Dread Murder (18 page)

Authors: Gwendoline Butler

BOOK: Dread Murder

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A couple of hours later they met for a cup of coffee in a coffee house near the Theatre where Miss Fairface joined them. She told them Beau had not arrived for rehearsal.

âI'll tell you why,' reported Mearns. âHe was found with his throat cut in a back alley this morning, and is now in the mortuary. My guess is that he was so scared yesterday he went to somebody â Felix! Or who else? â and got killed for his pains.'

âBut how did Beau get involved in the first place?'

âPerhaps he wanted to make his fortune. He must have been promised a lot of money for his help. He could keep an eye on both the Theatre and the Castle â through Dol's window. He was perfectly placed for them. But Dol must have suspected something was up and tried to blackmail him, and that's when he killed her.'

Miss Fairface nodded slowly, then said, âI met Lord Maken and it was obvious he knew all about Mrs
Fitzherbert. He had been sure all was going according to plan, but he got rattled when I told him you were planning an arrest today. He is very close to Mrs F. I am sure he is trying to get a message to her, and I think Felix must be the messenger.'

Later Mindy came to the room where the two boys and Jo were staying. She was wearing a long shawl. She motioned them to silence. âI am going to the room where Tosser lived. I am taking Willie, the old actor, and will look for the money I am sure Tosser had blackmailed out of Felix and cheated out of his clients. Would you both like to come with me, and bring Jo? We should be safe enough together.' With that she brought her hand from below her shawl; she was holding a long, thin, and very sharp kitchen knife.

They set off across the courtyard quickly. They did not look up at Mearns' window, else they would have seen him staring after them. âWhere are they off to, Denny? I'll wager I know. They are going to search Tosser's room. Come, Denny, we must follow them to see them safe. Bring your pistol.' And, suiting action to the words, Mearns pocketed his own neat pistol in his coat, and they hurried after the party.

Mindy, the boys and Jo met Willie, and together they soon reached Tosser's room. Nothing had been touched or cleaned. âNow, Willie, you've sat with him many times. Where would he hide his money? Nowhere very clever, because he wasn't one for thinking too deeply. I promise you, if we find it, after we return what money
he stole or swindled you shall share with us.'

As Mindy spoke she was pouring water from a bucket over the mud floor and the bricks round the hearth to see where the water would make a depression, showing recent digging. As she saw the boys' wide-eyed stare, she explained, âThis is how they hide their money in the rookeries and stews of London.'

Willie said: âI think you are right. I once arrived here quietly and found Tosser moving the bricks round the fireplace.' The water Mindy poured sank away, and the boys started pulling up the bricks, which came away with ease. Sure enough, there was a packet in oilskin. They opened it to find several letters, and a bag of gold coins.

Suddenly, they had company.

âYou've saved me the trouble of looking, and made it so convenient for me to make sure none of you will live to tell the tale,' said a sharp voice behind them. Felix came through the open door. He took from his belt a knife and started to walk towards them with his left hand held out ready for the packet.

Mindy drew her knife from under her shawl and, holding it in the way of professional killers, with the blade upwards, she stabbed Felix in the back of his left hand. He shouted, dropped his knife and, as he bent forward, Jo â who had been crouching low on the ground â leapt forward and crushed Felix's throat in his strong jaws, then held on despite the man's desperate struggles. Mindy then drove the knife into Felix's right hand as he sought to throw off the dog. As his struggles
and gasps weakened, Mearns and Denny burst in, their pistols in their hands.

âGood boy, Jo!' gasped Mearns. He put a bullet carefully into Felix's heart. Jo let go when he was sure the quarry was dead, then sat proudly by the corpse, wagging his tail, as the boys stroked and cuddled him.

âMindy! Are you all right? Did he hurt you? Why didn't you let me know where you were going, my dear?' He held her wrists firmly and spoke with a look in his eyes that betrayed his feelings to them all, not excluding Jo.

âWe'll take this packet to the Coroner for him to find the owners and then I'll see you share what's left. Not Denny, nor me â we are just doing our job in the Castle.'

Over supper in Mearns' room the celebration was on several counts. The Coroner had agreed that Mindy, the boys and Willie would have a share in the treasure trove. Miss Fairface had told them that one of the managers of the Drury Lane Theatre, where her parents were playing, had come to Windsor to see her, and she was to go to London right away with Mr Thornton's blessing to undertake some small parts in the current bill there. And she had offered to take Charlie back with her.

