Deadly Treasures

by Vivian Conroy

  Who had also had no qualms of seeing innocent people take the blame for his actions. First Duncan, then Kramer.

  It was for them that Alkmene had to do this. Otherwise it would just have been insanity to take such a risk. This man was not someone who had lashed out in anger, who might have regretted his rash act later. No, this man had lured Goodman into a trap out here, with the intention of killing him. To make matters worse, he had killed him using a thing given to him to execute his official duties. Duties that were supposed to keep people safe.

  This man was cold and ruthless, dangerous to meet in broad daylight with people around, let alone in the night, in an isolated spot.

  But Alkmene didn’t have any conclusive evidence against the killer, nothing to convince Scotland Yard he was their man. She had to try to lure him into a trap to catch him.

  Red-handed, in the most literal way.

  Alkmene lowered her arms again, so she was more mobile, and waited with nerves on edge, registering every little sound in the brush around her, the dry grass rustling with the breath of wind.

  Suddenly the shadow was close to her. She swung to it, holding her hands out as if to defend herself. It was like he had come out of nowhere, materializing by her side. He looked different out of uniform – taller, stronger, more menacing.

  Or was that just a trick of the mind, as she was so certain he was a murderer?

  Aldridge laughed softly. ‘No need to start. It’s just me; you asked me to come.’

  Alkmene inhaled. ‘I thought you would understand the message.’

  She had sent Aldridge a note to invite him to this spot, at this time, using the message he had sent to the innkeeper’s son as a base. Fortunately Miles had remembered most of the wording, even though he had long destroyed the actual paper and looked back on his dealings with Goodman with shame.

  Alkmene had figured that a smart, careful man like Aldridge would understand that he was being reminded of the trap he had used on his victim, which might spring on him unless he was smarter than her.

  And having assessed Aldridge, Alkmene was pretty certain he would think he was smarter than her. That self-confidence might become his undoing.

  She took care not to turn her back on him. She faced him as he stood a few steps removed, asking in a defiant voice, ‘What do you want?’

  ‘The gold bracelet. Duncan Woolsbury is my friend. This dig could mean the start of a big career for him. A chance to prove to his family and friends that he is more than just a viscount’s son. He never wanted a title or fame. He wants to achieve something. Build a name for himself. Reiner Goodman didn’t want the world to know Duncan is a better archaeologist than he would ever be. Therefore he tried to sabotage the dig by taking the bracelet away from him.’

  Miles’s part in it could be left out. She had given her word on that.

  She continued, ‘But I know you have the bracelet now. And I want it back. I will lie that it was hidden behind the cottage. Where the earth is all disturbed? I’m not sure whether you ever stood there to watch Duncan go about his business. Perhaps it was Kramer who stood there spying on Duncan for his mother. Either way, Duncan will be happy the bracelet is back and can prove his claim that the Black Castle gold does exist.’

  ‘Will he be happy enough to ask you to marry him? Is that what you want out of this deal?’

  ‘Perhaps,’ Alkmene said, surprised that Aldridge would think that far. But apparently to a killer’s selfish mind she had to want something for herself, something more than just a career for Duncan because he loved his independence.

  ‘I can give it to you.’ Aldridge put his hand in his pocket as if fishing for said item. ‘But why would I do it?’

  Alkmene shrugged. ‘I don’t want Duncan to suffer for this crime. In any way. The murder charge is no longer an issue. The inspector from London has Heinrich Kramer under lock and key. That petty German driver is nothing to me. In fact, he insulted me on the way out here. I don’t mind seeing him go to the gallows.’

  Aldridge laughed softly. ‘When I first met you, I was worried that you would be some righteous type who would make things difficult. But apparently you are not.’

  Alkmene said in a level tone of voice, ‘Inspector Coones asked me for a statement. I haven’t given it to him yet. But I can give him enough to ensure Kramer is convicted. Nobody will ask any more questions about the murder.’

  ‘How?’ That one word was breathless with anticipation. Like she had expected, Aldridge believed at once she would work with him to cover up his involvement. So far she had guessed correctly as to the workings of his mind.

