Madeleine bade them farewell and opened the front door. Lydia hesitated.
‘I’m not sure that I can do this, Madeleine.’
‘You can do anything, Lydia. I can’t believe you’ve forgotten the situation you were in when we first met. You were facing very serious problems then and you did so with commendable spirit.’
‘That’s not entirely true.’
Lydia was right. While she had coped well with the news of her father’s murder, she had lost some of her confidence when she had to return to the family home for the first time in years. She’d turned to Madeleine for help and their friendship had really begun from that moment. Once again, she was getting encouragement from Madeleine and she responded to it. Holding her head high, she stepped out of the house with Hinton and walked off down the street. Madeleine watched them go and wished that Lydia was holding the arm of her escort to give the impression that their relationship was closer than it really was. She soon saw that it would have been a mistake to advise such a move. The couple were still strangers to each other. With arms linked, they’d be too self-conscious. Lydia had ventured out of the house again and that was a real achievement. Madeleine felt that it was a small but telling sign of progress.
It was early evening. When the first members of the audience began to arrive outside the marquee, Cyrus Lill was standing near the entrance with Mulryne. The detective was surprised to see Jake Goodhart coming towards him. Accompanied by his wife and children, the man had made an effort to smarten himself up. He was wearing an old, faded suit and a hat two sizes too large for him. The children were in their best attire with well-scrubbed faces and clean hands. Goodhart’s wife looked as if she might have been going to church. Evidently, such an outing was a real treat for them and they had all made an effort to look their best.
‘Good evening, Jake,’ said Lill. ‘I never thought to see you here.’
‘Nor did ah, man.’
‘I hope you all enjoy the circus.’
‘We will,’ promised Goodhart, taking something from his pocket. ‘Mah cousin gie us these free tickets. Geoff’s a rotten miser most of the time. Ah dunno what gor into ’m.’
‘Maybe someone had a word with him,’ said Lill, recalling the conversation that he and Leeming had had with the man. ‘Mr Enticott may not be as hard-hearted as you thought.’
‘Yes, he is,’ said the wife, grimly.
‘Aye,’ added Goodhart, ‘Geoff’s as tight as a bloody drum.’
She nudged him hard. ‘Jake!’
‘Sorry, mah love.’
‘Mind ya language.’
‘Ah will.’
Since they were not allowed in yet, the family broke away and lingered near the marquee. Lill was pleased to see them there.
‘Yesterday, he couldn’t afford to come here,’ he pointed out. ‘Today, he can.’
‘What made the difference?’ asked Mulryne.
‘I like to think that Sergeant Leeming and I did.’
‘Oh?’
‘We interviewed him and his cousin, Mr Enticott, as suspects. Goodhart was right about him. He’s a very mean man.’
‘I’ve met lots of people like that. They’re as mean as hell and as tight as a froggy’s arse – and that’s watertight.’
‘That’s not quite how I’d put it,’ said Lill, grinning. ‘Anyway, we told him that his cousin would suffer badly with no money coming in and – lo and behold – the tickets pop up.’
‘Well done, Inspector. You made him feel guilty.’
‘We did our best.’ Looking around, he became serious. ‘What do you think will happen this evening?’
‘The audience will have a wonderful time and they’ll go home happy.’
‘That will only happen if he leaves us alone.’
‘He’d better. I’ve got men on the lookout everywhere.’
‘But we don’t know what he looks like.’
‘We’ve got a vague idea and, of course, there’s that injured hand.’
‘Goodhart had an injured hand as well. Newcastle is full of manual labourers, doing jobs that sometimes result in damage to their hands. He won’t be the only one, Mulryne.’
‘I’ll know him if I see him.’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘It’s a sixth sense I’ve got, Inspector.’
‘How did you develop that?’
‘It was probably through walking the beat as a policeman,’ said the Irishman. ‘There’s always someone who’s ready to sneak up behind you in the dark with a brick or an empty beer bottle. I arrested a lot of men who tried that.’
‘The one we’re after is far more dangerous. He’s derailed a train and let one of the circus lions loose. You won’t hear him creeping up behind you.’
‘We’ll get him. You watch.’
‘If we don’t, Inspector Colbeck will. He’s nothing short of a genius.’
Mulryne inflated his chest. ‘I taught him all he knew.’
‘Then we’ve nothing to worry about,’ said the other, laughing. ‘Well, I’m off. I’d love to watch the performance but my eyes are needed out here. I’ll patrol the park and make sure all my constables are in position. This man is wily but even he won’t get through our cordon.’
Watching from a safe distance, the man counted the number of uniforms and realised that there were even more than on the previous evening. The whole area was filled with the sound of happy children. They’d come to see a rare event. It might be years before Moscardi’s Magnificent Circus came to their city again. That fact weighed with him. In addition to the policemen, he noticed the number of armed men protecting the camp. It might be time to reconsider his plan.
