Murder Near Slaughter
Page 23
“And you no doubt heard my little discussion with Mr. Reynolds.”
So she did know I was the one who’d been listening. Perhaps that was why she seemed less than pleased to be speaking with me. “I’m afraid I did hear a little bit. My head was aching, and I went looking for a bit of fresh air and ended up in a storage room.”
“Well, I’m not surprised. It was hardly the time for him to be speaking to me about Mrs. Hoyt. Not the time to be speaking of it at all. I hope your head feels better. It is very stuffy in this old place. I don’t know why she had to hold it here, but I suppose she couldn’t use the church as the body hasn’t been released. Of course, that’s not a good topic of conversation either. Very few are, under the circumstances. Is that Mrs. Otway just come in? I’d best go and say hello. You will excuse me, won’t you?”
As Mrs. Otway had arrived quite a while ago with Mrs. Albright, I knew that was simply an excuse to get away from me, but I pretended I hadn’t realized it. “Yes, of course, thank you for being so helpful.” As Mrs. Todd walked away, I tried to catch Mrs. Albright’s eye and indicate somehow that Mrs. Todd was someone to pay attention to, but I couldn’t tell from across the room if she had even seen me. Now I wanted to know what information she had about Mrs. Hoyt and who she didn’t wish to share it with. Inspector Wainwright was the first person to spring to mind. I took a quick look around the room and saw he was still the same place, watching. He must have felt my gaze as he turned in my direction for a moment, then turned away again. I took that to mean he didn’t want to see me. Perhaps he was finding more interesting information than I was. I started wandering around the room again.
Chapter 21
I HADN’T FOUND ANYONE ELSE of interest to talk to when I saw Miss Dyer wave in my direction. I went to join her and Miss Hayworth. “Have you found anything useful?” Miss Dyer asked.
“I don’t know.” That was an honest answer, at least.
“Was there anyone else you wanted to be introduced to?” Miss Hayworth asked.
I looked around the room, but I’d been having so little luck and it was such an awkward place to ask the questions I needed to, I shook my head. “I got a look at everyone and put a few names to faces, I think that’s the best I can expect.”
“Then you don’t mind if we leave?” Miss Dyer asked.
“Not at all.”
We took our time getting to the door; I don’t think they wanted to look like they were hurrying away even if that was more or less what we were doing, but it gave me enough time to spot Mrs. Albright and catch her eye so she would see that I was leaving.
Outside, it was warm but cloudy, with the distinct feeling that there would be rain at some point. Very few people seemed to be leaving the hall, while new guests were still arriving, mostly from the direction of the shops, no doubt wanting to see who had come and who hadn’t. Miss Hayworth and Miss Dyer smiled and nodded at a few people as we passed, but there wasn’t much of an attempt at conversation.
Once we turned down the lane leading to the ford and the cottages, the crowds thinned out. No doubt anyone going from the cottages had already made their way to the hall. It also meant we could discuss what had happened, or at least Miss Hayworth seemed to think it was safe enough. “You sounded as if the afternoon wasn’t as successful as you’d hoped.”
I certainly didn’t want them to think I didn’t appreciate their assistance. “I met Mrs. Hoyt, saw who decided to attend, found out who a few people I’d met were, I think that was the most I could expect, considering the occasion.” It certainly wasn’t their fault no one seemed inclined to speak to me, even to pass on gossip. Although, perhaps they would have some insight into the reactions I’d been getting, at least if it was all in my head or not. “It does seem strange, though. Everyone’s friendly enough until they realize I’m the one that reported Mr. Hoyt’s body, then they get very quiet and almost hostile. It’s as if they’d rather I’d ignored a dead body in the sitting room. At first, I thought they were just cautious of strangers, but they seem fine until I introduce myself and they make the connection.”
“Very odd,” Miss Dyer agreed without looking at me.
Miss Hayworth merely nodded.
That was as suspicious a reaction as I’d ever seen. “What is it you aren’t telling me?”
They both stared straight ahead, which told me quite clearly that I was right.
“This is a murder inquiry. And whatever it is, Inspector Wainwright is going to figure it out.”
“It has nothing to do with the murder,” Miss Dyer said quietly.
“Then there isn’t any reason for you not to tell me.”
We’d walked the length of the lane before Miss Hayworth finally said, “There’s a reason none of them wanted to talk to you. They’re afraid they’ll start to like you.”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“If the investigation gets too close to Mrs. Hoyt,” Miss Dyer explained.
“I knew that. That’s not a secret.” I considered what they were saying, trying to deduce what they weren’t. “I thought I was being held in reserve in case the police decided to accuse Mrs. Hoyt. Do you mean everyone in the village really suspects her?”
Miss Hayworth sighed, “No, not really. But there is some evidence against her.”
“Such as?”
“You’ll just turn around and tell the inspector,” Miss Dyer pointed out.
“Of course I’m going to tell him. This is a murder investigation and apparently an entire village is ready to frame me for it.”
