A Jazzy Little Murder

by Beth Byers

  Jack stood up a moment later, telling the crowd, “Back up!”

  Violet stared at Jack. Or rather Jack’s hand. It was dark red.

  “Give him some air!” Jack ordered. “Someone open that door, let’s get some fresh air in here.”

  “Jack,” Violet said, staring down at Bobby. Their gazes met, and he seemed confused. His eyebrows were pulled together, his breath shuddering.

  “Violet, get our driver,” Jack said. “Go home with him. I’ll take care of this.”

  “Jack!” Violet said again.

  “Vi,” Jack said, glancing at her. “He’s probably drunk or using the same drugs.”

  “Jack! Your hand!”

  Jack glanced down and noted the blood. He frowned. “What?”

  “He’s not drunk,” Violet told him. “He’s hurt.”

  “Come girl,” Rita said, “let’s get your auto. He needs a doctor.”

  Violet paused, saw Jack’s nod, and left him with Bobby. Jack wouldn’t be able to focus on Bobby if Vi were there. “Go with them, Denny,” Jack said. “We’ll bring him out if he needs a doctor.”

  Violet shook her head and took Lila’s hand. Martha had dropped to her knees next to Bobby and was gently pushing back his hair. Lila glanced at her sister, but she followed Violet and Rita to the exit. They reached it just as the crowd realized something was wrong enough that the police might be called.

  “Is there a telephone?” Violet asked the man.

  He laughed at her.

  “Your Bobby is hurt.”

  The man blinked and then shouted, “Everyone out!” A moment later, he booked it towards the edge of the building.

  “Ah,” Rita said sarcastically before grabbing Violet and Lila and hauling them against the building as the already restless crowd stampeded towards the exit. “Good friends are so hard to find.”

  “Good help too,” Lila added, trying to avoid touching the wall of the warehouse while also trying to avoid those fleeing it.

  It took only minutes for the building to empty, and half-drunk idiots were running down the street.

  “Does anyone else feel certain some sort of monster is going to step from the shadows?” Lila asked. The silence after the music and the shouting crowd was almost surreal.

  “Are you all right, ma’am?” a man asked, his voice alarmingly sudden and loud.

  Lila screamed before Violet could tell her driver, Jimmy, that she was fine. “We need your help. There’s a man who seems to be injured. I suspect we need to either call for help or take him to a hospital.”

  “We aren’t going to find a telephone around here, ma’am,” Jimmy said. “And I’ll be dismissed if I leave you here, ma’am.”

  Violet glanced at him and then back at the shut door. “Pull the auto closer.”

  Jimmy paused and then shook his head. “I think I must insist you come with me, ma’am.”

  Violet didn’t argue. She followed Jimmy to the area where he’d left the auto and let him seat her in the back with Lila and Rita.

  “So much for modern women,” Rita muttered.

  “It was easier to agree,” Violet told Rita. “And the last thing I want is the image of another dead body in my mind.”

  “Do you think he’ll die?” Lila asked. She closed her eyes and shuddered. “Poor, stupid Martha.”

  “Poor Bobby,” Rita added.

  “He’s not dead yet,” Violet said. “I’ve learned to be cautious. I feel like I’m cursed. Having a party? A dead body in the garden. Having house guests? A bloody murder in the parlor. Going to some disgusting illegal club? We’ll see, but I’m not laying a wager on the poor man surviving.”

  “Well when you put it like that,” Rita said, “it makes traveling to Siam seem far less dangerous than going on a picnic with you.”

  “I’ve survived this long,” Lila told Rita. “I thought you were supposed to be adventurous.”

  “Not foolhardy, though,” Rita said. “You know I’m an only child. I can’t leave my father alone.”

  “Then put Ham out of his misery and give your father a grandchild to adore.”

  Rita’s mouth snapped shut and Lila leaned back. “Speaking of a grandchild, Denny wants to make one. Only I find children terrifying after seeing Kate.”

  “You should,” Rita agreed. “Kate seems to be tortured most of the time. Frankly, if I’ve ever seen a reason to avoid bedding someone, Kate is it.”

