by Rebecca King
“So, are you the killer or his accomplice?” Jeb thought over the strange events that had happened in London of late, especially the circumstances surrounding the way the bodies were strangled. The Star Elite believed the killer had an accomplice; was Myers it, or the killer?
Had they both come to Framley Meadow?
“It’s impossible,” Jeb murmured with a sigh.
Everything within him was screaming at him that it was not possible for the killer to have followed him all the way from London. Why would he? What would he possibly want with Jeb when the rest of the Star Elite were still on the streets in London?
The Star Elite work mostly in the middle of the night when the shadows were dark, and the only witnesses were largely the criminal element who they were there to catch. It would be considerably easier to capture, or kill one of them in London.
It was just too far-fetched; too ridiculous to even contemplate, to think that someone would follow him to Framley Meadow to give him a warning. Although he wanted to ignore the facts though, he had to question the many similarities between the two sets of circumstances. Two bodies had been found, both of whom had been strangled. There was also a thief in the area with a yen for expensive jewellery. Myers was demanding jewellery from a posh house. Jewellery he should not even have knowledge of. Not only that, but there were not one, but two strangers in the village who had both appeared at the same time as Jeb. He couldn’t forget the man who had attacked him; it hadn’t been Myers. Was Myers just waiting for the jewellery before he left? If so, where did the man who accosted him in the street fit into all of this? Why was he even in the village? Had he killed Tabitha and Mrs Banks? If so, why?
“Where are you off to now then?” Jeb murmured as he watched Myers leave the house.
Dusk had started to fall and had cast everything in rapidly darkening shadow. It helped to hide Jeb as he left his camouflage and followed closely behind - right to the woods beside Delilah’s house.
“I have told her, but she says no,” Roland began without preamble when he met his contact.
Jeb got into a good enough position to see the connection and recognised him as being the man who had threatened him in the street the other night.
So, they are working together, he mused, and settled back to listen.
The stranger growled. “She doesn’t get the choice.”
Jeb wracked his memory but wasn’t sure if he had seen either man in London before. Unfortunately, so many people crossed his path that unless they did something illegal, or he was following them, he barely gave them a second glance.
“I think I can persuade her,” Myers said a little too hesitantly to be convincing.
“Not good enough. She will do this,” the man growled. “I want those jewels. Someone is waiting for them. Don’t let me down. If you do not get those jewels then don’t come back.”
Myers swallowed and took a wary step back. “I will do my best, Bamber. If she doesn’t do it, I will,” he promised nervously.
“See that you do.” Bamber stepped toward Myers menacingly. “Don’t let me down on this. Once we have those jewels, we leave town. Make sure you leave no trace behind. I don’t want to see you again until we are back. Do you understand?”
Myers nodded again and looked warily around the woods as though he expected someone to pop out. Jeb wondered what kind of hold the stranger had on Myers to worry him so much, and decided right there and then that Myers would not make any meeting in London. Not without the Star Elite on his tail anyway.
“What do you have for me?” Bamber sniffed when Myers stared at him with wide eyes, temporarily frozen with fear.
Myers cautiously handed over a lumpy package that contained several small items.
“That’s good, but it is not enough. Get me those jewels and I will call it quits,” Bamber snapped.
“Fine,” Myers nodded energetically as he began to back away. “I will make sure you get them.”
“See that you do.”
“I will.
The man glared. “See that you do.” The threat hung in the air.
Myers remained silent, willing to give Bamber the last word if that was what he wanted as long as he could leave the woods with his life intact.
Bamber pocketed the parcel and didn’t even bother to look at Myers again. As silent as a wraith, he turned around and melted into the trees.
Just as quietly, Jeb followed.
Two days’ later, cold, tired, and hungry, Jeb watched Bamber disappear into dingy lodgings on a side street on the wrong side of London. To say the area was disreputable would be an understatement. Jeb had a gun and a knife on him but still felt vulnerable. As he sauntered casually down the road after his quarry, he could hear babies crying, women screaming, and men shouting from inside the ramshackle abodes he passed. Although the night was falling, children, barely covered against the elements, stood on doorsteps, their darkened, soot covered faces devoid of laughter and gaiety the likes of which children should be entitled to. The almost too still and silent way they watched him move through their neighbourhood was disturbing.
Once he had noted the address Bamber disappeared into, Jeb rubbed at the stubble on his jaw and yawned. Eager to get out of the area before someone tried to mug him he turned around and headed back down the street. He desperately needed something to eat, some sleep, and a shave because the beard he had started to grow over the last couple of days was really starting to irritate. In addition to that, he needed to get his colleagues to watch the property, and follow Bamber when he left the house. He couldn’t do it. He was exhausted. The journey over the last couple of days had been fraught with challenges. He had little money on him, no horse, and hadn’t had a change of clothes for longer than he cared to remember. Still, he had survived, although had yet to uncover what the man’s real name was given that every time he had stopped at a tavern he had used an alias. Jeb had, as a result, practically been on watch over the last couple of days and nights, and was now in desperate need of rest.
