‘Uncle Riley, I declare you have not heard one word in ten that I just said,’ Sophia cried in exasperation.
‘On the contrary, Cabbage, I know about every knot, bow and ribbon on the hat that you will model tomorrow.’
‘I am still not sure that I approve of your exhibiting yourself, Sophia,’ Riley’s mother said in a stern tone, ‘but since it is for the benefit of a respectable charity, I suppose one cannot object to your lending your name to the cause.’
‘And you will be there yourself, Grandmamma, so it will be entirely respectable. I hope you will be there to see Sergeant Salter’s daughter’s handiwork too, Uncle Riley. She is very talented and I fully intend to have her make all of my hats in the future.’
Amelia smiled. ‘She deserves our custom,’ she agreed.
‘I am sure she does, and I shall do my very best to be there and witness her moment of triumph,’ Riley assured them both.
On the way home, Amelia asked Riley about the cause of his preoccupation.
‘Perceptive, as always, my love,’ he said, squeezing her hand. He told her about Salter’s determination to catch the thieves stealing from the building site, at not inconsiderable personal risk. ‘I spent the evening surrounded by my family, dining well and drinking the best wines, while Jack deliberately puts himself in the direct path of desperate criminals. It doesn’t seem right.’
‘I should have something to say on the matter if you attempted to join him,’ Amelia replied with asperity. ‘And I should have thought that it wasn’t a matter for a Scotland Yard Detective Sergeant to get involved with, either.’
‘Jack has personal reasons.’
Amelia gasped when he went on to tell her about Ruth Dawson and the treatment she had received at her brutal husband’s hands.
‘It is very generous of him to pay the doctor,’ Amelia said. ‘Can he afford it?’
‘No, but he wouldn’t let me cover it and now hopes to nab her husband in the execution of a crime so that he can be imprisoned and Ruth will be safe.’
‘It must be very hard not to get personally involved in such tragic situations. I can quite understand why Sergeant Salter has done so. Despite that gruff exterior and his rigid views, he has the softest of hearts.’
‘He does indeed, but he would be mortified if he knew you realised it. Anyway, enough of this talk, my love. I have a feeling that my murder investigation will be resolved tomorrow, one way or the other, and I will certainly attempt to be there and see Cabbage’s moment in the spotlight. If anyone can get Maureen’s creation noticed it is her.’
‘She would love it if you are there,’ Amelia said, as they reached home and Riley helped his wife from the carriage.
Riley slept badly and was at the Yard early the following morning. Salter was close on his heels, looking euphoric.
‘We got ’em!’ he said, punching the air. ‘Sam Dawson and three of his friends are now residing in the cells in Clapham.’
‘But it looks as though they didn’t go down without a fight,’ Riley replied, glancing with concern at the bruise on the side of his sergeant’s face and the beginnings of a black eye.
‘Ah, that’s nothing but a scratch.’ He waved Riley’s concerns aside. ‘You should see the state of Dawson,’ he said with considerable satisfaction.
Riley could well imagine. Salter’s moral objections to Dawson’s treatment of his wife, to say nothing of killing his unborn child, had left him with a score to settle.
‘Dawson tried to do what he always does when angry or confronted. He lashed out with his fists, but it weren’t no feeble woman he was faced with this time.’ Salter curled his upper lip into a snarl. ‘Barton had supplied me with a couple of his men who were well capable of backing me up.’
‘Well done, Jack. A very satisfactory night’s work.’
Salter grinned. ‘I won’t deny it.’
‘Have Dawson brought up here. I want to talk to him. What of his accomplices, by the way?’
‘Singing like canaries and blaming it all on Dawson. Said it was his idea and he forced them into it.’
‘Good, good. That’s what I like to hear. Any news on Ruth?’
‘She’s still weak, sir, but I went round in person at first light and told her why Sam wasn’t home, and why he wouldn’t be home for the foreseeable. I reckon that’s the best of tonics and she’ll make a quicker recovery as a result.’
‘I agree with you there, Jack, and am glad you weren’t badly hurt yourself. Lady Riley was worried about you.’
