by Rebecca King
The bang of the kitchen door drew her attention. She looked up at the closed panel and sighed. Whatever the future held in store for her, she knew that it had to remain within Derby, or nearby. With a husband who was apt to disappear at a moment’s notice, she rather suspected she would need her brothers more than ever.
Charlie waited in the shadows of the huge yew tree in the graveyard of the church, and watched Hugo knock on the back door to the rectory. The heavy thumps on the wooden surface sounded loud, even from several feet away. Thankfully, there weren’t many people out and about in the village today, which left everyone able to focus on getting the verger out of the house.
“Snetterton?” Hugo drawled casually when the verger eventually yanked the door open. “For someone of the church, you are not very hospitable, are you?”
Before the stunned verger could respond, Hugo pushed his way into the house. He left the door open behind him, and watched Barnaby stalk in through the front door.
“Lock it,” Hugo ordered.
“Who the hell are you?” Snetterton snarled. “Get out of my house.”
“It’s not your house,” Hugo challenged. “It belongs to the church and, as far as I can see, you shouldn’t be here.”
Snetterton scowled at Hugo. “You don’t know what you are talking about. Look, I don’t know who you are but you are trespassing. Get out of this house now.”
“You, sir, are under arrest for the murder of the Reverend Potts.”
“You have no authority to arrest me,” Snetterton challenged. “Meldrew is the magistrate around here.”
“Meldrew has no authority where I come from,” Hugo snapped. “Now move.”
Amidst Snetterton’s protests, Hugo shoved him roughly out of the door and, together with Barnaby, dragged the recalcitrant man across the churchyard toward the waiting horses.
“You!” Snetterton snarled as soon as he saw Charlie standing beside the waiting horses.
“Yes, me,” Charlie replied with a smirk. “Thought you had seen the back of me, hadn’t you?”
“You should be swinging from the gallows,” Snetterton challenged. “You will be when Meldrew gets his hands on you.”
“I don’t think so,” Charlie replied calmly.
Snetterton wasn’t to be deterred though. “When Meldrew finds you, he is going to hang you faster than you can blink.”
“If you say so.” Charlie shrugged unconcernedly.
“We can’t take him through the village like this,” Barnaby growled when Snetterton continued to throw threats at Charlie.
“Shall I do the honours?” Charlie threw Hugo an askance look.
“If you don’t, I will,” Hugo replied dourly.
Snetterton never saw the fist that landed smack in the middle of his face, and went down without a murmur.
“Thank God for that,” Barnaby growled when a more respectful silence settled over them.
Charlie grabbed the back of the verger’s breeches, and hauled him unceremoniously over one of the horses before he covered him with a large cloak.
Once Snetterton was secured with ropes, the men made their way back toward the safe house.
“Silence is golden,” Hugo sighed in satisfaction as they picked their way carefully through the dense patch of trees.
“Isn’t it just,” Charlie replied quietly.
He took a deep breath of the wonderfully refreshing morning air and felt himself imperceptibly start to relax.
Now that they had the signed statement from Blagmire’s widow, and the verger, it finally felt as if they were getting somewhere, and Meldrew’s arrest was actually possible. It was just a matter of time now before they got the information they needed out of Snetterton, and that suited Charlie perfectly.
The urgent need to deal with Meldrew so he could get on with his life was pushed along by Hetty; his wife.
Although she hadn’t moaned about it, the strain of the past few days had clearly started to take its toll on her. So much so that he wanted to sweep her into his arms for a hug, then take her somewhere quiet and safe so she could sleep as much as she needed to, eat whatever she wanted and, as long as she shared her bed, and her life with him, choose to do whatever she desired.
The thought of coming home from work and being able to share his day with her was something that positively yearned for. If he was honest, it was something that he wasn’t sure he would ever want but, now that he had Hetty in his life, he couldn’t live without her.
Meldrew was now a mere inconvenience to be swept out of the way so that he and Hetty could begin their life together free of danger and threat.
At some point before Hugo left for London, he would have to discuss his future with the Star Elite. He wanted to continued doing what he knew best, but then didn’t want to spend months at a time away from home, but needed to know what his options were before he mentioned anything to Hetty.
“I’ll do the questioning,” Hugo announced as he eyed their captive. “You stay in the background. Given his penchant for issuing threats, it is going to be easier if I handle the questioning. You just act as witness.”
Charlie nodded, but his thoughts remained with Hetty and their future.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Hetty stood back, and watched the men haul Snetterton through the kitchen. The verger had been bound and gagged, but still struggled to free himself. Powerless against the strength of the four men, he was carried through to the housekeeper’s quarters, and was tied to a chair, without a moment’s hesitation.
“Stay here. Don’t speak and don’t move,” Charlie whispered to her as he drew her beside him just inside the doorway.
He pulled her into a hug, and pressed a tender kiss to her temple, as he settled his shoulders against the wall to watch. There was no question that she would wait outside. He couldn’t stand that much distance between them now. For his own sanity, he had to keep her where he could see her.
