A Spoonful of Murder

by Robin Stevens

‘She gets very upset with people,’ I said. ‘She hates it when they betray her. And that’s what Father did with Teddy, I suppose, and Su Li too, by becoming his maid. But – she really wouldn’t kill someone. She couldn’t!’

  ‘The more important question is how the kidnap worked,’ said Daisy. ‘Your mother wasn’t at the bank, and neither was Mrs Svensson. How could they have been up on the eighth floor to take Teddy from Wu Shing as we know they must have?’

  I thought. I remembered that patient list Daisy had found. Svensson. Wong. Wa Fan.

  And I saw again that we had been thinking all wrong.

  ‘Mrs Svensson was there!’ I cried. ‘We saw Svensson and thought Mr, but it could equally have been Mrs. She must have arrived before we did, at eleven forty-five, gone up in Wu Shing’s lift, given him the pin and then waited in that empty room after her appointment. Then, as soon as Wu Shing climbed out of the lift with Teddy at twelve, he handed him to her in the room and she went back down in the right-hand lift with him, while Wu Shing escaped out of the side entrance. Then, later, Mr Svensson went up to the eighth floor because he thought his wife might still be there. That’s what the left-hand lift operator said yesterday – that Mr Svensson was looking for his wife! That’s why he was behaving oddly, because he couldn’t find her!’

  ‘Hazel, you’re quite right!’ cried Daisy. ‘And I’ve just had the most genius thought! The best way to hide a baby is to disguise him as another baby. We know that Mrs Svensson likes to go about with Roald without her maid. So she could have got into the car that morning with a bundle of clothes wrapped up like a baby, and said that Roald was asleep and she was taking him with her to the doctor. Then she could have taken Teddy from Wu Shing, wrapped him in the same bundle and clutched him to her chest. No one would have looked closely enough at the baby to see that he was Chinese, not European, not if they expected him to be Mrs Svensson’s son.

  ‘And then she took him to the hotel room at the Peninsula. She made the call from there that afternoon, making her voice low and quiet, like your father said. Then she left again to kill Wu Shing and went home to Mr Svensson— Oh, Hazel, of course! He was out because he spent the afternoon looking for her!’

  ‘But what about Roald?’ I asked. ‘Wouldn’t someone have noticed that he’d been left behind at the house?’

  ‘Not if Mrs Svensson’s maid was in on it too!’ said Daisy. ‘She would have had to look after Roald that afternoon, and meet Mrs Svensson just before she arrived home to hand him back to her. What if she’s the person who’s been looking after Teddy this week? And that’s why your mother had a hotel room key too, just in case she wanted to look in on him.’

  I swallowed hard as it all began to sink into place. ‘But, Daisy – do we need to say anything? I mean – if we get Teddy back. If the handover works. Sai Yat – he’ll be so angry, but—’

  ‘Hazel,’ said Daisy. ‘Watson. No.’

  She did not need to say anything else. Su Li and Wu Shing were dead, and I knew that nothing – not family loyalty, not all the desperate, hopeless love I had for my mother simply because she was my mother – mattered more than making sure that the people who had caused their deaths were caught.

  My breath hitched, and I wiped at my eyes. Daisy threw her arms about me. Her chin dug into the top of my head – she really is very tall these days – but she smelled warm, of soap and a little of sweat. At least, I thought, I knew that even the Honourable Daisy Wells could sweat.

  ‘Detective Society for ever,’ said Daisy, muffled. ‘Remember that, Hazel. No matter how everyone else may betray you, I promise to never die or murder anyone, and that is what matters.’

  ‘I promise never to do either of those things as well,’ I said.

  ‘Don’t be silly, Hazel, you don’t even need to promise,’ said Daisy. ‘I know you never would. This is dreadful, but we shall face it together, all right? Because it will be all right. I shall make it all right.’

  I stepped back and smoothed down my hair. I took a deep breath and I felt it go through me, head to toe.

  ‘I’m ready,’ I said. ‘I know we’re not supposed to leave the house, but we have to, Daisy. Ah Mah must have gone to help with the handover. So we have to make Jie Jie take us to Kowloon. We have to go to the Peninsula Hotel.’

  4

  It was raining as we stepped onto the Star Ferry, the drops pressing down the waves and turning the sea flat and scuffed looking.