Salter flexed the fingers of his right hand. The knuckles were cut and swollen. ‘Good of her, but she needn’t have been.’
‘Are you ready to grill our suspects?’
‘Ready and willing. Are you having Verity brought in?’
‘As we speak. And Sir Philip too. Carter and Soames found out that Verity never normally calls at her husband’s place of work, but she has been there twice to see Sir Philip in recent weeks.’
‘Well then, it looks as though we have them.’
‘I think we know the truth but have no actual proof, so getting them to admit their guilt might be harder. We may have to resort to a little subterfuge.’
‘Subterfuge is what I do best.’
Riley laughed. ‘I know that very well.’
‘Verity Randall is here, sir,’ Barton said, putting his head round the door. ‘And not best pleased about it. Such language, and from a supposed lady too.’ Barton tutted. ‘Don’t know what the world’s coming to, so help me I don’t.’
‘Put her in an interview room please, Barton. I shall be there once my men have finished searching her home. In the meantime, I am sure she will appreciate a little time to reflect.’
‘How do you intend to play this, sir?’ Salter asked.
‘Aggressively,’ Riley replied, grinding his jaw. ‘The woman has to be shocked out of her sense of entitlement and the belief that she will get away with her crimes.’
Salter chuckled. ‘Being hauled out of her house by Barton’s constables and riding back here in one of our wagons will have done its share of shocking.’
Riley allowed himself a brief smile. ‘It’s a start at least, Jack.’
‘My Maureen is that excited about this afternoon.’
‘I haven’t forgotten about that. Sophia wants me to be there and I have promised to do my best to oblige her.’
‘God help me if I’m not,’ Salter replied. ‘My life won’t be worth living, so we’d best get Mrs Randall to admit to her crimes and be quick about it.’
‘If we can’t then I am sure a night in our cells will help to refresh her memory.’
‘Nothing incriminating in her house, sir,’ Carter said, arriving back at the Yard slightly out of breath. ‘Sorry. We did look everywhere.’
‘Don’t worry. I didn’t imagine that she would be foolish enough to leave us any clues. She thinks she’s much cleverer than we are.’ Riley stood and straightened his lapels. ‘Right, Sergeant. I think we have kept our guest waiting for quite long enough, so why don’t we go and dispel her of that notion?’
‘Lead me to her,’ Salter replied, gleefully rubbing his hands together.
Verity Randall exploded from her chair the moment Riley opened the door to the grim interview room in which she was being kept, her pinched features puce with rage. ‘What is the meaning of this outrage, Chief Inspector? I was dragged down here like a common criminal in full view of my neighbours. It was mortifying, especially since you have no cause to embarrass me in such a fashion.’
‘Sit down, Mrs Randall,’ Riley said calmly.
‘I will not! I demand to be released immediately.’
‘You can demand all you wish, but it won’t make any difference. You can choose to seat yourself or I will have my sergeant put you back in that chair himself. It’s your choice.’
‘Oh, very well.’ She threw herself back into the chair in question. Riley motioned for the constable who had been watching over her to leave the room,
which he did with alacrity, no doubt having been the focus of the woman’s vitriolic tirade ever since her arrival. Riley seated himself across from her, with a scarred table separating them. Salter, as always, leaned against the wall with notebook at the ready.
‘Why didn’t you tell us that you were acquainted with Ezra Dawson before he came to your sister-in-law’s attention?’
‘I…’ Her mouth flapped open and then closed again. ‘What makes you think that I was?’
‘Just answer the question,’ Salter growled.
‘As my sergeant has just reminded you, we ask and you answer. Don’t make me repeat myself. I am not a patient man, especially when suspects continually lie to me.’
‘Suspects? You think that I…’
She was almost convincing in her indignation, but for the fact that a tic started working beneath her eye and she couldn’t altogether keep the fear out of her expression.
‘Ezra,’ Riley reminded her in a mordant tone.
