Lady Marmalade Cozy Murder Mysteries: Box Set (Books 1 - 3)

by Jason Blacker

  “Thank you James, I know it must be terrible news. But your help might be instrumental in helping us solve these terrible crimes.”

  James nodded and looked at her with sad almost vacant eyes.

  “I do hope so, my Lady.”

  “No doubt the police have asked you this, but where were you between two and three thirty?”

  “They didn’t ask me specifically, my Lady, but you might recall that Agnus called us for supper at two, and I ate with her until three. Enoch left us at two thirty and only returned his plate at three. Between three and three thirty I was back in the house. At three I called upon Mr. Forsyth, if he needed anything. He didn’t so I went to the kitchen to help Agnus.”

  “Yes, thank you, James, I remember the conversation you had with the inspector. Between three and three thirty did you see Meredith?”

  “No my Lady. I only believe I saw her later when she came down when the police were here.”

  “Did you see her before then, during your supper?”

  “No, we were inside the living area of our quarters and I didn’t see anything, my back was to the window. Agnus was sitting opposite, she might have seen something.”

  “Can you tell me anything about the relationships in this family, James?”

  “Well, with due respect, my Lady, I prefer not to gossip about my employers.”

  James continued to sit stiffly on the edge of the couch, his hands in his lap, his back straight as a board. He looked down at his hands and fidgeted with them for a moment.

  “I understand, James. But anything you might be privy to could be awfully helpful in trying to determine who committed either of these ghastly crimes.”

  What Frances really meant to say was that he was as good as unemployed now. Seeing as how Ginnie and now Jack were both dead. Dead men tell no tales but those who knew them should. If only to serve justice. James glanced up at her and his eyes were wet and distant as the sun seemed through the gray clouds.

  “She was a good lady,” he said. “She never had a stern word for me or Agnus.”

  James reached inside his pocket for a white handkerchief and he dabbed at his eyes.

  “You could honor her in death, James, if you help bring closure to this,” said Frances.

  James nodded and carefully folded his handkerchief back up into a small perfect square before putting it back in his inside jacket pocket.

  “Yes, my Lady. I’ll try answer as best I can.”

  “Could you tell me what the relationship was like between Ginnie and Jack?”

  James looked down solemnly for a moment, collecting his thoughts, before he looked back up at Frances.

  “It was never particularly good since I can remember, and I’ve been with them for twenty years now.”

  “How would you describe it?” asked Frances.

  “Distant and cold with angry eruptions now and then.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Uh, Jack is a man of...”

  “Weaknesses?’

  James nodded.

  “Yes, indiscretions I was going to say, but perhaps, not meaning to be disrespectful of the dead, but yes, weaknesses. It was no secret to anyone who spent much time here that he was a womanizer, a gambler and an addict.”

  “How do you know all this?”

  “It first came to my attention during a fight between Mr. and Mrs. Forsyth many years ago when the troubles with the business first came to light. It seemed, from what I overheard, that he was pilfering funds from the company’s profits to gamble.”

  “Where did he gamble?”

  “I’m not certain my Lady, but I overheard them fighting about someplace in Blackpool, I think it might have been called the Flying Man or something like that.”

  “The Flying Chan, perhaps?”

  James nodded.

  “Occasionally he’d also disappear for a few days at a time, and when he’d come home they’d fight about his drug habits. She accused him of being an opium addict to which he never did deny it. And looking back now, I can say that he was almost anesthetized on quite a number of occasions when he came back from Blackpool. He seemed almost vacant for the first day he was back.”

  “And what about the womanizing?” asked Frances.

  “That was an ongoing problem. He often came back from Blackpool smelling of cheap perfume. And there were no ends to the fighting then.”

  “What about Meredith?”

  James glanced back down at his hands and he started knitting them together again. Perhaps he was trying to knit a noose with which to hang himself from. He was clearly nervous.

  “What is it, James?” asked Frances.

