Murder in the Shallows

by Byers, Beth

They were working through the chicken and grapes as Jack stared around them. A bridge was nearby, and Jack’s gaze fixed on it.

  “Do you think?”

  He was speaking to Hamilton but Violet answered. “If it was a fraught enough fight, he might have run that way.”

  Hamilton grunted an agreement and drained his bottle of ginger beer. “I’d have run that way. Hoped to find help near the bridge. Lost the battle over the water.”

  Jack finished the thought. “He could have easily either been thrown into the water with that blow on his head, or the blow could have knocked the boy into the river. If he were unconscious—”

  “He’d have died certainly,” Vi finished for him. “How long until they know if he went in alive or dead?”

  Jack and Hamilton didn’t answer, and Violet assumed they already knew. Her gaze flitted to Kate and Lila.

  “They already know,” Lila told Violet.

  “And they’re protecting you,” Kate added.

  “Which means,” Violet started.

  “He’s protecting you,” Victor finished. “The foolish lads. They need training yet. Not all the fellows have such excellent pre-training as myself. You have saved Kate a world of trouble.”

  Jack tossed Hamilton a long-suffering look, and then sighed as he stood. “It was delightful, Vi. All of Vi’s minions.” He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead, letting his fingers trail across the back of her neck. He squeezed lightly then left.

  Chapter 12

  “Miss Allen or Mr. Tanner?” Violet rose, setting her napkin into the basket and returning her empty bottle of ginger beer to the basket.

  “I would normally excuse myself for a nap during the heat of the day,” Lila declared, adjusting her hair. She waved her fan lazily, barely causing a breeze as though the cooling air wasn’t enough to propel her to greater action. “I would, however, very much like to meet this Miss Allen. Do we know where she’s staying?”

  Violet’s brows lifted. “It’s not as though we are the best of friends, or that we have a standing appointment for tea.”

  “Well,” Kate said, “it can’t be all that hard, can it? She’s rich enough that people suspect her brother bought his way into that program he was part of. She isn’t going to be at a fleabag hotel. Chances are she’s at the place where we’re staying. Or one that Mr. Morgan’s butler inquired about. Send Beatrice or Giles to the butler to ask if he knows where she is. If he does, ask which hotel and send round your card.”

  Violet considered Kate’s statement. Hamilton and Jack certainly knew where Miss Allen was staying. Someone had told her that her brother had died. They weren’t going to tell her.

  Violet tapped her finger against her palm. She’d already left a nice monetary reward for the staff, but they could pull a Victor and send over a bottle of gin or rum to Mr. Morgan’s people. It was very like Violet to send chocolates. Either or both or all of it, whatever it took to persuade the staff to be generous with their information.

  Violet agreed, and they meandered through Oxford until they reached the high-ceilinged hotel. The walls were thick and the foyer floors marble and stone, which gave an illusion of coolness. As soon as one adjusted to the seeming coolness, the heat hit again.

  Kate sent for Beatrice to have cool lemonade brought to their rooms. Victor followed after Kate as he usually did, with Lila joining them.

  “Jack kissed you before he left,” Denny said on the lift. The lift attendant carefully avoided reacting in any way.

  “Did you save that comment for when we’d have an audience?”

  Denny grinned in reply. “But he did.”

  “Mmm,” Violet agreed.

  “I wonder if he assumes you’ll answer yes.”

  “He doesn’t get to assume anything,” Violet replied. “I’m Lady Violet Carlyle until I tell him otherwise.”

  Denny hooted in reply. The lift stopped and Violet inclined her head at the attendant as she left. They made their way back to their suite, and Violet walked in and spun around.

  “Ginny?”

  There was no answer.

  “She must still be gone,” Denny replied. “The good news is that she won’t be here to witness you causing trouble for your beloved. Maybe you can keep up the pretense of being a good example when she returns.”

  Violet spun slowly on Denny, who held up his hands in surrender while also grinning at her.

  “This is what comes of being friends with idiots.”

  Denny’s low chuckle was a clear agreement.

  The door to their suite opened a few minutes later to admit Lila, Kate, and Victor.

