Murder's Sad Tale (14 page)

“That agrees with what we already knew, then.”

“Yes, but the more important item is that she knew Russell had more than a passing acquaintance with a small, dark-haired fellow who limped.”

“Was his name Stokes?” she asked.

“No, why do you say that?” he asked, surprised.

“Because Byron found out that the same small, limping man met Russell at that card game with Grimsby. He was calling himself Stokes at that time. As Byron said, it probably wasn’t his real name.”

Luten’s ears perked up at the mention of Byron. “Oh, when were you speaking to Byron?” he asked, trying to quell the sharp edge to his voice.

“When I arrived home from shopping this afternoon. Lady Dunn called on me. She knows a French modiste who is making her trousseau.”

“Oh yes. But about Byron — did he call on you?”

“Of course not,” she said, half angry at the charge and half flattered at his jealousy. “I dropped in to see what Reg was up to. Byron was there.”

“I daresay he walked you home?”

“No, Luten. Coffen walked me home.”

His hackles lowered at the mention of Coffen’s name. Somehow, he felt nothing irregular would happen when Coffen was there, and she didn’t enlighten him that Coffen had arrived some time after her.

He could now turn his mind to business. “So he was calling himself Stokes. That is odd,” he said. “The name Miss Fenwick gave Collins is Morton. Russell said he was a neighbor from Keswick. Miss Fenwick, whom we know is a bit of a snob, was not pleased with this friend, so we can assume he wasn’t quite a gentleman. Russell explained that Morton had worked for his family — not a servant, exactly, but a sort of clerk who handled the selling of wool.”

“The papa was supposed to be a vicar. How did he come to be selling wool?”

“It was the grandpapa who raised sheep. Russell spent his vacations with him.”

“I see. Your Mr. Collins certainly did a good job of digging out details.”

“Yes, he’s handsome, and single. The lady welcomed a shoulder to cry on.”

“Did Russell tell her what Stokes or Morton or whoever he is was doing in London? I mean was he supposed to be visiting on some wool-selling venture, or does he live here?”

“He said he lives here now, does clerical work for some firm. She wasn’t interested enough to find out, or remember if she ever knew.”

“I wonder how she came to meet him. I mean did Russell introduce him, bring him to call...”

“No, nothing so innocent. Morton accosted them once on Bond Street. That was the afternoon of the evening he had Russell called from the whist game. And on two other occasions she saw him, had the feeling he was following them. She pointed it out to Russell. He went back and had a word with Morton. Russell told her Morton was late on his rent and wanted to borrow money. In fact on that occasion she saw Russell give him money.”

“I suppose it could be true,” she said doubtfully.

“From what happened in Bedford, we know he did work for or with Russell. He was the errand boy who gave the check for the hat, you recall. Bearing in mind that Stokes/Morton is our chief suspect in the murder, the money Fenwick saw Russell give him was more likely a payoff for some other illegal act on Russell’s behalf.”

“If Morton was getting money from Russell, though, he wouldn’t be eager to kill the goose who’s laying the golden eggs,” she said. “Russell must have been some sort of threat to Stokes/Morton.”

“Or perhaps it was just a falling out among thieves. If Fenwick disapproved of Morton, Russell might have been trying to get rid of him. That could lead to hard feelings, threats perhaps. If Russell was the brains of the pair, using Morton as his tool to actually perform the illegal acts, he might have threatened Morton with exposure, though it’s hard to see how he could expose Morton without involving himself.”

“Yes, Russell’s the one who actually wrote that bad cheque in Bedford. Morton might be simple-minded, I suppose. Someone like that could easily be imposed on.”

“We’ll have a meeting with our colleagues in the morning to figure out how to find this limping man. And now we shall put murder and mayhem out of our minds for a few hours and try to enjoy ourselves. Did I tell you you look ravishing this evening?”

The dinner party was uneventful and they escaped before the musical entertainment began.

Coffen did not have to be summoned to the meeting the next morning. He was at his cousin’s house bright and early and hungry, as usual.

“Her ladyship is still at breakfast, Mr. Pattle,” Black told him when he arrived.

“No word yet on the matter we discussed yesterday, Black?”

“I have my feelers out, Mr. Pattle. You may expect word soon. Why don’t I just show you to the table?”

