Alkmene decided to keep the wager with Peartree to herself for the moment, thinking Jake knew enough now to understand Duncan’s views of the dig and the urgency of his quest for the treasure. No need to emphasize how utterly foolish Duncan had been.
Jake nodded. ‘Buck Seaton told me that all over London people are shaking their heads, bemoaning his poor family, especially his sister who seems to be marrying in the late fall. If some scandal hit, and well, getting charged with murder is a pretty big scandal of course, she might not be able to wed the man. He might uh… How can I put it tactfully? Not be keen on the connection?’
‘Ah,’ Alkmene said. ‘So the list of things Duncan stands to lose because of this expedition gets even longer. We can add his family bond, his sister’s love or whatever we want to call it. If an accusation against him caused the wedding to be cancelled, neither his sister nor his mother would want to see him again for a long time.’
‘And even though,’ Jake supplied, ‘he might not care a whole lot for their company right now, we can surmise he doesn’t want to be cast out of the family fold for ever. Least of all, cast out by his father who might consider leaving his fortune to someone other than his scandalous son?’
Alkmene sighed. ‘All of this is just giving Duncan more motive for the murder. We’re supposed to find evidence to clear him, remember?’
Jake glanced at her. ‘If it is there. I can’t make it up at will. This is what I found so this is what we have to work from. If we assume that Duncan had to succeed in so many ways and we then assume he wasn’t finding anything, we see a desperate man ready to strike out in his frustration. But why kill somebody who merely comes to look at your dig?’
Alkmene nodded. ‘For Duncan to have motive, Goodman must have been a direct threat to his success in finding the gold.’
Jake tapped the wheel. ‘But why? Could Goodman disprove the claim? Did he have a prior claim that could ruin it all for Duncan?’
‘No, Trevor Price got permission to dig here from a former mayor. There was controversy over the land but not with Goodman. With a local man nicknamed Old Paul. He is a beachcomber claiming his family had the land for generations.’
Jake glanced at her. ‘That is interesting. Did you talk to this Old Paul?’
‘Not yet, but I intend to.’
Jake nodded. ‘We can do it together. We have to look at all angles, local and leading back to London. Personally I’m betting on that horse. Goodman was no more than a spy.’
Alkmene looked at him. ‘Excuse me?’
‘Not in a political sense, of course. But Goodman had been sent by the patron Price to sort of…uh…keep an eye on things? He was supposed to report back to London and beyond if this madman’s quest of Duncan’s was leading to anything.’
Alkmene frowned deeper. ‘Sarah just told me that Goodman had to report on Duncan, so that could fit. But why would Price want reports to begin with? If he believed the whole treasure tale to be a lie…’
‘Well, you know how paranoid people can be. What if there was a tiny chance there was a treasure out here… If Duncan, a newcomer to the field, found it while his distinguished patron had openly denied it could ever exist, it would look bad for him, would it not? The great Trevor Price, getting snubbed by a novice in the field… I suppose Price was trying to ascertain if this kind of loss of face was viable and if he could prevent it somehow. Offer Duncan a deal maybe before word of his spectacular find got out?’
Alkmene nodded slowly. ‘That sounds believable enough.’
Jake made a modest face. ‘Look, it doesn’t require much effort to figure it out. Trevor Price is a smart man. He would at least be smart enough to draw the same conclusions we have. That Duncan has everything riding on success here. He might have figured Duncan would not have taken those chances unless he was pretty sure he’d be successful. So he sent Reiner Goodman out here to be his eyes. Now Goodman is dead. Did he get greedy and look for the treasure himself? Did he start manipulating people and did one of them not like it and hit back? I mean, if you agree to be used as a spy, you have to be a certain type of person. I think, an unlikeable person.’
‘That makes two of them,’ Alkmene said.
Jake hitched a brow at her. ‘Excuse me?’
‘Goodman may be dead, but we are left with another extremely unlikeable person. One Simon Peartree.’