  “Darling Vi,” Victor called, “Kate was right. She’s here in this hotel. Did you want to…I mean…what is the right way to handle this?”

  “Send Giles to find out about Mr. Nathan Tanner as soon as he returns. We’ll talk to him next. I have discovered a rather fierce need to speak with him since seeing Jack.”

  “You should do that thing,” Denny said. “That thing with the list and the names and the brainwork. It makes me feel quite faint just thinking about it, but I believe we can all agree that you have greater mettle than do I.”

  Violet shot him an irritated glance as sweet little Rouge placed a paw on her knee. Violet reached forward and scratched the little ruby head.

  “I suppose if I must,” she answered Denny.

  “You must,” Denny said. “It’s my favorite part.”

  “Me pacing?”

  “You pacing. It makes me feel as though I’m helping. I’m ah…willing you on.”

  “Willing me on?”

  Violet glanced over and saw that Beatrice had entered. “Please bring my journal. Though, Denny, we really must speak with Miss Allen and Tanner before we can start that business. Who are we going to put on our list now? Every person at the university who found Mr. Allen annoying? Miss Allen, who was trying to save her brother?”

  “Of course! I prefer the sideways mysteries with the one you’d have never expected as the killer. The older sister who seemingly is out to save the young blighter but is only securing the inheritance for herself.”

  Lila sat down next to her husband, patting his hand. “Better cut that off, my lad. The sister has been invited up for tea.”

  “It’s too hot for tea,” Denny whined. “It’s nap time. I need my beauty sleep.”

  “Buck up, laddie,” Lila declared. She brushed the hair back from his face and then scratched behind his ear rather as Violet was doing for Rouge.

  “Where is Gin?” Violet asked suddenly, watching Lila treat her husband like a dog.

  “He’s sleeping in my bedroom,” Victor replied. “He rather likes my socks drawer. If we’re going to play nice with Jack’s old fiancé, I need to make my tea with whiskey before she gets here. I don’t think I can handle being kind any other way. We all know Jack, don’t we? He’d never have thrown her over. She must have done it.”

  Violet didn’t answer, idly scratching Rouge’s head instead. There was a knock on the door and Victor swore as he said, “That had better be the tea and lemonade Kate ordered.”

  It was Miss Allen. Her lush beauty had not diminished, but Violet saw the dark circles under Miss Allen’s honey brown eyes.

  “My condolences on your brother,” Violet said.

  “Spare me your lies,” Miss Allen snapped. “If you cared so much about my brother, you’d have helped me.”

  Violet’s expression remained even.

  “Here now,” Victor started, but Violet held up her hand.

  “As if you could even understand,” Miss Allen said maliciously.

  Violet’s fingers crossed in her lap. Twice over, to be exact. Miss Allen knew that Violet had lost brothers in the war, and Vi was hardly going to use her brothers in any way. Peter and Lionel deserved better from her.

  “I assume,” Violet said, “that you came because you want help in finding your brother’s killer.”

  “That’s what Jack is for,” Miss Allen said s
harply. “He feels responsible for Jeremy’s death. I don’t need you to investigate when I have him, let alone my own talents.”

  Those words were put together in such a way to hurt Violet, but again, Violet would not give Miss Allen the pleasure of showing that hurt.

  There was a knock on the door of the suite, and Kate rose to let in the tea.

  “Ah,” Violet said smoothly, channeling her stepmother, “the tea has arrived. How lovely.” She turned her attention back to Miss Allen. “Did you assume that you could somehow use whatever Jack might feel about your brother as an avenue to restoring what you once had with him?”

  “I am only here as a warning for you to let him go,” Miss Allen said. She tilted her head as she added, “Did you really think that you’d be able to keep his attention? The spoiled daughter of an earl who writes tripe? The only thing you can offer is money, and Jack has enough. Should he wish more, I can give it to him.” Miss Allen’s gaze flicked over Violet and found her clearly wanting. “I read your Broken Surrender and the Scarlet Ghost. It was terrible.”