“No need to bother yourself, Black. I can find my way.”

“My pleasure.” Undeterred, Black got a step ahead of him. He was not about to miss out on another chance to see
her,
even if the old malkin was with her. This was his unflattering term for Mrs. Ballard. The two never could rub along peacefully but kept their enmity at a safe simmer.

Coffen was welcomed by both ladies. Even Mrs. Ballard liked him. He didn’t need a second invitation to “just help yourself from the sideboard," where gammon, eggs and potatoes were being kept warm.

While he was eating, Corinne mentioned that Luten wanted a conference before going to work. “He knew — er, thought you would be here and said he would let Prance know,” she said. “Prance will realize he must come early as Luten will have to go on to the House. Were you with Reg last night, Coffen?”

“No, I haven’t seen him since yesterday. He was likely out with Byron buying more tin goo-gaws and animal hides for his drawing room.”

Black returned a little later and peeked his head in at the door. “Sir Reginald is waiting in the drawing room, milady. He said he’d prefer to wait there.” He added with a smirk, “Seems the smell of gammon in the morning makes him ill.”

“I’m done. Let’s go,” Coffen said, pushing away from the table and brushing crumbs from his jacket to the floor.

Corinne said, “Bring the coffee into the drawing room, Black. And a cup for Lord Luten as well. Will you join us, Mrs. Ballard?”

“If you think it would help,” she said, and arose reluctantly to go along.

Luten was soon at the door. Black didn’t interrupt his trip to the drawing room with the coffee tray. He knew Luten would let himself in, as he did. Talk about running tame at a lady’s house! Prance decided he could manage “just a demitasse of coffee, no cream or sugar,” and the meeting was soon underway.

Luten outlined what Mr. Collins had discovered about the limping man, Stokes/Morton. Coffen nodded and explained that Black was giving them a hand there.

“What have you been up to, Prance?” Luten asked.

Prance disliked to admit he had spent the evening re-arranging his drawing room and sorting through his wardrobe with Villier to decide what new jackets and waistcoats would be required for spring.

He handed a letter to Luten. “I’ve finally had an answer from Keswick. Russell is unknown in the area. There never was a vicar called Russell there. We weren’t aware of this Stokes/Morton at the time. I can write auntie and make enquiries about him, if you think it worthwhile.”

“Might as well cover all bases,” Luten said, “but I doubt we’ll learn anything new. I’m not surprised Russell lied. I wonder if he might have been there under another name, though. If necessary we could use his picture and ask around. He’s covered his tracks with so many stories he’s got to be hiding something.”

“And we know what,” Corinne pointed out. “He’s a common crook, moving about from place to place, skipping out without paying his bills. I don’t see that it matters where he’s from. Surely it’s the limping man we must find. You can’t help us there, Mrs. Ballard?”

“Just what I told you. He showed up at the door one evening when we were at cards and Russell went out and spoke to him. No cripple ever sat down to cards with us,” she said. “It’s true Mr. People’s gout was bothering him last winter, but no one could call him small, and his hair is snow white.”

“Yes, I think we can eliminate Mr. Peoples,” Luten said with a quelling stare at Prance, who was rolling his eyes in derision.

After a good deal of fairly fruitless discussion, it was decided that Luten would speak to Townsend, the most famous of the Bow Street Runners, to see if he could get a line on Stokes/Morton, Prance would write to Keswick to enquire about a man of Russell’s description and a friend of small stature who limped. Coffen would work with Black. Although no job was assigned to Lady deCoventry, Prance noticed there was no hint that
she
was not carrying her weight.

“I’ll pop along to Grosvenor Square and see if Miss Barker has had any luck as well,” Coffen volunteered.

“She was to notify me if she spotted him,” Reg reminded him.

“Devil a bit of it, Prance, it’s the lady Russell was speaking to that she’s keeping an eye peeled for. I’ll let her know we’re looking for the limper as well. She may have seen him. No harm to ask anyhow.”

Corinne said, “Mrs. Ballard tells me the whist group is meeting this afternoon. Some of the ladies are a little nervous of going out in the evening since the murder.” She turned to her companion. “Perhaps you could ask if any of them have seen this limping man about, Mrs. Ballard.”

