The Confession (31 page)

“You've intimidated Constable Nelson, but you can't intimidate Scotland Yard. I will have a dozen men here to search every house and question every person in this village. We'll drag the river as well and tear every boat apart. The London newspapers will be kept abreast of our efforts, and when we're finished, Furnham will be changed forever. And your name will be synonymous with the evil your ancestor did.
I read the manuscript, Jessup.
”

He knew that he'd pushed too far. If the shotgun had been to hand, Jessup would have used it.

Hamish warned him, and he realized that while he'd been speaking, Sandy Barber had come up behind him. He moved slightly so that he could watch both men, waiting for whatever would happen next. But he'd been angry with the intransigence of these men, the obstruction at every turn. And it was time to end it.

Into the hostile silence, Barber said, “If we tell you, will you leave us in peace?”

“No!” Jessup said explosively.

“We're making a spectacle of ourselves.” Barber shouted at him in his turn. “There's no one in The Boat. We'll settle it there.”

Barber waited, and Rutledge held his tongue.

Jessup was struggling to get himself under control. He seemed to realize through the haze of fury that villagers going in and out of the shops were staring at the confrontation on his doorstep.

Rutledge could almost read the thoughts passing though the man's mind, that this was too public a place to do murder.

Finally he nodded curtly, shoved Rutledge to one side, and walked off toward the pub. He didn't look to see if anyone was following him.

When he was out of earshot, Barber snapped, “Why did you make him so angry? He could have killed you.”

“He could have tried,” Rutledge said, and strode to the pub in his turn, with Barber hastily falling in beside him.

“Was the book that explicit?” he asked. “God, I never—he went to be a
footman
. That's all Ben wanted. What happened?”

“I expect it was going to France that changed him. The war. He must have kept a diary. He wrote a memoir after it was over, and someone in Paris published it.”

“Damn the war,” Barber said as Rutledge opened the door into the pub. “And damn the French while we're about it.”

Jessup was waiting. He said to Barber, “What are we going to do with him? He has to be stopped.”

“You fool, do you want to hang? They know where he is. The Yard does. If he goes missing, he's right, they'll come down on us and tear Furnham apart. Tell him what he wants to know. Tell him, or I will. Then make him promise.”

The flush on Jessup's face was a measure of his rage. “They won't know what he knows. They can't.”

“There are the boxes Willet left behind. The manuscripts are in them,” Rutledge said. “You'll be taken up for the murder of Benjamin Willet when they come to light. What's more, the murder of Justin Fowler and the attack on Wyatt Russell happened here, not in London. You have that to answer for as well.”

“You selfish bastard,” Barber said. “You've got us into this. Get us out of it.”

There was a long silence as Jessup weighed alternatives.

Rutledge saw the man glance once at the windows that looked down on the river. Then he shook his head as if to rid it of the thought. Instead, he grappled with the realization that he had no choice at all.

“All right,” he said finally. “We found Fowler floating, already dead. We thought at first he was a German spy come to grief on the river. But it wasn't all that long after the old woman vanished, and we didn't want the police here again. We towed him to the mouth of the river and turned him loose.”

“Who told Willet that Wyatt Russell had killed him?”

“It must have been Ned,” Barber said. “I can't think who else could have told him.”

Jessup cut across his words. “It wasn't Ned. I wrote to him in France and mentioned there'd been a falling-out between Russell and Fowler, and we'd heard a gunshot. Just in case the body washed up somewhere else. He wanted to know if they'd quarreled over Miss Farraday, and I answered that it was likely.”

“You told him—damn it, you never told
me,
” Barber said angrily.

“It was to cover us. I thought it best.”

Rutledge said, “Willet believed you. That's why I was drawn into this inquiry in the first place. He came to the Yard and told me that Wyatt Russell had killed Fowler. Willet knew he was dying. My guess is he wanted Miss Farraday to learn what had become of Fowler, and he could hardly tell her himself. He must have known how she felt about the man, and it was a way to repay all she'd done for Willet himself.” He smiled grimly. “You brought your own house crashing down around your ears, Jessup.”

“Willet wasn't dead,” Jessup said. “Not when you came to Furnham that first time.”

“I was curious,” Rutledge countered. “Who killed Mrs. Russell?”

“I don't know. Ned found her locket. He wanted to show it to the police. But I told him not to. I told him to keep it and give it to Abigail. But Ben saw it on his last leave and asked for it. He wanted to put his likeness in it and give it to a girl.”