  Jie Jie had not been hard to persuade. ‘We have to go,’ I said to her. ‘Don’t you want to see Teddy as soon as he’s rescued? Won’t he want you there?’

  Jie Jie looked up and set her jaw – and she suddenly looked very much like May.

  ‘I do want to be there for him,’ she said. ‘You are right, Ying Ying. We will go.’

  Wo On brought the car round, eyebrows raised but silent, Ping took us to the car and we set off, rain drumming thickly on the canvas roof.

  Although we had not told my sisters, May decided during the car journey that we were going to find Teddy. She still had her beetles on their strings, and she wouldn’t let go of them. ‘I’m giving this one to Teddy,’ she said stubbornly. She also had her stick in the belt of her trousers, in case she came across the kidnappers.

  ‘I like your sister,’ said Daisy approvingly as we stood at the railing and watched the dimpling water. ‘One day she will make a fine detective assistant.’

  One day, I thought, May would probably be the leader of her own Detective Society.

  The ferry jumped to life, its rumble starting beneath my feet and shaking its way up my spine into my ears. I held onto the railing and squinted ahead, across the rain-shadowed bay, to the grey buildings of Kowloon. There was no time to even feel seasick, not today.

  ‘Big Sister,’ said a small voice. Rose had crept up behind me and was clinging to the rail, her face twisted with worry. ‘Do you think Teddy’s all right?’

  ‘I hope so, Ling Ling,’ I said, and she looked so small and sad that I hugged her. ‘I think Father is going to get him back very soon.’

  ‘I didn’t like him much when he was born,’ said Rose. ‘I wanted another sister.’

  ‘I didn’t like him, either,’ I said, and admitting it felt like breathing out. ‘But … it’s worse when he isn’t here.’

  ‘I know,’ said Rose. ‘I’ve been praying for him to come back. I saved some of my supper and set it out for the gods, only Pik An cleared it up, and I’m afraid today will go wrong because of that.’

  ‘Don’t be silly!’ I said, hugging her. ‘And I promise we’ll find him. I know we will.’

  ‘Good,’ said Rose, nodding. ‘And then – do you think Father will let me go to English school?’

  ‘Do you really want to?’ I asked. ‘Or do you still just want to run away?’

  ‘Partly that,’ said Rose. ‘But England looks nice. And I hate school here; it’s stupid and the uniform is ugly. I want to go and eat buns and play games like in the books.’

  I almost laughed. ‘I’ll speak to Father about it,’ I said.

  ‘Would you?’ asked Rose blissfully. ‘My English is getting so good. It’s … spiffing!’

  It was not fair, what my mother had done, I thought suddenly. It was not fair on May and Rose and me. It would hurt us all. Just like Daisy cannot get out from the shadow of Fallingford, we would always be the girls whose mother did something terrible.

  We stepped off the ferry, the gangplank bouncing as the water sloshed below us, and then we were in the press and smell of Kowloon docks. This was where the handover would take place in less than an hour. Jie Jie looked around nervously, and pulled May and Rose to her. The maids stood over us with umbrellas.

  ‘Let’s wait in the Peninsula,’ I said, my breath hitching. ‘We can have tea.’

  ‘Tea!’ cried May. ‘And then we see Teddy!’

  Jie Jie’s face screwed up, and my heart beat fast. We were about to arrive at the place where Teddy could very well be at this moment. But wou
ld we be able – would we be clever enough – to save him?

  5

  I always forget how very grand the Peninsula Hotel is, and what an odd mix of English and not English at all. Up the wide, sloping entrance we walked, the white-windowed expanse above us like an English palace. But, as we came up the low stone steps, we were greeted by a pair of snarling Chinese lions.

  We stepped into the lobby, dripping water from folding umbrellas, into a world of high ceilings, white columns and green potted ferns, of buttery light and tasteful gold detail, of soft music played by a string quartet tucked away in a little alcove, and of tea in bone-china cups served by white-jacketed waiters. Everything was gentle and hushed – and heads turned to look at us, a most unusual family. Four girls, one of them European, three maids and one mother. Jie Jie shrank backwards shyly, automatically trying to look more like a maid.

  ‘I WANT EGG WAFFLES!’ shouted May, and was hushed by everyone.