Barnaby and Hugo moved to stand in front of the verger. The man was so focused on pouring scorn on Hugo that he wasn’t completely oblivious to the people standing behind him, and that suited Charlie perfectly. The less Snetterton saw, the less he would have to talk about with other convicts when he got to jail.
“Shut up,” Barnaby shouted. “You will speak when you are spoken to, and not before.”
Hugo made a dramatic display of rolling up his shirt sleeves before he propped his hips against the table, the only other piece of furniture in the room. He opened up one of the books he had purloined from the rectory and studied it long enough for the verger to look at it. Hugo knew that it had belonged to Reverend Potts, and peered over the top of it to see if Snetterton recognised it. He knew from the look on the man’s face that he hadn’t got a clue what it was, and mentally thanked Charlie for his determined efforts to search the rectory study as thoroughly as he did.
“It says here that you were caught helping yourself to church funds,” Hugo drawled almost conversationally.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Snetterton snorted disparagingly.
“It says here that you argued with Reverend Potts. You wanted to pay Meldrew his protection money, whereas Reverend Potts wanted to report Meldrew’s crimes to the authorities in another county, and tell the Bishop. It says here that you told Potts that Hemsley was a dangerous place to live in.” Hugo scowled almost theatrically. “What could you mean by that? I mean, Hemsley is a rather quiet backwater that almost nobody has ever heard of.”
“Hemsley is the biggest village closest to Derby,” Snetterton dismissed.
“Rubbish,” Hugo snorted. “It is nothing. The people in it are nothing. You are nothing but a verger who nobody has ever heard of; nobody likes, and nobody trusts. Not now, anyway. Once your association with Meldrew becomes news, you will be hounded out of the village, and that’s before the Bishop decides what to do with you.”
“I am not associated with Meldrew,” Snetterton argued. For the first time since his removal from the
rectory, he began to look doubtful. “The man is the magistrate, and a good one at that.”
“I take it that you have paid him the protection money then? After all,” Hugo turned, and picked up the accounts ledger, which he turned around so Snetterton could see. “It says here that some money is missing. Quite a sizeable amount too.” He picked up Potts’ diary. “It says here that Reverend Potts has doubts about your honesty. He thought that you had been appropriating church funds while his back was turned.”
Hugo slammed both books down on the table beside him. The sudden bang made Hetty jump nervously. Although Charlie was calm and relaxed beside her, the tension within the room was so thick that she was certain she could feel it across her shoulders. It was horrible.
“I don’t know where you are getting that nonsense from, but it is highly inaccurate, and slanderous.”
“It’s Reverend Potts’ diary. His last entry was written the day before he was murdered,” Hugo challenged. “It says that he was determined to challenge you over the missing funds before he took the whole sorry mess to the Bishop. He was going to get you forced out of office, and charged with theft of Church funds, but was going to push you to admit it first.”
“I -”
“Shut up!” Barnaby bellowed.
“It is odd that the following morning, the morning after he wrote this, Potts was found dead from an apparent head wound, in the middle of a path, with nothing about him that he could have hit his head on. Not only that but you – the guilty party, as it were – just happened to be the one to find him.”
Charlie shifted, and thought about the spot he had seen where his friend had died. He mentally applauded Hugo for his skill in throwing enough evidence at Snetterton to leave the man in no doubt about how much trouble was in.
“So, let me see now. Church funds have been stolen. You are the prime suspect. The man who suspects you as being the guilty party writes his suspicions in his diary, but is found dead before he could go to the authorities.” Hugo looked the captive square in the eye. “Now; do you really expect me to believe, for one moment, that you had nothing to do with it? Are you going to assure me that if I go to that Rectory, and search through the entire contents of the study, that I won’t find any other incriminating evidence?”
Snetterton glared balefully at him, but didn’t answer.
Hugo took advantage of the man’s silence. “If I go to the Bishop, and ask him why he has allowed the verger to move into the rectory, will he give me an adequate reason why he has not sent a new vicar to the parish of Hemsley? Am I to be assured that he has known about Reverend Potts’ death for several weeks, but hasn’t gotten around to finding a replacement?” He bent down until his nose almost touched Snetterton's. His voice dropped to a deathly snarl. “Do I take it that if I contact Rupert Potts, Lord Upton to you and me, to discuss his son’s death, he will know that he has been buried in this quiet backwater rather than in the family crypt where he belongs?”
Snetterton’s gulp was loud in the silence of the room.
Nobody moved or spoke for several long, drawn out minutes.
Hugo gave the man several minutes to think about just how deeply he was stuck.
“I think that you had better tell me why you paid Meldrew the other night,” Hugo growled.
“I didn’t pa -” Snetterton paused, and threw a worried look at Barnaby.
“We saw you.” Barnaby declared coldly.
“Who are you?” Snetterton challenged. “What authority do you have to keep me captive like this? I demand to be released this instant. I demand to see my solicitor.”
“You will get the chance for proper legal representation in due course. Assuming that you can afford some out of your own purse, of course. However, that will be after you have reimbursed the church for your thefts, and paid appropriate rents for the use of the rectory in the absence of a proper vicar.”
“Who are you?” Snetterton snapped, clearly determined to be defiant at any given opportunity.
