Churchyard and Hawke (2 page)

Here she paused, unable to find the word she was seeking and Amos prompted her, ‘. . . venture? Was it a business venture he was talking about?’

Enid’s face lit up and she said, ‘That’s right, that’s what it was . . . a business venture. He made it sound very important and said it was going to make them a lot of money. When it did he said Jem would come back to Cornwall and give me twice as much money as I’d lent him because I was so kind to him when he was in need.’

"This "uncle" told you that? Didn’t Jem say anything?’ Amos tried not to sound too sceptical.

‘Yes . . . but he still seemed angry with me. He said I wasn’t to tell anyone that he’d come all the way back to Cornwall to see me. If I did he said the police would come looking for him because of the money that had been taken from the big house and that even though he hadn’t taken it you’d put him in prison and he wouldn’t be able to give me back my money.’

‘I see . . . yet you must have told someone of seeing him, or you wouldn’t be here now - or did you think you ought to come anyway?’

Enid appeared uncomfortable now and she said, ‘I didn’t mean to say anything, but last night Lucy, one of the parlour-maids, was teasing me about Jem and she was being nasty to me. She said that because he’d got what he wanted from me I’d never see him again. She went on for so long that I got cross and told her she was wrong. That Jem had come back and I’d seen him only that day. She told Miss Wicks what I’d said and I was sent for this morning and told I had to come here and report that Jem - she called him Jeremy, of course - that he was trespassing on Laneglos land . . . but he wasn’t trespassing, he’d only come back to speak to me. But it doesn’t really matter, Sergeant Hodge didn’t believe me anyway, so Jem shouldn’t be cross with me.’

Amos was deeply disturbed by what this simple young servant had told him. If the mysterious ‘Jem Smith’ from Hoxton had returned to Laneglos and was skulking around the grounds with a so-called ‘uncle’ the chances were that they were planning to burgle the house.

‘Did Jem or his uncle say anything more to you? Want to know who was staying at the house, perhaps?’

‘No.’ Enid shook her head, ‘He asked me about some of the servants he’d known but a lot of his talk was about the summer ball that’s being held in the great gallery at Laneglos next month. His uncle said Jem was worried that I might need to work too hard. They asked me how many people would be coming? What time it would end. . . ? All that sort of thing. ‘

Beaming through her tears at Amos, she added, ‘Jem must have told his uncle lots about me or he wouldn’t have known so much about what I do at Laneglos . . . so Jem really must love me, mustn’t he?’

Ignoring her question, Amos asked, ‘This uncle . . . does he have a name?’

‘Of course! I mean, everyone has a name, don’t they? But Jem never mentioned it.’

The sound of the town hall clock could be heard through the open window and, suddenly apprehensive, Enid asked, ‘Can I go now, please? Miss Wicks said I was to get back to the house as quick as I could and not dawdle.’

‘Yes, you can go back to Laneglos. Tell Miss Wicks you’ve been a great help to me and I’ll be coming up to the house to have a chat with her and Lady Hogg first thing tomorrow morning.’

Enid had been pleased when Amos had told her she had been a great help, but she was horrified when he said he would speak to her employer.

‘I don’t think Miss Wicks will be very pleased if Lady Hogg is bothered by what’s happened, sir. She says it’s her job to see the family aren’t troubled by the goings-on of servants.’

Amos smiled, ‘Very well, Enid, just tell her I’ve said you’ve been a great help to the police and very sensible. I’ll be up at Laneglos to speak to her, just as soon as I can. If you see this Jeremy again in the meantime, be sure to tell Miss Wicks - but say nothing to him about the talk you’ve had with me, you understand?’

Enid nodded, she was in a hurry to get away but paused in the doorway to say, ‘Thank you for listening to me, sir, and for believing me. I know I’m not very clever - but I don’t tell lies.’

When she had left, Amos decided he liked the simple young scullery-maid. Not least because she had given him an excellent reason for putting boring paperwork to one side for a while and turning his attention to the work he enjoyed most. Pitting his wits against criminals.

CHAPTER 2

After Enid had left the police station Amos was still thinking of what she had told him when there came a knock on the open door of his office and a tall, powerfully built man entered the room. On the right sleeve of his uniform coat he wore a badge depicting a silver crown, denoting that he was the force’s sergeant major.

