn’t be a bad place to begin, you know, if it’s forgiveness you want.”
She pulled away from him. “I didn’t come here for a sermon.”
“I didn’t think I’d offered one.”
The anger faded from her eyes. “You meant only to be kind. I know.” She swallowed hard. “I merely thought you could speak to Mrs. Montford for me. Tell her that her husband loved her. Tell her that I meant absolutely nothing to him.”
“Is that true?”
“I swear it is the truth. No use having her imagine things that aren’t true, even if I did.”
“It’s good of you to be so considerate of her.”
The girl shook her head. “If I had been considerate, none of this would ever have happened. I wouldn’t have had to . . .” She glanced at him and then looked away. “I wouldn’t have been so foolish.”
“So you knew he was married from the very start?”
She sighed. “I wasn’t sure. I knew he had a son and at first assumed he was a widower. Every time I mentioned the loss of his wife, he said he didn’t care to talk about her. After a while I realized she was alive. By then I had convinced myself that we were in love and deserved our happiness. When I finally told him I knew he was still married, he told me he was going to leave her and marry me. He said it, even if he didn’t mean it.”
“How do you know he didn’t mean it? You told us earlier that he had come to the Empire that day to tell you he had told his wife he was divorcing her.”
“Yes, well.” She laughed softly, bitterly. “I’ve had my eyes opened since then. I was the one who was deceived, not Mrs. Montford. I want you to tell her that. Tell her I’m sorry that all this has come out in the papers. She didn’t deserve that.”
He nodded. “Now, what can I do for you?”
“Nothing but that.”
“What are you going to do? Are you sure I can’t help you find a new position somewhere?”
“No. I have family in America. They have a farm out away from anywhere, and their family name isn’t Allen. I won’t know anyone and they won’t know me.”
“Times are rather bad in America these days too, you know. Are you sure you will be all right there?”
“I telephoned my aunt this morning. She said as long as they have a garden and a cow and some chickens, they’ll be all right, and that I should come. She didn’t even ask why I wanted to come, which is so like her.”
She laughed again, but now most of the bitterness had lifted. He smiled, too.
“That’s grand. And perhaps it is best. Can you manage the passage money?”
“I pawned what I could. Actually, Mamie did it for me so I didn’t have to try to get past the reporters. I have enough for steerage. I’m going to ask if I can’t do some sort of work on the way over so I’ll have something left for getting out to the farm.”
She told him the name of the ship on which she had booked passage, and he nodded.
“That’s a good line. They’ll have you across the pond in a jiffy. But I say, have you discussed this with the police? You don’t think they’ll mind if you leave the country?”
She bit her lip, her dark eyes uncertain. “The chief inspector knows I haven’t killed anyone and that I don’t know who did. I’m just no help in the investigation. I don’t know why it shouldn’t be all right for me to go now.”
Drew lifted one eyebrow. “Perhaps we ought to ring him up just to be sure. I know you’ve been through rather a rough time of it, but if you try to go before he’s ready f
or you to, it won’t get any easier.”
“Would you . . . ?”
“I’d be happy to speak to him for you. Why don’t we go through to the telephone.”
They went into the study, and a moment later a constable connected Drew to the chief inspector’s office.
“Birdsong here.”
“Good morning, sir.”
Drew made sure to put a sufficient amount of good cheer into his voice to provoke the grumbling reply he received.
“Isn’t it a bit early for you to already be meddling in police business, Detective Farthering?”
“I’m afraid the morning newspapers have left me little choice in the matter.”
“Ah. So you saw that bit about the Allen girl, did you?”
“If I hadn’t, Inspector, I imagine I’d be one of perhaps three people in the entire country.”
Miss Allen’s brows were drawn together as she listened, and Drew gave her a reassuring nod.
“Look here, sir,” he continued, “I’ve got the young lady at Farthering Place right now. These reporters have given her rather a bad time, and she’d like to know if it’s all right if she goes to stay with her aunt. At least until this has all blown over a bit.”
