The Drowning Pool

by Syd Moore

  ‘For several moments he could not speak. Sarah took him by the arm to a small tavern across the railway away from the main town.

  ‘I cannot imagine what their reunion was like: two lovers battered by age, circumstance and tragedy, together again, risen from the dead. I do know she told him she had borne him a son and that later she showed him the grave.

  ‘I also know Tobias raged and moaned and protested that he had been told she had perished. They both understood that they had been duped. Yet Sarah remained silent, asking only one question when Tobias had worn himself quiet. “Who was your friend?”

  ‘It was an answer he wished he never had given. For she may have lived longer. She lived in terrible poverty and he had money he could give Sarah to improve her lot. “Who was your friend?” she asked again and again. So he told her the truth, “The man I thought had helped me, who posed as my confidant, was Doctor Hunter.”

  ‘It was then that Sarah went into her own rage and swore she would speak with him. Tobias begged her not to go. The doctor would know that he had returned and could alert the authorities to his presence in the town. But Sarah scoffed. There were none, she said, who had thought him a murderer. No death was reported but his. But, she cried to him and to those around, she must see her own justice served. And despite his protests she left the wharf.

  ‘He never saw her again.’ Tobias was silent for a moment.

  ‘His intention was to return and to bring her some money and goods or to settle her in some way that might make amends. But two days after he arrived back in Antwerp he heard Englishmen were attempting to track him down. On the pretence of looking for contraband, the ship that he chartered was searched. But Tobias had a good name now and fine friends in the port. Soon he learnt the men were reporting he attacked and killed a woman of Leigh: the old widow, Sarah Grey.

  ‘The doctor had succeeded in finally silencing the woman who could reveal what he had done.’

  The old man continued, urgent now. As if justifying his great grandfather’s actions he emphasized the words. ‘Tobias would have returned to settle the score, to confront the doctor, but Alice would not let him go, urging him to caution. He and his wife had three children, eleven grandchildren and a reputation to protect. And so Tobias did not pursue it. He did what he unwittingly had done many years before – he abandoned Sarah Grey once again.’

  The younger Tobias sighed loudly, dislodging some phlegm and setting off a dry cough. He paused to rest and to inspect my face for signs of emotion.

  I said nothing, too absorbed in thought, though the logic of it was dawning on me. According to Eden’s journals it was Hunter who had sent the men after Fitch. There was no other investigation.

  The big picture was coming into view.

  Another bout of coughing came and went. Tobias eased back on his pillows, exhausted now. ‘What happened to her? Madam Grey?’

  There was no easy way of telling him. ‘Someone … no, not someone, it was Doctor Hunter … he cut her head off and tied her up like a witch.’

  He winced and shuddered. ‘I’m sorry. Still,’ he grasped the box on his lap and lifted the lid, ‘I have for this for you, too. Mother’s neighbour came across it in the rubble of her building. It had her jewellery in it, and this.’ He picked out a small gold band and gestured for my hand.

  ‘What is it?’ I asked, nerves alert.

  Without speaking he slipped it onto the index finger of my left hand. ‘It fits. It would have been Sarah’s wedding ring. He kept it, all that time. It was the only thing he had to remind him. It is yours now. You are the rightful owner.’

  It shone on my finger. ‘I can’t … no, you don’t understand.’

  ‘I, we, insist. A great wrong was done to your family. To give this to you … it is the least we can do. It is what Tobias intended. You must take it back to Leigh.’

  That was assured, but my easy deception troubled me. ‘I’m not her direct line.’ I was reeling. The new shock of the treachery was giving way to a different emotion. Salty water pooled in my eyes.

  Tobias raised his hand gently and hushed me. ‘Then take it to her, wherever she is. And tell her he loved her.’

  I nodded and jogged the tears out of my eyes. One splashed over my cheek. I turned away to hide from Tobias but he was wise to it. ‘It’s sad, yes.’

  ‘I feel so sorry for Sarah. And Tobias.’ I was weeping at the unfairness of it all. ‘It was so wrong. They should have been together. They were in love.’