‘Well yes, it’s true, I was acquainted with Ezra before Ida knew him.’ Verity tossed her head in a feeble attempt to appear calm and in control of herself. Riley wasn’t fooled by her performance and knew that Salter wouldn’t be either. She was worried, and would be wondering how much they knew or had guessed. ‘It didn’t seem relevant to your enquiry, which is why I didn’t mention it.’
‘How did you meet him?’
‘I stumbled in the street when someone rudely barged into me and I twisted my ankle. Ezra happened to be passing and saved me from falling. He was very concerned, very courteous, and insisted upon helping me to reach home.’
Riley and Salter glanced at each other. They hadn’t realised that Ezra had deliberately contrived the accident, although it had been a less elaborate ruse than the one he had used to bring himself to Ida’s attention.
‘Naturally, I invited him in for tea as a way of thanking him. I was quite shaken up, and he insisted upon staying until I was more composed and the pain in my ankle had eased. He even insisted that a doctor be sent for.’
Riley nodded, thinking that would have been enough to secure Verity’s complete devotion, since no one else seemed to care much about her wellbeing. Ezra had certainly known how to pick his victims.
‘We got talking. Ezra was very easy to talk to, and an excellent listener. I don’t quite recall how we got onto the subject but I found myself telling him about Ida and how she disgraced Sir Philip’s name with her blatant behaviour beneath his very roof. How she refused to help her own family, her own son’s career, when she had money to burn. How she didn’t permit Sir Philip to manage her fortune, robbing him of his dignity as a man.’ Now that she had started attempting to justify herself, the words spewed from her mouth in a vitriolic stream. ‘He was very sympathetic and asked me if I would like him to gain a modicum of revenge on my behalf. Naturally, I declined.’
‘You were doing well, and had managed several sentences without lying to me,’ Riley said. ‘However, I suggest that you rethink your last words.’
Verity glowered at him through eyes that had narrowed to slits, clearly attempting to decide how much Riley knew and how little she could tell him in order to secure her release from Scotland Yard. He refrained from mentioning that she would not be leaving any time soon; perhaps not ever.
‘Oh, very well. Ezra convinced me that he would be able to make Ida very grateful to him. I did not ask how he intended to go about it.’
Riley allowed that particular lie to go uncontested. It wasn’t important. ‘Go on,’ he said.
‘Ezra promised me it would be financially rewarding and that we would share the spoils.’ She pursed her thin lips and elevated her chin. ‘I did not imagine for one minute that he would become her latest paramour, or that she would agree to give him so much money to start that wretched club of his. That was not part of the plan, but when I pointed that out to him and asked for my share, he laughed in my face.’
‘Excuse me, but I was not aware that you knew about the proposed loan. How did you find out about it?’
She tutted. ‘Ezra took great delight in telling me.’
‘Which must have infuriated you, I can quite understand that. So you killed him,’ Riley said starkly.
‘Of course I did not!’
‘I told you she wouldn’t be able to resist lying for long,’ Salter said from his position against the wall. ‘Her sort who think life owes them a living don’t look upon it as lying ’cause they manage to justify their behaviour in their own minds. How often have we sat here and listened to similar stuff?’
‘My sort?’ Verity twisted her neck in order to transfer her glower to Salter. ‘You are not in any position to know about the unfair hand I have been dealt, and you are therefore not qualified to hold an opinion or cast aspersions.’
‘Who is Jason?’ Riley asked in an abrupt change of subject designed to catch her off guard.
‘Jason?’ She looked momentarily bewildered. ‘I am not acquainted with anyone by that name.’
‘This is becoming tiresome, Sergeant, and we have somewhere to be this afternoon. I am not in the mood to play games. Lock her up until tomorrow and we will see if her memory has improved by the morning.’
‘Lock me up?’ Verity looked both outraged and terrified. ‘You cannot lock me in a cell. I haven’t broken the law.’
‘I can do whatever I wish,’ Riley replied. ‘And I beg to differ about the legality of your actions.’ He paused. ‘One more opportunity. Who is Jason?’