Before he left the area behind, he signalled a young child standing on the doorstep of a house two doors away from the lodgings.
“Here, boy, who lives in that house? Do you know?”
The boy nodded. “That’s Mr Cavannah. He is one of the lodgers there. Old Mrs Rampton disappeared not long ago. He collects the rent now.”
“Brian, shut that door, now,” a feminine voice screeched from the back of the house.
Jeb nodded and handed the child a coin before he headed toward the safe house.
Mr Cavannah, if that was his real name, could wait for an hour or two. If he was collecting rents from tenants at a property, he wasn’t going to leave it anytime yet. Either Mr Cavannah, or one of his associates, would appear at the property at some point. When they did, the Star Elite would be there.
Sophia followed her aunt into Mavis Arbuthnot’s house with great reluctance. It was the last place she wanted to be, not least because it just felt plain wrong that people were socialising so soon after Morwenna Banks’ murder.
Not even a week had passed since her body had been found strangled, yet here they were all gathering together to dine as though nothing untoward had happened. It didn’t feel as though a reasonable period of mourning had passed, but Delilah had accepted the invitation to dine on their behalf without even consulting her.
While it had irked her greatly at the time, Sophia was in desperate need of something to do. If only to take her mind off why Jeb hadn’t come to see her again like he had promised. Unfortunately, there were few people she could ask to find out where he was without raising their concerns over her interest in him so she was left to fret, worry, and wonder what had happened.
It wasn’t lost on her that others in the village had also become aware that he had vanished. Speculation was already mounting about why the Lord’s son had upped and left as quickly as he had arrived. She hoped that by coming tonight, she may be able to find out from Algernon where Jeb had gone and, mor
e importantly, when he would be back.
“Mrs Arbuthnot, thank you for inviting me,” she murmured politely.
“I am glad you could make it,” Mrs Arbuthnot gushed. “Please, come on in. Everybody is here already.”
Mrs Arbuthnot scurried ahead into the brightly lit sitting room full of people who all looked distinctly uncomfortable. The polite yet somewhat awkward atmosphere was the first thing that hit her; that, and the lack of Mrs Banks, Jeb, and Algernon.
Battling disappointment, she tried to focus her attention on the evening. Without Jeb, the room seemed dull and flat, as though the life had been drained from it, and that brought Sophia a profound sense of loss.
She missed him and found that the longer she sat there, the more she yearned for him. If only she could speak to him. If she could reassure herself that he was alright then she could send him on his way again, more at peace with the knowledge that he had other things to do and wasn’t as interested in her as she thought he was. The fact that he didn’t reciprocate the feelings that were rapidly building within her was something that was personal to her. The hurt she would shed tears over later when she was alone. It was certainly something she couldn’t do anything about sitting in Mrs Arbuthnot’s sitting room.
Forcing her attention off Jeb and back to the occupants of the room, Sophia accepted a goblet of Ratafia off the hostess. To her horror, she then found herself completely stuck for wont of anything to say which was either appropriate or wise. She sensed that Mrs Arbuthnot was too because, after several moments of futile fluttering about, she turned an overly bright look on the group and waved her hand in a vague motion toward the other side of the house.
“I am sorry for the short notice about tonight’s dinner,” Mrs Arbuthnot gushed. “I just think it would be best if we carried on as normal, do you not agree? It is so difficult to know what to do in situations like this.”
“It might have been better if we had postponed everything for a while longer,” the Squire blustered, red-faced. “It has only been a week since poor Morwenna left us.”
“But you haven’t altered the date of your ball yet, have you?” Delilah challenged. “I suppose that is going ahead as planned?”
Her slight remonstration was met with a glare from the Squire, who didn’t deign to reply.
“I know Mrs Banks was a highly respected member of the group,” the hostess began.
The Squire coughed uncomfortably. “Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” he protested.
When people looked at him, he realised he needed to clarify his comment so he didn’t offend anyone. “Mrs Banks was nice, but could be quite cutting sometimes. While I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, it would be foolish to put the woman on a pedestal. She had her faults, as we all have.”
“Quite,” Mrs Arbuthnot replied. “Well, I thought a nice, discrete dinner might be in order. Not least because I thought people might welcome the distraction given the disturbing events that have occurred in the village just lately.”
She glanced around each guest in turn, silently seeking their approval for her decision.
“And, well, it really is my turn. What, with the Squire’s ball being soon I thought, what better time for it than today? There is nothing we can do to bring Morwenna back, after all. So, while everyone is here, I should like to raise a toast to our good friend Morwenna Banks, and of course, Tabitha. May the magistrate capture the man responsible soon so that we may all sleep peacefully in our beds at night.”
“Here, here,” the Squire declared and lifted his glass.
The silence thickened as each person took a sip out of their goblets.
“Shall we dine then?” Mrs Arbuthnot murmured.
She led the way into the dining room and rang a small bell to summon the first course. Thankfully, for the time being at least, normality resumed while everybody ate.
While it was a welcome relief, it was short-lived for Sophia when she realised what, or rather who, was to be discussed.