Jake shook his head. ‘The name means nothing to me. You didn’t mention him either on the phone. What’s his role in the case?’
‘I’m not quite sure. He wasn’t mentioned in passing by anybody you talked to?’
Jake shook his head again, saying, ‘Look, I didn’t have a lot of time. I called two contacts and talked to Buck Seaton. He knows a lot of people and is not afraid to speak his mind about all of them. He told me that Trevor Price was over the hill and the old man knew it. That he might be jealous of an upcoming talent like Duncan now that his own career is going downhill, along with his health. Makes perfect sense to me. Now what do you have, other than that Duncan paid for the excavation from his own pocket, which I already knew?’
Alkmene leaned back, ignoring his provocative tone. ‘Peartree testified to the police that he overheard Duncan and the dead man arguing the night before the victim died. Duncan seemed to have said that he would never forgive him for something he had done.’
‘Did you ask Duncan about it? What it was he referred to with that remark?’
‘No, I haven’t talked to him at all yet. I tried to see him as soon as I got here and he was taken in, but the police would not let me near him. The constable in charge, a chap named Aldridge, is rather domineering. I can’t quite make out if he just dislikes city people or if there is more to it. Duncan is probably still locked up.’
They neared the village. To their right a figure laboured on a bike. As Alkmene trained her eyes on him, he seemed familiar. Peartree?
The cyclist made a sharp turn to the left and came towards them, disappearing behind a few cottages, but reappearing again in the village square and meeting up with them as Jake parked the car in front of The Catch.
Simon Peartree ditched his bicycle against someone’s neat hedge and smiled at her. ‘You need not have run away from me. I don’t bite, you know.’ He acted like they were all alone, ignoring the presence of Jake, who surveyed him over the car’s top.
Alkmene looked at the bicycle. The muddy tyres suggested he had biked across some bad paths. ‘You caught up very quickly.’
Peartree shrugged. ‘I forgot to ask you. Let’s have dinner together. The Catch can set it up for us in a separate room. There are a few things about Duncan I think you should know. Before you entangle yourself even further with his defence?’
He didn’t even wait for her to agree, but grabbed his bicycle again and turned it around. ‘Don’t overdo your dress. These are simple folks. Besides, some sod might see a pearl necklace and come to your room at night to get it. The doors of the rooms in The Catch can’t be locked on the inside, you know.’
With a nod he jumped onto the bicycle and took off.
‘Where did he get a bicycle?’ Alkmene mused. As Peartree didn’t mind pinching apples from the local store, had he also not minded ‘borrowing’ a bicycle from a local? Maybe Ms Rivers had this time not misplaced her property as Eddy had suggested, but it had really been taken.
‘Why did he feel the need to threaten you?’ Jake asked in a low voice.
Alkmene turned to him. ‘Threaten me?’
‘Yes, his remark about your room having no lock on the door and all. I doubt he really believes you to have come down from London with a fortune in jewels. He only acted like he was concerned while he was really intimidating you about the risks of your stay here.’
Alkmene couldn’t deny it seemed so. ‘That would be the second time Peartree did so. Earlier he suggested it could be dangerous for me to hunt the real killer as he or she might come after me to prevent me from succeeding.’
Before she could protest against the suggestion she’d get nowhere Jake added, ‘Peartree’s type doesn’t believe other people can ever do anything right, especially women. He has no idea you have been successful before in exposing killers.’
Gratified that Jake referred to her previous successes, Alkmene smiled. ‘You’re so right. Peartree should dismiss me as a harmless little fool too infatuated with Duncan or his money and title to see what is good for me. Why does he stick to me like glue? I bet he has nothing to tell me over dinner, but only wants to know how much I know. Why?’
She frowned hard, then shook her head. ‘I can’t figure Peartree out. Yet. But I do take everything he says very seriously. Even that remark about my door having no lock. Tonight before I go to sleep, I will have to devise a construction with a chair and some luggage on it in front of my door to make sure intruders stay on the outside. I’m not a deep sleeper, but I want to make perfectly sure I’ll wake up as soon as somebody tries to get into my room.’