  ‘If they had married, I wouldn’t be here today, my dear. And neither would my family. Nor the descendants of the families Tobias gave shelter to. Certain things aren’t meant to be.’

  Suppressed anger at the travesty of it all bubbled close to the surface. ‘I don’t think Sarah was meant to be murdered. She didn’t deserve it and she doesn’t warrant the reputation she has even today.’

  ‘Well, you can do something about that, can’t you, Sarah?’ He smiled, then rasped into a second bluster of coughing.

  I rose to assist him but he waved me back. ‘If you don’t mind I would like to rest now. Talking so much does wear me out. But I wanted to see you. Very much. Now Claudia and Laurens will see you out.’

  I understood. And I was obliged to him. ‘Thank you, Tobias. I really am very grateful, you know, for everything. For these.’ I held the book in my ringed hand.

  ‘No,’ he said, though it was clearly becoming some effort to speak. ‘It is I who must thank you for coming. The family wanted it. And now at last Tobias can rest in peace.’

  ‘For my sanity let’s hope Sarah can, too.’ I bent over and kissed him, then I left the room.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  We said our thank yous to Claudia and Laurens, refusing the offer of more tea. I reached the outer landing, handed Claudia the old exercise book and asked her if there was any possibility she could translate it. ‘It would be a pleasure,’ she said. ‘If you give me your address I will send it to you.’ I scribbled it onto a piece of paper and within five minutes was through the vestibule and on the street outside with Andrew.

  I felt too shaky to consider public transport and he was eager to find out what the old man had to say. We ducked into the first café that we came to.

  Over steaming coffee I relayed Tobias’ story. My own response was still muddled and chaotic, so to see him process the new information with a logical mind was a comfort of sorts.

  ‘Christ! This is astounding. We’ve cracked the mystery.’ He leant over and rubbed my hand.

  I withdrew it and ran it through my slightly sweaty hair. ‘Have we?’

  ‘It’s got to be Hunter, hasn’t it? Is there anyone else in the frame? What do you make of Tobias Fitch – do you think he was telling the truth?’

  A queasiness was growing inside, but I managed to answer him. ‘It had to be authentic. Why would he fabricate it this way? I mean, it was an age ago. Why bother?’

  ‘To clear his name? His family’s name?’

  ‘But then why would he hang on to the ring?’

  ‘Don’t murderers take trophies from their victims? Souvenirs?’

  We sat for a moment mulling things through. My stomach was curdling. ‘I don’t buy it,’ I said at last. ‘He was sincere. The old Tobias’ story makes sense when you think about it. It ties up with everything else we’ve found out. It has to be Hunter.’

  ‘I agree. It can’t be the Primus, or Canon King. There’s no motive.’

  I opened my notebook and read out my list of suspects. ‘She was murdered fifteen years after the child Jane Tulley was burnt to death, and seventeen years after the second cholera epidemic. Way too long after the events for the parents to exact revenge. Elizabeth Little was another name I had written down. She was a smuggler. But I’m not convinced she had anything to do with it. Not now. Not after listening to what Tobias had to say.

  ‘It has to be Hunter,’ I said firmly. ‘Sarah sees Tobias again. They both think the other one is dead. Can you imagine? Then t
he realization that they’ve both been had. Hunter ruined their lives.’

  Andrew picked up the thread. ‘She goes to confront him. Tells him she knows what he’s done and threatens to blow the whole thing open. But he can’t have that …’ A sickness was coming up from my stomach. I swallowed and strained to hear him.

  ‘So, maybe she goes to his house and it’s not intentional but …’ Andrew’s words were growing fainter, distant, echoing into the vaulted ceiling of the room.

  The nausea lurched within me just as the café dimmed and receded.

  Light vanished.

  Then suddenly a new landscape surrounds me. I drag my skirts through the bushes, limping, forcing my body to the cliff top.

  Rain pelts against my face and drenches the rags of my robe. The wind howls its warning through the trees but I don’t stop till I see the house come into view. The thorny undergrowth tears at my hair as I enter the garden and cross the lawn. The house is in darkness but for a lamp at the French doors.