They reached the point where Lydia had stopped before and simply kept on walking. She was enjoying the pleasure of his company so much that all her fears slowly evaporated. Lydia had met several young men in the past and a couple of them had tried to become her suitor. Neither, however, had impressed her enough to be allowed too close. When she did find someone she could love, she was cruelly separated from him by her father and the man in question was dismissed from the estate. It was the reason that she’d largely withdrawn from male company.
Hinton was different. He was easy to talk to and reassuring to stand beside. Proud to be part of the Detective Department, he talked about his ambitions to emulate some of Colbeck’s achievements though he accepted that it might take him many years before he could do so. Lydia could see that he was astute, alert and modest yet not without ambition. When she got him talking about his life, she forgot all about the reason they were out walking together.
‘It’s time to go back,’ he said, eventually.
‘Yes, I suppose it is.’
‘Did you have the feeling that you were being watched?’
‘Funnily enough,’ she said, ‘I didn’t.’
‘But then you weren’t aware of it when he was following you.’
‘I couldn’t understand that.’
‘It means that you were off guard or that he’s becoming cleverer.’
‘I fancy that both of those things were to blame. I was convinced he didn’t know where I was and he kept his distance a bit more. Today,’ she went on, looking round, ‘I’ve kept my eyes peeled but I haven’t seen anybody watching or trailing us.’
‘You told me that you plan to go on holiday, Miss Quayle.’
‘That’s true.’
‘Might I suggest that you delay the decision as to where you go until we’ve caught and dealt with this man?’
‘Yes, I will. I thought I could shake him off by going away but the chances are that he’d simply follow me.’ They walked on in silence for a few more minutes. Lydia then became inquisitive. ‘Have you dealt with a case like this before?’
‘As a matter of fact, I have.’
‘What happened?’
‘The person was being harassed in much the same way as you are, Miss Quayle. In that case, however, the victim was a man at the mercy of a woman who took inc
redible pains to hound and frighten him. If we hadn’t caught her in time, he might have been seriously injured. She threatened violence throughout.’
‘That hasn’t happened to me.’
‘No,’ he said, ‘you’re lucky in that respect. But there’s no reason to be complacent. We don’t know this person’s state of mind. In some cases, rejection by a woman can turn the mildest of men into killers.’
The performance that evening was another riotous success and the acclaim was even longer and louder than it had been in the afternoon. Jake Goodhart and his family were part of the multitude that streamed out of the marquee in a mood of delight. Sitting on Mulryne’s shoulder, Jacko was there to wave them off. When the numbers had thinned considerably, Victor Leeming drifted across to his friend.
‘I need to take some time off, Brendan.’
‘Sure, you can take as much as you wish. We can manage here. We frightened him off at last.’
‘I’d like to come back – just in case.’
‘That’s up to you.’
‘Right,’ said Leeming, ‘I’ll use your tent to get changed, if I may, then I’ll go back to the hotel. I arranged to meet Inspector Colbeck there. If I go into the dining room looking like this, they’ll probably throw me out.’
‘You can take Jacko with you, if you like. He’d liven things up.’
Right on cue, the monkey jumped excitedly on to Leeming’s shoulder.
After handing him back, the sergeant went off to change then made his way back to the hotel. Colbeck was waiting for him in the lounge. He ordered drinks for both of them then took out his notebook. When he found the page on which the list had been copied, he showed it to Leeming.
‘What do you make of that, Victor?’
The other man gaped. ‘I can’t make anything of it.’
‘Look at the numbers. What could they represent?’
‘I haven’t a clue, sir.’
‘They’re the number of miles of track being built on each of the lines.’
‘Is that what these names are?’
‘Yes,’ said Colbeck, ‘they’re railways that have been built – or are still in the process of construction. The Act authorising the building of the Severn Valley railway, for instance, was passed in 1853 yet it won’t be completed for a year or more. But, then, as you see, it’s over forty miles long.’
‘This is all very interesting, sir, but what’s it got to do with either of our investigations?’
‘It’s a light in the darkness, Victor.’
‘We could certainly do with one of those.’
‘I found these details in a secret drawer in Mrs Pulver’s desk.’
‘Why should she bother about the railway system?’
‘I went back to Shropshire to find out that very thing.’ Retrieving his notebook, he sat back in his chair. ‘What do men do when they fall in love?’
‘They do the most stupid things, sir. I know that I did when I met Estelle.’
‘It’s a serious question.’
‘Then my answer would be that they try to endear themselves to the woman in question by giving her a bunch of flowers or some other gift.’
‘They also try to impress the object of their affection.’ He patted his notebook. ‘What you saw was an example of that.’
‘Was it?’
The conversation was stopped by the arrival of the drinks. Leeming seized his tankard of beer gratefully and sunk half of it in a series of gulps. Colbeck sipped his whisky then put the glass on the table.
‘Because you didn’t burst in here with the latest tales of terror,’ he said, ‘I assume that the performances today went off without interruption?’
‘We had no problems at all, luckily.’
‘That’s good.’
‘Let’s go back to the list. Who could possibly be impressed by that?’
‘Mrs Pulver certainly was. They were all projects on which her admirer had worked as an engineer. He was the person who must have given her the plan of the branch line on her land. It hangs above her desk.’
