The scorn in the word ‘family’ was thick. Still, Peartree had admitted he had never been to Alberley. What did he know of Duncan’s family that made him so vicious about them?
Had he perhaps crossed paths with the viscount in the past? Had the viscount treated him badly and had Peartree set up a plan to drag Duncan into an excavation and a wager surrounding it, which could ruin him so completely his family would also be touched?
‘So it’s actually in your interest to keep Duncan alive,’ Jake said pensively. ‘Then why did you tell the police about his night-time argument with Reiner Goodman? That testimony could lead Duncan straight to the gallows.’
‘I didn’t tell them to get Duncan strung up.’ Peartree stared at Alkmene as if trying to make an important point. ‘Besides, trials take a long time. I’m sure Duncan would be a perfect gentleman and pay me what he owed me before he was about to die.’
Alkmene pursed her lips. ‘So it’s just the money you want.’ It made sense, and still it felt like something was missing. Like Peartree’s whole mission here had to be about more than just money.
Peartree shrugged. ‘Duncan entered into a wager with me knowing what he did.’
‘That’s not completely true. You told me earlier Duncan was intoxicated when he made the bet. Did he really know what he was doing?’
‘Is that an excuse?’ Peartree gestured at the door. ‘Look at the miserable heap in there. All he knows to do when he’s at his wits’ end is to drink his brains out. Do you still have any respect left for your childhood friend?’
Alkmene winced. She did dislike people who were immoderate, especially men who drank too much and acted stupidly when intoxicated. Gambling away part of your fortune on a bet over a treasure was the exact kind of thing she could not understand.
But Peartree was trying to turn her against Duncan, and she was not about to play along. She said, ‘I don’t judge a friend by a single action.’
Peartree laughed. ‘Come on. You arrived yesterday. Duncan was being arrested, for murder no less. Barely released, he barged in last night and tried to strangle me. Now he is dead drunk. What does that tell you about him, huh?’
Jake cleared his throat. He had put the mud-crusted boot back in place. ‘I’m glad nothing happened here. Nobody is dead and nobody has to answer for it. Shall we go downstairs? I think Alkmene would like some coffee.’
Peartree opened his mouth, to protest it seemed, then he suddenly smiled. ‘Of course.’
He took the stairs two steps at a time and barged into the kitchen. He studied the assortment of cans on the floor in front of the open cupboard with distaste. ‘Please clean up the mess you made in here. It beats me what kind of clues to Duncan’s supposed demise you were looking for among canned beef, but…’
‘We did not do that,’ Alkmene said, ‘but your charwoman did. She ran off when we arrived. Like you said before, she’s a bit unusual.’
She felt a pang of guilt inside for talking about the kind little woman like that, but she might get more from Peartree if she pretended to share his world view.
Peartree shook his head. ‘She is completely unreliable. Starts a thing, thinks of another, runs off to do that. The place is a constant mess. But I’ll have to put up with it.’
‘You could take a room at the inn,’ Alkmene suggested.
Peartree looked at her. ‘I would be closer to you then.’
Jake rolled his eyes. As he stood half behind Peartree, the latter could not see it.
Alkmene tried not to laugh. ‘I only meant to say you’d be more conveniently settled there.’
‘There would also be a lot more watchful eyes,’ Jake said. ‘Here you’re free to do as you please. The excavation site is close. You could go out onto it at night.’
‘Why would I want to do that?’ Peartree laughed uncomfortably. ‘I spent most of my time there anyway.’
Jake shrugged. He pointed up at the ceiling. ‘There is a hurricane lantern hidden in your wardrobe. Bit of an odd place to keep it, don’t you agree?’
Peartree straightened up. ‘Like I told you, if you’re not with the police, you have no right to look through people’s things. Maybe you were really concerned for Duncan and didn’t realize how this would look. But next time I’ll talk about your behaviour to the local constable.’
‘There won’t be a next time,’ Jake said.
Peartree seemed to want to ask something, then thought better of it. He filled the kettle with water and put it on the stove. ‘This will take some time.’
