A Quiet Life in the Country (The Lady Hardcastle Mysteries Book 1)

by T E Kinsey

  ‘What happened then?’ asked Lady Hardcastle.

  ‘I couldn’t stay, could I, Wilf? It was quite disturbing. So we got some bread rolls, and coffee, and some eggs, and sausages, and a few rashers of bacon, some mushrooms, a few tomatoes, and came back here to our own place.’

  ‘And what happened to Jonas?’

  ‘Next we saw him was when we were pitching here on the green, and he was right as ninepence. Never seen a man in a better mood. It was like it never happened and we forgot all about it.’

  She lapsed into silence and we were all lost in thought for a moment.

  ‘I really don’t think that he did, though,’ said Lady Hardcastle at length. ‘I don’t think you’re in any danger, though. Please don’t leave.’

  They looked apprehensive.

  ‘I had the beginnings of a plan to trap the killer when I believed it was you,’ she went on. ‘And now I have an idea how we can bring an end to all this once and for all. I need to speak to Colonel Dawlish urgently.’ She paused. ‘Would you be prepared to help?’

  ‘Oh,’ said Veronica. ‘I don’t think...’

  ‘We must, my love,’ said Wilfred. He looked up at me. ‘I heard what you did to Mickey yesterday. Can I trust you to protect my lady as fiercely as you protect yours?’

  ‘Upon my honour,’ I said. ‘Nothing will happen to any of you while you’re with me.’

  ‘That’s good enough for me,’ he said, and offered me his hand.

  ‘Thank you,’ said Lady Hardcastle. ‘We must lose no more time. Colonel Dawlish is probably with Adeline in her tent. Can you take us there?’

  ‘Come with me,’ said Wilfred, and we followed him out of the caravan and back into the drizzle.

  It was rather crowded in Adeline’s tent by the time we’d all crammed in there. Adeline herself was sitting on her bed with her knees drawn up to her chin, looking even more childlike than usual. Colonel Dawlish was sitting in her chair, with the trusty Mickey O’Bannon perched on the table beside him. Lady Hardcastle, Wilfred, Veronica and I filled all the available floor space as Lady Hardcastle tried to explain her plan as clearly, but as quietly, as she could.

  ‘The thing is,’ said Mickey, ‘he can’t possibly not have noticed all the activity this afternoon. He must have known we were looking for Pru. Why isn’t he just going to lie low and keep himself safe?’

  ‘Because that would be the act of a rational man, Mickey,’ said Lady Hardcastle. ‘After the events of the past two days I think it’s safe to say that he’s no longer sane. Something inside him broke on Saturday morning.’

  ‘Then it’s just as bad. If he’s mad, he’s not predictable.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ she said, thoughtfully. ‘I think that now we know what he’s up to, he’s very predictable. He’s working his way through his tormentors one by one and he thinks he’s invincible. He has been careful or lucky, but not cautious so far. And he’s in a hurry. I think he wants to finish the job as quickly as possible. That means that Adeline is next and I think we know how he intends to try to kill her.’

  Adeline gave a little whimper and Veronica reached out a surprisingly delicate and gentle hand to comfort her.

  ‘How on earth do we know that?’ said Colonel Dawlish.

  ‘If we’re certain that Adeline is the last of his planned victims, then he’ll have come full circle and he will use some method peculiar to the world of juggling, the talent of his first. If you were to kill someone in the manner of a juggler, George, what would you use?’

  ‘I suppose an Indian club would be the most reliable thing,’ he said. ‘But I’m sure an inventive fiend could come up with lots more.’

  ‘He possibly could,’ she said. ‘But somehow I think it would have to be that obvious. There has been nothing oblique or obscure about his methods so far, no doubt about whom he was trying to implicate.’

  ‘Fair enough,’ said Mickey. ‘But how does he do it? How does he get them where he wants them? We haven’t found any notes, have we?’

  ‘No,’ said Colonel Dawlish, ‘nothing like that.’

  ‘So how is he trapping them? He wasn’t ever anyone’s best friend, but especially not lately, so why would any of them just follow him to their death?’

