Blue Moon (45 page)

‘You left me in the lurch,’ she said. There were tears in her eyes.

‘I know.’

‘I had all the responsibility.’

Percy put his arm around his sister’s shoulders. ‘You’re right, Ruby. It was unforgivable and I feel terrible about it. Please forgive me.’

Ruby sank back into his hug, remembering again the times she had been spared Nelson’s slap or, on a couple of occasions, his belt because Percy took the punishment for her. He had been a good brother in the past. They had all been through some difficult times, but now it seemed that he was home for good.

She gave him a nod of forgiveness, then she and Bea listened with rapt attention while Percy told them how he and Rachel had met.

‘I was afraid of him at first,’ Rachel confessed. ‘The Blackshirts …’

‘I don’t blame you,’ said Ruby. ‘They look quite fearsome on the newsreels.’

‘Where I come from,’ said Rachel, ‘people disappear. They are taken to a big camp and they cannot come back home.’

‘She means Hitler’s concentration camp,’ said Percy.

‘Concentration camp?’ said Ruby. ‘What’s that?’

‘Since the beginning of last year the Nazis have been sending people to a special camp,’ said Rachel. ‘It’s called Dachau.’

A stunned silence fell on the room. No one made any reference to her terrible scar, although they all wondered if that had anything to do with it.

Jim came back and, as Bea unwrapped the newspaper parcels, they all reached for a plate.

‘I told Rachel that you were looking after a German refugee,’ said Percy. ‘By the way, where is John?’

‘He went to live in Brighton,’ said Bea.

‘Shame,’ Percy said to Rachel. ‘Rachel is Jewish too. I would have liked her to meet him.’

As they ate, Rex told Ruby and Percy that he had loved Bea for more years than he cared to remember and that he wanted their mother to come and live at his house in Hastings. At first Bea protested that she was needed here in Worthing, but he took her hand and said, ‘Sweetheart, we have already waited too many years to be together. I have a good living as a doctor, and I live in a bungalow overlooking the sea. It would be the perfect place to bring May up.’

Percy glanced at his mother and grinned. ‘Sounds wonderful, Mother.’

Having finished her meal, it was May’s bedtime. Percy kissed her and, as he chased her upstairs, she squealed with delight.

‘I’m so pleased for you and Percy,’ Bea told Rachel when they were alone. ‘He’s a good boy. I’m sure he’ll do his best to make you happy.’

Rachel smiled, but Ruby seemed far away.

Percy came back downstairs and Jim went to use the outside lav.

‘There’s something wrong, isn’t there?’ Bea whispered as she leaned towards Ruby, who was washing up the plates. ‘I can see it in your face. Something is worrying you. Don’t you like her?’

‘She’s lovely,’ Ruby blushed. ‘I’m really happy for Percy.’ She hesitated, wanting to talk to her mother, but now that Rachel was here, how much could she say? She glanced behind her and saw that Rachel was going upstairs to join Percy and May.

‘Are you upset that I’m taking your mother and sister away?’ Rex interjected in a low voice. He knew he would find it hard to understand, if this was the reason for Ruby’s worried expression. The arrangements they’d made would certainly give Jim and Ruby a good start in life, because it had been agreed that they could set up their home in Newlands Road and pay a peppercorn rent to her mother, to keep things legal.

‘It’s not that,’ said Ruby.

‘Is it something to do with Jim?’ Bea asked. ‘Are you happy?’

Ruby squeezed her mother’s hand reassuringly. ‘It’s nothing to do with Jim and, yes, I am very happy.’

‘Then what is it?’

Ruby glanced at her husband as he came back into the room.

‘Ruby, I want you to know that I shall do my best to give your mother and sister a good life,’ said Rex, catching her arm lightly. ‘I’m sure that whatever your concerns are, we can resolve them.’

‘We said no more secrets, so what’s wrong?’ Bea glanced anxiously up at Rex.

‘Honestly,’ said Ruby, ‘it’s nothing to do with you and Mum, and it’s nothing to do with Percy and Rachel, either. Really, I couldn’t be more happy about all of you getting together.’

It was obvious that Rex was relieved, but now he seemed even more puzzled.

While everyone sat around the kitchen table, Bea had gone out to the scullery to move the washing on the clothes horse. Percy and Rachel came downstairs and Percy came to join his mother in the scullery.

‘Mother, I owe you this,’ he said, pushing something into her hand. ‘I’m so sorry. I should have given the money to you when I sold the boat. In fact I should never have sold it in the first place. It wasn’t mine to sell. He wasn’t even my father.’

