Death of a Footman (Riley Rochester Investigates Book 8) Page 18

  ‘Can’t see her going round to Ma Dawson’s for afternoon tea and a chat, somehow,’ Salter said chuckling.

  ‘No, nor me. Ezra would have found a way to keep them apart.’

  ‘What’s next, sir?’

  Riley withdrew Verity’s letter from his inside pocket without responding and read it through. ‘Well,’ he said, passing it to Salter, ‘she doesn’t mince her words, I’ll say that much for her.’

  ‘Wild accusations indeed,’ Salter replied, elevating his bushy brows. ‘Spiteful and vindictive. She outright accuses Mrs Wendall of killing her brother, says she has proof and knows why she did it. She also hints that she will keep quiet in return for a monetary consideration.’ Salter tapped the letter against the fingers of one hand. ‘We can get her for threating behaviour and attempted blackmail at least, can’t we sir?’

  ‘I want more than that. I am almost sure that she arranged for Ezra to be killed, and possibly her brother too, but we need to prove it.’ Seldom had Riley locked horns with such a vengeful and determined adversary. ‘I fear for Mrs Wendall’s life,’ he muttered.

  ‘You think that if Verity doesn’t get what she’s asking for—and she’ll never stop asking—then Mrs Wendall will meet with an accident as well?’

  ‘The possibility crossed my mind. Go back to Mrs Wendall’s house in the morning, Jack, before you come up here. Arrange to meet Carter and Soames there and ask for the lady’s permission to go through her husband’s private papers. I’ll wager that Verity didn’t limit her vitriol to the ladies, and made demands upon her brother as well. I’d like to have more to go on before we bring her in here later tomorrow.’

  ‘If you’re right then she was playing a dangerous game. I’m surprised no one bumped her off.’ Salter rubbed his hands together. ‘Anyway, consider it done.’

  ‘Right, good. And in the meantime, another chat with James is overdue. And with Albert. Either one of them could have been in league with Verity. And while we’re there, we can speak with Ida and Gregg, too.’

  ‘I’ll get my hat,’ Salter said, springing to his feet.

  When they arrived at Portman Square they told Gregg that they required to speak with Albert. That young man came to the morning room a short time later, seemingly unconcerned.

  ‘You wished to speak to me again, Lord Riley. How can I be of assistance?’

  ‘Why did you mislead us about your whereabouts on the night of Ezra’s murder?’ Riley asked, his brisk, accusatory tone taking the young man completely by surprise.

  ‘Mislead you?’ Albert flushed and shuffled his feet but didn’t immediately say anything else.

  Salter jumped in, just as Riley knew that he would. ‘Don’t mess the chief inspector about, son, or it will be the worse for you. We know you left here by the back door that night when you told us you’d been in the entire time. So we’ll ask you again, why did you lie? And don’t dig yourself into an even deeper hole by lying some more. We didn’t come down in the last shower and we’ll know if you ain’t being truthful. We’ve got nice damp cells crammed with people like you to cool their heels in. They tend to make people come to their senses pretty damned quick, wouldn’t you agree, sir?’

  ‘I would indeed, Sergeant, but I have a feeling that Albert has seen the error of his ways and is about to tell us the truth.’

  ‘It’s your only chance, son,’ Salter said, scowling at him. ‘I don’t like people what lie to us. The only pleasure I get out of it is locking them up and letting them stew, so don’t give me any reason to have my fun.’

  ‘I lied because I wasn’t supposed to leave the house without Gregg’s express permission. It’s more than my position’s worth, especially when we’re shorthanded, as we were that evening. It was James’s afternoon and evening off and then Ezra wheedled time off from the mistress, leaving me to cover their duties.’ Albert screwed up his features, his irritation reignited by the recollection. ‘Ezra was always pulling stunts like that, and I’d had just about enough of it.’

  ‘You didn’t like Ezra?’ Riley asked.