  ‘I confess I don’t know,’ said Lady Hardcastle. But I’m sure we’ll find out. Is everyone agreed that this is our only course of action? The police could never convict him on what we can give them so far. He’s left no clues, no evidence; all we have is two witnesses who saw him being teased. It’s as I said before, we need to catch him in the act.’

  Adeline whimpered again and Veronica snapped, ‘Really! Must you talk this way? You’re terrifying the poor girl.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Adeline–’

  ‘Addie,’ said the girl, weakly. ‘I never liked Adeline, not since the song, anyway. People kept calling me “Sweet Adeline”.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Addie, but you understand that it’s our only course? We’ll all be on hand to protect you. We shan’t let him harm you.’

  ‘I understand,’ she said, and hid her face behind her knees.

  ‘Well, then,’ said Lady Hardcastle. ‘Where would he most easily be able to find Indian clubs, and where would be the most appropriate place to kill someone if one were killing in the manner of a juggler?’

  ‘The sideshow tent,’ said Colonel Dawlish. ‘Huey had a set of clubs in his own tent but everything there has been packed away. There are stage clubs in the “Jugglers & Acrobats” tent.’

  ‘Then I suggest that that’s where he intends to strike. Mickey, will you take Veronica and Wilfred to the “Jugglers & Acrobats” sideshow tent and conceal yourselves inside. I shall join you presently. Armstrong, station yourself in the storage tent opposite this one and keep watch. Be prepared to defend Addie if she is in immediate danger, but otherwise simply keep her in view and let things play out. George, go to the village and summon Sergeant Dobson and Constable Hancock, we shall need them at the close. Bring them to the sideshow tent and conceal yourselves outside with a view of the entrance. Be prepared to enter as soon as I shout. Does everyone understand?’

  ‘What do I do?’ asked Addie, quietly.

  ‘You, my dear, must wait here. Somehow Jonas Grafton will contact you and try to lure you to what he intends will be your doom. Go with him, but don’t worry; Flo will be watching you all the time, and once you arrive at the sideshow tent, we shall all be there to protect you.’

  ‘Very well,’ she said, and returned to her ball of terrified silence.

  Lady Hardcastle stood and went over to Addie. She reached out and tried to stroke her hair, but the frightened girl flinched away and instead she signalled to the rest of us that it was time to leave and take up our positions.

  I had found myself a packing crate to sit on in the storage tent and had positioned myself to one side of the tent’s opening, completely concealed from an observer outside the tent, but with an unobscured view of Addie’s tent through a brass-bound eyelet in the canvas.

  An hour had passed and the drizzle had finally given way to weak sunshine. The need to remain alert had fended off the potential boredom of such a lengthy vigil, but I was very much wishing I’d managed to find a cushion before I’d settled into my vantage spot.

  Despite all the disruption, the circus was still busy and a few people had passed along this little side street but amid these comings and goings, no one had called upon Adeline. I was beginning to wonder if we were wasting our time, but then the most unexpected thing happened. Walking furtively along the path between the tents, in jodhpurs and riding boots, was the unmistakably elegant figure of Sabine Mathieu. She stopped at the entrance to Addie’s tent and looked quickly up and down the path before ducking through the flap and disappearing inside.

  I moved to the entrance to the storage tent and strained to make out what was going on opposite but I could hear nothing but the faint murmur of two voices within. Presently, the two women emerged, arm in arm, with Sabine cha
ttering away with the warmest smile on her face. Addie looked less comfortable, but thankfully had the presence of mind not to look across to my hiding place. I let them get a little way ahead and then slipped out of the storage tent and followed.

  As predicted, they made their way through the flap in the canvas wall and from there directly to the Jugglers & Acrobats tent where they disappeared in through the audience entrance. I went round to the back of the tent and slipped silently into the artists’ “green room”. I was surprised to see the small space in such a state of disarray with the table and chairs overturned and a water jug and cups flung haphazardly on the floor; that was completely out of character for a camp run by the Colonel who insisted on military levels of cleanliness and order.

  I approached the canvas flap that opened onto the performance area and tried to find a way to see and hear what was going on within. There was a little hole in the canvas, clearly made so that performers could check on the state of the audience before they made their entrance, and I looked cautiously through it to receive my second shock of the evening.