‘You rushed off before I could explain, Son,’ said Bea. ‘You got the wrong end of the stick. Nelson
was
your father.’

‘Then is May …? Is Rex …?’

‘Rex is Ruby’s father,’ said Bea softly.

‘Ruby’s!’

While she moved things on the dryer, folding some for the ironing basket and spreading the bigger things out to dry more quickly, Bea quietly explained everything and, at the end of it, Percy looked a little sheepish. ‘I’ve been an absolute idiot, haven’t I, Mum?’ he said.

‘Never mind, love,’ said Bea. ‘You’re home now.’

They re-joined the others around the kitchen table.

‘Ruby,’ Bea insisted, ‘I want to know what’s bothering you. We’re all family here,’ she glanced at Rachel with a small smile, ‘or we soon will be. Perhaps we can help.’

Ruby shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Should she tell them what she’d confided in Albert?

‘I think I can guess what it is,’ said Jim. ‘Am I right, love?’

She looked down and said nothing, so Jim told them what he and Ruby had discovered under the pillow in their bedroom on the night of their wedding.

‘Can I see the bullet?’ asked Rex.

While Jim went to fetch it, Ruby breathed a sigh of relief that Albert hadn’t taken it with him.

‘Is this why you asked me about the British Legion?’ said Rex, rolling the bullet between his fingers.

Jim nodded. ‘I didn’t really believe Ruby’s theory, when she told me about the others,’ he said, ‘but now that this has happened … Well, it puts a different light on it.’

‘Others? What others?’ said Percy. ‘Am I missing something here?’

Between them, Jim, Bea and Ruby repeated the story
once again. They told him of their suspicions about Nelson’s death, and of the bullet the police found among his effects; then they told him about Linton Carver’s death and the letter of confession they’d found among his things; and finally of the untimely death of George Gore.

‘Not only that,’ Bea went on, ‘but Mabel Harris has a bullet too. She found it in one of Jack’s pockets when he died.’

Percy listened, open-mouthed.

‘The other bullets are in Granny’s teapot,’ said Ruby, standing up to get them. ‘Mum wrote to Mrs Gore ages ago, and she’s coming to Worthing for a holiday at the end of the week.’

‘We plan to ask her if her husband had one too,’ Bea explained.

Jim lined them up next to the bullet they’d found under the pillow.

‘And, of course, the one belonging to Jack Harris,’ said Bea.

‘They’re obviously home-made,’ said Rex. ‘Amateurish, crude, but clearly made by the same person, with the word
Victory
on the side.’

‘Is it
Victory
?’ asked Rachel, ‘or is it the name
Victor
with a little squiggle?’

‘Good Lord!’ Bea exclaimed. ‘It’s so obvious and yet we never even thought of that.’

‘Then this whole thing has to have been about the firing squad,’ said Ruby. ‘The men who shot Victor.’

‘And you’ve got all the names of the men in the firing squad?’ asked Rex.

‘Yes,’ said Bea, opening the dresser drawer. She drew in her breath. ‘Oh no! It’s gone!’ she cried. ‘Someone has taken Mabel’s address book.’

Ruby helped her to look, but her mother was right. The address book was nowhere to be seen. Her stomach fell away – now she had nothing to show Albert next week. How could he possibly find Charlie Downs for them now? And supposing there were other soldiers listed within the pages: people they had all presumed were dead, but who were still alive and vulnerable?

‘So let me get this straight,’ said Rex. ‘You think whoever put the bullet under your pillow is the same person who took the address book, and that person is instrumental in the untimely demise of at least three people, maybe four.’

‘Yes,’ said Ruby. Her voice was cracked and betrayed the panic rising inside her. She ought to tell them about the note threatening Jim.

He caught her hand and squeezed it as she sat back down at the table.

Rachel looked visibly distressed. ‘And I thought England was a peaceful place,’ she whispered to Percy.

Rex was on a roll. ‘Is anybody who was part of the firing squad still around?’

‘There’s still Charlie Downs and Captain Blatchington,’ said Ruby, her chin quivering.

‘I know a Colonel Blatchington,’ said Percy. ‘Do you think it’s the same man?’

‘We thought so,’ said Bea, ‘and so I wrote to him, but he never answered.’

‘To warn him?’

She nodded. ‘And to tell him that the others were dead.’

Rex looked thoughtful. ‘And their addresses were in that book?’

‘Along with Linton’s confession,’ said Ruby anxiously.

‘Which leaves us with absolutely no real physical evidence at all,’ said Rex.