‘Good.’ Jake pulled out a chair and sat on it. ‘Then you can tell us a thing or two. There is an old man, a beachcomber, who claims the land on which Duncan is digging is his. What do you know about that? Have you ever seen the paper he claims to hold?’
Peartree laughed softly. ‘You want to accuse Old Paul of the murder? You’ll have a hard time making that stick. He is liked around town. Nobody knows what for as he is always shouting about injustice and tourists making off with beach finds that should have been his. Sad character really. Like that wife of his… Missing a few vital pieces up here, if you ask me.’ He tapped against his forehead.
‘I’m not trying to accuse anyone,’ Jake said. ‘I’m just looking at the case from all possible angles.’
‘Another botanist’s approach?’ Peartree sneered to Alkmene, then he looked at Jake again. ‘I think I missed the moment when you said what your name was.’
Jake smiled. ‘I haven’t said my name yet.’ He gestured at the kettle. ‘Like you just said, this may take a while. We’ll stay here and make some strong black coffee for Duncan upstairs. You can go about your own business. Whatever it may be.’
Peartree flushed. ‘I live here. I have more of a right to be here than you do. Who do you think you are?’
Alkmene said hurriedly, ‘Look, Simon, I really want to talk to Duncan one on one. You know I tried yesterday and was unsuccessful getting anywhere with the police.’
As she said it, Peartree’s expression changed from aggravated to pleased.
Alkmene continued, ‘I’m sure that if I do not speak with Duncan now, I might never get the chance again. After all, Constable Aldridge is no doubt closing the case against him as we speak. He could be rearrested before nightfall.’
Peartree’s eyes flickered with a malignant pleasure.
Alkmene said in a soft pleading voice, ‘I came all the way out here especially to see Duncan. I had no idea we’d meet under such tragic circumstances. I would really appreciate a quiet moment to speak with him before he’s once again in the hands of the authorities.’
Jake rolled his eyes again, but Peartree didn’t notice. Peartree kept looking straight at her, struggling to suppress what had to be a smug smile. With Duncan’s arrest imminent he seemed to have accomplished his aim.
Peartree said, ‘I understand. Well, I do suppose I have a thing or two to take care of at the dig. The workers did show up this morning because they knew Duncan had been released. I’ve told them what to do and then came back here to see if Duncan had shown his face. Now that he is…unable to lead his crew, it falls to me.’
The self-satisfaction in his voice could not be missed.
Peartree walked to the back door. ‘Better speak with Duncan about anything you might still want to say. You might indeed never get another chance.’
He left. They could hear him whistle as he walked away.
Jake closed in on Alkmene at once. His voice was low and puzzled. ‘What do the police have that they can be closing the case against Woolsbury?’
Alkmene lowered her voice to a whisper, in case Peartree had forgotten something and returned. ‘Nothing. I just took a submissive tone with him because I wanted him to leave and let us talk to Duncan. Go upstairs now, throw a bucket of water over Duncan’s head or something to sober him up and I will bring the strong coffee as soon as it is done. More than anything else we need his perspective on the whole case.’
Chapter Nine
Alkmene had just made the strongest coffee that she had ever smelled when there were heavy footfalls and Duncan waddled into the kitchen, his eyes red-rimmed and bleary, his hair standing up even more than the night before. He crashed on the chair that Jake had vacated earlier and leaned heavily on the table.
Alkmene poured the coffee and put it in front of him. ‘How is your head?’
Duncan looked up at her. ‘If I say pounding like a sledgehammer, would you believe me?’ He grimaced and reached for the cup.
‘Hot,’ Alkmene warned and sat down opposite him.
Duncan blew in the coffee, then tried a sip. ‘That I’m taking this doesn’t mean I have forgiven you for your dinner with Peartree.’
‘He invited me to discuss the case,’ Alkmene said. It wasn’t completely true as Peartree had probably invited her for selfish reasons and she had accepted for the sake of the case, but in the end it came down to the same thing. There had been no feelings involved.