  “I would have asked my mother, but she’s fixated on a grandchild despite the adopted children, so I asked my cousin Lucy. She told me that she’d rather be beaten than have another baby. So, I asked my sister-in-law when she was drunk, and she told me having a baby was like being torn apart from the inside.”

  Violet felt her stomach turn.

  “Then, I asked Harriet Kingsley, you remember her, Vi. Well, Harriet has four children, and she told me that it was the most beautiful experience known to mankind and a privilege.”

  “She always was stupid,” Violet said, remembering the way Kate looked earlier that day.

  “Exactly my thought,” Lila added. “You remember how she used to chew her hair.”

  “Did you ask anyone else?” Rita demanded. “Ham wants children.”

  Violet gasped as Lila smirked. “I knew you liked him.”

  “I didn’t say that, and you will forget it.”

  “I won’t,” Lila said. “I will bring it up at inopportune moments. However, yes, I did ask someone else. I’ve asked about a dozen people. I even made a chart.”

  “And what does your chart say.”

  “There’s a direct correlation between whether I respect someone and whether they told me if it was horrible.”

  “None of the people you respect have said anything different,” Rita demanded before Violet could.

  “One told me that the ends were worth the means but that being thoroughly zozzled was to be suggested if you didn’t just sick up while you were having the baby. Then,” Lila shuddered and leaned forward to whisper, “she said that while she had the baby she also defecated on herself.”

  “Oh,” Rita and Violet said in unison, shuddering.

  The driver choked in the front.

  “Never speak of this if you want to continue to be employed,” Violet warned him.

  He cleared his throat. “Ma’am.”

  Chapter Nine

  Jack exited with Bobby in his arms a few minutes later. He frowned deeply at the auto before turning to look down the street. Martha was a breath behind him with Denny, Joshie, Heather, and another band member that Violet hadn’t met. He’d been playing the bass, and Violet thought he might be named Henry.

  “They need the auto,” Violet told the ladies.

  “Jack is never going to leave you alone in this part of London,” Lila said, shooting Rita a glance that said, can you believe this fool?

  Violet opened the auto door without responding and called, “Jack. Here.”

  He shook his head.

  “Jack, if you don’t put him in this auto and take him to the hospital, I will feel guilty for the rest of my life if something happens to him.”

  Jack eyed Violet and she added, “Jimmy will stay with me. As will Rita and Lila and Denny.”

  “I’ll stay with her too,” the bassist replied.

  They all glanced at him and he said, “I wouldn’t leave my girl here either.”

  “Arguing is taking time,” Violet told Jack. “I’m hardly an idiot.”

  Jack growled at Violet. “If anything happens to you, you’ll never hear the end of it.”

  Violet stepped back. “We’ll walk until we find a black cab, we’ll meet you at the hospital, let you lay eyes on us to ensure we’re fine, and then go home. We’ll even all go back to our house.”

  “I only need to lay eyes on you,” Jack said. He studied Jimmy and added, “Keep her safe.”

  “Of course, sir,” Jimmy said.

  Violet walked away before Jack lingered over her any longer. In order to alla
y his fears, she sang, “Marco!”

  “Polo,” Denny called back.

  Vi glanced back and saw Denny take Lila’s hand and then Rita grab Lila’s free hand. Heather and Henry followed Violet and a moment later Joshie did also. Vi hurried on and heard the quick thump-thump of footsteps that told her Jimmy was chasing her down.

  “What do you think, Len? Which way shall we go?”

  He looked at her as if she was mad and then pointed to the right.

  “Marco,” Denny called when he reached them.

  “Polo,” Vi said, rolling her eyes.

  “Doesn’t it feel callous to play games while some bloke could be dying?”

  “Yes,” Heather said, glancing at them. “That tall man said he needed a doctor immediately.”

  “He’s a snake,” Violet told Heather. “You should know that given how he left you.”

  “I know,” Heather said, “I told him that tonight was my last night. My parents forgave me. They…they took me back. They said I could come home. He always said they wouldn’t.”