She puffed out her cheeks and paused, but then started talking, just as Riley had known that she would. ‘He was a friend of my brother’s, and of mine. I liked him. More than liked. I wanted to marry him and was fairly sure that my affections were reciprocated. Then, overnight, his feelings changed. He was distant when he couldn’t avoid being in the same room as me, and I subsequently discovered that my brother had told him that my dowry was worth half as much as it actually was.’
‘Presumably to ensure that he wasn’t interested only in your money,’ Riley said, not without sympathy.
‘Well, of course my money was the attraction!’ she cried, exasperated. ‘I might be plain and easily overlooked, but I am far from stupid. I didn’t care if he married me for my money, just so long as he married me, but Gordon insisted that he was protecting my interests. Ha! I finished up married to Gideon, and you’ve seen for yourself how that has turned out. Even he cannot remain faithful. And so yes, before you ask, I know that Ezra saw me as an opportunity to improve his circumstances, and I was happy to help him.’ She threw up her hands. ‘But he too turned against me in favour of a pretty face, much as Jason had before him. He married a beautiful lady with virtually no money.’ She threw her head back and clucked her tongue against her teeth. ‘Men are such fools!’
‘You took all of your dowry to your marriage, knew that was all you were entitled to and yet you kept on at your brother for more. Now that he is dead, you are contesting his will. Why?’
‘Why?’ She appeared to find the question perplexing. ‘I am not sure what Gordon’s death has to do with Ezra, but I don’t mind you knowing that I am claiming part of his estate because it is no less than I deserve.’
‘And because Nancy actually succeeded where both you and Ida failed, and procured Ezra’s genuine affections?’
An angry hiss slipped past Verity’s lips. ‘She was so high and mighty, that one. Always looking down on me with pity in her eyes.’ She shuddered. ‘I cannot abide being pitied. Oh, she tried to be friendly but I wasn’t deceived. Anyway, I no longer wanted to be anywhere near Clapham, so I only saw them if they felt duty bound to call when they were in town—which ironically is how Nancy met Ezra.’
‘You have been back to Clapham on several occasions.’ Riley made it sound like a statement of fact. ‘Don’t bother to deny it. You have been seen there.’
‘Not on the night that Ezra died.’
Riley nodded at Salter, who stepped forward and slapped the table hard enough
to make it judder. Verity cried out, wrapped her arms protectively around her torso and pushed herself away from Salter, looking petrified. And well she might, Riley thought. Salter, when roused, was a force to be reckoned with. Add in his battered, scowling face and even Riley would have been afraid of him.
‘We’ve already told you what will happen if you lie to us,’ Salter said, thrusting his face close to hers.
‘That will do, Sergeant.’ Riley waited until Salter had resumed his previous position, and then spoke again. ‘I can quite see why you felt aggrieved, but why did you drag Sir Philip into your machinations?'
‘Sir Philip?’ Her face turned chalk white and she now looked truly terrified. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘He is the only member of your husband’s family whom you have any time for. You look upon him as a kindred spirit since his wife doesn’t understand the meaning of fidelity any more than your own husband does.’
She tossed her head. ‘It’s true that I respect him, and I cannot understand why he is so tolerant of Ida’s behaviour, but nothing more than that.’
‘You called to see him at his place of work yesterday. Why?’
Her eyes widened. ‘You know about—’
‘We know everything,’ Salter grunted.
‘I…I had a message for him.’
‘What message?’ When she remained silent, Riley lost all patience. ‘He is in the next room to us as we speak.’
‘You dared to bring Sir Philip to…to this place?’
‘We know that he helped you to kill Ezra, and we also know that you were frightened after we last spoke with you, so we anticipated that you would run to your partner in crime. You see, you are quite predictable after all.’ Riley paused to let his words sink in. ‘We know you were in the Plough on the evening that Ezra died, berating him. You thought you would be safe, garbed in black with a veil partially covering your face at a time when the tavern was busy. Unfortunately,’ Riley added, getting creative with the truth, ‘you failed to take into account the fact that the landlord’s daughter was another of Ezra’s devotees. She took a lot of interest in you, worried that you might be a rival for his affections, and she described you to us in detail—’
Death of a Footman (Riley Rochester Investigates Book 8) Page 21