‘You shouldn’t believe a word he is saying about the case,’ Duncan roared. He slammed his fist on the table. ‘He has set me up with the whole thing.’
Alkmene studied him closer. ‘If your head is pounding, why are you not cringing under the sound of your fist on the table?’
Duncan blinked at her.
She studied him better. If she disregarded the wild hair and the red-rimmed eyes, he didn’t look all that fuzzy.
Her eyes narrowed. ‘You were only acting like you were out cold.’
‘For Peartree’s sake. I thought it was him coming up and into my room to check on me. Even after I heard your voice, I wasn’t sure who was with you. I had to pretend – to make sure you would go away again.’
Duncan sat up, his eyes bright and alert. ‘You have to believe me, Alkmene. Peartree is out to destroy me. I’m sure he killed Goodman, just to frame me. I only have to prove it somehow.’
Alkmene leaned back against the chair. ‘Why would Peartree want to frame you? Just for the sake of the wager?’
‘Oh, that wager.’ Duncan waved a hand. ‘Sure, we had a wager and it was pretty dumb of me to accept it. But I am sure that there is a treasure to be found here, so I won’t lose. I can’t lose.’
Alkmene sighed. ‘You haven’t found a treasure yet, but there has been a corpse on your dig. Now I want to know exactly what went wrong, and fast.’
Duncan held the cup of coffee in both hands and blew in it again. ‘Reiner Goodman was supposed to become my patron’s right-hand man. Before I came onto the scene, that was. Price liked me for my ideas, but foremost for my money and my connections. People think I didn’t understand that, but I did. I was on to his real intentions from the very start. However, I really want to make a career for myself in this field and I needed Price’s help for that, so whatever he wanted me for, I didn’t care. I offered him access to my purse if he engaged me in his projects. So I got the position at Goodman’s expense.’
‘And Goodman didn’t like you for it,’ Alkmene concluded.
Duncan nodded. ‘He told me that he knew I was a fraud and he’d prove it some day. I didn’t take it all too seriously until he showed up here. He claimed that Price had sent him to have a look at the dig and report back to him how it was progressing.’
Alkmene didn’t look at Jake to see if he was gloating now. After all it had been Jake’s assumption. Goodman, the spy for Price.
But Duncan continued, ‘I don’t think that was true. The old man had never believed in the treasure here, considered the whole venture a waste of time. Why send Goodman to see what I was up to? No, Goodman came here for himself. He wanted the treasure so he could get ahead of me again. Regain his old position as Price’s right hand.’
‘Was that what he was doing on the dig the night he was killed? Looking for the treasure?’
Duncan shrugged. ‘Who knows? I have no idea what he was doing there or why he was killed.’
Alkmene huffed. ‘You fought with him, hours before he died. You blamed him for something and threatened him.’
‘That had nothing to do with the dig, with archaeology. It was a personal thing. And I never intended to kill him.’ Duncan laughed softly. ‘Goodman was a weasel, a slimy creature who licked his way into people’s confidence, then dug a dagger into their backs. He was not worth my time.’
‘You’re glad that he is dead now.’ Jake moved to stand at the sink.
Duncan glared at him. ‘Look, I don’t care if you’re a friend of Alkmene’s or not, but if you’re going to apply that tone with me, we’ll soon be outside, trying a bit of wrestling. And I can assure you my hold is better than a grizzly bear’s.’
Jake scoffed. ‘You would have to be insane to attack me while you’re under suspicion of murder. Don’t you understand at all that you have to behave like the best man in town now to escape the noose?’
Duncan looked tight. ‘What I do or don’t understand is none of your business.’
He looked at Alkmene, hissing, ‘I won’t say another word while he is here.’
Alkmene twisted round in her chair. ‘Jake, would you just go outside for a while? Have a look at the garden or something. Just give us a chance to catch up, like old friends.’
She was worried for a moment Jake would refuse. A man like him didn’t take dismissal just like that. Especially when Duncan’s high-handed tone had to have made him livid.
But Jake shrugged and walked out the back door. It slammed shut.
Duncan exhaled. ‘You have some strange friends.’