  ‘There aren’t any egg waffles here, stupid,’ Rose told her. ‘But they have chocolate cake.’

  ‘CHOCOLATE CAKE!’ cried May. ‘Is Teddy here?’

  I saw the agonized expression that passed across Jie Jie’s face, and the look on Daisy’s. Jie Jie didn’t know it, but Teddy was here.

  We were guided to a large, round table beside a pillar, and a respectfully bowing waiter took our orders. Then there was a pause, a spreading pool of silence that no one seemed able to break.

  ‘GOODNESS!’ said Daisy suddenly. ‘Is that— Look! Surely it’s Constance Goring.’

  We all turned in our seats in time to see the back of a lady proceeding out of the lobby up the stairs. I could not tell anything about her apart from the fact that she was European, and a grown-up.

  ‘It is!’ said Daisy in excitement. ‘I must – will you excuse me? I simply must ask at the desk – she’s a cousin, you know, I haven’t seen her for years!’

  Before any of us could stop her, she had leaped to her feet and was moving in a ladylike gallop across the lobby to the front desk. We all watched as she spoke rapidly to the receptionist, picked up the telephone and chattered into it. Was Daisy calling room 213?

  But when Daisy turned and came back towards us, slower this time, weaving in and out of the tea tables, there was a rather cross expression on her face. I decided that the person she had called hadn’t answered.

  ‘It wasn’t her at all!’ she cried. ‘How bothersome! There was a Goring registered, but when I called up to the room it was an old gentleman, not my cousin at all. What a pity.’

  Jie Jie looked confused, and I could tell that she didn’t understand why Daisy cared more about her cousin than a missing child. I wished I could explain to her.

  The tea arrived, fat pots of it, along with four enormous slices of chocolate cake filled with rich dark ganache. It looked most inviting, and I swallowed mine hungrily. And then, as the maids were serving us, my mother stepped into the lobby.

  I saw her before she saw us. Her earrings glinted in the lamplight and her lips were red, and she moved slowly on her bound feet. She was carrying a small shopping bag, and I had to acknowledge how good her cover was. She had made sure to really go shopping, to make the lie perfect. I looked at her, as beautiful and poised as ever – but now I saw the thoughts as they hurried through her brain, the calculations she was making. She showed no sign of fear, and I realized how very bold my mother was. I had always thought, when I summoned my bravery, that I was calling on my father’s character. But now I was not so sure.

  We had to move faster than her. In only a few moments, my mother would see us, and it would all be over.

  ‘I have to go to the loo,’ I said.

  ‘I’ll go with you!’ said Daisy at once, bouncing up. She had seen my mother too, and her cheeks had gone pink with alarm.

  ‘I’m going to eat your cake!’ said May gleefully.

  We wound round the tea-takers and the talkers, the pretty little upholstered chairs and the round white-clothed tables, the string quartet playing gently over the chatter. We walked past maids and ladies, gentlemen in robes and in suits. There was the grand central staircase, a carpet running up the centre. As we started to climb it, Daisy pressed her hand into mine.

  ‘Get ready,’ she whispered, as we stepped out onto the first-floor landing, into more hushed carpet and lamps and beautifully arranged flowers. ‘We have to get there before your mother. When I say run – RUN!’

  She surged forward like a deer, and I pelted after her up the stairs.

  We hammered upwards, our feet muffled by the carpet, and then turned out on the second-floor landing. We ran past a maid who was walking the other way. She looked at us in surprise. She had her hair tied back, and I noticed a little scar on her neck. And I remembered her – this was the woman who had warned me all those days ago. ‘Miss Hazel!’ she cried. ‘Stop!’ Her face was horrified, and something at last made sense to me. Mrs Svensson’s maid had known about the plot and had been trying to make sure that I wasn’t drawn into it. Of course, she had failed.

  But there was no time to think about that now. Rooms stretched away on either side of us, and I tried to make out numbers in our haste – 208, 209, 211 – and there was 213, a tall mahogany door with elegant gold trim. I fumbled at the handle. My fingers were sweating and my hands were shaking, but the door opened. There was no time to wait, no time to ponder what we ought to do. Daisy and I simply threw ourselves inside and slammed the door behind us.