Responsible for training recruits to the recently-formed Cornwall constabulary, Sergeant Major Harvey Halloran was an ex-Royal Marines colour sergeant. He had served with Amos in the Crimean war and was his second-in-command when Amos was given the task of policing a small town captured from the Russians. Harvey was also an ex prize-fighting champion and Amos had been instrumental in having him appointed to his present post.

Because of this, and their association in the past, there was a close bond between the two men, although Harvey remained deferential in his manner towards the man who was once again his superior officer.

Saluting Amos smartly, he said, ‘I hope you don’t mind, Mr Hawke, sir, I’ve dismissed the recruits early because of the heat. One of them collapsed and I didn’t want to lose the whole intake, so I brought the drill to a halt.’

‘Well done, Harvey, we’re having so much trouble recruiting suitable men I doubt if we’re ever going to reach our complement. We can’t afford to lose a single one of those we have taken on . . . but I’m glad you’ve come up to the office. I seem to remember you lived in Hoxton when we were both in London. Because of your association with prize-fighting you must have got to know many of the villains there - and it seems we might have had a visit from a couple of them. . . .’ He went on to tell Harvey of the young Laneglos scullery-maid’s visit to the police station and her story of the mysterious ‘Jeremy Smith’.

When he ended, Harvey said, ‘I doubt very much whether Smith is his real name even if Jeremy - or Jem - is, although I can think of half-a-dozen young ruffians by the name of "Smith" who would fit the bill and Jem is a popular name in Hoxton, the name being that of a bare-fist fighter who was a local champion around twenty years ago. If we had a few more details I could write to a friend of mine, Tom Churchyard. He’s stationed on the Met’s ‘K’ Division, which takes in Hoxton. He’s only a constable, but he knows just about every villain on his patch and should have been made a detective long ago. He’s also an ex-Royal Marine, like you and me but, as I say, I’d need a bit more information to give him than a name that might, or might not, be his real one.’

Turning over in his mind what Harvey had said, Amos reached a decision, ‘I have a nasty feeling about this,’ he said, ‘but, I agree, we need to know more about the young man in question and in view of the hot weather I think the recruits might welcome a break from drill for the rest of the day. Send them out on the beat with experienced constables and you and I will go along to Laneglos and see if we can learn a little more about this "Jeremy Smith".’

Before setting off for Laneglos, Amos had the duty station sergeant tell him all he knew of the big house and its residents.

Built in the 17th century, a short time before the outbreak of the English Civil War, it had a very large three storey facade with equally large wings set at right angles to it on either end. There was a cluster of outbuildings and stables to one side of the house and its own church some distance away at the rear. Laneglos had been in the Hogg family since the Restoration and the present owner was Viscount Edwin Hogg, one-time Member of parliament and past Lord Lieutenant and Sheriff of Cornwall. In indifferent health for the last few years, he left the running of the great house to his second wife, whom he had married when she was a titled widow with grown up sons and daughters by her late husband, also a Viscount.

Hogg had a son and daughter by his first wife but both these children had married and moved away, although one day the son would inherit both his father’s title and the estate.

Laneglos, one of the largest houses in the Duchy of Cornwall, was at the hub of the county’s society. It had more than forty servants and gardeners all currently overseen by Laneglos’s young but formidable acting housekeeper, Flora Wicks.

After making their way along a curving, tree-lined drive in a gig, one of a number supplied by the county for its police superintendents, Amos and Harvey arrived at the front door of the great house. When the horse and gig came to a halt, a groom was on hand immediately to take charge of the outfit.

After explaining their business the two policemen were escorted inside the house by a footman and taken to the housekeeper’s sitting-room where Flora Wicks soon arrived to speak with them.

A tall, confident young woman in her twenties, Flora Wicks was surprisingly young for the important post she held. She was, in fact, employed by the Hogg family as the assistant housekeeper but the regular housekeeper, who had held the post for almost thirty years had been taken ill a few weeks before. She was now recovering slowly and in the meantime Flora Wicks was firmly in command of the household.

Flora was fully aware of her present status in the household of one of Cornwall’s most influential families and Amos did not doubt that in spite of her lack of years she carried out her duties with the strictness and efficiency expected of her.