  He looked up at her, taking a break from his knitting.

  “It’s one thing to speak ill of the dead, my Lady, but I’d rather not speak ill of the living. I still need to work around these parts.”

  Lady Marmalade leaned in and patted him on the knee.

  “I understand, James, I really do. And what you say is strictly confidential. Only between the three of us. I promise you that.”

  He looked into Lady Marmalade’s eyes, searching for a crack or any misgivings. He didn’t find any. So he nodded his head again as if the silent searching for truth within her eyes was a contract they’d just verbally agreed to.

  “Ever since Mr. Roger Forsyth passed, God rest his soul, some three years ago or thereabouts, Mr. Forsyth and Meredith got close. I guess in sympathy or shared pain. You see, while Mr. Roger Forsyth was around, things stuck together pretty well. He was the glue that kept the family and business working. He was also the nicest of the three of them.”

  “Which three?” asked Florence, finding her voice.

  James looked up at her standing next to Frances.

  “The three Mr. Forsyths, Roger, Gerald and Jack. Mr. Roger Forsyth was the oldest and kindest. When he passed, things started to quickly turn worse. Not to say the company wasn’t in trouble before then, it seems to have been. You see Roger was a careful businessman, but from what I gather he was a pushover for his brothers, especially the youngest, Mr. Jack Forsyth. I’ve overheard that Roger allowed Jack more discretion with the company ledger than he should have allowed.”

  “So Jack and Meredith weren’t together while Meredith was married to Roger?”

  “It appears that way. I guess Meredith was the one woman out of reach for Jack. Jack really loved his oldest brother and you could tell Meredith was madly in love with Mr. Roger Forsyth, and I might add, it was a returned love.”

  “And when Roger passed, Meredith and Jack got together?” asked Frances.

  “Yes, and she changed, and it wasn’t for the better. She became jealous, and moody and temperamental. She also started drinking quite a lot too.”

  “And did Ginnie know?” asked Frances.

  “Not at first. Not for the first couple of years. I mean, she knew that Jack wasn’t faithful and that was an ongoing problem, but it wasn’t until she found them together some months ago that thing started a turn for the worse.”

  “How so?”

  “I believe that Meredith planned it that way. I can’t say for certain, but I don’t think Meredith knew about Jack’s other womanizing, and she was extremely upset that he wouldn’t leave Ginnie.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I overheard them having a row about it over a year ago. I suppose that at first their casual relationship worked for them both. But about a year ago or more, Meredith wanted to have Jack to herself. In any event she told him that he had to come clean and divorce Ginnie or she’d tell Ginnie about the two of them. Jack said she didn’t have the courage. And he was right, she didn’t. At least not outright.”

  “And so you’re suggesting that she created a situation where the two of them would be found together?” asked Florence.

  “Yes, ma’am. And that’s when things really started to get nasty. Meredith would start to flirt and become affectionate with Jack right in front of Mrs. Forsyth. You could tell it
upset her deeply. Ginnie and Jack argued about it for a long time and Mrs. Forsyth would threaten to leave if he didn’t call it off.”

  “But she never did, did she?” asked Florence.

  “No. But I believe she was planning to. One of the last arguments was about a daughter and gold. Mrs. Forsyth said she was leaving and he could have his sinking ship all to himself. She said she knew about his illegitimate daughter, how she wasn’t surprised, but that it didn’t matter anymore because she knew he was storing gold and she was going to take what was hers and leave.”

  “Meaning the gold?” asked Frances.

  “I believe so, my Lady. But Mr. Forsyth warned her very sternly not to go anywhere near it. It wasn’t his, it belonged to some very bad people that he was trying to pay off. Mrs. Forsyth laughed and said how stupid she had been all these years, when she was blind to the cad he was. She told him he’d get his due.”

  “Did you ever see any of this gold?” asked Frances.

  “No, my Lady, I don’t even know if it was true, other than what I overheard in the arguments.”

