Death on Swift Wings (Gertrude Harrington Mysteries Book 1) Read online

  ‘Why have we been summoned here?’ demanded Sugden sourly. ‘I have work to do.’

  ‘We all have work to do,’ snapped back Parkes. He turned to Lady Castleford, who sat alone in her late husband’s favourite chair. ‘Your Ladyship, how much longer are we expected to sit here?’

  ‘When everyone is here, then I’m sure all will be revealed.’ Lady Castleford kept her tone level as she glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece. ‘I was asked to organise everyone to be here for five o’clock,’ she added, ‘so there’s not long to go.’

  Everyone strained to see the clock. It read two-minutes-before-five.

  ‘So who else is coming to your little gathering?’ asked Mrs Grainger.

  ‘Your employer should be here shortly, and Miss Harrington from Clyst St James will be bringing a couple of gentlemen with her.’

  ‘And then will we be told what this is all about?’ said Mr Grainger.

  The door to the drawing room opened admitting Gertrude, closely followed by Chief Inspector Lennox, Brigadier Barrington-Smythe and Henry Clarendon. ‘You will be told everything in time,’ Gertrude said.

  She motioned Henry to sit on one of the settees, and immediately Philippa came over to sit beside her son, placing a protective arm around his shoulders. The Brigadier settled onto the settee beside them, Jasper following to nestle at his feet.

  The clock began to chime.

  ‘Excellent,’ said Gertrude. ‘Everyone is here, and it’s now five o’clock so I can begin.’ She crossed the room, pausing in front of Lord Castleford’s chair. Taking a deep breath, she turned and lowered herself into it, watching as Jackson flinched.

  Henry stood up sharply. ‘That’s my father’s chair!’ he cried, his adolescent voice shrill with indignation.

  Gertrude smiled. To the others, her smile appeared vindictive. She smiled because Henry was playing his part to perfection: the outraged son of the deceased man. Her intention was to wrong foot the guilty into revealing their true nature by getting them on Henry’s side against her.

  ‘Yes, it is,’ she said, keeping her voice saccharine sweet, ‘but he’s not here is he? And I need somewhere in this room from which to view all you lovely people.’ Her gaze travelled around the room slowly, and several people shifted uncomfortably to avoid eye contact. ‘Because one of you is a killer, and I mean to unmask your guilt.’

  -2-

  A hubbub rose up around the room as everyone spoke at once, clamouring for an explanation. Gertrude remained silent in the chair, her arms folded. She let the noise carry on for a few moments, and then nodded at the Chief Inspector.

  Lennox’s voice rose up above the other noise. ‘All right everyone, that’s enough.’ When the ruckus continued, he shouted: ‘Quiet!’

  Silence descended upon the room as everyone’s attention shifted to the Chief Inspector.

  ‘Miss Harrington is here at my behest, so I ask, therefore, that you afford her the courtesy you would afford me, and listen to what she has to say. She has uncovered some pertinent facts surrounding the deaths of both Lord Castleford and Herbert Carter.’

  Gertrude inclined her head and cleared her throat. ‘Thank you, Chief Inspector. This terrible tragedy began, so I thought, with Lord Castleford’s death. It seems that his death is linked to the deaths of a number of his prized pigeons, the blackmail threats he’d been receiving, and in turn the mystery of the burglar who has become known as Pegasus. Indeed, I intend to start with that blackmail and reveal the identity of the blackmailer – Millicent Carter.’

  Lady Castleford gasped in appalled disbelief. ‘It can’t have been Millicent. Why would our maid want to blackmail my Arthur?’ She glanced at Millicent, whose lowered head revealed the shame she felt. ‘But why?’

  ‘Why does anyone resort to blackmail, Lady Castleford?’ said Gertrude. ‘Greed, of course. Millicent and her brother were the product of a broken marriage. Their father, Millicent has informed me, was an alcoholic brute who beat the pair of them, and in the end he killed their mother. They fled him to escape the same fate and found themselves unwillingly in service.

  ‘Millicent felt so strongly that she and her brother deserved a better life, and when circumstances dropped a fortuitous opportunity in their lap, she took that opportunity and decided to milk it for every penny.

