Death of a Recluse (Riley Rochester Investigates Book 6) Page 5
‘You are not a married man?’
‘No, Lord Riley. I am intent at this moment upon building my career. Opportunities abound for men with drive and ambition. Besides, I am only twenty-three. There is no urgency.’
‘Quite.’ Riley stretched his legs out in front of him, enjoying the warmth from the now blazing fire and using it to dry out his still damp boots. ‘Your mother, I understand, continued to correspond with Theo, despite the fact that none of you saw him any longer.’
‘She did. She was inordinately fond of him.’
George had a rare ability to answer the questions posed to him without embellishment. Lack of a guilty conscience, or a simple willingness to oblige? Riley still couldn’t decide, but what he did know was that George seemed almost too good to be true, which made him a suspect in Riley’s eyes. Perhaps he had been doing this job for too long, he thought, since he no longer found it possible to accept anything that anyone said to him at face value.
‘The title has to go to Allen. There was nothing Sir Theo could do about the line of succession, even if he didn’t approve, but he could arrange the dispersal of the rest of his assets however he saw fit.’ Riley rubbed his hand down his thigh as he articulated his thoughts in a speculative manner. ‘Since your mother was the only member of the family with whom he remained in contact, it seems reasonable to suppose that she would have some expectations in that regard.’
‘Good heavens.’ George appeared amused rather than offended by the suggestion. ‘You suppose that my mother bumped her nephew off on the assumption that she might have something to gain financially? Hardly, Lord Riley. My mother lives comfortably and wants for nothing. I make sure of that. She doesn’t have an avaricious bone in her body and is incapable of killing the spiders that seem determined to take up residence in her bathtub. Her maid has to supply that service.’
‘And you?’ Riley flexed a brow. ‘You are working for your own advancement and, judging by what you just said, supporting your mother too.’
George smiled and shook his head. ‘I know you have to ask these questions. It is your job to be suspicious, but you are barking up the wrong tree entirely. I had a great deal of time for Theo. It’s not easy being different, although people make all sorts of allowances when the person in question is wealthy. They become affectionately known as eccentric or intellectual rather than odd. And Theo was odd. Make no mistake about it. He had no social graces, didn’t have much time for people in general, and had no tolerance whatsoever for fools. Given that he had a brain the size of Wales, the rest of us probably seemed foolish to him, which must have created quite a problem.’
‘He chose to become a recluse?’
‘I don’t suppose he gave it conscious thought, but yes, he preferred his own company. The poor chap didn’t fit in with us fallible and intellectually challenged mortals, so he shut himself away, thumbed his nose at society and involved himself with causes that he felt deserving of his patronage. Good for him, I say.’
‘Indeed.’ Riley smiled. ‘Did you see Theo after dinner?’
‘No. He took himself off to his library as soon as the meal ended. Even the presence of the fragrant Miss Bradshaw was insufficient inducement to keep him in the drawing room. He was nothing if not a creature of habit.’
‘How would you know about his habits?’ Salter asked. ‘Given that you hadn’t seen him for ten years.’
‘We still saw him regularly for a while when he moved to this house. Well, the parents did. I was still in the nursery, but I heard the stories.’ George smiled in that easy-going way of his, sitting in a perfectly relaxed pose that implied openness and honesty. ‘He was only twenty-one, but he was set in his ways even then. Apparently, he would tap his fingers the moment he’d finished eating because he saw no point in sitting around talking nonsense once he’d fuelled his body. He couldn’t wait to return to his books. The moment the last person put their fork aside, he excused himself and headed for his library.
‘I don’t think any of us were surprised when he did the same thing last night, and we all knew better than to disturb him once he’d lost himself in the ancient Greek mythology, or whatever the subject of the moment holding his interest happened to be.’ George rubbed his chin. ‘I wish like anything that I’d tried to disturb him last night, then perhaps…But I suppose if I had I’d have had to tell you, and that would have made me number one suspect.’
Riley studied the young man. On the surface, he seemed perfectly at ease and cooperative. Too cooperative, perhaps.
