by Pam Weaver
‘The knife has gone,’ said Bea.
‘Knife? What knife?’
‘The big meat knife. It was there on the table. I was just about to cut up some beef for a stew. It’s gone.’
‘Oh!’ Ruby exclaimed and, turning to Mr Balentine, she said, ‘Did you come in your car?’
‘Yes, but . . .’
‘Mum, look after Michael for me, please. I have to stop Rivka before she does something truly awful.’ She glanced at Mr Balentine. ‘For heaven’s sake, come on! There’s not a moment to lose.’
CHAPTER 36
They could easily have arrived at Effie’s place at the same time as Rivka, except that Mr Balentine had parked his car outside Sea View and walked to Bea’s house from there. Running back for the car was frustrating, but as they sped along Cowper Road, Ruby was sure they’d still be able to stop Rivka long before she arrived at Park Crescent. She was wrong.
To her horror, as they turned into the crescent, the gate to Swiss Cottage was wide open. Mr Balentine slewed to a halt and, although he took the keys from the ignition, neither of them stopped to close the car doors. At the windows of the beautiful terraced houses, several curtains twitched and curious eyes watched Ruby and Mr Balentine dash through the gate and up to the front door. Getting no answer, they ran around the back and found the door there open. As soon as they entered, they heard the sound of angry voices.
Rivka was in the hallway, holding Bea’s kitchen knife out at arm’s length in front of her. Mr Balentine pulled Ruby behind him and moved up cautiously behind her. Effie Rhodes stood on the stairs, clearly looking for an opportune moment to make a dash down the last six steps and grab the telephone. Gus had come out of his study. Absurdly, he still had his empty pipe between his teeth. Ruby guessed that, as Rivka came into the kitchen, the maid must have run into the hallway, screaming for her employer. When Gus came out of his study, coward that he was, he pulled the terrified maid between himself and the blade of the knife. Rivka was frustrated that she couldn’t get close to him without harming his human shield.
‘Let her go,’ she was shouting.
The pipe fell from Gus’s mouth. ‘What do you want?’
‘Who are you?’ Effie demanded imperiously from the stairs. The hysterical maid screamed.
‘You raped me,’ said Rivka coldly. ‘Now I kill you.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Effie snapped. ‘This is utter nonsense. I’m calling the police.’ She came down two more steps, but Rivka swung the blade in her direction and Effie stopped. Mr Balentine inched forward.
‘I never raped you,’ said Gus contemptuously. ‘I saw that look in your eye, you Jewish tart. You were gagging for it.’
‘I was doing the washing up!’ Rivka protested angrily. ‘You violated my body. You ruined my life.’
Ruby decided that this was the moment to take matters into her own hands. The stand-off could last for some time and the whole situation was very volatile.
‘Rivka,’ she said softly, as she brushed passed Mr Balentine, ‘this isn’t the way. Don’t do this. If you kill him, they’ll hang you.’
Rivka half-turned to look at Ruby and, when she saw Rivka’s face, Ruby’s heart went out to her. There was anger in her expression but, most of all, there was a look of hopelessness. Poor girl. If Ruby had lost everything, Rivka had lost even more.
‘Rivka, give me the knife.’
As soon as she saw Ruby, Rivka relaxed a little. It looked as if she was about to hand her the knife, but then Effie shouted, ‘Get this bloody slut out of my house.’
Rivka let out a howl of pent-up frustration and despair and made a lunge towards Gus. They heard Effie gasp as the hapless maid screamed again. Gus had pushed her towards the oncoming blade but, in the same split second, Mr Balentine reached out and snatched Rivka’s arm from behind. The knife fell from her hand onto the parquet floor.
Outside they heard the bell of an approaching police car.
The maid, in floods of tears, ran from the hallway into the kitchen. Effie descended the stairs like some regal duchess, and Gus emerged cautiously from his study, where he had taken cover after pushing the maid into the line of fire.
Rivka was in Ruby’s arms, sobbing her heart out. ‘You should have let me kill him,’ she said eventually. ‘He deserves to die.’
‘No, no, darling,’ Ruby was saying. ‘I know what he’s done, but let the courts deal with him.’
