Redemption (27 page)

“So long
as it isn’t the countryside; he hates the country,” Lizzie replied
with an air of sadness.

“Are you
sorry to see him go?”

She
thought about that as she considered the way she felt about Julian.
“Not really. It just feels like I am saying goodbye to my last link
with the past, that’s all. We have never really been all that close
so I cannot say that I should miss him all that much, but he is
still a relation and the only family I have known for the better
part of several years.”

“Do you
really think he owes Trent money?”

“I am
not sure,” she replied and then picked up on the hidden meaning in
his words. With a frown she looked at him. “You think he is guilty?
Of gambling with money he borrowed off Trent?”

“I don’t
know. I need to speak to Trent.”

“Do you
think this Trent person will tell you anything? I mean, he is a
dangerous man. Can you really trust anything he has to say? He
tried to accost me on the street don’t forget. It is hardly the
action of a gentleman of honour, is it?”

Touched
by her concern, Ben kissed her softly. “I will be all right, I
promise.”

“I won’t
allow it,” Lizzie declared boldly. “You shall not put yourself in
danger over this. Julian can go wherever he wants as soon as he is
released. As long as he doesn’t involve me anymore, or you, he can
go to Hades as far as I am concerned. Just forget him.”

“But I
cannot, darling,” Ben protested firmly. “I cannot ignore the fact
that Samson was a seemingly innocent man, connected in some way to
your step-brother, who was brutally murdered. I get the strongest
suspicion that Julian knows something about Samson’s death. He
actually admitted to practically using jail as a safe house. He
knew you were alive and that if he pestered you enough then he
could get you to come back to London. He even knew that he could
tempt you back with the wealth you were due to inherit. Nobody
would ignore a summons to London if they knew a life-changing sum
of money was awaiting them, so he had a get-out of jail card up his
sleeve even when he entered the wretched place. He just waited
until the right moment to send for you.”

“But why
allow me to go in the first place?”

“That, I
don’t know,” Ben sighed. “He may have panicked. He may have wanted
to get something sorted out with you completely out of the way. I
just don’t know. One thing I do know is that I need to ask around
about Julian and Samson’s friendship. If you think that they
weren’t close then Julian was lying to me. I want to know why. If
he didn’t know Samson, then he has no reason to put himself in jail
the way he did unless he owes Trent money.”

“Not
unless he has something to hide himself, and doesn’t want Trent, or
anyone else suspecting him.”

“He
could play the victim in jail, you mean?”

“I don’t
know,” Lizzie countered. “My head is starting to ache with all of
the questions.” She pierced him with a look that warned him she
wouldn’t appreciate any lies. “Do you think Trent may have killed
Samson? Or do you think that Julian may be Samson’s murderer for
reasons we don’t know yet?”

“I don’t
know,” Ben sighed. “We have Trent, a thug and known gangster, who
could and undoubtedly would do such a thing. Then you have Julian,
who is selfish and greedy and also quite merciless. However, do his
egocentric ways mean he would resort to murder? I am not so
sure.”

“Either
of them could have done it, although the finger of suspicion falls
firmly upon Trent.”

“Yes,
but is that what Julian is hoping for? By sending you away, was he
hoping that he could play the victim? Locked away for your
suspected murder, nobody would consider him capable of anything to
do with Samson’s brutal death. It would also mean that Trent
couldn’t get his hands on Julian once the finger of suspicion for
Samson’s death landed upon him.”

“Did
Julian try to frame Trent do you think?”

“I hate
to say it but it is a possibility we cannot ignore. Julian said
that Trent had moved his sister into the house to ensure that
Julian paid the man his money; money he didn’t owe, but that just
doesn’t make sense either.”

“Would
Trent risk his sister’s safety like that?”

“I know
these gang types can be rough, but it just doesn’t sound plausible
now that I think about it,” Ben sighed.

“I do
think that even if you ask Trent, you are not likely to get any
truth from him either.” She sighed and gazed unseeingly into the
fire. “Do we have to get involved in this at all? I mean, I know
your conscience demands you do something, especially given this
Samson person’s death, but why not just take all of this to the
magistrate and let him deal with it?”

“I think
I need to speak with my good friend Barnaby. The Star Elite helped
look for you when I couldn’t find you.” He smiled and nudged her.
“I owe them. However, nobody knew about your relative in Derbyshire
because Julian refused to tell anyone.”

“I can
understand him forgetting because Patty is a relation on my
mother’s side, and someone I only exchanged letters with a few
times over the years. Julian probably wouldn’t even remember she
existed.”

“He says
he went to a relative’s house in Kent and they told him where to
find you.”

Lizzie
thought about that for a moment and went cold.

Ben
sighed when she went stiff in his arms and slowly sat up. “He
couldn’t have done,” Lizzie assured him. Their eyes met and held.
“The only relative I have – had – in Kent was cousin Charles, and
he died at least five years ago. There really is nobody else in
that part of the country on either Julian’s or my side of the
family.”

Ben
leaned forward. “Are you certain about that?”

“Yes, I
am sure. I went to Charles’ funeral, and Julian groused about the
expense for several weeks, but then lost fifty pounds on a horse
racing bet. It caused quite an argument, I can tell
you.”

Ben
snorted and shook his head, willing his mind to settle long enough
to begin to make sense of the latest revelation.

“So he
suspected right from the start where he might find you,” Ben
murmured.

“He must
have. Not least because if he put himself into prison knowing that
he could send for me or even inform me by letter of my wealth, he
had to be certain that he could find me.”

“He
followed you, didn’t he?”

