Death of a Debutante (Riley Rochester Investigates Book 1)
Page 30
Riley smiled at the pleasure she took from such simple…well, pleasures as he drove her back to his sister’s house. He stayed to take tea with them both, fielding Sophia’s more insightful questions about Emily’s murder.
He then returned home, glad that Cabbage’s spirited company had pushed thoughts of murder from his mind. That situation did not endure when he found a message from Salter awaiting him. He sighed when he read its contents, angry at the lengths that some people would go to in order to protect their positions, but decided not to get involved. Someone else could deal with it.
Amelia had responded to his message, telling him that she looked forward to his company at dinner. As Stout helped him into his evening attire, he looked forward to having her to himself for a few hours more than was perhaps wise. He strolled the short distance to the street where she lived, aware of dark clouds directly overhead and fat raindrops falling on his hat as he reached her house. Norris admitted him just before the heavens opened.
‘Perfect timing, my lord.’ He took Riley’s damp hat and led him into the drawing room.
Amelia was dressed in a gown of cerise changeable silk that hugged her figure. She stood with her back to him, watching the rain soaking her parched garden. She turned at the sound of his footsteps and smiled.
‘You avoided a drenching, I see.’
‘Barely.’
‘The rain has a smell, does it not?’ she asked.
Riley inhaled and nodded. Wet grass, clean air, a smell of purity, of newness.
They sat in companionable silence for a moment or two, watching raindrops bouncing off the hard earth as Norris prepared drinks for them both. As they consumed them, Riley told Amelia the particulars of the two arrests.
‘Leith is a fool!’ she said. ‘Leading the boy on in that fashion. He is as much to blame for Emily’s death as Murray is, but I suppose he will suffer too. His lover will hang and his predilections will become general knowledge.’
‘Perhaps not.’ Riley ground his jaw. ‘I underestimated him.’
Amelia shot him a curious glance. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I spent the afternoon driving Cabbage in the park. I felt she deserved it after her ordeal yesterday and I wanted to be sure that she was suffering no ill-effects.’
Amelia smiled. ‘I’m sure she enjoyed herself.’
‘My niece enjoys everything she does. It’s quite heart-warming to watch her, and restores my faith in human nature.’
‘It was kind of you to think of her wellbeing.’
‘Someone has to. Anyway, that’s not the point. Salter sent a message to say that Murray was found dead in his cell this afternoon.’
‘Oh no!’ Amelia clasped a hand over her mouth. ‘How?’
Riley shrugged. ‘The details are sketchy and I decided not to involve myself. It seems there was an altercation at the Gaiety Theatre last night, resulting in several arrests. The cells were overcrowded. Terrance had been locked away alone but Murray was in a cell that accommodated more than one.’
‘And some of the rioters from the Gaiety were locked away with him?’
‘So it seems. No one made the connection to Leith and I wasn’t there to put them straight. Not that I would have known about it anyway. The arrests were not Detective Department business.’
Amelia bit her lip. ‘You think Leith somehow orchestrated the riot to ensure that Murray was silenced. Permanently.’
‘It’s difficult to think anything else,’ Riley replied, sighing. ‘He was trying to cover his own back, I would imagine. No trial and there’s less likelihood of his affair with Murray becoming public knowledge. I shall make it my business to ensure that his father hears of it by a circuitous route but I don’t suppose he will care much since he is already aware of his son’s deviant behaviour. He will worry only if word of it reaches the newspapers.’
‘How did Murray die in police custody and nobody notice?’
‘Easily enough, I’m afraid. I understand the three men put in the cell with Murray started a brawl.’ He scowled. ‘They never should have been incarcerated together. It’s not like Sergeant Barton to be so lax, but as I said earlier, even if he made the connection to Murray and the Gaiety, I don’t suppose he had anywhere else to put Murray.’
‘How could Leith have known that would be the case?’ Amelia tilted her head in a contemplative manner. ‘I mean, if he paid those men to get themselves arrested, how could he be sure that they would be put in the same cell as Murray?’
‘Plenty of London’s less salubrious residents have spent time in those cells. It would be easy enough to find out from one of them what was likely to happen. He would know that as the son of a titled man, Ashton would be most likely to enjoy the single-occupancy cell. Everyone else would go into the general population.’
‘But if one of them deliberately murdered Murray, won’t he hang for it?’
‘Not a chance. It was a general brawl. Impossible to tell who struck the fatal blow. Leith would know from the altercations he has to deal with at the theatre that a lot of men herded together in a small space will fight at the slightest provocation. He only needed to prime one of them to say a word out of turn and…well, that would be sufficient.’
‘And it’s impossible to say how Murray died or who hit him?’
‘He was caught in the middle of it, his head hit the wall and that was it for him.’ Riley took a healthy sip of his drink. ‘Perhaps it’s for the best. He was for the rope anyway, and he wouldn’t have fared well in prison with such a pretty face while he waited for the trial. I dare say Leith thinks he saved him from…well, the attentions of rough men who certainly wouldn’t treat him gently. Leith will be relieved that he won’t have to see him hang. Despite what he’s done, I believe he truly loved that boy.’
‘Poor Riley.’ Amelia reached out and touched his hand. ‘This has all been a terrible strain for you.’
‘It’s over now.’
‘What will happen to the Ashtons?’
‘Oh, it’s all over for them, too.’ A note of satisfaction tinged Riley’s voice, even though he felt sorry for Prudence. ‘The bank won’t survive the scandal and neither will Ashton. I suspect that he will quit London, recover what capital he can and live quietly somewhere in the country. Not that he will see much of a return on a house where two murders were committed. Londoners are nothing if not superstitious and that house will now be cursed in many people’s eyes.’
‘You think he will desert Terrance?’
Riley shrugged. ‘It wouldn’t surprise me. Terrance will hang or remain in a lunatic asylum forever. He is perhaps best forgotten.’
Norris announced dinner and Riley stood, offering his arm to Amelia, willing to concede, at least privately, that there was no one else’s company in which he would prefer to spend the evening.
‘Come,’ he said. ‘No more talk of murder.’ He raised her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it. ‘Tell me what you have done with yourself today instead.’
The End
Look out for the second book in the Riley Rochester Investigates series, coming soon.
About the Author
Hi, I do hope you enjoyed Death of a Debutante. If so, please look out for the second in the Riley Rochester Investigates series, coming soon. I’d be grateful if you would also take a moment to leave a review on the site you purchased it from. I’d love to hear what you thought of this particular novel – what you enjoyed most about it and what you didn’t like. Constructive criticism is always welcome.
Reach me at wendysoliman@rocketmail.com
I’m a British author, brought up on the Isle of Wight, but now divide my time between Andorra and the west coast of Florida. I share my life with my long-suffering husband and a rescued dog of indeterminate pedigree named Jake Bentley after the hero in one of my books. Both Jakes are handsome mongrels with independent spirits and wild streaks.
I’ve had over fifty books published, ra
nging from Regency romance, (my first love), to contemporary women’s fiction and marine crime mysteries.
When not writing I walk miles with my dog, make half-hearted visits to the gym, read other people’s tomes…oh, and I’m on a one woman mission to keep the wine trade profitable!
Check out all of my books, and learn more about me from my website: www.wendysoliman.com
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