Jake put his hand over hers. He held her gaze. ‘Are you sure it is smart to get involved in this any deeper? I appreciate your efforts for a childhood friend, but…maybe you should let me handle it from here. You can go back to London.’
Alkmene huffed. ‘Do you really think I’d do that?’
Jake smiled. ‘No, I guess not.’
Despite his smile his eyes were worried. She turned her hand over and squeezed his. ‘I’ll be fine. You’re here now, right? You can keep an eye on me. I’ll be perfectly safe.’
Chapter Seven
When Alkmene came down the stairs, she wore a simple black gown with a thin gold necklace around her neck, a matching bracelet on her arm. Peartree was waiting for her by the hearth.
A drink in hand, he rose and came over to her, taking her hand in his and kissing it. The sensation of his weak lips on her skin made Alkmene cringe.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jake sitting at a table with two other men, drinking beer. She bet he was smirking right now.
But for the investigation’s sake she put on her best happy smile and let the insufferable Peartree lead her, arm through his, into the promised private chamber. It was small and smelled of hay, suggesting it was close to, or connected with, the stables.
Alkmene sat down, while Peartree reached into the cooler to get the bottle of wine out. He uncorked it and filled her glass.
Instead of offering her just an inch so she could first smell it, he filled the glass up to the rim. She tilted her head at him, but said nothing. If he was a wine importer, he had a distinct lack of knowledge of wine drinking etiquette.
She tried a sip and said, ‘Excellent. Your own?’
He seemed confused, then rushed to say, ‘No, no. I uh…I only deliver to restaurants in London and other big cities. A place like this doesn’t really need good wine.’
The innkeeper’s wife came in with two steaming plates of soup. Alkmene deduced by the colour it had to be mustard, but the taste was rather floury and unimpressive. Would Jake be getting something more substantial? She would love a bite of beef right now.
She maintained her happy smile at Peartree, even saying, ‘Just my luck that when Duncan is…detained, you can be my host for the night.’
Peartree returned her smile. ‘Pun intended?’
Alkmene shrugged. ‘From what I have gathered so far Duncan made himself look like a total ass out here so he will probably only improve with a night behind bars to ponder his attitude.’
Peartree hitched a brow. ‘From concern to diffidence. If it is not the way of women…’
There was a hint of real bitterness in his voice, but before she could gauge it, he lifted his wine glass and toasted her playfully. ‘To a night without Duncan then, Alkmene.’
He held her gaze as he added, ‘Or should I say Lady Alkmene? You did not mention your title to me when we met on the site this afternoon.’
Alkmene shrugged. ‘Titles are bothersome most of the time. They make people feign interest in you. I was just trying to find out what you would think of me while having no idea of my father’s position or money.’
Peartree smiled at her. ‘And what did you discover?’
Alkmene took a sip of wine. ‘I’m not sure.’
Peartree laughed. ‘A diplomatic answer.’
Alkmene surveyed him. If he moved in the better circles in London, he should have heard of her before. Her first name wasn’t exactly common. Was he only pretending to have been in the dark about her title?
How much did he really know about her? She didn’t think she was the only one who could make a call and learn things. Peartree had had time to do a little digging of his own, size up his opponent.
That was what it felt like, even as they sat together for a quiet dinner. Like they were opponents, probing the other’s weaknesses and strengths, determining the best line of offence and defence.
Waiting for the right time to strike…
Peartree leaned back against his chair. ‘You said you grew up at the summer residence of dear Duncan and his family. Alberley, was it not? Poor girl for having to endure his wild adventures.’
‘Well, there were two other girls there.’ Alkmene looked down on her soup. ‘Younger than me, but nice playmates. One of them is getting married in the fall.’
Peartree said nothing. In the distance there was a vague growl of thunder. The bad weather that had been in the air when she had met Jake was about to break.