  “You were in pretty bad shape,” Violet told her. “You probably scared them.”

  Heather only nodded. “I—I’m not going to go to the hospital. Joshie, will you see me home?”

  “You’re all idiots,” Violet told them callously. “Letting that Bobby fellow control you. Was Heather’s parents’ house nice, Jimmy?”

  They’d reached a busier street, and Jimmy was trying to wave down a black cab. He glanced back at her and nodded.

  “So you thought you’d slum with Bobby without talking to your parents? Without even giving them a chance to throw you away?”

  Heather looked away.

  Vi turned her attentions on Joshie. “Your father paid for your music lessons, didn’t he, Joshie?”

  Joshie stared at her in surprise.

  “Did he go to your concerts?”

  Joshie nodded mutely.

  “But not since?”

  Joshie hung his head.

  “Why don’t you just talk to him? Tell him what you love doing and ask him for his help? Give him a chance to help you or turn you away. Have you ever, even once, asked him for his advice?”

  Joshie shook his head. “He wants me to be a barrister too.”

  “He wants you happy and safe and secure for when he isn’t here. He’s not wrong. Being poor and hungry is terrible even if you have your trumpet. If he educated you and supported you and tried to advise you, he loves you. When was the last time you saw him?”

  Joshie glanced at Violet and then away.

  Vi rolled her eyes. “So you let Bobby influence your life instead of those who actually want the best for you. Sooner or later, however, your father is going to die, and you’ll regret not forming some sort of bridge with him.”

  “What makes you think you’re so smart?”

  “I lost my mother,” Violet told him flatly. “And two brothers, and my second mother. We always believe there will be time, but there isn’t. You can continue as you’ve been and make regrets or swallow your pride and know you tried.”

  “Vi,” Denny cut in with a horrible glee as he hurried to her, “Bobby was stabbed.”

  She turned to him just as a black cab pulled up in front of them.

  “No, he wasn’t,” she told Denny in a weak whisper.

  “In the back! Jack said he’d been bleeding out slowly.”

  “He was playing the saxophone and working!”

  “He was also on drugs,” Joshie said. “He never played sober.”

  Violet closed her eyes.

  “If he had used enough drugs, he might not have realized he’d been hurt.”

  She breathed in slowly and held her breath.

  “Whether or not he dies,” Denny added, “someone tried to kill that snake.”

  “We don’t know that,” Violet lied, more to herself than her friends. “We don’t know what happened.”

  “Keep telling yourself that, princess,” Joshie said.

  “That’s Lady,” Lila told Joshie.

  Vi’s gaze snapped open as Joshie demanded, “Wait, really?”

  “Really,” Rita said happily. “Lady Violet, daughter of the earl.”

  “The earl?” Joshie demanded, gaze wide.

  “It doesn’t mean anything,” Violet snapped.

  “Only that she’s the closet to an actual princess you’ll ever get.” Denny’s giggle made Violet want to slap him. “Violet, have you met a princess?”

  “Oh my heavens,” Violet said, pressing her hands to her face. “Please stop.”

  “Our friend could be dying,” the bassist said, shocked.

  “We’re a bit calloused to death,” Lila told him. “People keep dying around us. We’re like poison.”

  “Or a malfunctioning rifle,” Rita added.

  “I prefer to think of us as the jazz-angel, cocktail-wielding hand of death.”

  “Please stop,” Heather said. “You’re joking about someone we care about.”

  “They’re idiots,” Martha told Heather.

  “That is coming from the girl in love with the man who only wanted her pin money,” Lila said in an aside. “And who is wearing that dress, which clearly makes her bottom look big.”

  “Her bottom does look big in it,” Rita agreed. “You’d think the sales girl would have told her.”

  “Oh stop!” Martha shouted, getting into the black cab. “This one is going to the hospital.”

  Heather, Joshie, and Henry got into the black cab. Violet stepped back, rather annoyed at Heather, who had clearly changed her mind about the hospital. Vi didn’t want to have anything to do with another murder, or attempted murder in this case. She was going to write only fictional cases. She might take what she learned and apply it to less ridiculous stories than she and Victor had been writing.