‘Who’d want to look at the plan of a railway line?’
‘I would, Victor.’
‘That goes without saying, sir.’
‘To Mrs Pulver, it wasn’t just an example of engineering skill, it was a treasured reminder of someone. I suppose that I should thank Mr Darlow for setting me on the right road at last – or the right railway line, I should say.’
Colbeck went on to explain that the sight of a similar plan in Darlow’s office had reminded him of something that the housekeeper had told him on his first visit to the house in Shropshire. Mrs Pulver had taken a close interest in the building of the branch line, befriending the engineer and even inviting him into the house. It was the beginning of a friendship that developed, in the wake of her husband’s death, into something far deeper. She’d become so interested in the man and his work that she’d even bought a book on railway engineering.
‘His name is Nathan Furnish.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘It was written on the framed plan that she looked at every time she sat down at her desk. He’d signed it for her then written out that list of names.’
‘If I’d done anything like that, Estelle would never have married me.’
‘That would have been her loss, Victor.’
‘Thank you, sir.’
‘Something about that list struck me at once.’
‘What was it?’
‘An old friend of ours was involved as a contractor in each case.’
‘The only contractor we’ve had dealings with is Mr Brassey.’
‘That’s exactly who it is,’ said Colbeck. ‘These are all small-scale when compared to some of the huge projects he’s taken on in this country and in several foreign ones. Since his men built all the railways in my list, he’d know where Nathan Furnish could be found. That’s why I’ve tried to contact him by telegraph.’
‘What if he’s working abroad?’
‘I’ll have to get the information by other means.’
‘And do you think this man might really be the killer?’
‘I’d say that he got a lot closer to Mrs Pulver than either Underhill or Probert. Their names were in her address book but the secret drawer was reserved for the man who gave her a ring and who told her about the other projects he’d undertaken. There were no love tokens from our other suspects.’
‘I thought she was supposed to be a saint.’
‘That was the image she cultivated, Victor. And there’s no doubting the sincerity of her religious commitment. But there was another side to her and the only person who can tell us about it is Nathan Furnish.’
Hinton stayed longer than he needed to but Madeleine didn’t mind that in the least. He didn’t wish to go and Lydia was clearly enjoying his company. When he was invited to stay to dinner, however, the detective got to his feet and issued a stream of apologies for staying so late. Lydia went to the front door to see him off before returning to the drawing room.
‘He’s such a gentleman,’ she said.
‘You actually seem to have enjoyed your walk.’
‘I did, Madeleine.’
‘Then I’m glad that we talked you into it.’
‘So am I.’
‘They have such a diverse group of people in the Detective Department. At one end, you have someone like Victor Leeming and at the other you have Robert. I suspect that Detective Constable Hinton is closer to my husband than he is to Victor, but you may disagree.’
‘I think that he’s his own man, Madeleine.’
‘Did he say anything about the superintendent?’
‘No, he was very discreet.’
‘I’ll be writing to Robert later on. I’ll ask him what he knows about your bodyguard.’
‘He’s not my bodyguard,’ said Lydia. ‘He’s just trying to solve a mystery.’
‘Is he optimistic?’
‘Oh, yes. It’s only a matter of time, he says.�
�
‘That’s good to know.’
The doorbell rang and Lydia looked in the direction of the hall as if hoping that the detective had come back for some reason. In fact, it was a courier who’d come to deliver a letter. The servant brought it into the drawing room and held it out.
‘It’s for you, Miss Quayle,’ she said, handing it over.
‘Thank you.’ She saw the calligraphy. ‘It’s from my brother.’
‘Open it and see what he says.’
Lydia tore it open and unfolded the missive, reading it with her heart pumping.
‘Lucas didn’t see my letter until today,’ she explained. ‘Because I was so anxious for a reply, he sent it by courier.’
‘God bless him!’
Madeleine watched her carefully as she read the letter. Lydia was tense and nervous. Her hands were shaking. She was totally bemused.
‘Well,’ said Madeleine. ‘Does he tell you who Daniel Vance is?’
‘Yes, he does,’
‘So there really is such a person?’
‘There was, Madeleine. He died over forty years ago.’
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Victor Leeming felt that being so far away from home had its compensations. He was enjoying the thrill of working with the circus and was delighted to be spending time with his old friend, Brendan Mulryne. The two cases in which they were involved fascinated him because they were so complex and unusual. Though he was on duty at the camp for most of the night, he was staying in a comfortable hotel and eating some excellent food. As he now had dinner with Colbeck, he savoured each mouthful.
‘It was the last thing I expected, sir,’ he said. ‘When we first came here, I thought the two investigations were completely separate.’
‘So did I, Victor.’
‘But you found a link between them. Both started with a railway.’
‘I’m not complaining about that,’ said Colbeck. ‘It adds a kind of symmetry to our work here. On the other hand, we’re looking for two very different malefactors. One is ready to derail a train while the other makes a living by building railways. If they ever met, I suspect that they’d have some lively arguments.’
The Circus Train Conspiracy Page 26