“Is Algernon not joining us tonight?” The vicar asked with a glance around the table.
With no Algernon, or Jeb, or Mrs Banks, the numbers at dinner were markedly reduced. Sophia had to wonder why Mrs Arbuthnot had decided to bother because the opinions of the people present tonight didn’t really matter given the enormity of the deaths. Nobody would have been offended if she decided not to take her turn to accommodate everybody, and in deference to the dearly departed, postponed it for another month or two.
“Oh, no, not tonight,” Mrs Arbuthnot replied. “He has something to do that he cannot get out of.”
“No son either?” The Squire snorted. “I said that fellow was a scoundrel, and I was right.”
He nodded as he glared around the table officiously, silently seeking support for his crackpot theories.
“Why would you consider him a scoundrel? He is the Lord’s son,” Delilah replied crisply. Although she didn’t like the man Sophia was fond of, she wasn’t prepared to sit back and allow the Squire to condemn him so quickly. After all, next time it might be her he wanted to discuss.
“Well, I know I can speak in confidence with everybody around this table, but I have heard that the Lord’s wastrel son has high-tailed it off to London without a backward look. Just upped and disappeared without even leaving his father a note.”
Sophia exchanged a look with her aunt. Had he challenged Myers and fallen foul of the criminal? She quickly dropped her gaze to her plate but saw very little of the food on it.
Delilah glared at the Squire. “The last time someone in the village disappeared, Tabitha was found dead. Has someone checked to see where he has gone?”
“I asked Algernon, twice now, what had happened to his son and why he left so quickly. He just said he had decided to return to London, but nobody knows why. It is deuced odd, I don’t mind telling you. I mean, he arrives, and two bodies turn up, and then he leaves just as quickly. It is too convenient. You cannot say that Algernon doesn’t know where his son has gone because I just don’t believe it.”
“I hope you are not casting aspersions,” the vicar chided him with a scowl. “Oh, that reminds me. A box containing several items I suspect may be the items you all had stolen suddenly appeared in the church the other day.”
“Eh?” The Squire squinted at him as he absorbed that.
“It was the strangest thing. We always leave the church open as you know. Well, I was out visiting one of my parishioners the other day. When I got back I found the box sitting in the back room. Well, I was astounded when I lifted the lid and found the old snuff box my father gave me sitting inside. I realised then that the rest of the items in the box must be some of the stolen items you all lost. Rather than go around the village and ask people if they recognise anything, I brought it with me tonight.”
“Let me see,” the Squire demanded. He dabbed his lips with his napkin and stood while the vicar collected the box and placed it between them on the table.
One by one the items were removed, and recognised by their owners. The only markedly notable absence was the lack of stolen items belonging to Delilah. Sophia felt her stomach drop and sat perfectly still while people exclaimed over the return of their treasures for a moment. Thankfully, nobody as yet seemed to have noticed the issue. She exchanged a look with her aunt who suddenly began to look worried.
“I still think there is something odd about the disappearance of the Lord’s son. He was always skulking around the village, but nobody knows why he came here in the first place,” the Squire persisted.
“His father lives here. He has every right to visit his father if he wishes to,” Sophia scolded. She made no attempt to hide her frown, but it didn’t appear to have any impact on the pompous bore as he levelled a probing look on the vicar and ignored her.
“When did this box appear in the church?”
“A couple of days ago,” the vicar replied.
The Squire nodded. “Not long before the Lord’s son disappeared.”
&
nbsp; “The same day.” The vicar coughed uncomfortably.
“Oh, but that is not to say that the Lord’s son, Jebediah, had anything to do with the deaths, surely to goodness? No, I simply don’t believe it.” Mabel Harvell glanced around the table worriedly.
“No, neither do I,” Sophia snapped. She threw a baleful glare at the Squire. “The Hutchinsons are the epitome of society. Why, their family dates back centuries. It would be a shame if people began to use the unfortunate events of the last couple of days to cast scurrilous gossip about innocent individuals who are not around to defend themselves. Why, I refuse to believe that either Jebediah or Algernon, had anything to do with the either the thefts or the murders. If Jeb did have something to do with the return of the stolen items that can only prove he didn’t have any part in the thefts himself, doesn’t it? I mean, it would be a ludicrous thief indeed if they returned the items they stole.”
“Here, here,” Philip Everson said suddenly. “I have worked for the Lord for several years now and cannot recommend the man highly enough for his kindly nature and absolute honesty. He has too much to lose to risk killing anyone and certainly doesn’t need to steal. Take it from me, both men are extremely well off and well connected. I would advise you to be cautious about attempting to cast aspersions.”
Sophia studied him for a moment. Mr Everson was usually the quietest member of the group. If fact, his impassioned defence of his employer was the longest she had ever heard him speak about anything. She mentally applauded him for his sudden outburst because his uncharacteristic behaviour had captured the attention of everyone around the table who next sat riveted to his every word.
“Still, it is a little coincidental don’t you think? Where has he gone and why?” Mrs Arbuthnot asked. She leaned across the table challengingly. “Especially so soon after the deaths.”