‘Thank you for your frankness, Mr Marshall. You are free to take your mother home now, but please ensure that my people know where to find you. We may have more questions.’
‘Of course. Happy to help. We need to know who did this terrible thing, and why. We shall be living under a cloud of mutual suspicion until we do.’
He took himself off and Salter immediately applied himself to the sandwiches. Riley helped himself to a more modest portion, chewing thoughtfully.
‘What do you think, sir?’ Salter asked.
‘I think this ham is excellent.’
Salter rolled his eyes. ‘Not quite what I meant.’
‘No, Sergeant. I know what you meant, and what I think is that none of them are being entirely truthful. Not even the obliging George Marshall.’
‘Then all had an incentive to see the back of Theo if he intended to marry the young lady,’ Salter said, nodding. ‘They were willing to bide their time, assuming they would eventually inherit something. Theo had suffered from ill health his entire life, so it was reasonable for them to suppose that he wouldn’t make old bones. But once they knew that he had marriage plans…’
‘There was every chance that he’d produce a male heir and that would change everything,’ Riley finished for him.
‘Yeah, but they didn’t know that was why they’d been summoned in advance. Or leastwise they all say they didn’t. What a shock that must have been.’ Salter chuckled. ‘It didn’t leave the killer much time to lay his plans though, and he took the devil of a risk.’
‘You fail to make allowance for the fact that there is a lot of transparent resentment on the part of Mrs Allen and her son. Not to mention financial desperation. If they got wind of Theo’s intentions, they had to act before the announcement was made to protect their own deniability.’
‘They could claim that they didn’t know nothing about marriage plans, you mean?’
‘That’s precisely what I mean. Those two need looking into. Arthur had been led to believe by his mother that their family would get the lot when Theo died, which is probably why he hasn’t made much of an effort to carve out a career for himself. Did you notice how shocked Mrs Allen was when I suggested that her husband might get nothing more than a title?’
Salter rubbed his hands in glee. ‘Made my day, so it did.’ He grunted his disdain. ‘Use the tradesman’s entrance indeed. Who does she think she is?’
Riley chuckled, amused that his sergeant was more put out than he himself had been when treated so disdainfully.
‘She certainly has pretentions of grandeur. A most dislikeable woman.’
‘I don’t blame her husband for taking himself off to foreign parts. If I had to wake up to that face every morning…’
‘Quite. But I am not absolving the Marshalls from suspicion either. They have less obvious motives, but expectations nonetheless, and they are almost too obliging to be believable.’
‘You’ve got a suspicious mind, sir.’
‘It’s the job, Jack. Some of things we see. Is it any wonder?’
‘Don’t go getting all psychological on me, sir. Not on an empty stomach. It’ll give me indigestion.’
Salter polished off the rest of the sandwiches in short order, presumably to protect himself against any sudden onset of psychological whimsy on Riley’s part. Two thick slices of rich fruitcake had also been provided. Riley declined to partake, so Salter did justice t
o them both.
‘If you have finished feeding yourself, Salter, it’s time to speak with Miss Bradshaw.’
‘Right, sir.’
Salter wiped his fingers on a napkin provided, covered his mouth with it to stifle a burp and then headed for the door. He returned a short time later with the young lady they had first seen in the drawing room. At close quarters she was remarkably pretty, although her tragic grey eyes were still puffy from crying. Riley stood and offered her the chair across from him, resuming his own once she sat down. She looked relatively composed, but Riley sensed a fragility about her and suspected that another bout of tears would not be hard to induce.
‘Have all the relatives left, Salter?’ Riley asked.
‘They have sir, although her ladyship took some persuading, I understand. It is just this young lady’s brother left in the drawing room.’
‘Right.’ Riley transferred his attention to Miss Bradshaw. ‘You have my condolences,’ he said softly. ‘I assume that you and Sir Theo were close.’
‘Yes.’ The mention of Theo’s name caused her eyes to flood with fresh tears, but none of them actually fell. ‘We were to be married. That is why he gathered his relatives here. He wanted to tell them all at once.’