  Through the glass I see him hunched over the hearth fire. Older now, a pair of spectacles on the end of his nose. I put my hand on the wet handle and push.

  The sound makes him turn. When he recognizes me he grimaces, then a half-amused smile plays on his lips. ‘Sarah, I am not at home to visitors …’ Then he stops. Something in my eyes tells him to take care.

  I am on him in an instant, as close as I can get. ‘You lied, Festus Hunter. You told me he was dead.’ I am pleased to see I have taken him off guard. He staggers to the fire and grabs a poker from the grate. ‘You are mad, woman. Sit down.’

  But my fury is more potent than his staying words. ‘You will command me no more. Why did you do it?’

  Hunter backs away, then suddenly thrusts the poker forwards, brandishing it at me, a warning. I am beyond caution now, wanting only the truth, and I push it aside with my hand. ‘Tobias. You told me he was killed.’

  A glimmer of recognition seems to light in his eyes. ‘You were never going to marry him. Do you think Lady Sparrow would have welcomed you? My actions back then were rewarded lavishly.’ He laughs in my face.

  I spit on the floor. ‘You could have left us alone. Instead you ripped out my heart. You …’ The doctor has raised the poker above his head. There is danger in the room. I step back falteringly. ‘Evil be as evil does and all will know. All.’

  He takes another step towards me, his cheeks now pale, eyes dark with a black fire.

  ‘Ha,’ I say, seeing what he fears now. ‘I will tell of your sin. So all will know. And God will force you to atone.’

  The doctor makes to catch my arm, but tired as I am, I dart to one side and turn, fleeing through the doors onto the open lawn. My fury spurs me on, giving me strength to fly. With new resolution I grip the locket in my hand. The truth will out.

  The wind roars over the fields, lightning flashes across the sky, illuminating the grand cedar tree. I head for its protection, not able to think of any other escape. I have almost reached its dark shadow when I feel a blow to the back of my head. As I fall, I hear my voice cry out. ‘I will tell the world, Hunter … Evil be …’ Then blackness and life no more.

  I jolted up, back into the café, breathing hard and fast.

  Andrew was up beside me, a hand on my shoulder. ‘Are you OK? You completely zoned out.’

  I buried my face in my hands. The room was spinning.

  ‘I’ll get you some water. It’s probably the heat.’ And he left the table.

  I put my head on the table’s cool surface and gripped its edges to make sure I was back in the room.

  It was the last piece of the jigsaw. The final revelation. She had given me the key to it all.

  Poor Sarah. Her tragic life, so blasted by meanness, so ravaged and tattered, was cruelly snuffed out.

  As I sat there in that foreign café, sweating and shaking, I was washed away by a colossal wave of grief and found myself weeping for her, then for Tobias, the children. Then, as my heart sank into it I cried for Josh, and Alfie, for Imogen and Amelia and Andrew. Then finally, when I was almost dry of tears, I wept at last for me.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  It was only later, when we sat back at the hotel, barely eating the meals that Room Service had delivered, were we able to start speaking of it again.

  After what Andrew called ‘my attack’ in the café, he had ferried me back in a cab. I can’t really remember much about what happened when we reached the hotel, but Andrew informs me I slept for hours while he held me.

  When I woke the light in my room was clearer. The air smelt fresh and cleansed as if by a storm. My environment had become different. As if some skin or layer had been rolled back, revealing a new world.

  Although my head ached I felt relief throughout my body, and calm. Almost relaxed.

  But I had merely entered the eye of the hurricane.

  As we picked at the platter we’d ordered I felt able to return to the conversation where we had left off.

  This time I felt no overwhelming emotion. I examined the new information in a more precise manner, as though I was detached, an observer, only needing to get the facts straight in my head. ‘I still don’t understand,’ I said to Andrew at last. ‘Why did she end up in the Drowning Pool?’

  We were holding hands across the small, chrome table on the balcony. The evening’s rays were bouncing off the terra-cotta roof tiles of the houses beyond. In the distance the river sparkled. Leigh was a million miles away, thankfully.