Someone was banging on the front door, and the police arrived through the kitchen door.
‘Nobody in this house is going to court,’ said Effie haughtily. ‘Except you, of course. Attempted murder carries a heavy prison sentence in this country.’
Ruby looked her straight in the eye. ‘And you needn’t stand there like some paragon of virtue,’ she said coldly. ‘You’re not so lily-white yourself.’
Effie puffed out her chest. ‘Well, really!’ she exclaimed.
It was late evening by the time Mr Balentine arrived back at Bea’s place. Ruby had been forced to return home fairly quickly after the police arrived at Park Crescent. Michael was due a feed, and she had to make her own way back on foot. Rivka had been arrested, and Mr Balentine informed Effie and Gus that they were to be interrogated about their role in the plan to flood the country with counterfeit bank notes and thus undermine the British government. They made a robust complaint, but nonetheless were taken into custody.
Back with her family, Ruby was left to try and make sense of it all. Having told her parents everything she knew, the afternoon had seemed endless. Bea phoned the police station several times, enquiring about Rivka’s fate, but no one could – or would – talk to her. Rex went down in person at around four o’clock and, to Ruby’s amazement and joy, arrived back home with Rivka. Pale and exhausted, she had been released without charge. Ruby and Bea put her to bed, and Rex gave her a strong sedative.
‘Why didn’t they charge her?’ Ruby asked incredulously when she and her parents were back downstairs.
‘My guess is that they had bigger fish to fry,’ said Rex. ‘Gus and Effie are in serious trouble.’
Mr Balentine turned up soon after Ruby had put Michael to bed.
He and Ruby sat in her mother’s sitting room, he with a whisky and she with a sherry. ‘So what happens now?’ she asked.
‘They’re being taken to London for interview at ten o’clock tomorrow morning,’ he said. ‘One thing is for sure: they won’t be coming back to Worthing for a long time.’ He smiled. ‘It looks as if my work is done.’
Ruby was surprised to realize she would be disappointed to see him go. There was something about him. He wasn’t pushy, nor had he made any advances towards her. Why should he? She had only recently been widowed, and yet she felt a kind of connection with him, something she’d never felt with another man – not even Jim. When he was around she felt settled, content; and yet she knew, in her heart of hearts, that should he declare his affection for her, a passion of great magnitude would be unleashed. It was exciting and somehow terrifying at the same time. He had walked into her life when she least expected it, and now he was going to walk right out again.
‘What about you?’ he asked. ‘Have you any idea about your future?’
She shook her head. ‘My parents have offered me a home for the time being,’ she said, ‘but as for my future, your guess is as good as mine.’
‘There’s something I should like to ask you,’ he began.
She looked up eagerly.
‘The fact that you can speak fluent German has been a big plus in this case. It played no small part in flushing out these traitors.’ He regarded her with a very serious expression. ‘Would you consider using your talent for us?’
Ruby put her hand onto her chest. She felt a flutter of excitement and cautious fear. ‘I am a widow and a mother,’ she said quietly. ‘My son needs at least one parent. I could never do anything to endanger my life. Does that sound cowardly?’
‘No, not at all,’ he said, shaking his head.
‘With what I have in mind,’ he went on, ‘it wouldn’t necessarily come to anything like that. I can’t tell you more until after you have signed the Official Secrets Act, but might it interest you? You’ve already had a small taste of the things we’d like you to do.’
‘Can I think about it?’ said Ruby.
‘Of course,’ he smiled. ‘Take your time.’
As he headed for his overcoat and the front door, he turned to her again. ‘Putting aside my request,’ he said softly, ‘I wonder, on a more personal note, if you would consider having dinner with me one evening?’
‘Oh, Mr Balentine,’ she teased, ‘you’re surely not mixing business with pleasure, I hope.’
‘Absolutely not,’ he said with a very serious expression. For a second Ruby felt a stab of embarrassment, but then his eyes twinkled. ‘The discussion we had in your mother’s sitting room was business. Dinner would be purely pleasure.’
‘In that case,’ she smiled happily, ‘it would be churlish of me to refuse.’
The morning post came early to this part of town. Ruby had only just picked up her father’s post from the mat when there was a soft knock at the door. She opened it to find Eric standing in the porch. He handed her another envelope.