  ‘Nope. He was a snide bugger, and far too full of himself. He was always rubbing James’s nose in his relationship with the mistress. That weren’t necessary. Anyone with eyes in their head could see that James was right cut up about the way the mistress no longer turned to him for…well, you know. Ezra was all she cared about and he was a lazy sod. Always finding reasons not to finish his duties, so James or me had to do them. Well, enough was enough. I’d arranged to play cards with some of my friends that night and if Ezra had been in the house, like he was supposed to have been, I’d have got away with sneaking out. Old Gregg likes his brandy and is always half-cut by ten o’clock. He wouldn’t notice if a brass band marched past his parlour. I just had to trust to luck that no one rang for me while I was out, but the master would only need his valet and the mistress would go straight up to her room when she got back, so she wouldn’t have needed me neither.’ Albert sighed. ‘I thought I’d got away with it.’

  ‘We have no reason to tell anyone,’ Riley said, ‘always supposing your friends collaborate your story.’

  ‘They will.’

  Albert reeled off the address of the premises where he had played cards, along with the names of the men whom he had sat down with him.

  ‘How well do you know Mrs Verity Randall?’ Riley asked.

  Albert’s upper lip momentarily curled with disdain. ‘Don’t have nothing to do with her if I can help it. She puts on airs and graces that don’t fool none of us, has us running around after her then treats us like we don’t exist.’

  ‘Very well, that will be all. Ask James to join us. Oh, and Albert,’ Riley added, causing the young man to pause in the doorway. ‘Do not repeat any of the questions that we have just asked you below stairs.’ He fixed Albert with a stern look. ‘If you do, we shall know you have betrayed our trust and possibly permitted a murderer to go free. We shall not be so lenient next time, mark my words.’

  ‘You can depend upon my discretion, sir.’

  ‘I hope so. Anyway, send James in.’

  ‘We have a problem with what you’ve told us,’ Riley said, the moment James closed the door and stood before Riley with barely concealed resentment. ‘We have discovered that you were in the tavern that you said you frequented, but that no one saw you after ten o’clock. That leaves you with a couple of hours unexplained at precisely the time your rival for Lady Randall’s affections was being murdered.’

  James’s face paled. ‘I was there, in the tavern,’ he said, his brow glistening with sweat. ‘I swear it on my mother’s life.’

  ‘Your mother alive and well, is she, son?’

  James glowered at Salter. ‘The tavern got crowded later on. If no one saw me there, there’s nothing I can do about it.’ He lifted his chin. ‘But you won’t find any evidence to put me in Clapham murdering Ezra, much as I would like to take credit for ridding the world of ’im.’

  ‘You seem very confident about that,’ Riley said, studying the man closely. To his credit, James lifted his head and met Riley’s gaze without flinching.

  ‘I am, sir,’ he said simply.

  ‘But you know, or suspect, who might have committed the murder.’

  ‘I don’t actually know anything, not for sure. What I can tell you, and I think I did already tell you, is that Mr Gregg was furious when the mistress told him to find a position for Ezra. And Ezra rubbed Gregg’s nose in the fact that he could do more or less as he pleased, undermining Gregg’s authority. The atmosphere below stairs went all sour the moment Ezra joined us. Well, it did amongst us men. The girls all thought Ezra was some kind of gift from heaven.’ James raised his eyes in that direction.

  ‘Thank you for pointing out the damage Ezra caused to Gregg’s dignity,’ Riley said. ‘But it’s a stretch to imagine him resorting to murder because of it.’

  ‘He’s very loyal towards the master, but he don’t have a good word to say for the mistress. He kept insisting that her
behaviour was in danger of turning Sir Philip into a laughing stock and he weren’t happy about it. The reputation of this family means a great deal to Mr Gregg.’

  ‘I see,’ Riley said pensively.

  ‘I’m not saying that Gregg had anything to do with the murder, but I am saying that his behaviour changed that evening. Ordinarily, you could set your clock by his routine. Ever since I’ve worked in this house, it hasn’t varied. He starts drinking steadily after the kitchen’s been closed up and until the master and mistress are home, if they’ve gone out. Then he locks the front door and retires. The kitchen door is left unlocked for any of us who have the evening off and the last one in has to lock up.’

  ‘Does Gregg wait up to ensure you come home?’