  ‘I think,’ he said softly, and rubbed his thumb on my palm, ‘it would have been to throw people off the scent. Sarah was the only person left in Leigh who knew what he’d done. There’s Tobias of course, but he left with the storm. Sarah’s first husband, Robert Billing, who could have testified to the truth of her story, was long dead. She may have even confided in her second husband, John Grey. But she probably didn’t. I imagine it would have been too shameful. Mother Grey already had a reputation as a witch, so Hunter took his opportunity and capitalized on that, tying her up like they used to when they swam witches. And Doom Pond was close to his house.’

  ‘The Drowning Pool,’ I murmured. ‘It took her at last. Though she was never guilty of anything.’

  Andrew sighed and caressed my hand. ‘It was pretty typical of the time, I’m afraid. A woman speaks out, crosses the lines of gender and class and ends up dead as a result.’

  ‘Like the witches did.’

  Andrew tutted. ‘They didn’t even need to step out of line. They just needed to be different.’

  I pulled out a cigarette and lit it. ‘Anyhow, Sarah wasn’t a witch.’ I blew out and watched the smoke drift to Andrew. ‘Thing is, thinking back, you have to wonder in the first place why Hunter betrayed Tobias at all?’

  ‘It’s obvious – Olivia Sparrow. Remember Eden’s journal? Most people had wised up to Hunter’s ambitions. The Lady of the Manor was the most powerful woman in the area. One who could help him. And don’t forget, he did succeed in becoming mayor. First one ever. He must have been clever, an arch manipulator. That would have taken quite some manoeuvring.’

  I considered this for a while. In my vision he had said he’d been rewarded. ‘Do you reckon Olivia Sparrow was in on it?’

  ‘I doubt that she was briefed on the exact details, but Hunter would have indicated that his actions had averted a scandal. He succeeded in neutralizing the threat, Sarah, and spiriting away Tobias. Olivia would have felt indebted to him. Hey presto – he’s suddenly the mayor.’

  I shook my head. ‘But if Tobias was Olivia’s favourite she wouldn’t want any harm coming to him.’

  Andrew released my hand and fished out a cigarette from my packet. ‘You have to understand what society was like back then. The Victorians feared disgrace so much more than damnation.’ He blew out a plume of smoke. ‘With Lady Sparrow’s Low Church views, she would have taken the view that Tobias’ immortal soul had been saved. She would have seen it as a sacrifice that was well worth making.’


  ‘Even so, murder. That’s a cardinal sin.’

  Andrew hunched over and tapped the ashtray with his fag. ‘That’s the point, isn’t it? There wasn’t a murder. Not in 1823 at least. There was no mention of it in any newspaper at the time. I assumed that Olivia Sparrow had bought everyone off. But maybe there wasn’t one at all? Tobias struck someone down, yes, but that person could have easily re covered while Tobias was out cold. Sarah was only told Tobias was dead by Hunter, right?’

  It was true. ‘Yes. And the doctor told Tobias Sarah was dead and the press ganger too. And now we know that Hunter was the “unknown friend” you have to realize the whole thing was a set-up. He was never going to let them elope. I doubt that there was a press gang at all. I bet they were Hunter’s men, dressed up to look the part. When she heard what Tobias had to say Sarah would have worked things out for herself. Do you think she meant to kill Doctor Hunter?’

  He shook his head. ‘She wouldn’t have had it in her. She was too old. And she wasn’t a bad person. That’s the misinformation put about by the legend.’

  Andrew put out his cigarette and picked up his espresso. ‘He silenced her.’

  ‘Yep,’ I said. That’s what I’d seen.

  ‘Though who would have believed what she had to say? Her reputation was tarnished.’

  ‘Clearly the man was mean and a control freak. No way would he allow any slur on his character. He was the mayor. And Tobias wasn’t dead. He could vouch for what Sarah had to say. Hunter must have realized that. Kill Sarah and frame the foreign captain – perfect. If I didn’t feel so much hatred towards the man, I’d probably find myself grudgingly admiring his plan. What a clever bastard.’