“It’s not quite that dramatic,” Miss Hayworth said. “And you do have an alibi for when Mr. Elliott found him anyway.” But she stopped walking and looked back over her shoulder. There was no one behind us. “We didn’t tell you at first because we weren’t sure we could trust you. Not that we thought you were the murderer, but we all had reasons for not wanting the body found on our property. I think you’ve guessed ours. It seems Lord Hector can’t rely on his father as we’d thought. I don’t know what the issue with the churchyard was. Perhaps Mr. Reynolds really was worried about shocking the ladies if they stumbled on the body. But, according to the rumors I’ve heard everywhere lately, Mr. Elliott was involved with Mrs. Hoyt. That was why he didn’t want to be found with the body.”
I sighed. “Well, I did think his story of a feud over not stocking his wares was a ridiculous reason to leave a body there. How long has it been going on?”
“I first heard about it from Mrs. Greene last month, I think,” Miss Hayworth answered.
“I was working on the Gilsby Field painting when you told me, so that sounds right,” Miss Dyer added.
“And as far as you know it’s ongoing?”
“That’s an odd question, but yes, so far as I know.”
I didn’t bother pointing out that there were more than a few things about this case that I wasn’t telling them either. Although it did explain why Mrs. Hoyt had wandered into Mr. Elliott’s shop and then had seemed so uninterested in finding him once she realized we were there. And why she had been so willing to give Mr. Reynolds an alibi. But what to do about it? I couldn’t very well go and ask Mrs. Hoyt what her relationship with Mr. Elliott was while she was in the memorial service for her murdered husband, which was a pity as I now very much wanted to know what was going on, both between her and Mr. Reynolds and her and Mr. Elliott. I paused. I didn’t think I had seen Mr. Elliott at the village hall. And there was no reason not to question him.
“You’ve thought of something?” Miss Dyer asked.
If they weren’t going to tell me everything, I certainly wasn’t going to tell them everything. “Nothing interesting, I’m afraid. Just that I ought to get something from the shops for us to eat tonight. Mrs. Foster didn’t leave much in the cottage, and we haven’t really stocked much with the police running in and out.” That was as good an excuse as any, and would explain why I was going back into Eybry and even why I was at Mr. Elliott’s shop if I was spotted.
That had been easy enough. “Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind.”
As I turned and started back towards the village, Miss Hayworth called after me. “Good luck!”
I glanced back, pretending it was to wave, and saw Miss Dyer was grinning after me. So they hadn’t believed my story at all.
When I got to Mr. Elliott’s shop, I found it was indeed open. As I went inside, I could see why, or at least what he would tell anyone who asked was the reason he’d skipped the memorial and kept the shop open instead. There were three people at his counter ordering sandwiches who I was fairly certain were on a walking holiday and therefore had no idea there was a memorial going on and very little interest in it if they had known. But they still needed to eat, and Mr. Elliott seemed to be doing a decent business in that. I wandered towards the side of the shop where the hampers were and pretended to be interested in them, which let me stand out of the way and with my back to Mr. Elliott. That meant, if he saw me, he would know that I wasn’t going to ask him uncomfortable questions when he had customers. It also meant there was a decent chance he wouldn’t notice me right away, or at least not to recognize.
I stared at hamper containing various pickled items until I heard the sound of the till ringing up the order and then the bell on the door as the walkers left the shop. I was just trying to decide how to approach the counter when Mr. Elliott solved that problem for me. “Good afternoon, miss. Were you looking for a... Oh, it’s you.”
I’d had worse greetings during the course of an investigation, so I ignored that and turned. “Hello, Mr. Elliott. I didn’t want to bother you while you had customers.” It didn’t hurt to remind him I hadn’t barged in on him.
“And yet you wanted to ask me something else about that day.”
I resisted the urge to point out that, if he’d gone straight to the police, I wouldn’t be involved at all. “I heard something curious at the memorial.” I wasn’t about to tell him who I’d heard it from. No point getting them in his bad books as well. “And I didn’t want to ask Mrs. Hoyt about it for obvious reasons. So I came to you.”
“And what are these rumors you’ve heard?” he asked, looking very decidedly at a shelf of imported biscuits and away from me, trying a bit too hard to look as if he didn’t particularly care what I’d heard. That and the fact that he had mentioned rumors when I’d been purposefully vague told me there was something here, if not what it was.
“That you and Mrs. Hoyt have been very...friendly these past few months.”
Whatever he’d been expecting me to say, it hadn’t been that. That surprised him enough to make him turn and look at me as he answered. “Mrs. Hoyt and I? Is that what they’re saying? I knew there was something from the way Lillian looked when... I mean I would never... I did not...” He sighed. “You’re not going to believe me, are you?”
Actually, I did. He was upset enough and outraged enough to be telling the complete truth. But I also wasn’t going to tell him that. It was a murder investigation. “Why did she come to your shop the day we found the body? It wasn’t to buy something.” At least she hadn’t acted like someone planning on buying anything.
“So that’s how the rumors started.” He sighed. “I suppose we should have known it would happen. Mrs. Hoyt thought her husband was embezzling money from the pub, but she couldn’t prove it. Whatever he was doing, the books were balancing and everyone was getting paid. But somehow, he had money to spend. Far more than he should have considering how badly the pub was doing. She thought he might have found someone to loan him money against the deed to the pub with no thought about how to pay back the loan.”