  In the centre of the performance area were not only Addie, kneeling and trembling before Sabine who was now armed with a small revolver, but also the bound and seemingly unconscious bodies of Lady Hardcastle, Veronica and Wilfred. And there, pacing manically about and armed, as predicted, with a colourful Indian club, was Jonas Grafton in full clown make-up and costume.

  ‘Come, my pet,’ said Sabine. ‘Finish her off. Finish what you started. They mocked you and they had to die. Let me see. Let me see what you will do for me.’

  ‘It was all for you, Sabine. They laughed at me. They laughed at my love. They couldn’t be allowed to get away with laughing at my love for you. They were mocking you. They didn’t deserve to live.’

  ‘No, my pet, they did not. And these others, these fools, you will not let them live, either. You will not let them endanger the great Sabine with their petty morals and their childish interference.’

  I heard the faintest rustle behind me and felt a gentle tap on my shoulder. Without thinking I turned quickly and grabbed my assailant’s wrist. I had drawn back my other arm to strike him in the throat when I saw that it was Colonel Dawlish. I relaxed and he put his finger to his lips. But it was too late.

  ‘Is that you, Miss Armstrong?’ said Sabine from inside the tent. ‘Please stop lurking out there and come and join us.’

  There was nothing for it, I had to go. Colonel Dawlish put his finger to his lips again and indicated that he would be there, watching. I stepped through into the miniature circus ring.

  ‘You think so much of yourself,’ said Sabine, ‘with your hiding and your sneaking about. You think that I did not see you following me? You think that Sabine Mathieu did not know what you were up to? You stupid woman.’

  I walked slowly towards her.

  ‘That is quite far enough,’ she said, levelling the pistol at my chest. ‘Do not think me as stupid as that Irish thug to let you get close enough to strike. You will watch with me while my pet snuffs out another pointless life and then we shall decide what to do with you, your owner and these two freaks. I am sure my pet can be persuaded to find suitably imaginative ways of ending you all.’

  ‘It was you all along?’ I asked.

  ‘Mon dieu, you really are stupid, aren’t you. No, of course it was not me. Sabine does not dirty her hands with such things. There are always others all too willing to act for her.’

  ‘You manipulated him?’

  ‘This creature here?’ she said, indicating Jonas. ‘Oh yes. A simple matter. He’s quite insane, you know. He had been fragile before, but his mind snapped completely a few days ago when I “accidentally” allowed his “friends” to see all the laughable poetry he had been writing to me. He was very open to the idea of revenge.’

  ‘And you helped him?’

  ‘Someone had to lure those pathetic so-called “artists” to him,’ she said. ‘Hubert was easy. He thought to taste the delights of the Great Sabine and imagined that I was excited by the presence of the lions. Gus? He was terrified that he would be suspected and was so grateful to kindly Sabine when she offered to go with him to the strongman tent to listen to his worries. Abraham was suspicious, but that stupid, sentimental man came to speak to me anyway and then of course he couldn’t resist trying to help poor Jonas who was so upset by what he had done that he was threatening to jump from the trapeze platform. And Prudence, dear, sweet Prudence. She just wanted to comfort poor, frightened Sabine and saw nothing before Jonas choked her with a cord. He’s very strong, you know. Even I was surprised by how easily he snapped and folded her body into that trunk.’

  ‘But why?’ I asked, utterly incredulous.

  ‘Why? Why not? To see them die, of course. To watch the light of life go out in their empty eyes. Who were those pointless people? They were nothing. Who would miss them? No one.’

  ‘It strikes me,’ I said, rather more boldly than I felt, ‘that you’re the insane one.’

  ‘Have a care, servant girl,’ she said, waving the pistol. ‘I have not killed yet, but your life is worth less than even these animals. “Poor Sabine was defending herself against the violent servant. You all saw what she did to Mickey. Sabine thought her life was in danger. The girl must have been working with the mad clown all along.” A bullet through the heart will not be as poetic an end as the others I have witnessed, but it will leave you just as dead.’

  Throughout all this, Jonas had continued his pacing but now he had stopped and was looking blankly at Sabine.

  ‘Do you love him?’ I said.