  ‘You see, Millicent and Herbert were there at the beginning of the pigeon culling.’

  Lady Castleford whirled on Millicent. ‘You killed Arthur’s birds?’

  Millicent looked up sharply, shaking her head vehemently. ‘No, Your Ladyship, it weren’t me. I’ll swear it upon the bible.’

  Gertrude held up her hand. ‘It wasn’t Millicent who killed Lord Castleford’s pigeons. I shall get to that in due course.

  ‘Millicent and Herbert were walking in the copse some weeks ago, planning their escape I believe, when fortune smiled on them that day, or so they thought. They stumbled upon a pouch, and that pouch was attached to the leg of one of Lord Castleford’s pigeons, which had died. This bird probably died of old age or exhaustion; it wasn’t killed deliberately. Does anyone here know what was in that pouch?’

  Gertrude’s question elicited no response. She looked over to Lennox. ‘Perhaps you’d like to show everyone what was in that pouch, Chief Inspector?’

  -3-

  Lennox came to stand in the middle of the room and pulled the pouch that Gertrude had found out of his pocket. Untying the drawstring, he tipped the contents into his hand. Every head craned forward, every pair of eyes widened, every mouth gasped – not all with genuine shock.

  ‘This is actually a pouch which I found in similar circumstances, but the one that Millicent and her brother found also contained jewels. The pair decided they would keep it, after all, they’d already been discussing plans to escape a life of drudgery here at Castleford Manor, so a pouch full of gemstones would make it that much easier to start a new life.

  ‘Herbert decided to keep one of the bigger diamonds, which he took to a jeweller in Kingworthy to have set in his grandmother’s old engagement ring. He hadn’t anticipated Juliet showing the ring to every person she met, and one person in particular took note, because that person was the one who’d stolen the jewels in the first place – the burglar known as Pegasus.

  ‘In the meantime, giving scant regard to the fact that someone must have tied the pouch onto the pigeon’s foot in the first place, Herbert and Millicent decided to look for further pouches. Greed catches up with a person very quickly, you see. Those jewels could have set them up for a new life in another part of the country, but they would still have had to find some sort of employment. One pouch would never have been enough, would it Millicent?’

  ‘Is it wrong to dream of a life without having to work?’ muttered the maid sourly.

  ‘There’s nothing wrong with a life of leisure, if you have earned it. It’s also perfectly fine to marry into a life of leisure. But to steal to make a better life – and not only that, but to steal what has already been stolen – well, that was never going to have a happy ending, was it Millicent?’

  The maid shook her head, unable to meet anyone’s gaze.

  ‘While they were out looking for further pouches they encountered someone they hadn’t expected: Henry Clarendon.

  ‘Henry had absconded from his boarding school and was hiding out in the woods. Due to their upbringing, both Millicent and Herbert actually possess a strong compassionate streak, and they offered Henry a bed at their rented home, safe in the knowledge that he was too proud to accept. You and Herbert told Henry about the pouch and the jewels, didn’t you Millicent, and what did you tell them in return Henry?’

  Henry swallowed loudly, unsure he wanted this part to come out. ‘I told them–’ His voice faltered and he took a deep breath before continuing. ‘I told them that my father must be smuggling the diamonds and that they should blackmail him.’

  Philippa gasped, removing her arm from around her son’s shoulders. ‘Why in heaven’s name would you ma
ke such a suggestion?’

  Henry remained silent, struggling to hold back his tears.

  Gertrude said: ‘I suspect, Lady Castleford, that your son wanted some sort of revenge for his father sending him to the St James’ School for Boys. Is that right, Henry?’ She looked directly at Henry, who glanced up as though sensing her stare, and then lowered his eyes once more.

  The lad nodded. ‘No one was supposed to get hurt, though. When Millicent and Herbert told me what they’d been through as children, I put myself in their place and felt the same feelings of anger and resentment. I thought: Why not help them make a fresh start and get even with Father at the same time.’

  Gertrude shook her head sadly. ‘Blackmail is not a nice way to make a fresh start, Henry. And it was the catalyst for yet more greed and more feelings of resentment, and further desire for revenge.