“And how do you know all of this when there’s no mention of it in local gossip?”
“She came to me for assistance. Not because of any relationship between us, but because I have some business in Chipping Campden, while they use the bank in Stow-on-the-Wold. She thought he might have gone there to get the loan, where they would be less likely to know that the pub was really hers to borrow against. I asked around but didn’t find anyone who’d spoken to Mr. Hoyt at all. And that gave her the idea. It wasn’t meant as a deception, I mean it was her father’s pub that she was trying to hold onto.”
I could tell that he was about to tell me something that probably was a deception, but I nodded as if I understood and asked, “What was it she asked you to do?”
“As I said, nothing meant to deceive, not really. Simply to go with her to a bank in Chipping Campden that didn’t know me or Mr. Hoyt and pretend to be him while we opened an account for her. Then, when I had business there, she would bring me a bit of money from the pub’s profits, and I would deposit it for her. It was her money, she just needed someone to deposit it outside of the village so there was something put by in case her husband did something foolish, something that would put the pub in jeopardy.”
I did understand what she was trying to do, and from what I’d heard of Mr. Hoyt, it probably wasn’t a bad idea for her to put something aside if he should bring them to ruin. “How often did you do this?”
“It’s been a few months now. Only three times after the time we went together to open the account. I bring her all of the paperwork. I would certainly never cheat her, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“And did Mr. Hoyt know anything about the arrangement? Say anything that made you think he suspected?”
“You mean might he have come here thinking I was having an affair with his wife or was stealing from the pub and I killed him? But that would have been self-defense, wouldn’t it? I wouldn’t have had any reason to move him.”
He really hadn’t had much of a reason to move him to begin with, or just as much as he would have had he killed him either in a fit of rage at being discovered or in self-defense. “Did anyone else know you were helping her with this?”
“I certainly didn’t tell anyone. And as I have business there, I don’t think my going there would have made anyone suspicious.”
Only suspicious about her frequent visits to the shop. “Well, thank you for telling me the truth. It does help, and it does save me the trouble of going to ask her.” Of course, now it meant I’d have to try to find a way to tell Inspector Wainwright what I’d just learned.
After I left the shop, I started by going back to the village hall, but I could see that most everyone was still inside, which meant Inspector Wainwright would still be watching the gathering, looking for any clue that could help him, and he wouldn’t appreciate me interrupting his search for clues with mine. I briefly considered waiting for the gathering to be over and speaking to him then, but the rain that had been a vague possibility when I’d left the hall with Miss Hayworth and Miss Dyer was now looking like a definite threat, and I had no desire to walk back to Oakwood Cottage in an English downpour. I’d simply have to go to the station in the morning and tell Inspector Wainwright then. He knew I’d been at the village hall. If he wanted to know the results of my investigations in a timely manner, he could come and ask me himself. With that decided, I set off back to the cottage.
Chapter 22
IT WAS VERY QUIET AS I PASSED the row cottages near the ford. If Miss Hayworth and Miss Dyer were home, they were inside and not showing any signs of it, perhaps settled in the kitchen to wait out the storm. Lord Hector seemed to have given up on the landau. At least, it was still parked in the same spot where it had been when I left, and he was nowhere to be seen, although someone had thrown a tarp over it in anticipation of the rain. The Khans were most likely still at the memorial. I sped up my steps and hoped I made it across the fields before the rain started. Hopefully, Mrs. Otway would know how she and Mrs. Albright could get back without getting soaked.
The rain started not long after I got inside the co
ttage, making me very glad Inspector Wainwright had opened a path for us through to the kitchen. It meant I was able to bring Miss Hayworth’s coat upstairs and hang it in my room, retrieve one of my books, and go to the kitchen to put the kettle on, all without getting wet.
I was just considering whether it was worth the effort to cross the kitchen to get another cup of tea when I heard a bit of commotion in the lane outside. I went through to the front door and saw a small, closed carriage outside. A man in an oilskin coat and wide hat hopped out of the driver’s box and unfurled an umbrella as the door opened and I saw Mrs. Albright get out. I was able to make out Mrs. Otway, Mrs. Rodgers, and Mrs. Dalby before the door was closed and the driver pulled the umbrella over himself and Mrs. Albright and started to run for the cottage. I hurried to open the door for them.
“Oh, Cassie, I was hoping you’d made it home before the storm.”
“I did, barely. There’s tea if you’d like some,” I said to the driver.
“Kind of you to offer, but I need to get the rest home. Good evening, ladies.” He put his umbrella back up and ran back to the carriage.
“That was Mr. Dalby,” Mrs. Albright explained as she shook out her coat and hung it up. “He rented that contraption and offered the lot of us a ride back.”
“That was nice of him. There is tea if you’d like some.”
“Something warm would be good about now, particularly as we don’t have to go outside to get it. I’m afraid the detecting did not go as well as I’d hoped.”
As we started for the kitchen, I said, “Neither did mine, although I got a bit of gossip. What sort did you hear?”
“All of the names on the list you slipped had been involved with Mr. Hoyt at one time or another.”