‘We’ve tried to think of every single person who was in our house on the day of our wedding,’ said Jim.

‘The bullet had to have been left there then,’ Ruby went on. ‘I only made up the bed in the morning.’

‘It can’t be any of our friends,’ said Bea anxiously.

‘Clearly, whoever it is, he’s deranged,’ said Jim.

‘Or,’ Rex corrected him, ‘they could be very clever.’

‘The point is,’ said Jim, ‘what are we going to do?’

‘I think we should still try and warn Blatchington and Downs,’ said Ruby.

‘I’ll write to Colonel Blatchington myself,’ said Percy. ‘I got on really well with him, and I know he thought well of me. He tried to persuade me to stay in the movement.’

‘I hate to say this,’ said Rex, ‘but some people have already tried to point the finger of suspicion at you, Percy.’

‘Me!’ cried Percy, jumping to his feet and scraping the chair on the wooden floor.

‘Calm down,’ said Rex, looking a bit surprised at his volatile reaction. ‘I’m not accusing you, I’m just saying …’

‘Oh, Rex …’ said Bea.

‘Percy hates all kinds of violence,’ said Ruby.

‘Please believe me when I say I don’t for one minute
think you’ve got anything to do with these deaths,’ said Rex. ‘I’m just making an observation.’

‘It’s true that I didn’t like Father,’ Percy conceded, ‘but I didn’t have anything to do with his death.’

‘Neither did I,’ said Ruby stoutly, ‘and I hope you aren’t going to suggest that either of us had anything to do with his death.’ She was more than a little peeved that her own father should suggest such a thing.

‘Anyway, Percy wasn’t around for Nelson’s murder,’ said Jim.

‘I admit I left home in a huff,’ said Percy, sitting back down again, ‘but after I left the house, I never saw Father again.’

‘What about George Gore?’ said Rex. ‘We were told that you were on the platform the day he died.’

‘Rex,’ said Bea helplessly. ‘What are you saying?’

‘I didn’t even know George Gore,’ said Percy.

‘Fair enough,’ said Rex apologetically. ‘I don’t know you, and no offence intended, but I think it was a reasonable question to ask.’

‘Perhaps it’s just as well that we didn’t go to the police,’ said Ruby sourly, ‘especially if you were able to jump to the wrong conclusion so quickly.’

‘I don’t think they would have taken it very seriously anyway,’ said Rex. ‘With the best will in the world – even with the address book and the letter – all you have is circumstantial evidence. None of which would stand up in court.’

‘And in the meantime,’ said Jim, ‘the firing squad is being picked off one by one.’

And the same person wishes you harm too
, Ruby thought to herself.

‘Which brings us neatly back to the real conundrum,’ said Rex. ‘Why on earth put a bullet in
your
bed?’

Ruby held her breath, but there was no answer to that. She glanced round the room and could see that, for everyone there, it was most unsettling. Ruby chewed the inside of her cheek. Should she tell them about seeing Albert? Now was the perfect moment.

They began to disperse. Bea had to say goodbye to Rex, because he faced a long drive back to Hastings, and Percy wanted to organize giving up his room in the attic for Rachel. He was determined to sleep on the kitchen floor.

Ruby joined in and took Rachel to her own room to get some spare bedding, while Bea and Rex said their goodbyes.

A few minutes later Ruby reappeared, saying, ‘Oh, Mum, you’ll never guess what.’

Rachel was looking very shaken. She was holding a piece of cloth, and tears were cascading down her cheeks.

‘What did you say to her?’ Percy demanded angrily as he came downstairs. He rushed to Rachel’s side.

‘Nothing,’ Ruby protested. ‘She saw John’s place mat, that’s all.’

‘Place mat?’ said Percy incredulously.

Rachel held it up. ‘I recognized it at once,’ she choked. ‘It belonged to my sister.’

CHAPTER 41

Ruby had arranged to meet Edith during her breaktime. It was a fairly warm day, so they strolled towards the pier.

‘So, how do you like married life?’ Edith said, avoiding Ruby’s eye.

‘It’s wonderful,’ said Ruby.

‘Really?’

Ruby smiled. ‘It’s not a bit like we imagined,’ she said. ‘You’re not to think of you-know-what, but I promise you, you’ll love it when you and Bernard are together.’ The two friends linked arms and giggled.

‘I heard about your mum’s new beau,’ said Edith. ‘What’s he like?’

‘Lovely,’ said Ruby.

‘Where did she meet him?’

‘If I tell you something,’ Ruby began, ‘I want you to promise you won’t tell anyone else.’