“Aunt, eh?” Drew could almost see Birdsong purse his lips as he mulled over the idea. “Not a bad idea, I suppose. Where is this aunt of hers?”
“Ah, well, that may just be the most infinitesimal fly in the ointment.”
“Where?”
“In America.”
Drew held the telephone away from his ear until most of the shouting had died down, and then he brought it close once again.
“I’ll take that as a no, shall I?”
For a long moment there was a fierce silence at the other end of the line. When the chief inspector finally spoke, it was with infinite and exquisite patience.
“As Miss Allen is a person of interest in at least one and possibly all of the hatpin murders, we at the county constabulary would prefer that she remain nearby until our investigation has been completed. If of course that does not inconvenience the young lady to any marked degree.”
“I was afraid that might be your answer.”
“Do apologize to Miss Allen on our behalf for any difficulties this may cause her.”
“All right, no need to be snide, Inspector. I did call you up voluntarily, you know.”
“Well, there is that, Mr. Farthering, and wise thinking it was, too. Now you see the young lady stays close at hand. And if she does decide to change her place of residence, within reason, of course, you see she lets us know. Understood?”
“Perfectly, Inspector. Good morning.”
Drew hung up the telephone, smiling reassurance into the worried eyes of the girl.
“As you might have guessed, the inspector isn’t too sanguine about your departing for the New World just at present. Do you have anyone nearby you might stay with? Anyone?”
She shook her head. “I suppose it’s back to the flat for me, though I don’t know how I’ll be able to keep even that now that Hirsch’s have dismissed me.”
“Does anyone know you here in Farthering St. John?”
“No, though they’re all likely to know of me after this morning’s papers.”
“True enough. Hmmm. There must be someplace you can go until all this has been sorted out.”
Just then Nick popped his head into the room. “Anything else you need me to do?”
“Come in, old man, and put on your thinking cap.”
“What? Before breakfast?”
Drew seized him by the arm and pulled him back to the table. “You can think while you’re eating.”
“Oh, all right.” Nick made himself comfortable and began dishing out a plate of food. “Now, what am I meant to think of?”
“Where would you go, hereabouts, I mean, if you didn’t want anyone knowing you were here?”
Nick contemplated the question while salting his eggs. “Have I any money?”
“Enough so it’s no difference.”
Nick ate a piece of bacon and then another in silence. Then he nodded. “I’d go to Mrs. Chapman’s.”
Drew laughed, earning a startled look from the girl. “Nick, old man, you’re an absolute genius. Nobody ever pays any attention to the fishing cottage or knows if anyone’s staying there. Mrs. Chapman will be discreet if we ask it of her. It’s perfect.”
Miss Allen shook her head. “Wait. What are you talking about? I can’t possibly—”
“You can possibly.” Drew held up a hand to silence her protests. “It’s only temporary, until you are allowed to go to your aunt’s, but it really is the best solution. You’ll stay there, tucked nicely out of the way, and we’ll let our dear chief inspector know where you are. Mrs. Chapman is a lovely old lady who’ll take excellent care of you and keep the reporters and other undesirables at bay. All you have to do is have a nice rest and not tell anyone where you are for a bit. What do you think?”
“But I could never pay for—”
“Just you let me see to that. Besides, I doubt if Mrs. Chapman asks much in rent. The cottage is sound and clean, but it’s small and rather spartan. It’s not likely you’ll be bothered with the Duke of Kent popping by at odd hours to borrow ha’p’orth of sugar for when the king comes to tea.”
She looked at him, wary, bewildered, as if she might cry again, and then a softness came over her face along with a hint of a smile. “You’re very kind. I’ll repay you in time.”
“Not at all. Not at all.” Drew took her arm and brought her to her feet. “Now I’ll ring up Mrs. Chapman, and you go along with Mr. Dennison here. He’ll see you’re properly settled. And if you need anything at all, don’t hesitate to let us know.”