  Alkmene continued, ‘I’ll tell Inspector Coones that I know Goodman and Kramer knew each other in London. I’ll make up an occasion where they met and were seen together. It will be easy enough. Duncan can tell me at what functions Kramer was present to chauffeur him about. I can find out when Goodman was around and able to attend social events. I can find a match, believe me.’

  Aldridge made a low sound. ‘I believe you can do a lot when you want to.’

  ‘Certainly.’ Alkmene reached out her hand. ‘Now I want the bracelet.’

  Aldridge pulled it out and held it up. Pale gold gleamed in the moonlight. Alkmene held her breath a moment thinking it might be old and valuable and part of the treasure everybody had wanted to find but nobody had been able to. Just imagine… Part of the elusive Black Castle gold, about to land in the palm of her hand.

  Handed to her by Goodman’s killer.

  She had to suppress any revelry about the age-old treasure and focus on the man before her and her purpose here. Goodman had also become careless thinking he was close to the treasure. Therefore he was now dead.

  She said in a firm tone, ‘Give it to me.’

  Aldridge tensed. ‘No. First I want to know one thing. How you knew I had the bracelet.’

  ‘Oh, you searched the dead man’s pockets, right? You had to have found it. You had to have taken it, for it was not among his things at the police station or the morgue. It was that simple.’

  Alkmene laughed softly. ‘I knew you had killed Goodman for the bracelet. You searched his pockets here, right after the kill, and removed the note you wrote to get Goodman out to the meeting place in the dead of night and you removed the bracelet. But who will ever know when you searched the pockets exactly? After you killed him or when you were called onto the scene to do your job? I won’t tell a soul.’

  ‘How can I be sure of that?’

  Alkmene shrugged. ‘Like I told you, I’m happy to see Kramer hang for the crime. My statement to Scotland Yard will establish a tie between him and Goodman, providing solid proof that he knew him before he came out here. I’ll never speak up to reveal that my statement was in any way false. I’d only get myself in trouble. Besides, I’ll never think back on this unfortunate affair. After I produce the bracelet, Duncan will have his treasure and I can go travel with him. I’ve always really liked to travel, you know.’

  She reached out her hand again, shaking it as if impatient. ‘Now hand it over.’

  Aldridge wouldn’t like her tone, but he might believe she was callous enough to demand cooperation from a killer. Also dumb enough to believe she’d get away with it.

  Aldridge reached out his hand ’til the bracelet was but a few inches away from her palm. It glimmered in the bleak moonlight. So old. So pretty.

  Then Aldridge dropped it. It plunged into the sand in front of her feet.

  In a reflex Alkmene leaned down to retrieve it.

  She heard the whoosh because she had known it would come. He would never take the risk of letting her live now that she knew he was the killer.

  She threw herself sidewards and rolled away from the blow. Her thigh made contact with the ground rather hard considering it was sandy here. And as she rolled on, her shoulder got caught in the brush and vegetation lashed at her face, breaking her skin.

  There were voices shouting nearby, Jake�
��s above all the others: ‘Get him, don’t let him get away!’

  She looked up at the figure towering a few feet away, his weapon in his hand, his face directed to the men rushing for him from behind the broken walls of the old farmstead. The total bewilderment that she had not come out here alone to meet him vanished quickly under a surge of anger. ‘You bitch!’ he sneered at her, snatching the bracelet off the ground, then turning and making a run for it. He grabbed a bicycle up from the ground and swung himself on it.

  He was fast, but the ground was uneven and he had to work the pedals hard to move forward.

  The men pursuing him were fast as well, their anger over what they had just witnessed pushing them on.

  Sitting up, Alkmene watched the figures. She held her breath as they raced across the moonlit land.

  Finally Jake lunged for the man they pursued and grabbed an arm, pulled him off the bicycle to the ground. Then the others overtook the struggling twosome, and cuffs clicked loud in the eerie silence. They pulled Aldridge up to his feet. He still seemed to be clutching things in his hand. In one hand the bracelet that had been the key to it all. In the other the weapon he had used to kill Reiner Goodman.