‘The postman gave it to us,’ he said apologetically. ‘I said I’d bring it to you on my way to work.’
‘Thanks, Eric,’ she said, taking the envelope.
‘You all right?’ he asked cautiously.
‘Fine.’
‘Only Lena says if there’s anything she can do . . .’ He stared down at his feet.
‘As soon as the insurance people come,’ she said, ‘I’ll know more what to do.’
‘She says to tell you she’ll always put the kettle on any time you want to pop in.’
‘Thanks, Eric,’ said Ruby.
He smiled and reached for his bike. Ruby closed the door.
The letter was addressed to Jim. Even after all this time, it still made her heart lurch when she saw his name. She slid the paper knife from the hall table along the side of the envelope to open it. The letter inside was official-looking, but although it was beautifully typed, it had no logo or address for a reply:
Dear Mr Searle,
Mr Starling has told me that you are looking for your parents and that he foolishly suggested a name. I have to tell you that it is strictly against the policy of the Trustees to share such delicate information, and I am alarmed to discover that, despite my recent stipulation, you have attempted to make contact. I have to warn you that should the said parties make a formal complaint, there could be serious repercussions. I urge you, therefore, not to contact said persons or attempt to visit them.
Yours sincerely, H. Bloom
Ruby read the letter a second time and then let her breath out slowly.
Two identical police cars were already waiting outside Thurloe House in the High Street (known by the locals as ‘the Gallows’) when they arrived. Ruby wouldn’t normally be in such a place, but Rivka wanted to make sure that Gus and Effie really were under arrest. She had come to terms with the fact that Gus wouldn’t be charged with her rape. There was insufficient evidence, she’d been told, and it was her word against his; but she could at least see him in handcuffs.
They headed for the steps, only to be stopped by a policeman on the door. ‘I’m afraid you can’t go in for a minute, Miss,’ he said politely. ‘Important people are coming out shortly.’
‘Could you tell Mr Balentine I have something important to tell him, please? The name is Mrs Searle.’ He gave her an uncertain look. ‘I’ll wait here until you come back,’ said Ruby, ‘but it really is very important.’
A second or two later Mr Balentine came to the door and ushered them into the foyer. ‘What’s this all about?’
At the same moment she saw Gus and Effie coming along the corridor with their police escorts. Behind her, Rivka made a small noise.
‘What’s she doing here?’ Gus demanded.
‘It was you, wasn’t it,’ said Ruby. ‘You killed Jim Searle.’
For a second there was a stunned silence, then Gus gave a contemptuous laugh. ‘Whatever next, Mrs Searle? First you accuse me of rape, and now it’s murder.’
‘You came to see my husband about the counterfeit notes, didn’t you?’ she said, moving slightly towards him.
Mr Balentine put out an arm to stop her, but she batted him away. ‘You knew he had one, because you gave the man who made your model train three of the notes,’ Ruby went on. ‘His wife gave one to my husband, so you came to demand it back. He wouldn’t give it to you, so you killed him.’
‘I didn’t do it. It was Effie,’ Gus whined. ‘She did it.’
Effie tried to shake herself free from the policeman who held her arm. ‘Be quiet, you fool,’ she hissed. ‘She’s bluffing. She’s got no proof.’
But Gus wasn’t listening. ‘She hit him over the head with the iron,’ he said. ‘He went down like a pack of cards.’
‘Gus! Shut up, shut up!’
Balentine and the policeman looked at each other in stunned silence.
‘So the pair of you put him in the gas oven,’ said Ruby. She was trembling from head to toe, and was aware that Rivka had put her hand on her back to steady her. ‘You killed him. You murdered my husband – and all because of a stupid forged five-pound note?’
Effie rounded on her. ‘Serves him bloody well right,’ she snarled. ‘He should just have given us what we wanted, but oh no, he had to pontificate about honour and love and self-bloody-sacrifice . . . What would a useless cripple like that know about public duty? Well, we made him eat his own words, didn’t we? How dare he preach to me!’
