Railway to the Grave

by Edward Marston

  ‘Grief had already done that.’

  ‘That’s true, Clifford, horribly true.’ He reached for some stationery on his desk. ‘I must send a note to my wife. Agnes will want to go over to the house to offer her support to Eve – to Mrs Doel, as she now is. There’s nobody else who could do that.’

  ‘What about the rector? He’s her godfather.’

  Reader grimaced. ‘Well, he’s not acting like one. There’s a rumour that he’s forbidden the family to bury the colonel in the churchyard. Legally, I don’t believe he can do that.’

  ‘He can’t,’ agreed Everett. ‘A Burial Act was passed over thirty years ago, permitting suicides to be interred in consecrated ground.’

  ‘Then he may be forced to back down. Notwithstanding that, it will be very upsetting for Eve and – to a lesser extent – for Adam if the rector digs in his heels and causes trouble. We both know what Mr Skelton can be like when he gets his teeth into something.’

  ‘Hell hath no fury like the rector on a mission.’ They traded a laugh. Everett moved away. ‘I’ll leave you alone to write to your wife. Do please give her my best wishes. Oh,’ he went on, pausing at the door, ‘there’s something I ought to ask you. What am I to expect from the children? I saw very little of them when they lived here. You and Agnes were the people who knew them best.’

  ‘Eve is a delightful woman,’ said Reader, fondly. ‘Any man would have been proud to have her as a daughter and that’s the way that Aubrey looked at her. You’ll have no problems with her, Clifford.’

  ‘What about Adam Tarleton?’

  Reader rolled his eyes. ‘He’s a different proposition altogether. I don’t think he’s done a decent day’s work in his entire life. In a word, he’s a parasite. He sponged off his mother for years and treated Aubrey appallingly. I don’t know why he was christened Adam,’ he said, bitterly. ‘If they wanted a biblical name for him, a far more appropriate one would have been Cain.’

  When the undertaker conducted them into the room, Colbeck stood in a corner and watched. Adam Tarleton spared his stepfather’s coffin no more than a cursory glance and his mother claimed little more of his time. As the undertaker drew back the shroud to reveal the ravaged face, Tarleton gazed at it for a brief moment before turning away.

  ‘It’s her,’ he said.

  ‘Take a proper look, sir,’ suggested Colbeck.

  ‘I don’t need to, Inspector. I know it’s my mother. Apart from anything else, the circumstantial evidence points to her. As far as I’m aware, no other woman of her age has gone missing.’

  ‘Circumstantial evidence can sometimes be misleading, Mr Tarleton. I’ve seen juries reach unsafe verdicts as a result. I’d advise you to take another look. It’s vital that identity is established beyond all doubt by next of kin.’

  ‘It’s my mother,’ insisted Tarleton, ‘and I’ve no wish to look at her again. This place stinks. I want to get out of here.’

  Colbeck followed him out, leaving the undertaker to pull the shroud over the cadaver. When he stepped into the street, Tarleton inhaled deeply. He was in mourning attire but Colbeck didn’t feel that he was actually mourning anyone.

  ‘What happens next, Inspector?’ asked Tarleton.

  ‘An inquest will be held to establish cause of death.’

  ‘Isn’t that obvious? She was murdered.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Colbeck, ‘but we need to know when, where and how. Those details will help us in our investigation.’

  ‘But you already know them, surely. You found the body.’

  ‘All that we did was to exhume it. The actual discovery was made by a farm labourer. He deserves our gratitude.’

  ‘Well, if he’s expecting any money from me,’ said Tarleton, harshly, ‘he can go whistle for it. And how do you know he really found it? Couldn’t it be that he took you to the place where he’d buried the body himself?’

  ‘That never even crossed my mind.’

  ‘It should have, Inspector. Do I have to do your work for you?’

  ‘It never crossed my mind because it would be a ludicrous supposition,’ explained Colbeck. ‘Mrs Tarleton was killed by a shotgun fired at close range. Where would a farm labourer get such a weapon from? He’d have to steal it. More to the point, where would he acquire the trap that brought the dead body miles from the location of the actual murder? Then there’s the farmer who employs him. I think that Mr Higginbottom would surely notice the absence of one of his men for a length of time, especially if he’d been last seen walking towards a trap he didn’t own with a stolen shotgun under his arm.’