When Amos introduced himself and Harvey, the housekeeper said, ‘Enid informed me you would be calling but although it was I who said she must come and speak with you, upon reflection I fear I might be wasting your time, Superintendent, Enid is a very imaginative young girl.’

‘That may be so,’ Amos replied, ‘but I am not without experience of those who have inventive imaginations and I believe Enid is telling the truth about your late employee. Sergeant Major Halloran and I have come to Laneglos to learn what we can of this Jeremy Smith. It’s probably not his real name but in conversation with Enid it seems he mentioned the district of London from whence he came. Sergeant Major Halloran is familiar with that particular area and many of the criminals who live there. We are hoping he may learn enough about this young man to identify him and form an opinion of what he might be planning - and I am convinced he is up to something. Would you have any of his references, or the names of the men or women from whom they come?’

‘I do have a reference,’ Flora admitted. Showing mild embarrassment, she added, ‘Unfortunately it is worthless. When Smith applied for work at Laneglos he gave a reference purporting to come from a senior military man. I followed it up, of course, only to learn that the officer in question had closed down his London house on being posted to Bermuda. If it was a false reference then Smith must have learned of the officer’s posting from one of the London newspapers and used it to his advantage.’

When Amos raised an eyebrow at the housekeeper’s apparent breach of the basic principle of thoroughly checking references produced by prospective servants, she flushed and said defensively, ‘Of course, in the circumstances I did not take it upon myself to accept the reference. I consulted Lady Hogg and her youngest son by her previous marriage, the Honourable Charles Delville, who happened to be at Laneglos at the time. The excellent reference was written in an educated hand on notepaper embellished with the crest of the officer’s family and they both agreed we should accept it as being genuine.’

Nodding his head in acknowledgement that she was not entirely to blame for employing "Smith", Amos said, ‘I am beginning to think we might be dealing with some very resourceful criminals, Miss Wicks. I don’t think your late footman was working alone and I doubt whether making off with a trifling amount of money was his main purpose in obtaining work at Laneglos. By his actions this young man might well have prejudiced a far more serious criminal plan, but in order to discover what such a plan might be, I need to learn more about him. Is there any one of your servants who was particularly friendly with him and who might be able to tell us something?’

The housekeeper shook her head, ‘Only Enid - and I thoroughly disapproved of the friendship . . .’ A sudden thought came to her and she asked, ‘Would it help if I showed you a photograph of Smith?’

Her question took Amos by surprise, ‘You have a photograph of him?’ Photography was still a comparatively new innovation and quite expensive. It was hardly something a servant could afford . . . but Flora Wicks explained.

‘A photographer has being going around the great houses of Cornwall taking photographs of families and staff. Lady Hogg thought it would be nice to have one taken of all the household staff and servants. The result is hanging in the servants’ sitting- room. I will have a maid fetch it. While we wait perhaps you and Mr Halloran would like a cup of tea. . . ?’

While the housekeeper was out of the room summoning a maid, Amos said, ‘This is a stroke of luck, Harvey. If the photograph is a good likeness you should be able to send a description of this Jeremy Smith to your friend in London, together with any information we glean from the other servants.’

When Flora Wicks returned to the room carrying a framed photograph, she was accompanied by a maid bearing a tray on which were the promised tea and a plate of biscuits.

Harvey took the photograph from her while Amos moved a vase of flowers to one side in order that the maid could place the tray things on an occasional table. When the maid gave a hurried curtsy and hurried from the room, Flora Wicks said to Harvey, ‘I will show you which of the servants in the photograph is Smith. . . .’

‘You don’t need to.’ Harvey replied, ‘Unless I’m mistaken he’s second from left in the back row.’

The housekeeper was momentarily too surprised to reply but a Amos asked, ‘You know him, Harvey?’

‘Yes . . . but not as Jeremy Smith. He’s Jimmy Banks, a young man who I believe served prison sentences for pickpocketing and theft when he was still a boy. It’s common knowledge in Hoxton that he’s been guilty of more crimes since then - although as far as I know nothing has been proven against him recently. Nevertheless, he’s well on his way to maintaining the reputations of the rest of his family. His father was transported for robbery, at least two of his brothers have served prison sentences for burglary - and an uncle was hanged for murder.’