  James made a scoffing sound. ‘He can take his drink, I’ll give him that, but it’s easy to sneak past him once he’s had a few. We always call out a goodnight to him as we pass his pantry but he probably don’t hear us on account of his snoring. And if he’s already retired to his room the snores are loud enough to wake the dead. We all joke about it behind his back.’ James paused and rubbed his nose. ‘But that particular night, when I came home, he weren’t in his pantry and he weren’t in his room neither. I had to pass it and I would have heard him. He wasn’t in the house, sir, I’ll stake my life on it.’

  ‘He could have been passed out drunk,’ Salter suggested.

  James shook his head. ‘If he was, it would be the first time. Like I say, he’s got a hard head for drink. We all pretend not to know what he gets up to and he would be mortified if someone had to wake him from a drunken stupor of a morning.’

  ‘How do you get along with Mrs Verity Randall?’

  ‘Mrs Randall?’ James looked genuinely surprised by the question. ‘I don’t have much to do with her, sir. I doubt she even knows our names. She’s a bit above herself, that one.’

  ‘Very well, James. That will be all for now but if you have lied to us we will find out. You’ve had an opportunity to tell us the truth and there won’t be another.’

  ‘Upon my life, sir, I’ve told you everything I know.’

  ‘Very well, you may go,’ Riley said, adding the same stern warning as he had to Albert about keeping what they had spoken about to himself. ‘Please have Gregg ask Lady Randall to join us.’

  ‘Gregg and Verity.’ Salter scratched his head. ‘That’s what you’re thinking, I know, but is it even possible?’

  ‘They make unlikely allies, it’s true, but both had compelling reasons to resent Ezra. Arrange for Albert’s story to be checked out in the morning, just to be sure that he’s telling the truth.’

  ‘I’ll do that, sir.’

  ‘We put the fear of God into those two and I think we finally got truthful answers out of them.’

  ‘Do you think they will keep what you asked them about Verity to themselves though? I’m surprised you mentioned her name. They will know that we suspect her now.’

  ‘It was a calculated risk. They were both telling the truth when they said that they disliked and resented her, so I’m satisfied that neither one of them is her accomplice. But, like we said just now, Gregg could be, and if word of our suspicions does slip out he might be jolted into doing something to reveal his guilt.’

  Salter grunted. ‘Anything’s possible, I suppose.’

  Their conversation stalled when Ida entered the room in a cloud of perfume that made Riley sneeze.

  ‘Riley, how lovely to see you again. I wish it could have been under different circumstances. Good afternoon, Sergeant.'

  ‘Good afternoon, ma’am.’

  ‘How are you, Ida?’ Riley asked, looking at her as she took a seat. Her face was pale and drawn, her eyes red-rimmed from crying. Riley didn’t approve of her lifestyle, but it wasn’t his place to judge. She’d had her reasons for straying from the confines of her marriage, and was now paying a heavy price for her involvement with a rogue with whom she had made the mistake of falling in love. She would never make that admission, but it was evident to Riley from her fragile demeanour and the manner in which she was holding herself together by sheer force of will that her heart was a heavy burden. There was no disguising genuine grief. Riley saw it far too often in his line of work to mistake the signs.

  ‘I am bearing up, Riley.’ She sighed expansively. ‘This entire business is just so horrible. Are you any closer to catching the perpetrator?’

  ‘We are making progress.’ Riley cleared his throat. ‘I hesitate to add to your misery, Ida, but were you aware that Ezra had plans to marry?’

  ‘Marry?’ She looked momentarily confused and then shook her head decisively. ‘You have been misled. Ezra was most definitely not the marrying type. He didn’t like being tied down and insisted upon having the freedom to go wherever the fancy took him. No one could own Ezra, or even understand what motivated him. His was a liberated lifestyle—and I’ll confess, that was part of the attraction. How many of us sometimes wish for the courage to shrug off our responsibilities and live as free spirits?’

  ‘He was tied down here insofar as he was in service, albeit unconventionally.’ Ida tilted her head and gave a half-smile in acknowledgement of Riley’s statement of fact. ‘But he also intended to go into business with you as a silent partner.’

  ‘Naturally, and when he did so, I knew he would have to leave my employ. One does not attempt to cage a wild bird if one wishes to retain its affection.’