“He
couldn’t have followed me all the way to Derbyshire. Not if you saw
him the following morning and he was drunk.”

“He
could have followed you to the coaching office and watched you buy
a ticket to Derbyshire. Did you discuss Patty with him at any point
recently, can you remember?”

Lizzie
sighed and shook her head.

“I
received a small sum of money from your mother, dear, when she
passed. It was in her will, along with my address,” Patty declared
quietly from the doorway.

Ben
looked at Lizzie and then Patty, who was standing in the doorway.
“I think you had better sit down, Patty, and tell us what you
know.”

Patty
she entered the room and closed the door behind her.

“First
and foremost, I want to apologise to you Lizzie, my dear, for
leading you such a merry dance the way I did over my behaviour. I
have been a little devious, you see, and I think it is about time I
confessed everything.”

Ben
fought a smile and rather suspected he knew what was coming but
could feel no anger toward the woman given the way she had
protected and looked after Lizzie in her hour of need.

“When
you first appeared at my house, I felt as though I was looking at a
ghost from the past. You are so like your mother that I was quite
shocked by your arrival. I was thrown, you see, and babbled on
mercilessly about stuff and nonsense while I tried to get over my
surprise and delight. Unfortunately, I found myself serving you
cake meant for the birds.”

“You
threw the entire thing out of the door if I remember.”

Patty
nodded, her eyes alight with mirth. “I should have broken it up
first, but didn’t want to waste time on that. Not when I had you to
talk to. Not only did I want you to stay and keep me company for a
while, but I was curious to know why you were there. And no, before
you ask, I do not normally wash my oddments of wool and ribbons and
hang them out to dry. I knocked a cup of tea over them, but had
them earmarked for a project I was working on so washed them and
hung them up moments before you arrived. I pegged them out but then
forgot about them.”

“But you
did odd things, and rambled on about strange things.”

“I know,
I am sorry about that. As soon as I threw the cake out of the door,
you looked at me so warily that I knew you were thinking I wasn’t
in possession of a complete set of marbles. I wasn’t entirely sure
it wouldn’t make you run for cover. When your situation came to
light, I knew that someone like you wouldn’t want to live in the
country for long, so I had to do something to get you to think
about staying with me rather than moving on to somewhere more
permanent.”

“Seeming
eccentric and in need of care would keep her there,” Ben finished
for her, unsure whether to be angry or not.

Patty
made no attempt to deny it. “I had to decide what to do because I
don’t like living so rurally either, as you know, my dear,” she
said quietly.

“You set
fire to the house deliberately?” Lizzie gasped.

“Well,
not putting the guard into place was a foolish thing to do,
especially when I had just loaded the fire up with logs that tend
not to remain in place for very long. I ensured that we were out of
the house first, just in case. Thankfully the house wasn’t entirely
gutted but, do you know what? I wouldn’t have cared if it had been
turned to ash in its entirety. It has been an albatross around my
neck for far too long.”

“So, why
have you not sold it and moved on before now?” Ben asked, grateful
that Patty hadn’t taken a risk with Lizzie’s life.

“Nobody
wants to live there,” Patty assured him.

Having
never seen the place, Ben couldn’t argue.

“When
you received the first of your letters from Julian, I knew it was
only a matter of time before you returned to London,” Patty
continued. “I just couldn’t stand to live there by myself any
longer and tried to find a reason for you to take me with
you.”

“Making
sure your house was uninhabitable would do that,” Lizzie finished
for her. “It seems an extreme way of moving on though.”

“I know
it is devious of me, but I had no other choice. The alternative was
to watch you leave and I couldn’t bear that.”

“I
suppose with money being so tight, your options were limited,”
Lizzie reasoned.

“I never
really felt at home there but it was all I had. I made sure that
the possessions I wanted to keep were all safely tucked away so
they wouldn’t get damaged.” Patty looked at Ben askance. “I should
like to arrange for them to be sent to me, if I may? Assuming, that
is, that you still wish me to remain with you?”

Ben
sighed. “Well, I warn you both now that neither of you are going
back to Derbyshire. Of course, the house there does need to be
repaired. Once it is habitable again, I think you should consider
putting it up for sale to see what happens. Meantime, I shall
arrange for your personal effects to be collected and the house
emptied. Once everything is here you can go through it at your
leisure and decide what you want to keep.”

“
That is so very generous of you, thank you,” Patty beamed.
Her smile died a little as she turned to Lizzie. “Are you very
angry with me dear?”

Lizzie
stared at her aunt and battled tears. “Of course not,” she choked.
“You gave me a home when I had nowhere else to turn to. While some
of your exploits were funny, others left with me with more
questions than answers but at least it gave me something else to
think about apart from Ben. There really is nothing else for miles
around your house, and nothing to do. While I like the house,
please don’t get me wrong, I don’t wish to offend you in any way, I
just don’t know how you have withstood living there for so long. I
agree with Ben. You should allow the repairs to be made to it
before it goes up for sale.”

“Then
that is what I shall do,” Patty sighed with relief. She glanced
first at Ben, and then at Lizzie. “I have to confess that I have
been listening to your conversation.” She smiled impishly when Ben
sighed and rolled his eyes, but there was no anger on his face;
merely amused patience. “I think there is something you are
overlooking,” she announced carefully.

“Oh?
What’s that?” Ben shared a look with Lizzie while they waited for
Patty to tell them.

“Julian
may have killed Samson, and planted the clothing you found in the
bedroom to make it look as though he was under threat from Trent.
He could be pointing his finger at the very man the whole of London
would consider guilty in order to hide his own crimes.”