  Tarleton was surly. ‘Very well, I was wrong about the fellow.’

  ‘Do you have any other theories to offer, sir?’

  ‘I just want the killer caught and the case cleared up.’

  ‘I’ll endeavour to do just that,’ said Colbeck, ‘and, as part of my investigation, I’d like to question you and your sister. Would you have any objection to my accompanying you back to the house?’

  ‘Is it really necessary, Inspector?’

  ‘I’m afraid that it is, sir.’

  ‘What can we possibly tell you?’

  ‘You might have some idea who could have done this. I know that you moved away some time ago but you must have kept in touch with your mother. Did she hint at any tensions with neighbours?’

  ‘Mother and I had no contact whatsoever for the last two years,’ said Tarleton, ‘so I can’t help you on that score. Everyone liked her, I can tell you that. Those who visited us were mostly her friends. My stepfather was a prickly character. He was better at making enemies than friends.’

  ‘Can you think of any particular enemies?’

  ‘Why should I? He wasn’t the murder victim – Mother was.’

  ‘Of course,’ said Colbeck, ‘but it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that she was killed in order to get back at the colonel. All reports confirm that he doted on your mother.’

  ‘Then why did he control her life so closely?’ snapped the other. ‘Why did he treat her – and me, I should add – as if we were lowly members of his regiment? He couldn’t seem to remember that he was no longer in the army and was always issuing orders of one kind or another. It’s the reason I left home.’

  ‘What about your sister?’

  ‘Eve was the exception to the rule,’ recalled Tarleton. ‘If he doted on anyone, it was her. She was his favourite.’

  ‘I look forward to meeting her. I was impressed by the way she bore up under questioning at the inquest yesterday.’

  ‘She’s still quite frail, Inspector. Can’t you delay your visit?’

  ‘I’m afraid not, sir. I’m not merely coming in order to talk to you and to Mrs Doel. My visit to the house has another purpose.’

  ‘Oh…what’s that?’

  ‘I want to establish something once and for all,’ said Colbeck. ‘I need to find out if your stepfather should be our prime suspect.’

  CHAPTER NINE

  Madeleine Andrews was thrilled to receive the letter from Colbeck but her delight was tempered by disappointment when she heard that he might be away from London for a considerable time.

  ‘It could take us an eternity,’ admitted Leeming.

  ‘Do you have no clues at all, Sergeant?’

  ‘Well, I certainly don’t – but I think that the inspector does. That’s not unusual, mind you. No matter how puzzling a case, he always manages to find a way to solve it in the end.’

  ‘What sort of a place is South Otterington?’

  ‘It’s a pretty little village with countryside all round it. That’s why I couldn’t wait to get back here. I didn’t take to it at all.’

  ‘Why ever not?’ she asked. ‘It sounds rather attractive.’

  ‘It’s a bit too quiet for my liking, Miss Andrews. It’s too isolated and nothing ever happens there.’

  Madeleine smiled. ‘You’ve had a murder and a suicide in just over a fortnight. What else do you want?’

  ‘I’d li
ke more action,’ said Leeming, ‘and we get that every day here in London. Yes, there’ve been two violent deaths, I grant you, but that’s exceptional in a backwater like South Otterington. It might never happen again for years. When I was walking my beat in uniform, we’d have a murder at least once a week, not to mention a string of other serious crimes.’

  They were in the house in Camden and Leeming had a cab waiting for him outside. Madeleine was very fond of him. Though they’d met infrequently, she liked the way he’d accepted her and was touched by his habit of talking so affectionately about his wife and two children. Leeming was also very discreet. If it became known that Madeleine had actually taken part in some criminal investigations, Superintendent Tallis would have gone berserk. He believed that women had no place at all in law enforcement. Colbeck thought otherwise and Leeming had been grateful for the contribution Madeleine had made in some of the cases they’d handled.