  “As entertaining as this is,” Victor cut in, not even trying to hide his disgust or the healthy dollop of whiskey in his tea. “Let’s stop posturing, ladies. I won’t bother to tell you that you have no chance with Jack, and Violet will avoid telling you that she’s not responsible because she didn’t respond as you wish to your ham-handed attempt to blackmail us.”

  “For you,” Miss Allen, said, turning her spite on him, “all of this is a lark. For a woman, it’s different. Isn’t it, Lady Vi?”

  Violet examined the woman across from her. “I understand you being jealous. I understand finding comfort in him being the one to investigate your brother’s case, especially the combination of Jack and Hamilton. I understand disliking me—after all, I’d never have had a chance for Jack’s love if you hadn’t killed his love for you. But…”

  Miss Allen lifted a perfectly sculpted brow and pursed her perfectly lush lips, watching Violet.

  “But what I don’t understand,” Vi continued, “is why you’re here if that’s your whole truth.”

  “So we’re playing it entirely straightforward, are we?”

  “You’re a reporter,” Violet said. “You’re either setting us on a goose chase for the fun of it, or you know as well as we do that the police and official investigators come at a problem one way, and we girls come at it another.”

  Miss Allen hadn’t lost the sheen of grief in her eyes as she nodded once, but her lips twitched with a humor that none of them felt. She moved to sit across from Violet.

  “He wanted to be like Jack.” Miss Allen’s voice cracked. “He never quite forgave me for ruining things between us. I stole his mentor from him, the brother he always wanted, his hero.”

  Violet sympathized with Miss Allen. Violet could imagine that he would have hated her for losing Jack for the both of them.

  “What do you truly want from me, Miss Allen?”

  Miss Allen took in a deep breath and held it, then released it. “I want my brother’s killer found. I would have thought that he was wrong about his theory. Surely one of his wild theories was the reason he was killed. He was bumbling through his investigation. He was making enemies. But he couldn’t have been all wrong. Not if he died.” She pursed her lips as though admitting the next was distasteful. “You’re right about Jack following the investigation according to their procedures. He isn’t going to just follow his instincts. Not directly. You, me, we follow our instincts, and we do things like ignore the law for the story.”

  Violet glanced at Victor.

  “You owe me,” Miss Allen insisted.

  “No, Emily, I do not owe you. I am not responsible for your brother’s bumbling nor am I the killer. I have no obligations to you. But I will help you. We all will.”

  “I won’t,” Lila said as she sipped from her glass of lemonade. “I don’t care. I got what I wanted.”

  “I was never actually going to help.” Denny dug through the tea tray for the biscuits and sighed happily when he found them. He grinned at his wife and saluted her with the biscuits.

  “You are not eating that whole tray,” Lila told him, ignoring Emily.

  “You are all idiots,” Emily declared. “By Jove! How does Jack stand you?”

  Violet smirked, and Kate laughed outright.

  Victor simply leaned back and crossed his legs as he sipped his tea. “I’m going to have to talk to Jack again. My faith in him is trembling after meeting Miss Allen.”

  “Come now,” Denny said. “How many men do you know who’ve fallen for snakes like this one? He probably realized what she was like before she dumped him and took the betrayal with relief.”

  Jack had said he’d been broken. By this woman? There must be something more to her. Violet examined the beautiful Emily again, taking in the sadness on her face. Perhaps there was a heart in the woman? Something that Jack had once held and treasured? Violet didn’t need Jack to tell her it was so, and the jealousy she’d managed to avoid so far hit her full throttle. She reached out and took her brother’s teacup. This type of feeling needed a hard dose of whiskey, though she’d have preferred to have it without the tea.

  Miss Allen pulled a journal from her satchel, handed it to Violet, and said, “My brother deserves a champion even if I don’t.” She rose with an elegance and grace that Violet hadn’t been aware she was lacking and nodded at the room in general before leaving.

  “Well, that was convenient,” Victor said before Miss Allen had even left the rooms. “I don’t trust her.”

