Mr Scarletti's Ghost (38 page)

‘Did you challenge Miss Eustace?' asked Mina.

‘No, I needed to walk about in the air and think, so I just pleaded another appointment and left, but even if I had, I am sure that some clever explanation would have been forthcoming.' He peered through the window. ‘Where is your brother? He seems to be a long time about his mission.'

‘He is,' said Mina anxiously, and ordered the cabman to turn and move around the corner into Bloomsbury Place, stopping a few yards nearer to Miss Eustace's lodgings. She peered down the street, but there was no sign of Richard. They waited in silence for a while, and Mina was wondering if she ought to admit her deception to Dr Hamid and reveal the true nature of her brother's mission, when her companion leaned out of the window.

‘There is a carriage approaching,' he said. ‘It is stopping and a lady is getting down. It is Miss Eustace! Is your brother still there?'

‘He must be!' said Mina. She thought she saw a slight movement at the window of Miss Eustace's apartments. ‘I can see him!' she gasped. ‘He will be discovered!'

In a moment, Dr Hamid had leaped down from the cab and was running down the street. ‘Miss Eustace!' he called out, and she looked up in astonishment.

‘Dr Hamid!' she said, ‘whatever are you doing? Are you well?'

‘Yes, and I must apologise for accosting you in this fashion. I happened to be visiting a patient who lives nearby, but my thoughts have been in some disarray since attending the séance tonight. I could think of nothing else – my poor dear sister! I need to know more! Would you allow me the favour of a few moments conversation? Let us walk down to the seafront and view the sunset.'

‘Perhaps it would be better to wait until you are calmer,' she advised.

Mina, trying her best to see, was sure now that it was Richard at the upper window but he was unable to descend without grave risk of Miss Eustace seeing him.

‘Oh, but I must speak with you now, or I will never be calm again,' pleaded Dr Hamid. ‘One minute only, I beg of you, and we will walk just a little way down the street and then up again, and I know it will refresh me. And I will engage you for another private séance – I will do anything, pay any price if I can hear from my dear sister just once more.'

‘Very well,' said Miss Eustace, dismissing her cab, ‘let us walk.' Dr Hamid took her arm and they strolled down the street towards the seafront.

As soon as their backs were turned, Richard began his perilous descent, his cloak flowing about him so he looked like a gigantic leathery bat crawling down the wall. ‘Do you see that, Miss?' asked the cabman, suddenly. ‘On the wall of that house. There's something funny going on there! I think I should get the police!'

Mina peered out of the window. ‘I can see nothing,' she said. ‘But the lady who lives there is a spirit medium and is often visited by ghosts. Perhaps you are seeing a ghost?'

‘Oh my word!' gasped the cabman. ‘And you say that you can't see it at all?'

‘No, it is quite invisible to me. I think your best course is to turn the cab around, so it cannot see you.'

‘Oh! Yes! Right away!' he said, complying with some energy.

‘And it might be best if you do not speak of this incident to anyone. You would only be accused of drunkenness which would be very unfortunate.'

‘I haven't taken a drop,' he declared, ‘but I can see that there are those who wouldn't believe me.'

A minute later, the door of the cab opened and Richard climbed breathlessly inside. ‘That was good work by Dr Hamid,' he said.

‘Did you deliver the gift?' asked Mina, holding out her hand.

He dug in his pocket for the handkerchief and returned it to her. ‘Oh yes, with great success.'

Dr Hamid soon joined them. ‘Mr Scarletti, I am pleased to see you are safe, but let that narrow escape serve as a warning never to attempt such a dangerous escapade again.'

‘I understand there are men who make a living at it, but the work is too hard for me,' said Richard, as Mina signalled the cab to move off. ‘Still, if my business partner fails to return from London I may yet be obliged to take up house-breaking as my new career.'

Dr Hamid frowned, not sure if Richard was joking or not. ‘And there is another thing of great importance I must say to you. I am sorry if you will be disappointed in the lady who so commands your affections, but it must be said before another moment passes. My eyes have been opened tonight. I have received evidence that has convinced me she is a fraud.'

‘Now, it is strange that you should say that,' said Richard, ‘because I have just found out the very same thing. It is no wonder that she tries to keep her address a secret, for she has items hidden in her lodgings that she does not want the world to see.'

‘You have searched her rooms?' said Dr Hamid, astonished.

‘Oh, one thing led to another and I confess that out of a natural curiosity I did, but very carefully. She will not know that anyone has been there. The lady has boxes of costumes, including masks, wigs, false beards, stuffed gloves, rag babies and the like, as well as oil of phosphorous and everything she needs to create her spirits. But there was something else, too, a great many items cut from the newspapers, notebooks with intimate details of the residents of Brighton, culled from who knows where. She is a squirrel for gossip and lays her store aside for when it is needed.'

‘I am sure,' said Mina, ‘that all the private revelations she passes on will be found there.'

‘But there was another thing,' said Richard. ‘I saw personal effects and clothing, which suggests that she does not live alone, or at least that she is visited by another who sometimes sleeps there. A man.' He smiled. ‘Well, that was hungry work, and I can quite fancy a bite of supper!'

‘It would be my great pleasure for both of you to be my guests,' said Dr Hamid, directing the cab to his home.

‘The question is,' said Mina, ‘what can we do with the information we now have? We may express our suspicions to the police but that is all. We have no evidence, no facts with which to persuade them to take action. And Miss Eustace has too many supporters for our voices to carry any weight. We most certainly cannot tell anyone what Richard saw in her lodgings tonight or they will want to know how we came by that information.'

‘I suppose we could ask someone to keep watch over the premises and see if Mr Clee slips in of an evening and then departs in the morning, but that would prove nothing,' said Richard.