  ‘I’m afraid it’s true,’ Riley said. ‘About Ezra deciding to marry, I mean. We have spoken to the lady in question and there can be no doubt about the matter.’

  ‘How do you feel about him having been intimate with her and you simultaneously?’ Salter asked, surprising Riley by speaking in what was for him a mildly sympathetic tone.

  ‘I am frankly astonished—but then I suppose in a way, I’m also not.’ Ida appeared resigned and managed a wan smile. ‘It seems I have finally been beaten at my own game, which some will say is less than I deserve.’ She sighed. ‘Do I know the woman?’

  ‘I believe the two of you are acquainted.’ Riley paused. ‘She is Mrs Nancy Wendall.’

  Finally Ida showed a reaction. Her jaw fell open and her eyes widened in total astonishment. ‘Verity’s sister-in-law?’

  ‘The very same.’

  Ida appeared momentarily incapable of speech. ‘Can I have something to drink?’ she eventually asked. ‘I feel quite peculiar.’

  Riley moved to the sideboard and poured a small measure of brandy from the decanter situated on it. He returned to Ida’s side and pressed the glass into her hands. She drank its contents quickly and a little colour returned to her face, but her eyes remained wide with shock and, Riley suspected, a little humiliation.

  ‘I have met her a few times. She is very lovely and much closer to Ezra’s age than I am,’ she admitted with a wry smile. ‘Just the type of woman who would arouse Ezra’s protective instincts, one imagines. Verity hates her, of course, but then Verity hates pretty much everybody, especially me.’ She paused. ‘Was Verity aware of…well, of Ezra’s affair with her sister-in-law?’

  ‘She didn’t mention it to you?’ Riley asked, watching her closely as he awaited her response.

  ‘No, she did not, which makes me think that she can’t have known.’ There was no hesitation and Riley was inclined to believe her. ‘Verity wouldn’t have passed up an opportunity to flaunt such knowledge in front of me.’

  ‘Verity was acquainted with Ezra before you,’ Riley remarked into the ensuing silence.

  ‘My goodness, this is a day for shocks. How did they know one another?’

  ‘Ezra rescued Verity in the street one day when she stumbled and almost sprained her ankle. It was a chance meeting.’

  ‘Unlike Ezra’s and mine.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Oh, come on, Riley, I am sure you know perfectly well. It didn’t take me long to realise that Ezra rescuing me from highway robbery was a deliberate ploy to get my attention. And it wor
ked too. I never spoke about it to Ezra, and I allowed him to think that I had been fooled by his gallantry, but nothing could be further from the truth.’ She allowed herself a distracted smile. ‘I was never dissatisfied with my side of the bargain. And before you ask, I didn’t make that admission before now since it seemed irrelevant and makes me appear…well, desperate.’

  ‘You are aware that Mrs Wendall’s husband died a few months ago in an accident at his workshop?’

  ‘Yes. Verity wasn’t exactly heartbroken. You will have seen that she does not garb herself in traditional mourning attire. She said it would be hypocritical to observe that tradition for the six-month prescribed period given that Gordon had treated her in what she described as a shabby fashion. She turned from black to grey half-mourning after just a month.’

  ‘She didn’t get along with her brother?’ Salter asked.

  ‘She fought with him over the terms of their father’s will. Gideon told me that she received everything she was entitled to expect when they married and knew it, but she still harboured expectations and considered that she has been cheated when those expectations were not realised. But then Verity is only happy when she feels hard done by and has something to complain about.’

  ‘Did Verity ever try to extract money from you through exploitation?’

  ‘Whatever do you mean by that, Riley?’

  ‘What I ask. Did she threaten you in any way?’

  ‘Good heavens no, and I would have sent her away with a flea in her ear if she’d tried it. Verity can be very forthright and a lot of people are frightened of her, but I am not one of them and she is well aware of it. Philip knows about my peccadillos and doesn’t mind, so there is nothing she can do about them other than to turn her nose up in disapproval. Besides, she likes Philip and knows he can do a lot to help Gideon’s career. She wouldn’t deliberately embarrass him.’