“You’ll speak to Mrs. Montford for me? Promise?”
He took the hand she offered. “Most certainly.”
“You’re really too kind, Mr. Farthering.” She looked down then, a shy smile on her face. “And I’ll remember what you said. In your sermon. I’ll wait for you in the cab, Mr. Dennison.”
She gave Drew one final grateful glance and scurried out the door.
“Do you think it wise?” Nick asked. “Keeping her close like this? After all, she’s still a suspect.”
“I haven’t forgotten that. I still can’t imagine she’d kill anyone, but if she has, at least she’ll be where we can keep watch on her. When I said Mrs. Chapman would be discreet, I didn’t mean she would be discreet with us.”
“Well thought out, as always.” Nick bowed briefly. “I salute you.”
“Yes, yes, all right, now don’t keep the young lady waiting. I’ll ring up Mrs. Chapman and see to that end of things. And on the drive over, if you happen to find out a bit more about our Miss Allen, her family, past history, if she has someone who calls on her regularly or who used to before Montford, that would be all to the good.”
Nick grinned. “Leave it to me.”
Ten
Given the generosity of his proposed financial terms, Mrs. Chapman was more than happy to agree to Drew’s plan to rent her cottage. He was still at the breakfast table, rereading the salacious article beneath the girl’s picture, when Nick returned from the cottage.
“Our charge has been safely delivered and warmly received. What next?”
“Any revelations along the way?” Drew asked.
Nick shrugged. “Nothing all that helpful. She comes from a little place in Derbyshire called Ault Hucknall. Moved to Winchester along with her mother three or four years ago when her father died and her mother took a position as nurse to an elderly relation of theirs. About two years ago, both mother and elderly relation were taken by the influenza, leaving our Miss Allen alone to make her way in the world as she was not provided for from elderly relation’s modest fortune. Has an aunt in America as she’s already told you. No one else in the world.”
“No young man?”
“She describes a rather tepid series of evenings out with a farrier some fi
fteen years her senior when she was still in Ault Hucknall. He did not approve of her staying in Winchester on her own when her mother died and wanted her to come back to be his wife.”
“I don’t suppose she’d care to go to him?”
“Apparently that would be a bit sticky at this point in time. It seems she rather firmly refused the man the last time they spoke and invited him to never call upon her again. Heated words were exchanged, ties severed. All in all, it wasn’t a conversation meant to engender future amicable relations.”
“But would she like to go to him now? Sometimes a bit of stability, even dullness, is quite welcome in uncertain times.”
Again Nick shrugged. “I had the distinct impression that making a fresh start in America was far more appealing to her. You don’t suppose he . . . ?”
“Made away with the man who had soiled his innocent darling? I shouldn’t think so. Yes, all right, perhaps he’d have a motive in the Montford murder, but what about the good doctor? What about Clarice?”
“Well, what would be the harm in letting the police know about him? They could take it from there, and we’ll have done our duty.”
Drew thought for a moment. “Did she mention the man’s name?”
“Called him Alfred. I didn’t like to press for a surname.”
“It’s a start, though. How many approximately thirty-seven-year-old farriers named Alfred could Ault Hucknall have?”
“Shall we go find out?”
“No, Nick, old man, I think you were right in the first place. No need to tear clear across the country. We’ll let the police investigate our would-be bridegroom.” Drew put down the newspaper and got to his feet. “I’ll ring up our beloved chief inspector once more.”
“Very good. Mr. Padgett and I have some estate affairs to see to anyway, so I don’t expect I’ll see you until this evening. No fair doing any sleuthing without me.”
Drew laughed. “Madeline said the same thing when she told me she’s taking Auntie up to London for some shopping. Ah, well, I suppose I shall try to confine my efforts to discussing my theories with the chief inspector and, when he tires of me, with Mr. Chambers. He’s the best listener of the lot of you, at any rate. No promises, though.”
Death by the Book Page 14