  ‘Herbert, you see, abhorred the thought of blackmailing Lord Castleford. As much as you might have disliked the man, Henry, your father was good to Herbert and his sister. With the money Herbert made from all his gardening jobs, he was able to rent the small cottage in the village, and he knew those extra gardening jobs were thanks to kind words from Lord Castleford to the Brigadier, and from the Brigadier onwards. Hard work you see, Millicent, pays off in the end.

  ‘You, however, Millicent, felt otherwise. You felt you were owed an easy life, and so you went ahead with your blackmail plans. The only thing was, whether he was incorrect in his belief that it was his father, or whether he just wanted to incriminate his father because of his anger, Henry misled you when he said that Lord Castleford was the one smuggling the gems. You were blackmailing the wrong man.’

  -4-

  ‘I – I didn’t know that,’ Millicent gasped.

  ‘Be that as it may, it doesn’t excuse your blackmail attempt.’ Gertrude shook her head sadly. ‘Blackmail is such an evil word, an evil deed – and evil deeds seldom go unpunished. Herbert’s death was the price paid for your greed.’

  ‘Herbert was killed because I was blackmailing His Lordship?’

  ‘Indirectly. It’s more to do with the stolen jewels. And yet again, you see, greed finds its own rewards. The thief, this burglar known as Pegasus; he found out about the blackmail, and he found out about the pouches that were being stolen from him. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

  ‘Lord Castleford gave in to the blackmail, because he had his own secret that he had been keeping from his wife. It was hardly anything worthy of being blackmailed over, particularly to the tune of two thousand pounds, but he was being blackmailed nonetheless, and Lord Castleford could think of no other reason for it. He didn’t want his little secret being passed around the village – he would have been made a laughing stock. He therefore decided to buy the silence of the blackmailer, little knowing it was Millicent.

  ‘Neither of them realised the wrong person was being blackmailed.’

  ‘So what was His Lordship’s secret then?’ asked Millicent quietly.

  ‘Has anyone here met a lady named Clara Hendon?’ said Gertrude.

  The Brigadier raised his hand. ‘I introduced Arthur to Clara,’ he murmured.

  ‘And I never met her, but wish I had,’ sighed Philippa wistfully. She looked at the Brigadier. ‘If only Arthur had trusted me enough to tell me, there might have been no blackmail, and he’d still be alive.’

  Mrs Grainger’s voice dripped delighted spite as she said: ‘So who is this Clara, then? Lord Castleford’s mistress?’

  Gertrude’s eyes turned to Philippa. ‘Do I tell them? One of them at the very least knows anyway.’

  Philippa said: ‘Is it relevant to your story, Miss Harrington?’

  Gertrude shook her head. ‘Not necessarily, but it might make more sense of the sequence of events that have led us to this meeting if they knew everything.’

  Philippa remained silent for a moment, and then acceded to the notion.

  -5-

  Gertrude continued her tale. ‘Some of you might be aware of Lord Castleford’s old war injury. Until very recently he walked with a stick, and then a pronounced limp. The War had a dreadful effect on Lord Castleford. He was pretty much housebound with agoraphobia. His lack of confidence was brutally devastating.

  ‘Brigadier Barrington-Smythe was the one person he could rely on for assistance to overcome this debilitating fear. He couldn’t even ask his devoted wife for help. He didn’t want to burden her since she had her own problems – namely two wayward children. Anyway, the Brigadier helped orchestrate an outrageous plan to rehabilitate his old friend back into the world. It was a plan that would either succeed spectacularly, or fail so miserably that Lord Castleford would be worse than before.

  ‘It helped that Lord Castleford was small of stature and slender, and with the Brigadier’s help he became Clara Hendon, and as Clara Hendon, Lord Castleford was able to visit other nearby villages where there was little chance of being recognized. A bizarre plan, to be sure, but it certainly seemed to have worked and it didn’t take him long to get his confidence back.’

  As Gertrude paused for breath she caught Philippa’s eye and noted the younger woman’s silent nod of thanks for being frugal with the facts. Gertrude smiled in silent response. There was, after all, no need for the others to know everything. She glanced around the room once more as she recommenced her tale.