  6

  The room we were in was pretty and light. There was a bed, curtained in floating white fabric. There was a window, closed against the rain, which looked out onto the harbour and the Peak. There was a desk and a chair – and sitting in the chair was Mrs Svensson.

  She jumped and stood up as we came in. Her eyes were wide and confused, and they darted around the room – at us, then at the desk, and finally at something beside the bed. My eyes followed hers and I saw a little bassinet peeping out from behind it.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ asked Mrs Svensson. ‘Did Mrs Wong—?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Daisy at once. ‘That’s right. She told us to come here. She wanted us to ask you – to ask you—’

  I had begun to walk towards the bassinet.

  ‘Hazel,’ said Mrs Svensson. ‘Leave him. Roald’s sleeping.’

  ‘Oh, is that your baby?’ asked Daisy, starting after me. ‘I love babies, do let me look!’

  ‘Really, Daisy, there’s no need. You’ll only wake him. The maid’s just put him down.’

  ‘Oh, I really must!’ cried Daisy.

  ‘STOP!’ shouted Mrs Svensson, a furious look on her face.

  Daisy and I both froze, and from the bassinet came a fretful murmur – and then, a moment later, a wail.

  Mrs Svensson darted forward. I was not sure whether she was moving towards us or towards the bassinet, but Daisy was moving too, throwing herself on Mrs Svensson and knocking her off balance. There was a strong smell of lavender in the air, and Mrs Svensson gasped and staggered backwards.

  I rushed forward and peered down into the bassinet – and I saw, cuddled inside it, not one baby, but two.

  One was blond, his hair so fine and pale that he looked quite bald. He glared at me out of bright blue eyes, screwed up crossly as he wriggled his body like a landed fish.

  And the other was Teddy.

  His silky dark hair was scruffy with sleep, but he blinked at me and raised his little fists in the air. Without even knowing what I was doing, I reached down and scooped his fat little body up, and Teddy beamed up at me, his whole face crinkling with joy. I told myself that this was how he was with everyone – but at that moment I suddenly felt as though he knew I was his big sister, come to find him.

  ‘Neih hou, Teddy,’ I said, smiling back.

  ‘Put him down,’ said Mrs Svensson. ‘Put him down at once!’

  ‘No, she won’t,’ said Daisy. ‘And how dare you keep him here! We know all about what you’ve done. You were the one who plott
ed with Mrs Wong to have him taken, and Hazel’s maid murdered, so you could get the ransom money. You smuggled Teddy away from the eighth floor pretending he was Roald, and you’ve been keeping him here, being looked after by your maid. You’re about to hand him over for the ransom money – but we got here first!’

  Mrs Svensson was looking from Daisy to me and Teddy, and back again.

  ‘You girls are in terrible trouble,’ she said.

  ‘No, you are!’ said Daisy furiously. ‘You killed Su Li, and you tried to frame Hazel for it to frighten her mother into keeping your secret! We know your game, and we’ve told Detective Leung about it. There will be police here any moment, just you wait and see.’

  ‘You haven’t done anything of the sort,’ said Mrs Svensson. She sounded so calm, so … grown up, I thought. She sounded like a mother talking to her silly children. ‘You wouldn’t dare, not after the pin.’

  I squeezed Teddy to me, and he yelped.

  ‘You can’t blackmail us!’ said Daisy.

  ‘It was useful insurance to keep June in line,’ said Mrs Svensson calmly. ‘I don’t care about those silly Triads. And I shall use it to keep you quiet too. If you say anything, I shall tell Detective Leung that you were the one behind the whole plan. I can find plenty of witnesses to say that you had a mysterious run-in with a maid, and you handed over your orders for Teddy’s kidnap at that moment. Rest assured, I can destroy you, Hazel Wong, and your mother.’

  My ears were ringing and my throat felt as though something was stuck in it. I swayed against Daisy, and she clutched at my arm.

  ‘But why would she do it?’ I whispered.

  ‘Isn’t that obvious?’ asked Mrs Svensson. ‘For you.’

  And at that moment there was a knock on the door.

  7

  ‘Who is it?’ called Mrs Svensson, her voice suddenly shrill. She was afraid, I realized – afraid that Daisy hadn’t lied about Detective Leung. Daisy and I glanced at each other, and I knew she was thinking the same thing.