‘Ah, I see.’ Riley paused. ‘Do you know why Sir Theo felt it necessary to call them all together to make the announcement, given that he hadn’t seen any of them for ten years? Would not letters have sufficed?’
‘That is what Mr Trent and I tried to convince him to do, but Theo could be remarkably stubborn, and he was having none of it. He said he wanted them all to see us together and have them wish us joy in person, even though none of them were likely to be genuinely pleased.’ She paused. ‘It was an experiment, I think. Theo planned to put his affairs in order. He knew how avaricious his relations were.’ She pursed her lips. ‘Some more than others. Those who welcomed me would likely have done better.’ She swiped at a stray tear that trickled down her cheek. ‘Now we shall never know.’
‘He wanted to show you off but left you alone with his hostile relatives the moment dinner finished?’ Salter said, his voice soft with compassion.
She managed a wan smile. ‘I didn’t mind, not really. I realised how difficult Theo found being in anyone’s company for too long—even mine. Besides, I needed to start the way I intended to go on with Theo’s relatives.’ She paused to wipe away fresh tears, presumably because she recalled that she would not now get the opportunity. ‘I sensed his family’s resentment but I am not as frail as I look. I can be very determined, and I wanted to stand my ground in front of them. Mrs Allen was the worst, of course, making caustic comments the entire time. But I hope I behaved with more dignity than she did. Indeed, it would be hard not to, and I either countered her snide remarks or rose above them.’ The suggestion of a smile touched her lips. ‘She is so used to bullying people that I don’t think she knew quite how to react when I refused to be intimidated by her.’
‘Well done, miss,’ Salter said softly.
‘Why did Theo not make the announcement before dinner last night?’ Riley asked.
‘He was waiting for someone else to come.’
‘Who?’ both detectives asked together.
She spread her hands. ‘I don’t know,’ she confessed. ‘Theo said it was to be a surprise and that once his visitor had explained himself—’
‘It was a man?’ Riley asked.
She lifted one slender shoulder. ‘Yes, I think it must have been. Or will be. Unless Trent knows who it is and sends him a cable to prevent him from coming, I imagine he will be here tomorrow and we shall know everything then. But yes, Theo definitely referred to his mystery guest as “he”. I am absolutely sure of it.’
‘Let’s start at the beginning, Miss Bradshaw. How long have you known Sir Theo and how did you come to meet him, given that he seldom left the house.’
‘My brother and I are private investigators. Well, officially it’s just my brother. It is, as my father constantly reminded me during the course of our training, a most unsuitable occupation for a woman.’ A smile briefly broke through her melancholy. ‘That is why I often get better results than Harry. I look too innocent to be anything other than what I appear to be. A fragile and helpless young woman.’
‘Careful, miss,’ Salter said, smiling. ‘You’re making yourself sound guilty.’
‘I am not guilty of anything other than having loved Theo very much.’
‘You were telling us about your business,’ Riley reminded her.
‘Ah yes, Bradshaw and Bradshaw, Investigators. Everyone thinks the names refer to my father and brother, but they do not. It’s always just been Harry and me. Our parents are both dead. We live in a modest house in Islington that we inherited from them, and work from there.’
‘How do you attract your clients?’ Riley asked.
‘We advertise in the newspapers, but all modesty aside, we have built a reputation for ourselves and often receive referrals from previously satisfied customers. Theo saw one of our advertisements and, being Theo, researched our credibility. He obviously approved of what he discovered since he wrote and asked us to call upon him here. That was nine months ago.’
‘What did he require you to do?’ Riley asked.
‘He was on the point of sponsoring a young man’s latest and more modern version of a glider.’
‘A what?’ Salter asked, scratching his head.
‘It’s a way for man to fly,’ Riley informed him.
‘Fly? Blimey, if that’s what God had intended us to do, He’d have given us wings.’
‘It was just the sort of quirky invention that appealed to Theo.’ Miss Bradshaw smiled. ‘No one could accuse him of being traditional. He liked the idea of soaring above the ground and looking down on what he described as a blemished world.’
‘It has been done before. The glider, I mean,’ Riley said, closing his eyes and throwing his head back. ‘If memory serves, a man by the name of Cayley built the first piloted glider back in ’49 or thereabouts.’