‘In any case, I do not think Mr Clee is even in Brighton at present,' said Mina. ‘There is the breach of promise action to be heard, and he has engaged a London solicitor. He may well be staying there until the trial. I suspect he will want to keep well away from Miss Simmons and her sister Mrs Langley who may be tempted to box his ears if she sees him, as might the other ladies he has addressed.'

A gloomy atmosphere descended as the three conspirators pondered the difficulty. It was agreed that if any one of them came up with a plan, then that individual would share his or her thoughts with the other two before taking any action.

The next morning Mina was pleased to see that her mother was feeling a little better. Part of the reason for Louisa's recovery was her recognition of the fact that Miss Whinstone was even more miserable than she was, and she did not enjoy competition. Miss Whinstone's wailings about her expenditure on the two orphans was becoming tiresome. They seemed to need a dozen suits of clothing each, and books and equipment for every activity the school offered, including lessons in riding, sailing and languages. She received letters from them once a week, which usually asked for money, and described the appurtenances of wealth that other pupils enjoyed with the strongest possible implication that they would be desolate if they did not acquire the same. All questions as to how she had selected the children or even why she had suddenly taken the course of adoption were met with silence.

Mina was busy with her writing when there was a knock at her door and she opened it to admit Mrs Parchment. ‘Miss Scarletti, if I might have a word?'

‘Yes, of course, is there anything the matter?'

‘Not at all, I am entirely satisfied with my accommodation here. However, I need to inform you at once that I intend to leave Brighton in the very near future. There is family business I must attend to, and it is such that I might be absent for many months or even be obliged to make my home elsewhere. My rent is paid to the end of the month, and I am content with that arrangement. I will inform you of the date of my departure as soon as I know it myself.'

‘Thank you for letting me know,' said Mina. ‘I hope you have enjoyed your stay here in Brighton.'

Mrs Parchment gave an uncharacteristic smile. ‘I have, thank you.'

‘Might I ask one thing?'

‘Please do.'

‘I hope – I trust – that your departure is not connected in any way with the difficulty concerning Miss Simmons? Her behaviour was unacceptable, as of course was Mr Clee's. I would not like to think that in making the error of employing her I created some dissatisfaction with the arrangements here.'

Mrs Parchment's back achieved a sudden rigidity. ‘I do not blame you in any way, Miss Scarletti. Miss Simmons's masquerade of innocence was skilfully done and would have convinced anyone. When the truth is known, she will be exposed for what she is, a conniving and deceitful woman. I know all about her plans to extort money from Mr Clee under false pretences, but I also happen to know that she and her sister, both of whom have told lies to the police, will fail.'

‘May I ask how you know this?' asked Mina. Both Miss Simmons and her sister had struck her as truthful, and she did not like to think she had been so categorically deceived.

‘You may, but I am advised that that is a matter best aired in court.'

‘Will you be giving evidence?'

‘I will, since it was I who observed them and reported what I saw.'

‘But did you overhear their conversation?'

‘That,' said Mrs Parchment with a smirk, ‘remains to be seen.'

Mina saw nothing in Mrs Parchment's manner to shake her trust in the veracity of Miss Simmons and her sister. ‘I wonder,' she said, ‘if the young lady of fortune to whom Mr Clee is shortly to be married will appear to give witness to his good character. That would cause quite a sensation.'

‘It would indeed, if such a lady existed.'

‘You think she does not?'

‘Do you have any evidence that she does?' said Mrs Parchment confidently. ‘I have heard this rumour, of course, but I do not give it any credit.'

‘But it is not simply a rumour,' Mina advised her, ‘the engagement was mentioned in the letter Mr Clee's solicitor sent to Miss Simmons. She showed it to me. Where can the solicitor have obtained the information except from Mr Clee himself?'

Mrs Parchment gave a curiously brittle laugh. ‘Oh, there is nothing in that. Young gentlemen, especially handsome young gentlemen like Mr Clee, always imagine that all the ladies are in love with them. Only wait for the trial and she will not appear.'

She swept out, her nose tilted in the air. Mina was left wondering if the young lady of fortune was a myth for quite another reason, because she had been invented by Mr Clee as a means of escaping the consequences of his engagement to Miss Simmons.

Mrs Parchment was kept very busy over the next two days with her preparations for removal from Brighton, and then, quite abruptly, she announced that she would be away on business until the hearing, packed a small travelling bag, and departed.

R
ichard, in the meantime, had been saved from the necessity of undertaking burglary as his new profession by the reappearance in Brighton of Nellie Gilden, bringing with her all her many personalities. M. Baptiste was well on the way to recovering from what had proved to be a trivial flesh wound; however, the lady who had shot him was not after all, as had first been supposed, a mad woman, but his lawful wife. These two states were not, Nellie suggested with some acerbity, entirely incompatible. The would-be murderess, who had arrived in London accompanied by her three small children, had come armed not only with a revolver but a French marriage certificate, which pre-dated the conjurer's nuptials with Nellie by ten years. After some harrowing scenes, M. and Madame Baptiste had become reconciled, M. Baptiste had announced that he would not bring any charges, and Nellie had left London, her main regret being that the lady had not been a better shot. Her only consolation was a generous gift from her former employer and supposed husband to ensure that his bigamous marriage was never mentioned. After telling Richard the sad tale, Nellie had gone to Mrs Conroy's emporium to console herself with a new parasol.

Pleased as Mina was that M. Baptiste had survived and been reunited with his devoted if rather desperate wife and innocent children, and that Richard could now continue his theatrical career, which was at least preferable to burglary, Mina saw another danger. Nellie was a free woman, a single woman, and it was therefore more than possible that she and Richard might marry. Mina only hoped that if this did occur, Nellie might choose to do so as Lady Finsbury, having presumably first found some acceptable method of disposing of Lord Finsbury.