  ‘On a recent journey, Lord Castleford encountered someone on a motorcycle. It was quite a distinctive motorcycle and he must have seen it before, leaving the grounds of Castleford Manor through the servants’ gate. This was after the blackmail had started, and he was on his way to pay the blackmail money. I think he decided to follow the motorcycle to confront the rider, perhaps believing the rider to be his blackmailer.

  ‘The motorcyclist seems to have turned around, blinding Lord Castleford with his headlamp and causing the crash, and he took the money when he found it in the car. I think at that moment he must also have discovered Clara Hendon’s true identity, and that Lord Castleford was still alive, and so in a callous move he shot Lord Castleford at point blank range, killing him instantly.

  ‘The killer escaped, thinking all would be well, obviously forgetting that he’d recently almost killed two people on pushbikes with his recklessness. Those two people were able to describe the motorcycle very clearly.

  ‘Now ordinarily, you would have expected the bird killings to have stopped if they were connected to Lord Castleford’s death, but they didn’t. That’s because, though indirectly linked, the bird killer wasn’t Lord Castleford’s murderer.’

  ‘Is the killing of the birds important?’ asked the Brigadier.

  Gertrude nodded. ‘Oh yes, it’s most important. All of these separate events are linked in one way or another. You will recall, Brigadier, that you complained that someone had been messing about with your guns?’

  ‘Yes, dash it. And then some blighter went and stole one of them.’

  ‘And if I recall correctly, you maintain that no one other than yourself and your head gardener, Mr Grainger, had access to the keys.’

  ‘Quite right. I’m a responsible gun owner, Miss Harrington. I keep them under lock and key, and only the pair of us knows where the key is kept.’

  ‘And I think it’s safe to say that you didn’t steal your own gun, Brigadier.’

  The Brigadier snorted. ‘Well of course not.’

  ‘Which leads to one conclusion,’ said Gertrude gently.

  Several pairs of eyes turned to look at Mr Grainger, who, realising the implication jumped up. ‘Now you wait just a damn minute,’ he blustered, puce with indignation. ‘I had nothing to do with the misuse of the guns.’

  Gertrude held up her hand. ‘Of course not, Mr Grainger. No one is suggesting that. What I meant is that someone else knew the whereabouts of the key.’

  The Brigadier shook his head. ‘Impossible, I tell you. I’m very careful.’

  ‘Might I suggest you cast your mind back, Brigadier, to the beginning of summer? You had a house gu
est, I believe, at the start of the school holidays? Someone who took great interest in your collection of weapons – in particular the guns.’

  Brigadier Barrington-Smythe thought for a few moments, but shook his head. ‘Sorry, my memory’s obviously not that good. I don’t remember.’

  Henry sighed. ‘It’s all right, Brigadier, you don’t have to lie to protect me.’ He stood up and moved to a position where he could face everyone. ‘I was the one who stole the Brigadier’s gun,’ he said with calm clarity. ‘I’m the one who’s been killing Father’s pigeons.’

  -6-

  Everyone seemed to gasp in unison. Philippa stared at her son incredulously.

  ‘Why?’ was all she could find to say.

  Henry frowned. ‘Sometimes, Mother, you do ask the most ridiculous questions. The reason was much the same as my reason for telling Millicent that Father was smuggling the jewels. Killing his blasted birds was a good way of getting even for sending me to that bloody school. And if it really was Father smuggling the jewels, then stealing them from him was an added bonus.’

  ‘And did it not occur to you to consider what might happen if your father wasn’t the smuggler?’ asked Gertrude sharply. ‘If your father wasn’t the smuggler, then someone else was. What might they do if they found out someone was stealing from them?’

  ‘I don’t know, and at the time I didn’t care,’ said Henry. ‘It certainly didn’t cross my mind that anyone might die because to my actions.’

  ‘Well your actions did have that effect, didn’t they? The real smuggler did find out about the theft of his – for want of a better word – property. Unfortunately, much like Millicent with her blackmail, the smuggler thought the wrong person was killing the birds and stealing the jewels.

  ‘That, in part, was Juliet’s fault for flaunting her ring around the village. But then again, why shouldn’t she show it off? She was engaged to a man she thought could do no wrong; a man who loved her and made her happy. She wanted to share that happiness, and it never once occurred to Juliet that any part of her engagement ring might be stolen property.