Mearns was regarding Jo with a puzzled air: âThat dog is no stray, no wild dog,' he observed. âHe behaves like a well-trained dog. Has he always been yours, Tom?' The boy nodded happily. Mearns suddenly remembered. âWhere's that pocket-book you brought with you from Felix's house, when Charlie rescued you?'

Tom went to get it, and gave it to the Major, who studied the papers in it. After a few moments while they all watched breathlessly, he said triumphantly, âWell, Tom, we know who you are! You're not Tom. You are Robert, and your father is Sir Robert Turner, the baronet who lives just outside Windsor, not far away from the Great Park, and I think â¦'

The boy interrupted him: âRobert, yes. A house with wide steps, and a large garden, and hens and cows and horses â and my mother and my sister.' The floodgates of repression and fear burst, and he looked years younger, while Jo jumped up and down barking furiously.

Mearns shouted joyously: âYou were kidnapped for ransom by Felix! So tomorrow I will take you home to your father and mother â with Jo, of course!'

âWhat about that Lord Maken and Mrs Fitzherbert?' asked Mindy, sitting next to the Major who was still holding her hand protectively.

âI explained to them what we knew, and what we could tell His Majesty. Lord Maken decided he would retire immediately to his estates in Ireland. He has already made his farewells and gone! And I think Mrs Fitzherbert will be living a quieter life from now on and will be content with whatever the King gives her.'

A couple of days later, with young Robert and Jo restored to the Turner family, Mearns, Denny and Mindy were sitting with Charlie, who was due to leave on the coach on the morrow.

Taking a letter from his breast pocket, Mearns said, âI have news for you all. I have sent my report to Lord Castlereagh as usual, but Sir Robert has also contacted his Lordship. He has written to me, and offered me a knighthood. How would you like to be a Lady, Mindy? Denny and I will be settling permanently here in the Castle, but I shall be reporting to Milord, rest assured.'

Mindy blushed and smiled her pleasure whilst nodding eagerly.

Denny said, âMay I congratulate you, and say how happy I am â but not surprised, mark you!'

Mearns chuckled as he took a ring from his waistcoat pocket and slipped it on Mindy's finger. âWell now, Charlie, tomorrow you go back to your parents in London. And I know your father, absent-minded though he be, will be pleased to see young Charlie returned to the family.'

Charlie stood up. âNot Charlie any more. From now on I will always be known as Charles Dickens.'

Also by Gwendoline Butler

Coffin Knows the Answer
Coffin's Ghost
A Grave Coffin
Coffin's Game
A Double Coffin
A Dark Coffin
The Coffin Tree
A Coffin for Charley
Cracking Open a Coffin
Coffin on Murder Street
Coffin and the Paper Man
Coffin in the Black Museum
Coffin Underground
Coffin in Fashion
Coffin on the Water
A Coffin for the Canary
A Coffin for Pandora
A Coffin from the Past
Coffin's Dark Number
Coffin's Following
Coffin in Malta
A Nameless Coffin
Coffin Waiting
A Coffin for Baby
Death Lives Next Door
The Interloper
The Murdering Kind
The Dull Dead
Coffin in Oxford
Receipt for Murder

GWENDOLINE BUTLER, born and brought up in south London, is one of the most universally praised of English mystery authors. She writes under both her own name and the pseudonym Jennie Melville, and has written over fifty novels in all. Educated at Haberdashers, she read history at Oxford, and later married Dr Lionel Butler, Principal of Royal Holloway College. She has one daughter.

Gwendoline Butler's crime novels are hugely popular in both Britain and the United States, and her many awards include the Crime Writers' Association's Silver Dagger. She was also selected as being one of the top two hundred crime writers in the world by
The Times
.

THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martin's Press.

DREAD MURDER. Copyright Â© 2006 by Gwendoline Butler. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.thomasdunnebooks.com
www.minotaurbooks.com

First published in Great Britain by Allison Busby Limited

eISBN 9781466811973

First eBook Edition : January 2012

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Butler, Gwendoline.

Dread murder Gwendoline Butler.â1st U.S. ed.

p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-0-312-36133-4 (alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 0-312-36133-5 (alk. paper)

1. SoldiersâFiction. 2. MurderâInvestigationâFiction. 3. Great

BritainâHistoryâGeorge IV, 1820â1830âFiction. I. Title.