Peartree said, ‘The main course is lamb. I hope you’re not sentimental about it. I once took a lady out to dinner who nearly fainted at the idea of having to eat the meat of such a cute little animal that bounced around the meadows in spring. She had no qualms at all about eating pork.’
Alkmene laughed softly. ‘Not quite so cuddly, right?’
Peartree held her gaze. ‘Duncan is always the cuddly one, getting the ladies running after him.’
‘And you’re the pork nobody minds devouring?’
His eyes flashed a moment. ‘Crudely put, but accurate. It makes Duncan’s insistence on a career of his own even more ridiculous. I mean, he already has a title and lands and all, what does he need a career for?’
‘He wants to achieve something by his own efforts. Prove to the world he is more than just some rich boy born with a golden spoon in his mouth. I think that is actually very good of him.’
‘Oh, come on. He is a dilettante. When his patron took him on, Duncan knew next to nothing about archaeology. He was only supposed to pump money into expeditions. But then Duncan stumbled upon this tale about the cruel lord and the beautiful bride, the missing treasure. He got obsessed with it even though no creditable archaeologist believes in its existence. He came here, just wasting money and making his family look ridiculous.’
Lightning flashed outside the window, illuminating the room for a brief moment. Drops of rain pattered against the window, hesitant, then increasing.
The door burst open, and Alkmene expected to see the innkeeper carrying a large plate with the roasted lamb.
But it was Duncan on the threshold. A big man by nature, he looked even bigger and more intimidating because his hair was standing up and his eyes were bloodshot. A few dark spots on his shoulders betrayed he had walked in just as the rain had begun. ‘Peartree!’ he hollered. ‘Turn my back on you and you’re smudging my honour with my friends, right? But you will be sorry for it.’
He barged into the room and grabbed Peartree by his lapels, dragging him up from the chair in a jerk that sent the chair crashing to the floor.
Alkmene rose as well. ‘Duncan, please. You’ve just been released. Don’t get yourself arrest
ed again, this time for assault.’
‘He deserves every bit of harm I can do to him,’ Duncan hissed.
Alkmene rounded the table and took his arm. The muscles bulged under her touch. ‘Please, think a moment. If you hurt him, it will only look as if you’re more than capable of knocking a man’s skull in with a hammer.’
‘You think I killed Reiner Goodman?’ Duncan’s blue eyes were frantic.
The beating of the rain against the window filled the room, underlining the rising tension.
Alkmene hurried to say, ‘No, not at all. But not everybody here knows you as I do. Please don’t give them a wrong impression by hurting someone.’
‘Please,’ Peartree said in a high-pitched voice apparently meant to imitate Alkmene. ‘Please, dear Duncan, sweet old childhood friend.’
‘You pig…’ Duncan dragged Peartree to the wall and pinned him against it. ‘One more word about Alkmene, and I could just…’
Alkmene spied Jake standing in the doorway, with a lad of about sixteen behind him, peering over his shoulder. Jake said to the boy, ‘I’ll give you five pounds if you can help me, quickly, so no harm is done here.’
At once they entered and pulled Duncan away from his victim. Peartree stood against the wall, rubbing his throat as if somebody had tried to strangle him. He was smiling though, an ugly satisfied little smile.
Alkmene focused on Jake and the boy holding Duncan. Duncan hollered, ‘Let me go, you peasants. Especially you, little thief. You took part of my treasure and hid it somewhere, but I will find out where. I will.’
He shook them off and galloped from the room. They heard him yell all the way out of the inn’s door. The rain was still streaming down. He would be soaked to the skin in an instant. Where could he be going? To whom could he turn now?
Peartree said, ‘You need not have intervened, Alkmene. Such a scene…’
‘You fed the fire,’ Alkmene retorted. ‘Don’t give me that “poor girl has to see ugly scene” thing. I’m not sure what you want here in Blackcastle, but you never came to support Duncan.’
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