  “Do you think we should go too?” Rita asked.

  “No,” Violet bit out. “We’re going home. I am tired of all this murder and nonsense.”

  “Of course,” Lila said lazily, “I would put Martha at the top of the suspect list. I think we have to at least clear her. Or set one of her friends up as the criminal.”

  “That sounds fun.” Denny pulled his wife into his arms and glanced at Jimmy. “What do you say, Jimmy, would you like to lie to implicate one of those fools?”

  “I’m afraid I could only do that for Mr. or Mrs. Wakefield.”

  “Well, Vi’s right there.” Denny tilted his head, his grin wicked.

  “Vi is not a part of this,” Violet declared, wishing for Jack’s coat. “Vi wants a hot bath and a hot toddy and my bed.”

  Jimmy waved down another black cab a moment later and held the door open for Violet and the others before taking a seat in the front.

  Lila snuggled into Denny, and Violet felt a flash of irritation. Her Jack was driving the auto to the hospital to take a certainly criminal man for help. Jack’s hands were covered in that man’s blood, and Violet had little doubt that he’d pursue whatever had happened to Bobby regardless of whether the man lived or died. All she wanted was him to be with her and let someone else take the case.

  The journey back to her house seemed to take forever, but when they arrived, she didn’t need her butler to tell her that Jack wasn’t there. Violet glanced at the others and Lila said, “We’re taking our usual room.”

  Vi glanced at Rita.

  “The pink one?”

  Vi nodded and then added, “If you’d like. The one at the end is done now too. It has a nice view in the morning.”

  “I plan on sleeping through the morning,” Rita said.

  “The pink room then.”

  Rita ran up the stairs. At the top, she looked back and asked, “Are you going to be able to sleep without Jack?”

  Violet’s gaze narrowed on Rita. “Will you be able to sleep without Ham?”

  Rita’s gaze narrowed back and then she shrugged. “I’ve never had the pleasure.”

  “I bet you could,” Violet said with
a smirk. Rita spun on her heel and escaped down the hall. Violet glanced back at her impervious butler. “Don’t wait up for Jack.”

  “Is all well, ma’am?”

  “No,” Violet sighed. “Near murder, it seems. He’ll be back when he’s back.”

  “Do you need anything, ma’am?”

  She thought she might need the less impervious gaze of Victor’s butler. She scowled at him and then her head tilted. “I’m going to step down to my brother’s house.”

  “Ma’am,” the butler said, trying to stop her, but she simply shrugged him off, noted the recently started downpour and then ran through it.

  She banged on the door at Victor’s house until Hargreaves opened the door.

  “My lady,” he said, only mostly impervious.

  She grinned at him, and patted his cheek. “I need my idiot brother.”

  “I believe he’s abed. Would you like a towel?”

  “I would,” Violet agreed. She took the towel before running up the stairs. As she toweled her hair, she slammed her fist against Victor’s door. He opened it a moment later, staring at her in shock.

  “We knock now?”

  “We’re married now,” Violet told him.

  He stepped back where Kate was struggling and failing to sit up. Victor crossed to her, hauled her up, and shoved pillows behind Kate’s back while Violet kicked off her shoes, took Victor’s robe, and climbed into bed next to Kate.

  “There’s another almost body.”

  “What does that mean?” Kate asked in surprise.

  “He’s not dead yet,” Victor answered, “but someone tried.”

  “What Victor said.” Violet snuggled into Kate’s side. “May I pet Violet Junior?” She didn’t wait for an answer and pressed her hand on Kate’s belly. Kate took it and moved it so that she could feel the baby kicking.

  “She’s sassy,” Violet told Kate. “She wants to come out and play with me.”

  “What happened?” Kate asked as Violet pressed back on the baby.

  “Lila asked everyone she knows about childbirth.”

  “Bloody hell, Vi,” Victor groaned.

  “There’s a verse in the Bible about it,” Kate told Violet. “It’s a little comforting.”