  For his part, the sergeant felt honoured to have been the first person to know of their engagement. It had pleased him beyond measure. Over the years he’d worked very closely with Colbeck and had noticed the subtle changes brought about in the inspector by his friendship with Madeleine Andrews. Now that the friendship would blossom into marriage, Leeming knew that, in Madeleine, he’d be acquiring a new colleague, albeit one whose work behind the scenes had to be kept secret. The thought contented him.

  ‘I have to go,’ he said. ‘I must report to the superintendent.’

  ‘I don’t suppose…’

  Madeleine’s voice tailed off but he read the question in her eyes.

  ‘No, Miss Andrews – the superintendent still hasn’t been told of your betrothal. So far Inspector Colbeck hasn’t managed to find him in a receptive mood.’

  ‘I know that Mr Tallis has a jaundiced view of marriage.’

  ‘That’s because he’s never experienced its joys,’ said Leeming. ‘I only started to live properly when Estelle and I wed. Until then, my life had been narrow and selfish. It had no real purpose. Suddenly, everything changed. I knew where I was going and what I wanted to do. And when the children came along, that made it perfect.’

  Madeleine said nothing. She harboured dreams of becoming a mother one day but that time, she’d realised, might be distant. She envied Leeming and his wife. They’d married within months of meeting each other and were parents within a year. She and Colbeck were destined to have a longer engagement. Madeleine understood why Tallis had not yet been told.

  ‘The superintendent will never approve of me,’ she said.

  ‘Any normal man would approve of you, Miss Andrews,’ said Leeming with clumsy gallantry. ‘It’s just that Mr Tallis takes a strange view of these things. It’s not personal. If the inspector announced that he was about to marry a royal princess, Mr Tallis would still try to talk him out of it. And in my view,’ he went on, emboldened to pay a second compliment, ‘you are the equal of any princess.’

  She almost blushed. ‘Thank you, Sergeant.’

  ‘In any case, now is not the time to raise the topic.’

  ‘No?’

  ‘Look at what’s happened,’ he told her. ‘The one marriage that the superintendent held up as a success was that between Colonel Tarleton and his wife. Yet both of them died in the most frightful ways. Now, that’s hardly likely to endear Mr Tallis to the institution of holy matrimony, is it?’

  Colbeck arrived at the house to find that Eve Doel was being consoled by Agnes Reader. Introduced to the bereaved daughter, he hoped that she’d be more forthcoming than her brother. On the journey there in the trap, Adam Tarleton had been less than helpful. All that interested him were the details of his inheritance. After giving his sister a brief description of his visit to Northallerton, he went off upstairs and left the two women alone with Colbeck. All three were comfortably ensconced in the drawing room.

  ‘How did you come to hear of the latest development, Mrs Reader?’ asked Colbeck.

  ‘My husband sent me a note from the bank,’ she replied. ‘He’d been informed by Mr Everett, the lawyer, who, in turn, had been told by Mr Froggatt, the undertaker. In a town like Northallerton, news will spread like wildfire.’

  ‘So I see.’

  ‘You actually unearthed the body, I gather?’

  Giving them an attenuated account of what had occurred, Colbeck kept one eye on Eve to make sure that the details were not disturbing her. In fact, she remained calm and unruffled throughout. When he finished, it was she who pressed for information.

  ‘Would she have suffered in any way, Inspector?’

  ‘No, Mrs Doel – death would have been fairly quick.’

  ‘What about her handbag and her jewellery?’

  ‘They’d been buried with her. This wasn’t the work of a thief.’

  ‘Then who could it have been?’

  ‘Was it some random act of violence?’ asked Agnes.

  ‘There’s no suggestion of that, Mrs Reader,’ said Colbeck. ‘The one thing I can say with certainty is that calculation was involved. The murder was carefully planned. That points to someone local.’

  Eve trembled. ‘What a dreadful thought!’ she cried. ‘I shan’t be able to sleep properly, knowing that the villain is still out there.’

  ‘I’m hoping that you may be able to help me find him. You, too, Mrs Reader,’ he continued, turning to Agnes. ‘You know the people and the area. I’m a complete stranger.’

  ‘I left years ago, Inspector,’ said Eve.

  ‘But you corresponded regularly with your mother.’

  ‘Yes, I did, and her letters were full of news.’

  ‘Did she ever mention falling out with someone?’