  Florence looked up and off into the garden through the French doors. She touched Frances on the shoulder and when Frances looked up at her she nodded towards the end of the living room.

  Frances looked up and followed her gaze. Outside, Garrett was marching determinedly towards the greenhouse. As he entered, he looked around carefully to see if he was being watched. Then like a thief he snuck in quietly into the greenhouse and closed the door behind him.

  Frances looked back at Florence and smiled, then she looked back at James.

  “How did Ginnie know about the illegitimate daughter?”

  “She said, in one of their arguments, that she had found the letter in his study. Mr. Forsyth got angry about that and told her it was none of her business and she shouldn’t be snooping around in his private study anyway.”

  “Did anyone else know about the gold or the daughter?” asked Frances.

  “Quite a few. I remember her mentioning it to her brother, Dr. Garnet as I was passing around tea and crumpets on one occasion. Their voices were very hushed and they stopped speaking when I came near, but I did hear her mention gold and Jack.”

  “Any others?”

  “On one occasion during dinner, my Lady, Mrs. Forsyth decided to mention it to her son. She was quite sarcastic about it, saying something to the effect that while Mr. Forsyth was ruining the company his father had built, he was storing gold. Garrett inquired about it and Jack denied it. He added that even if he were, he didn’t have any at that time and that he was just a middleman and the gold was not theirs anyway. A very weak denial.”

  “How did Garrett respond?”

  “He got very upset. The two of them, he and his father, yelled about it for a while as Garrett felt he should stop this nonsense and be done with it, that he owed his mother better than this.”

  “He was alluding to his father’s debts and other misbehaviors?”

  James nodded.

  “Yes, I believe he knew about that. He also told his father to break it off with Meredith or he’d fix it.”

  “What do you think he meant by ‘fix it’?”

  “I can’t say, but for a moment I thought they might come to blows.”

  “Did you hear them argue at other times?”

  “On one occasion, Mr. Garrett was in his father’s study which he wasn’t allowed to be in. Mr. Jack came storming in demanding to know what he was doing in there. Garrett said he was looking for a book, but Jack didn’t believe him.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He said, ‘you’ve been looking at my calendar’. Mr. Garrett didn’t respond, he came storming out. I don’t know why he would have been looking at Mr. Jack’s calendar, though I did overhear Gerald and Garrett talking once about Liverpool.”

  “What about Liverpool?”

  “It was hard to say but Gerald said something about Liverpool was their best chance at winning. I can’t say I knew what they were talking about, it might have been football, but they started talking about Garrett’s car when they saw me.”

  “Going back to that argument they had at dinner, James, who else was there at the time?”

  “Other than Garrett, Mr. Forsyth and Mrs. Forsyth, there was Mr. Forsyth’s older brother Gerald.”

  “I see,” said Frances, looking at Florence. “So it appears that a number of people knew about this gold. The only thing that gives me pause is that gold hasn’t become that valuable lately. Rather, it’s been quite stagnant.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Florence.

  “A hundred ounces of gold wouldn’t be worth even a thousand pounds. That’s not a lot of money to kill someone over and it certainly wouldn’t be easy to cart all of that around. That’s a little over six pounds.”

  “Yes, but didn’t Finley say to us that the Chinese expect a surge in gold prices in the coming decades?”

  “Yes he did, but that still doesn’t explain why someone would be interested in six pounds of gold which is barely worth a month’s salary for most of those who knew about it.”

  “Perhaps, but we know that money was likely tight here at the Forsyth’s over the last little while. Perhaps the facade hiding a burgeoning poverty.”

  Frances nodded thoughtfully.

  “If I might,” said James.

  Florence and Frances both looked at him.

  “Yes, please, go ahead,” said Frances.

  “I believe that the financial matters here at the Forsyth estate are much more dire than perhaps most realize. For the last year, more than that really, but especially during the last year, my pay has been intermittent at best.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Florence.