  His baton that had been given to him for his duty as constable of the local police, to keep justice and order.

  Turned into a weapon used to kill in cold blood, for gain.

  Jake came rushing back to her and pulled her to her feet. ‘Are you all right? For a moment when he lashed out at your head, I was sure you would not be fast enough and he’d hit you. You could have been dead now.’

  Alkmene tried to deny the possibility at once. ‘I knew what he was going to do. I had a chance to escape. Goodman never did.’

  She blinked. Now that the nervous energy of the confrontation wore off, she felt the soreness in all of her muscles. ‘I never noticed he came by bicycle.’

  ‘He didn’t. He must have hidden it in advance. Like he did on the night he killed Goodman.’ Jake looked her over. ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘Yes.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I guess it was logical Eddy couldn’t trace Ms Rivers’ missing bicycle. Constable Aldridge used it for his own plans. He knew the woman was rather dotty and if she missed it, people would just believe it would turn up again. Nobody would link it with him and his night-time activities here.’

  Duncan came over, holding something up in the moonlight. ‘My bracelet!’ he exclaimed. ‘It is back! Now everybody will believe me.’

  Alkmene grinned at him. ‘You told me yourself you looked for more and found nothing. Maybe it will just be this one item.’

  ‘Maybe. But at least I found it. Others couldn’t find anything here and I could.’ Duncan seemed to grow even taller. ‘Wait ’til my father hears about this.’

  Alkmene winced. The viscount would not be happy that she had used her time here to help Duncan retrieve an item that would only make him more determined to pursue the career path his father had never wanted him to take.

  And they hadn’t even discussed the matter of the supposed engagement between them yet!

  As Kramer had just invented a woman Duncan was interested in, to get his family to pull him out of Cornwall, away from the dig, his family would be relieved. And then push all the more for them to get together. How on earth could Alkmene ever convince them such a match would be disastrous, for both Duncan and her?

  The young constable Eddy called for Duncan from afar, and he left them with a hurried farewell, saying something about meeting at The Catch for breakfast to wrap it all up.

  Jake leaned over to her. ‘We’d better head for The Catch right now. The wind is whipping up, and after what you have been through, you could use a strong drink.’

  Alkmene smiled at him. ‘I have an even better idea. I know a place where we will be very welcome with this tale. Duncan has his bracelet now and his victory over Trevor Price as well as his father, who never believed he could amount to anything in his chosen field. But the treasure belongs to someone else, and we should tell him. Tell them. Come on.’

  And pulling Jake’s arm through hers, she led him away from the spot.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  When they knocked at the door of the beachcomber’s hut, Old Paul opened up, his hair awry, an old coat slung over his nightdress. He looked them over, then said, ‘What’s this? Lost in the night? You look terrible. Come in.’

  He lit the lantern on the kitchen table, blowing life into the dying embers in the big stove. He fussed with water for tea, then changed his mind and pulled out a big flask of whiskey, filling some chipped glasses.

  Footfalls resounded, there was a creaking of stairs, and his daughter came in, in a dressing gown that had once been pretty – satin with peacock patterns – but that had faded over time. Her hands kept the belt pulled tightly round her waist and her face was pale among the wealth of her long loose hair. Alkmene smiled to herself that if Kramer ever saw her like this he would be in love with her even more. Immortally in love, or something, like only Germans with poetry in their veins could believe.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Ms Anderson asked.

  ‘Nothing is wrong any more,’ Jake said, and Alkmene gestured for her to come to the table and take a seat. Her father looked her over, shook his head, and poured her whiskey as well.

  Alkmene said, ‘The killer of Reiner Goodman has been arrested just now.’

  ‘At this hour?’ Old Paul asked. ‘And I thought they had arrested that driver.’

  ‘That was a mistake. Jake and I figured out who the real killer was. But it was doubtful we could ever prove the case against him, unless we had access to something he had appropriated. We had to lure him into making a mistake.’