‘You are well informed, Inspector, but his efforts were not very successful. The young inventor who had attracted Theo’s interest was developing a far more reliable machine, but required funds. Theo was on the point of supplying them when something, I am unsure what, caused him to have doubts. People were always attempting to dupe him out of his money. I’m sure they thought that because he had so much of it, it must follow that he gave it away without much consideration. They failed to make allowances for the fact that he would not have remained rich for long if he had been that foolish. Anyway, he thought the man—Henshaw his name was—was attempting to dupe him. Trent had heard someone claiming to be a relation of his, sounding off in a tavern about their forthcoming windfall.’
‘Ah,’ Riley said, nodding.
‘I was called in to trace the man’s family, since he claimed not to have any. It transpired that he did and that they were known confidence tricksters.’
Riley frowned, thinking that something didn’t quite add up. ‘You discharged your duties to Sir Theo’s satisfaction and finished up becoming engaged to be married to him.’
‘I liked him. More than liked…’ Fresh tears sprang to her eyes. ‘He was shy and withdrawn as a general rule, but…well, we just hit it off, I suppose. He opened up to me and we talked for hours about anything and everything. Trivial things. Theo was unaccustomed to triviality, but I was teaching him to gradually take life less seriously. He invited Harry and me to dine with him once or twice. Trent subsequently told me that he never extended dinner invitations and he knew then that Theo had found the person to bring him out of himself. He was a troubled genius, Inspector, kind yet disinterested in matters that occupy the minds of the vast majority of us. He’d suffered many setbacks in his life and was not strong, but I like to think that for the last few months he was at least happy.’
‘You did not see him after dinner last night?’
She shook her head and this time the tear
s trickled freely down her cheeks. ‘No, I did not. I remained in the drawing room, until it was just Arthur and George left with Harry and me. The way Arthur looked at me made me uncomfortable, and so I had Harry escort me to my room.’
‘You discovered Sir Theo’s body this morning,’ Salter said softly.
‘I did.’ She shuddered, and what little colour there was in her complexion drained away, leaving her cheeks chalk white and her nose and eyes crimson. ‘It was the most terrible shock.’
‘Why did you go to the library?’ Riley asked. ‘What made you suppose he would be there and not in his chamber.’ Miss Bradshaw’s pale cheeks rapidly turned the same shade of red as her eyes. ‘You went to his room?’
‘I had expected him to join me in mine.’ She lifted her chin, defying Riley to judge her. He failed to oblige, privately pleased that Theo had enjoyed a few pleasures of the flesh in his otherwise short and restricted life. ‘When he did not, I went to him. I was unsurprised when I found his bed unslept in. He often lost track of time and spent the entire night engrossed in some obscure tome or other. I went to remind him that he no longer just had himself to please.’ She paused to blow her nose. ‘It was the most terrible shock.’
Riley reiterated his condolences, but did so briskly, preferring to avoid bringing on another bout of weeping.
‘What shall you do now, miss?’ Salter asked.
She shrugged. ‘Return to Islington with Harry, I suppose, and pick up the threads of my life as best I can.’ She looked away. ‘It will not be easy.’
‘Time will—’
‘No, Sergeant, you don’t understand.’ She placed a hand protectively across her belly in a protective gesture so reminiscent of Amelia in her early stages that Riley understood immediately.
‘You are carrying Theo’s child,’ he said.
‘Yes.’ Another defiant toss of her head. ‘And in Islington, where I am well known and our family is—or was—well respected, I shall not be able to pass myself off as a widow.’
‘If your child is a boy—’
‘He will be Theo’s heir.’ She nodded. ‘Quite. But you can be sure that Theo’s uncle won’t give up the title. Or more to the point, his wife will not let him. We were not married and Theo is no longer alive to recognise the child as his. Not that I mind about him not inheriting. I am quite capable of making my own living and providing for my child. Or I would be if my shame doesn’t frighten business away. It might be better, I suppose, if I go away until after my confinement. I have not felt equal to considering my future quite yet.’