  ‘Love him? Love... that?’ She laughed. ‘How could a woman such as me love something like that? It is nothing, just a tool to be used for the amusement of Sabine. It makes me laugh even to think of such a thing. Love Jonas Grafton? Never!’

  She didn’t see the club until the very last instant. Jonas had swung it with all of his considerable strength, aimed directly at her temple. As she caught sight of the glittering shape coming towards her, she turned, and at the instant the heavy wooden club made contact with her skull, she fired the pistol. She collapsed instantly, blood-soaked and broken, the life smashed out of her. Jonas looked down at his chest, and examined the spreading blood with evident surprise. Slowly, he too collapsed to the floor of the ring and breathed his last with his head resting on the lifeless body of the object of his infatuation.

  I was too shocked to move, and the next thing I was properly aware of was Colonel Dawlish taking me by the shoulders and leading me to one of the audience seats. Sergeant Dobson and constable Hancock had come in through the main entrance with Mickey and were untying Lady Hardcastle, Veronica and Wilfred and helping them to their feet while Mickey took care of Addie.

  Once again we were back in Colonel Dawlish’s tent. Veronica and Wilfred were side-by-side, hand-in-hand on the Colonel’s bed, with Addie beside them, while the Colonel himself, Lady Hardcastle and I sat in the canvas chairs. Sergeant Dobson was standing by the table, having left Mickey O’Bannon and Constable Hancock to see to administrative matters in the Jugglers & Acrobats tent.

  ‘I knows as how you’ve all had something of a shock,’ said Sergeant Dobson, ‘but I very much needs to get a few things straight before I calls headquarters and tries to explain myself.’

  ‘Oh, Sergeant,’ said Lady Hardcastle, ‘I’m so sorry. Are you going to be in terribly hot water?’

  ‘Tepid, I should think, m’lady. Luke warm at worst. But don’t you go fretting over that; it was my decision and I’ll take the consequences.’

  ‘I’ll speak up if you need me too, though, don’t forget.’

  ‘I shan’t forget, m’lady, and I appreciates it. So as I understands it, this Jonas Grafton was the circus clown, and he went on a murderous rampage, killing four of his fellow performers, five if you include the French woman, and all because folk was laughing at him.’

  ‘In a nutshell,’ said Colonel Dawlish.

  ‘And this Fren
ch woman, this Sabine Mathieu, she was his accomplice?’

  ‘Not as such,’ said Lady Hardcastle. ‘She was more the instigator, goading him on. She helped in that she lured his victims to him, but she was mostly just an enthusiastic observer.’

  ‘This really is most disturbing,’ said Dobson, scribbling in his notebook.

  ‘We feared for our very lives,’ said Veronica, still close to tears.

  ‘I’m sure you did, madam, I’m sure you did. Well, obviously we shall be needing formal statements in the fullness of time and the full story will have to be told in the Coroner’s Court, but I think I’ve got it clear enough in my mind that I can square things away with CID.’

  ‘I very much appreciate all your... indulgence, Sergeant. Thank you,’ said Colonel Dawlish. ‘I understand that it was all highly irregular, but you’ve probably saved the circus and I’ll not forget. If there’s ever anything I can do for you, you have only to ask.’

  ‘Well, sir, there was one thing,’ said the sergeant, almost bashfully.

  ‘Name it.’

  ‘Well, the missus and I would have loved to have seen the circus – she loves the circus, does Mrs Dobson – but see I never got a chance to get no tickets and they’s all sold out.’

  ‘Then you must come as my guest,’ said Colonel Dawlish, expansively. ‘Can you make it tonight?’

  ‘That would be handsome,’ said the sergeant, grinning.

  ‘Tonight, George?’ said Lady Hardcastle in disbelief. ‘You’re opening again tonight? After everything? Six members of your company dead, and the show must go on?’

  ‘I think it’s what they would have wanted,’ he said, defensively.

  ‘I think,’ she said, ‘that what they would have wanted was not to have been murdered in the first place.’

  ‘No, love,’ said Veronica from the bed, ‘he’s right.’

  ‘He is,’ agreed Wilfred. ‘It’s our way. They’ll be looking down on us, shaking their fists if they think we’re going to cancel a show just because they’re not here.’