  ‘Mother would never have fallen out with anybody.’

  ‘I can endorse that,’ said Agnes. ‘Miriam was far too nice a woman to have enemies. It was impossible not to like her. In all the years we knew her, I don’t believe I once heard her raise her voice.’

  ‘Oh, she did,’ countered Eve. ‘Mother raised her voice to me when I broke a mirror by accident and she had to reprove Adam all the time when he was young. But Agnes is right. By and large, she went out of her way to get on with people.’

  ‘What about your stepfather?’ asked Colbeck. ‘According to your brother, he could cause offence without realising it.’

  ‘He did have a gruff manner, Inspector, I concede that. And he did try to order people about.’

  ‘Can you think of anyone in particular he might have upset?’

  ‘No, I can’t.’

  ‘I think I can,’ volunteered Agnes. ‘I know that he had a fierce row with Eric Hepworth, the railway policeman. Hepworth’s daughter had worked here and been dismissed. He felt that the girl should be reinstated and told the colonel so to his face. I remember Miriam recounting the story to me. Hepworth was very angry, it seems.’

  ‘I’ve met Sergeant Hepworth,’ said Colbeck. ‘He told us that his daughter, Ginny, had worked here but there was no mention of an argument with the colonel.’

  ‘It certainly took place,’ confirmed Eve. ‘Mother wrote to me about it. She felt that Hepworth should’ve shown more respect.’

  ‘Is there anyone else who crossed swords with your father?’

  ‘I can’t think of anybody, Inspector.’

  ‘What about the stationmaster?’ suggested Agnes.

  ‘What about him?’

  ‘He and your stepfather had words about something or other. I remember it well. When Bertram and I came to play cards here that same evening, Aubrey was still seething. Apparently, he threatened to have the man dismissed for insolence.’

  ‘Are we talking about Mr Ellerby?’ asked Colbeck.

  ‘That’s the man, Inspector – Silas Ellerby.’

  ‘He didn’t strike me as the argumentative type.’

  ‘Men can change when drink is taken. I’ve seen it happen.’

  ‘So have I, Mrs Reader,’ said Colbeck, ruefully. ‘Alcohol causes more crime than almost anything else. It removes inhibi
tions. When a man has too much beer inside him, he surrenders to his demons.’

  ‘And he forgets the need for deference,’ complained Agnes. ‘My husband has encountered that at the bank. He had to dismiss one of his clerks last year for being drunk and unruly.’

  ‘Coming back to the colonel, you’ve given me two names so far.’

  ‘I can’t add to them,’ said Eve with a shrug.

  Colbeck looked at Agnes. ‘Mrs Reader?’

  There was a long pause as Agnes wondered if she should offer another name. Consideration for Eve told her to say nothing but she felt that the incident ought to be out in the open. At length, she reached her decision, prefacing her words with a warning.

  ‘I don’t want you to imagine for a second that this person is even remotely connected with the crime,’ she began, ‘because that is frankly impossible. But there is someone with whom Aubrey was at loggerheads for a time.’

  ‘And who was that?’ pressed Colbeck.

  ‘It was the rector, Mr Skelton.’

  ‘I never heard about any dissension between them,’ said Eve.

  ‘Your mother was too embarrassed to tell you. After all, the rector is your godfather. You looked up to him. Miriam didn’t want to alarm you with tales of a rift.’

  ‘What caused the rift, Agnes?’

  ‘It was some trifling matter over a donation to the church. It blew up out of all proportions. Bertram tried to intercede and pour oil on troubled waters but his efforts were in vain.’

  Eve was shaken. ‘I knew none of this,’ she said. ‘It might explain why the rector told me at the inquest that my stepfather was not welcome in his churchyard. He refuses to have him buried there.’

  ‘He said the same to me,’ explained Colbeck, ‘but I shouldn’t let it upset you, Mrs Doel. The church is in the diocese of York so there’s a court of appeal in the person of the archbishop. I fancy that he’ll rap the rector over the knuckles about this.’

  ‘All the same, it’s very unnerving.’

  ‘Mr Skelton can be very unchristian at times,’ observed Agnes.

  ‘It was certainly a shock when he confronted me yesterday.’