“I am Sir Hugo Dunnicliffe, from the War Office. I work as a representative of His Majesty’s government, and have been sent here to send Meldrew and his associates to jail. By associates, I mean anyone who has been culpable in assisting him by way of paying him, taking advantage of his crimes, and working with him, or for him, in any capacity. However, your problem is that you are now under arrest for the murder of Reverend Potts, and for the theft of Church funds.”
Snetterton’s mouth opened and closed as he struggled to find a suitable answer.
“Now, Snetterton, I want details from you, and I warn you now that if I have to transfer you to the Tower of London to question you more formally, then that is what I shall do.”
“The Tower of London?” Snetterton gasped with a frown. “You can’t do that.”
“I can do what the bloody hell I want to do, Snetterton. I work with full authority of the Lord Chief Justice. Nobody questions me. If I decide to take you to the Tower, then that is where you shall go.” Hugo nodded to Barnaby who also made a show of rolling up his sleeves before he slowly removed his knife from his belt.
He was aware of Snetterton’s avid gaze locked on his weapon, but ignored him as he carefully placed with wicked looking object on the table.
Snetterton began to talk. At first, the words tumbled out in such rapid succession that it was difficult to make sense of what he was saying. However, the man eventually confessed to using Church funds, without Reverend Pott’s knowledge, to pay Meldrew. The discord between the vicar and the verger was more than enough to ensure that Snetterton went against the vicar’s wishes.
Meldrew offered to ‘deal’ with Potts as long as Snetterton continued to pay.
“So you agreed,” Hugo drawled with a shake of his head. It wasn’t a question.
“I didn’t think that Meldrew would kill the bloody man. I got threatened by his thugs one night on the way home. I just thought they would do the same with Potts. I didn’t think I would walk across the churchyard that morning, and find him dead.”
“It wasn’t your place to agree to pay Meldrew anything out of church funds though, Snetterton,” Hugo challenged. “I don’t believe you for one second.”
Silence settled over the room while Hugo left the man to think his situation through again.
“I think that you knew that Potts would find out about your thefts because he was already suspicious about you, and didn’t like you any more than you liked him. You knew that he would discover the altered ledger eventually. I think that you are using Meldrew’s threats as an excuse to cover your own crimes. After all, Meldrew has a notorious reputation for taking a hard stance against anybody who doesn’t agree to his demands. This is Hemsley, a village where bodies of the protesters appear regularly. People already knew about the damaged church contents, and attempted arson. They would just assume that Potts was another of Meldrew’s victims who had refused to pay, wouldn’t they? Only, unfortunately for you, Potts left a diary and the ledger, as proof that you were the guilty one.”
Barnaby sighed. “You haven’t notified his family about his death have you?”
Snetterton slowly shook his head.
“You haven’t notified the Bishop either, have you?”
Snetterton shook his head again.
“You have been gathering information for Meldrew, haven’t you?” Hugo demanded.
“No, I haven’t,” Snetterton sighed, apparently defeated under the weight of the mounting evidence.
“Liar,” Hugo growled. “We saw a pouch of money pass hands. We thought that you were paying Meldrew, but you weren’t at all, were you? You were receiving money for the information you gathered from listening to the parishioner’s gossip, and collecting money for him. You have been taking the church funds for yourself. I have no doubt that somewhere in that rectory, we will find a huge wad of money that you have purloined over time.”
Snetterton swallowed, and ducked his head.
Hetty shifted, she knew from the sl
ump of the verger’s shoulders that Hugo had just hit the nail on the head. She had never seen anything like this before in her life, and was more than a little appalled at just how ruthlessly scheming Snetterton had been.
“Right,” Hugo said as he leaned on the table.
He picked up a quill and began to write on some parchment. “I am going to make a statement that says you have been stealing from church funds. I am also going to state that you have failed to notify the Church authorities about the Reverend Potts’ death, nor have you notified his family. As such, you had no authority to bury Reverend Potts. It’s as simple as that. Until I have evidence from Meldrew that states otherwise, I have no reason to doubt that you were the one who murdered Reverend Potts. As such, I am therefore placing you under arrest for murder.”
“It wasn’t me. It wasn’t me,” Snetterton gasped. He lapsed into silence when Hugo speared him with a dark look.
“Come again?”
Snetterton stared at him before he slumped in his chair in defeat.
“I put it to you that it was you, and it is for you to prove otherwise in a proper court of law,” Hugo challenged. “Because the magistrate in this county is breaking the law himself, and overstepping the bounds of his authority, we cannot transport you to jail at this moment. However, as soon as it is possible, we shall transfer you to prison to await trial for theft and murder.”
Hugo continued to write for several moments while Barnaby moved to release the bindings that held Snetterton confined to the chair.
Charlie suddenly pushed away from the wall, opened the door, and motioned to Hetty to leave the room. Once outside, he closed the door behind them and turned to look at her.
“It is done now. Hugo won’t let up on him until he has signed the confession. Once we have his signature, we can move in on Meldrew. We should have enough to ensure that we can arrest Snetterton, and send him for trial for Arthur’s murder,” Charlie declared with no small measure of satisfaction.