  ‘She means, lure him into trying to kill someone just like he killed Goodman,’ Jake said sourly. He apparently still thought that her confrontation with the killer had been too dangerous.

  Alkmene said in a cheerful tone, ‘We had no choice. He would never have confessed. I had to confront him with my knowledge and provoke him into trying to kill me to keep his secret safe.’

  Old Paul whistled. ‘Sounds like a dangerous venture.’

  Alkmene shrugged. ‘I wasn’t alone. Jake was nearby watching me, along with Duncan and your police officer Eddy.’

  ‘That’s not what I meant,’ Old Paul said, his light blue eyes full on her. ‘Why would you take the chance of getting hurt, even killed? Why would you care so much?’

  ‘I was just keeping a promise,’ Alkmene said, holding Ms Anderson’s gaze for a moment. She so hoped that this woman who had suffered in her first marriage would find happiness with Kramer, happiness for herself and her young children.

  Old Paul said, ‘Who was the killer? Peartree perhaps, that arrogant brat who pinched apples at the store just because he thought no one could touch him?’

  Jake shook his head. ‘You’ll be surprised. It was someone local.’

  Old Paul’s eyes widened. ‘What? But who? Why?’

  Jake spread his hands. ‘There are enough people here thinking the treasure should belong to them.’

  Old Paul bashed his fist on the table’s surface. ‘It’s on my land. It should be mine.’

  ‘Yes,’ Alkmene said. She reached out and opened her hand. On her palm the bracelet caught the light. ‘It’s there and it’s yours. This is just the beginning.’

  Old Paul stared at her hand in awe.

  Ms Anderson’s lips wobbled. She put her hands to her face and sobbed.

  Alkmene said, ‘Duncan really did find this bracelet. It was missing for some time, but it’s back now. We still have to have it assessed and all, but it could be part of the Black Castle gold of old. Duncan will continue to dig, and everything he finds will be yours. What he wants is just the fame that comes with the find, the recognition. He doesn’t need money. I’ll make sure that you’ll receive the monetary value of every find made, as soon as it’s removed to a museum to be shown to the public. From now on yo
u’ll never want for anything any more.’

  Old Paul hitched a brow at her. ‘You say that, but how about this Duncan of yours? He never believed me.’

  ‘He’s been cleared of a murder charge now. He has seen things in a different light. Besides, because of this find and a wager he made about it, he’ll already earn enough money. He claimed he could find the treasure, while another claimed he could not. It’ll gratify you to know this wager was with…the arrogant brat you just mentioned? Simon Peartree, who spent his entire summer here to see that the excavation turned into nothing and he would get his money.’

  And his revenge on Duncan’s family, for slighting him, thinking him too unimportant for Delphine.

  She said, ‘As it turns out now, Peartree spent his summer here for nothing, because Duncan did find this bracelet and Peartree lost his wager. He won’t get a penny.’

  ‘Wonderful. How I love to see him sheared.’ Old Paul slapped his upper leg with glee.

  ‘Father,’ his daughter said reproachfully, but her eyes twinkled. She smiled at Alkmene. ‘How can we ever thank you? You have taken such a risk facing the killer like you did.’

  ‘Well, you could give Kramer a chance to prove to you he is not at all like your first husband was.’

  Ms Anderson was tongue-tied a moment. Old Paul looked at her with a frown, then said, ‘Might be good advice. Your boy does like him a lot. And now that we have some money, he might not feel like he has to lean down to our level.’

  ‘He never felt that way,’ Ms Anderson said with conviction, holding her head up high. Suddenly her face filled with joy and her eyes shone like lit lanterns.

  Old Paul shook his head. ‘I still can’t believe it was a local who killed Goodman. Who on earth was it?’

  Alkmene held his gaze. ‘Constable Aldridge.’

  Old Paul shook his head in disbelief. ‘That can’t be. Why would you ever suspect him?’

  Alkmene said, ‘Leonard Page mentioned to me that Constable Aldridge was at the inn the night the bracelet was stolen from Duncan’s pocket.’