“Certainly I shall. Miss Fenwick is not attending, however. She is still in mourning.” Then she screwed up her courage and added, “I — indeed we all — are most grateful for your help in this awful matter. Very sorry for all the bother...”

“Not at all, Mrs. Ballard,” Luten said. “It’s in everyone’s interest to see that criminals are brought to justice. Especially murderers.”

“An eye for an eye,” Mrs. Ballard said, nodding her head in agreement.

The group parted to go their separate ways. Corinne received a note from Lady Dunn inviting her to accompany her on a visit to her modiste. She offered to take her in the tilbury. As Corinne had no particular part in the case that day, she agreed. She made a point of wearing a warmer pelisse, however.

Coffen learned something surprising from Miss Barker. She hadn’t seen the dark-haired lady again, and couldn’t recall ever seeing a limping man with Russell, but she had seen Cooper talking to him one evening as they were leaving their whist game. This was not the occasion when Mrs. Ballard had offered Miss Barker a ride home in Lady deCoventry’s carriage — so kind of her — and she hadn’t noticed if the two men left together, but she just happened to notice a man waiting across the street, and when Cooper saw him, he began to cross the street. At the same time the other man, a smallish fellow, went forward as if to meet him, and Miss Barker noticed he seemed to “dragging one foot behind him.”

Then Mr. Peoples joined them and asked if Mrs. Ballard would mind dropping him off, and of course Mrs. Ballard agreed. She was always very kind about giving rides home, as long as it wouldn’t take the carriage much out of its way. No, she’d never seen the limping man before or since, or ever asked Cooper about him. Had never given him a thought, but she had definitely seen him once, about three weeks ago it was. Well she could look up her diary and tell him exactly, but it was that really freezing cold night before the snow storm.

Prance dashed off his letter to Keswick, then spent the rest of the morning giving the villain of his gothic novel a limp. To the cognoscenti, the physical deformity would be symbolic of a character flaw. Oh dear! That wouldn’t do! Not with Byron writing the introduction, as he had graciously agreed to do. He’d have to change the limp to a stiff arm. Or perhaps a one-armed man? No, better! A
one-eyed
man, who covered the empty eye socket with a black patch, that well-known symbol of piracy. Stealing a lady’s inheritance was a sort of piracy.

* * * *

After much discussion and holding various lengths of silk up to check the effect, Corinne ordered a length of rose silk and a pattern to be trimmed around the bottom with white rosettes. As they drove home, Lady Dunn offered to give her a few driving lessons in her tilbury, but Corinne declined. Her new friend’s style of driving was too dangerous for her. Her eye wasn’t sharp enough or her nerve steely enough to steer the carriage through a space that hardly left an inch on either side. It was frightening enough to be a passenger. When this bid for friendship failed, Lady Dunn suggested they might get together for a game of cards one evening when their fiancés were busy.

Corinne felt this was rushing the friendship forward too quickly. “I must confess I don’t much care for cards,” she replied. Lady Dunn didn’t make any other suggestions at that time. She was too busy squeaking past a landau.

“You have nerves of steel, Lady Dunn,” Corinne said, laughing nervously.

“That’s what you need in this world, Lady — Oh, let us call each other by name. I’m Mavis.”

“Corinne.”

Corinne hadn’t been presented as a deb in London and didn’t have a wide circle of female friends her own age. Her regular companions were all males — the Berkeley Brigade — and her female friends the relatives of Luten’s political colleagues, mostly older ladies. It was nice to have a young lady friend to talk to about clothes and coiffures, and gossip and things that men weren’t interested in. Except for Prance, of course, but he was impossible to please. Mavis seemed eager to befriend her, and Corinne felt she had been a bit abrupt in turning down those two friendly overtures. When they returned to Berkeley Square, she invited Mavis in for tea.

“Such a charming little place,” Lady Dunn said, again looking all around. It takes time to make a friend, and at this early stage, the two ladies hadn’t really a great deal in common, other than their coming marriages. Mavis hadn’t attended the latest play or the exhibition at Somerset House. Her only comment on the prestigious Almack’s Club was that Grafton said it was it a dead bore. Once Black had brought in the tea tray, Corinne couldn’t think of anything to say.

Lady Dunn soon found a topic. “How is the murder case coming along, Corinne?”