‘You too. I mean, when this Peartree started acting like the host upon my arrival I was glad for it. It was so awkward to arrive as the police were…taking you in. So I believed he was taking care of me in your stead.’
Duncan laughed softly. ‘I bet he wanted you to believe in him as my dear friend and confide in him. He likes nothing better than to have another thing to taunt me with.’
‘Look.’ Alkmene sat up. ‘Confession time. So Peartree can get money if you don’t make this dig work out. Fine, I believe that. But there is much more to his attitude than just a gleeful expectation of some fast money. He hates you for some reason and he is enjoying every moment of discomfort he can give you.’
Duncan stared into his coffee cup. ‘I could use some more of this brew.’
Alkmene rose, picked up the cup and filled it. As she had her back to him, she asked, ‘Is there a woman involved?’
Duncan sighed. ‘Isn’t there always?’
Alkmene clenched the coffee pot. So it was true. Duncan had come out here to meet with someone his family did not approve of. Peartree knew of it and tried to use it to his advantage. He might be the sender of the blackmail letter she had discovered behind the silver clock.
But the driver Kramer had also known of it, or at least suspected. What was his part in all of this?
She put the pot back on the stove and turned to Duncan with the brimming cup. ‘Here you go.’
‘Thank you.’ Duncan drank deep, then sighed. ‘It was all my fault. I brought Peartree home.’
‘Home? He told me he had met you at some club one night playing cards. He acted to me like he didn’t know Alberley, or the rest of your family.’
Duncan gave her a weary look. ‘I wish that were true.’
He took another sip of coffee. ‘I had met him at the club one night and I thought he was quite funny with his tales of his travels and all. A bit of a daredevil, the sort of man that livens a party with his talk. I invited him to attend a soirée at my parents’. You know my mother. She enjoys new guests to show off. Peartree wasn’t an Eton man, but you’d never tell. I believed it would be good fun to introduce him and nobody would ever know he wasn’t exactly like us. Then he saw Delphine.’
Duncan stared ahead. ‘He didn’t get a chance to talk to her that night, but he never took his eyes off her. He began to send her flowers and letters,
poems and all the stuff fools in love do. Delphine was flattered, but my father was not amused. He didn’t think Peartree eligible for one of his daughters. Mind you, Anastasia married up and Delphine has to do the same, or better. She sulked about it for a bit. I think there has been a clandestine meeting or two, nothing serious, just a walk in the park, a visit to a museum. They have been seen together, and word of it was brought back to my father. He talked to her, he announced her engagement to the marquess and that was it.
‘Peartree was livid of course. He claimed that he really loved her and that his happiness was ruined now. I didn’t believe him for one moment. Men like him fall in love with another rich girl every few weeks. I thought he would soon find another victim to set his sights on and we’d be rid of him. But he lured me into this bet about the dig and then…he showed up here. He was immediately giving orders, getting close to the workers, staying with me here and opening my mail.’
Duncan grimaced. ‘He was everywhere in my life, my affairs. So when Goodman popped up and we had the argument, Peartree overheard a bit of it. He ran to the police with it right after the dead body was found. I couldn’t deny it. I had confronted Goodman about his behaviour. Showing up here, trying to spy on me…’
Alkmene nodded slowly. ‘So Peartree could be out to get back at Delphine and your father via you. If you got disgraced, accused, persecuted, the scandal would be huge indeed. Delphine’s grand wedding would never take place. It would be the ideal revenge.’
Duncan nodded. ‘I started to think it must be something like that.’
Alkmene hesitated. ‘Do you think Peartree would have gone so far as to kill Goodman just to blame you for it?’
Duncan shrugged. ‘Maybe after he heard the argument the idea got into his head.’
Alkmene shook her head. ‘I’m not sure. It would have been pretty risky. He might have been seen. Besides, incriminating someone, trying to take his money, is something different from actually killing. Is Peartree the type who could do it?’ She stared up at the ceiling. ‘Jake did find a hurricane lantern in Peartree’s wardrobe upstairs.’
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