Ruby’s mind darted back to the scene when Imogen and her mother were doing artificial respiration on the path. So that’s why Jim had newspaper in his mouth. She could feel tears pricking the back of her eyes. She couldn’t cry now. She swallowed hard and, looking at Effie, with her proud head tilted to one side and her jutting chin, she was filled with contempt. This woman was a monster.
‘Come on,’ said the policeman, tugging at Effie’s arm.
‘Get your hands off me,’ she snapped. ‘I’ll have you know that I have important friends in high places.’
The man in charge of her ignored her. ‘Time to go.’ He cupped his hand over her elbow and they all headed for the door.
But Ruby wasn’t finished yet.
‘Just a minute,’ she said, opening her handbag. Mr Balentine and another police officer lurched forward, but instead of producing the gun or the knife they expected, Ruby held up the letter. ‘Jim probably didn’t know you had anything to do with the bank notes when you came to the house,’ she said. Effie turned to look at her. ‘He did ask you to come, didn’t he?’
‘I told her not to bother going,’ Gus protested, ‘but of course she would have it her own way. We only meant to frighten him off.’
‘Stupid idiot,’ Effie glared. ‘I knew his little game. Blackmail – that’s what it was.’
‘That’s where you’re wrong,’ said Ruby. ‘My husband was looking for his parents. That’s what he was trying to tell you.’
‘What’s that got to do with us?’ said Effie indignantly.
‘You had a son,’ said Ruby, ‘and you kept him in an orphanage for the whole of his childhood.’
Effie turned her head sharply and glared at Gus. ‘You kept it in the orphanage?’
‘Couldn’t do it, old thing,’ he said meekly.
‘You kept him there because you didn’t want him getting in the way of your career,’ said Ruby. Behind her, she heard Rivka draw in her breath.
Effie had a face like thunder. ‘You were supposed to sort it out,’ she growled at Gus. ‘Get it adopted.’
‘It?’ cried Ruby. ‘It? This is your child we’re talking about.’
‘I talked it over with old Stinky,’ said Gus, hanging his head. ‘Couldn’t let him go, d’you see. He was my son.’
‘Stinky?’ said
Ruby.
‘Stinky Bloom,’ said Gus. ‘Howard Bloom, the headmaster. We went to school together. Of course, he was just one of the staff back then. I paid the fees directly to him.’
Ruby could hardly believe what she was hearing. ‘How could you do that?’
Effie tapped her feet angrily. ‘I don’t see what it has to do with you, anyway.’
‘He did well, old thing,’ said Gus, trying to appease her. ‘Became a photographer – according to Stinky, a prize-winning one at that.’
‘That “useless cripple” you talked about was your boy,’ said Ruby coldly.
Gus began to tremble. ‘Jim Searle?’
Ruby nodded. ‘I hope you can live with what you did, because now you both know that you killed your own son.’
Gus sank to the floor and began to weep. Effie stood defiantly with her head high. ‘If you had done what I told you,’ she snarled at her sobbing husband’s back, ‘none of this would have happened. All I wanted was to make a name for myself. Weak, that’s what you are – weak.’
They hauled Gus to his feet and the pair of them were led away to the waiting cars.
Balentine touched Ruby’s arm. ‘Let me take you home.’
It was only then that Ruby realized she was crying.
CHAPTER 37
It seemed almost surreal. The day was warm and sunny. In the fields the harvest was ready to bring in. To the north of the town, cricket teams gathered on Broadwater Green and cricket-lovers settled in deckchairs or on rugs to enjoy a relaxing day. Being Sunday, Worthing itself was closed. The blue blinds in shop after shop were pulled right down over the windows to protect the goods inside from the bright sunlight. Strollers wandered along Marine Parade, determined to enjoy the last of the balmy days of summer. The Punch-and-Judy man set up his booth by the pier, and children frolicked at the water’s edge. In the many churches of the town the faithful gathered to pray, while more athletic types were setting off on bicycle rides around the lanes and villages of Sussex. The few who had cars loaded up their boots and looked forward to a family joyride to Littlehampton or Bury Hill or Washington Woods. To all outward appearances, the only thought of every man, woman and child was to have a holiday from the pressures of the world; but in fact, that wasn’t how it was. Everyone wanted to forget what was happening in the world. They wanted a normal day.