  “I’ve been paid half of what is owed me, ma’am, with promises and assurances for the rest which never seems to be forthcoming. A hundred pounds is not easy to live on.”

  “And that’s half of what you’re owed?”

  James nodded, looking back at his hands.

  Frances looked outside and saw Garrett leaving the greenhouse. He was visibly upset, muttering something under his breath and shaking his head. His hands even at this distance could be seen covered with dirt. He paused, leaned over and rubbed them over the grass trying to get rid of as much of the dirt as he could.

  She heard him re-enter the house from the front door, but he didn’t come down to the living room where Frances, Florence and James were. Frances suspected he was back in the study if she had to guess.

  “So if I’ve got this correct,” said Florence, “the people who knew about the alleged gold, were Jack and Ginnie, both of whom are dead, Garrett, Dr. Garnet and Gerald?”

  “Don’t forget Ms. Church,” said James.

  “How did she know?” asked Florence.

  “She overheard Ginnie speaking of it to her brother and then I heard her confront Mr. Forsyth about it.”

  “What did he say?”

  “I wasn’t privy to the whole conversation, ma’am, I do try and remain discreet and respectful. They were in the study and what I did overhear was he saying something about trying to clear his debts so he was doing a couple of favors to do that. He said he was only doing it so they could have a fresh start.”

  “They being Jack and Meredith?” asked Florence.

  James nodded looking at her.

  “She seemed happy about that again when I saw her after the conversation. He also promised this was his way of getting out of gambling and opium.”

  “She didn’t know about the women?” asked Frances.

  “She might have suspected but I don’t believe she wanted to believe it. Though on Monday morning, I heard Ms. Church and Mrs. Forsyth have a terrible argument.”

  “What was it about?” asked Frances.

  “From the snippets I could gather, Mrs. Forsyth was telling Ms. Church to leave her husband alone. Ms. Church wouldn’t hear of it, so Mrs. Forsyth said that Mr. Forsyth was nothing but a philanderer and woma
nizer. I remember one part she said in particular was, ‘he’s cheating on me with you, isn’t he?’.”

  “And what did Meredith say about that?”

  “She said something about her relationship with Mr. Forsyth being different. The last bit I heard was Mrs. Forsyth saying she had proof that he was cheating on the both of them. She told Ms. Church to meet her outside in the greenhouse and she’d show her.”

  “Did Meredith say anything after that?”

  “She said something to the effect that she wasn’t interested and didn’t believe her. That Mr. Forsyth was going to leave Mrs. Forsyth and that would be the end of that.”

  “So the six of them knew about the gold. Has anyone actually seen any?”

  James slowly shook his head.

  “I can’t say my Lady. I don’t believe so. I’ve never seen any and I never heard anyone say they saw any either. Mr. Forsyth might have been making up a tale about that. He wasn’t always the most reliable gentleman when it came to his word.”

  Frances looked at him and shifted in her seat. She sat back a little more comfortably.

  “Can you offer an example, James?”

  “Well, he would lie or even downplay the state of the business. Whenever Mrs. Forsyth or anyone else for that matter asked him about how the business was doing, he’d say it was fine, when in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it closed by the end of the year, except that Mr. Gerald Forsyth might save it now.”

  “Surely he must’ve known things had been bad for quite some time?” asked Frances.

  “I’m afraid not. Up until recently he had been hands-off, involved in some side businesses that I don’t know about. But I heard Ginnie implore him to get more interested in it a few months ago if he wanted to have any hope of keeping the business afloat. I think that must have gotten him interested because he started badgering Mr. Jack Forsyth about the business often after that point.”

  “In person or over the telephone?”

  “Both. You could always tell when Mr. Forsyth had spoken to his brother by phone because he’d come out of his study, visibly upset and angry at everyone. The last time I heard them speak would have been last Friday. Gerald had come by to talk business and they’d gone into the study. Even though the door was closed you could hear them down the hallway.”