  “We should definitely put her on the top of your suspect list, Vi,” Denny added, grabbing a biscuit from the tray as Lila reached to move it. Beatrice closed the door behind Jack’s former fiancé while Violet finished off Victor’s tea-flavored whiskey.

  Vi flipped through the journal. “Beatrice, go to Mr. Morgan’s house. Tell Jack we need his assistance. Tell him whatever he needs to hear including about Miss Allen and what she said here.”

  “Are we making your list yet, Vi? Please say you’re putting Miss Allen at the top of it?”

  Violet glanced at Denny, who was slouched in the most comfortable of the chairs. He popped the last of his biscuit in his mouth and smiled lazily at his wife.

  “I wonder if she’s an only child now,” Victor said. “If someone killed you, I’d be at the top of the list.”

  “Nah,” Violet countered. “Isolde is my heir.”

  Chapter 13

  Violet didn’t leave the rooms since she had sent for Mr. Tanner and Jack. They were the ones who could help. She started the list of suspects, but she didn’t have enough information to make suspects. She could list off everyone who had been at the reception for Hamilton Barnes, but most of them neither knew nor cared to know a first-year university student who was only invited to the reception because of his father’s money.

  Violet rose, giving Victor back his emptied teacup. What could she do for her list? Write down the blonde one? The red-headed one? It was ridiculous. But…

  “Kate, would you take notes?”

  Violet didn’t even look, knowing Kate would help.

  “Mr. Morgan has to be a suspect,” Violet said. “Jeremiah might have worked for him, but we have no idea what the young Mr. Allen truly thought of Morgan.”

  Violet heard the scratch of Kate’s pen on the paper.

  “Nathan Tanner is my second suspect after Emily Allen.” Violet fiddled with her ring as she paced. It was hot in the rooms. “After this business is finished, we’re going to the sea, yes? We should write to Isolde and Gerald and ask them to meet us in Lyme or Bath or somewhere with sea air to go with the British soil. Seeing that woman Emily lose her brother makes me miss them.”

  “I’ll write to them,” Victor told her.

  Violet glanced at her twin. “We really should beg them to come home. If Lady Eleanor finds out about our alter ego, having Isolde around to distract her mother might be just the thing.”

  �
��Violet! Brilliant!”

  Lila laughed softly as Victor begged more paper from Kate. “Is that Emily really your first suspect?”

  Violet shook her head, and then tilted it as she considered more fully. “We have to have faith in Jack. He might have made a mistake in her. But a mistake to the level of loving someone who would kill her brother? It’s too easy. Her presence here feels…convenient for the murderer.”

  “But he thought he loved her. Maybe he isn’t as clever as we think,” Victor said doubtfully, but his eyes were glinting with humor, and Violet knew he was teasing her. “Maybe he took so long asking you to marry him because of that? Are you still going to say yes?”

  “I haven’t given anyone my answer, twin.”

  “She says it like it’s a curse,” Denny laughed.

  “I am a pearl of great price,” Victor said, using one of Violet’s favorite quotes.

  “You’re going to say yes, Violet,” Lila added, crossing to the collection of bottles that Giles had unpacked. “We already know it.”

  “You don’t know anything,” Violet said. “Let’s return to the list at hand, please.”

  “So you want to put this poor Mr. Tanner on the list. Why?”

  “We return,” Violet answered, “to the beloved innocent, Rachael Morgan. Hamilton mentioned on the train that Jeremiah thought there was a murder; so did Emily when she was trying to blackmail me. It seems unlikely that there was another odd death outside of the young woman’s”

  “This isn’t a novel, Vi,” Victor sighed.

  “No, but she is dead and Jeremiah felt a crime had been committed. The younger Mr. Tanner was certainly in love with her. If her death was suspicious then Tanner is a suspect.”

  “How are you certain?” Kate asked, without stopping her notes.

  “He stole a photograph that was likely of her from Mr. Morgan’s. At the time, I had thought it was romantic and sad. Like Romeo and Juliet.”

  Victor snorted. “A little communication between those two would have been far more romantic than the poison and the blade.”

  Violet’s expression became long-suffering, and she glanced at Kate. “Thus with a kiss I die.”