To Cynthia Farraday? Would it have saved three lives if he had? Or would Ben Willet have been hanged for a murder he hadn't committed? Rutledge shook his head.

Jessup mistook the shake to mean he wasn't believed. “He couldn't give it to Abigail. I can see now it would have got all of us into trouble if he had. But what would a girl in Thetford know about Mrs. Russell? Ben could tell her the locket was his mother's, and who would think otherwise?”

They were scoundrels, all of them. Living by their wits, doing what they had to in order to survive.

“Do ye believe him?” Hamish asked.

Rutledge found he did. It was probably not the whole truth, but when did the whole truth ever exist?

“Which brings me back to Willet's letter. He wrote it. He posted it. That much we know. He was leaving for France, he wanted to die there, and at a guess, it told whoever it was to break the news gently to Abigail and her father. What else did it say? And who came to London that last night of his life?”

“It wasn't me,” Jessup said. “I was in Tilbury, getting a part for my boat.”

“He didn't write to me,” Barber said. “It must have been to Ned.”

“Ned was too ill to travel to London.” But Rutledge had found his connection now. It was the last piece of the puzzle. “How would he have managed to keep such a letter from his daughter?”

“He was a sly old fox,” Barber said. “He'd have burned it in the cooker. He wouldn't have wanted Abigail to learn any more bad news.”

And Ned Willet was dead. No one could ask him. Or prove what he'd done.

Jessup said, “He'd have told the priest. By God, he'd have sent the priest to London to persuade Ben to come home to his father.”

“Make sense, Jessup. The priest wouldn't have killed him,” Barber retorted.

“Why not? They were all of them in love with that Farraday woman. I wouldn't be surprised to find out the priest loved her too.”

“No. He saw the locket,” Rutledge said. “Morrison killed Mrs. Russell. He believed that Ben Willet knew what had happened to her. And a dying man often wants to unburden his soul. Morrison couldn't take that risk.”

“Have you run mad?” Barber asked. “The priest? He's like Constable Nelson, he's afraid of his shadow.”

“Is he? He came into a house in Colchester one night and butchered Justin Fowler's mother and father, and stabbed Fowler himself so severely he spent six months in hospital.”

“
Morrison?
” Barber exclaimed. “I sent for him to comfort my
wife
.”

“You look at the evil your ancestors did, but here is an equal evil right under your nose, and you thought because you could bully the man that he was nothing.”

“Did he have a reason for killing them?” Jessup demanded.

“He believed lies he'd been told by his mother. He thought he was owed a different sort of life. His real father was in prison, but he'd been led to look upon Justin Fowler's father as his. He saw himself as the rejected son.”

“And you're sure he killed Ben?”

“It was either you or Morrison. I thought you were angry enough with him that you'd killed him.”

Without warning, Jessup came straight for him as Barber shouted, “Here!” But Jessup shoved Rutledge aside and was out the door before either man could stop him.

“He'll tell Abigail, she dotes on Rector,” Barber said, and was through the door before Rutledge could reach it.

But Jessup wasn't heading in the direction of the Barber house. With long, determined, angry strides he went toward his own house.

Rutledge was halfway there when he realized what Jessup was intending to do. It wasn't the shotgun in his house that he was after, it was the motorcar sitting in front of it.

He turned the crank with the vigor of his anger, got in, and was already gunning the motor before Rutledge reached him. As his hand gripped the door, Jessup used his fist to pound it, and when he couldn't break Rutledge's hold, he drove off, throwing Rutledge backward, twisting his arm and then slamming it against the side of the motorcar. Careening as he fought for control of the wheel, Jessup nearly collided with Barber, who was yelling at him to wait. The motor sputtered, caught again, and then Jessup was gone.

“He'll kill him!” Barber exclaimed. “He's that angry.”

Rutledge looked up the street. A grocer's van was stopped in front of the tea shop, its motor running, and he sprinted for it, Barber at his heels.

Rutledge swung himself inside, realizing as he did that he'd damaged his elbow fighting to hold on to the motorcar's door. Ignoring the pain, he began to roll and heard Barber swear as he struggled to join him, sprawling across the stack of boxes in his way. As Rutledge reversed the van and started out the London road, they could hear the van's owner screaming at them from the tea shop door.

Barber said, almost out of breath, “I don't think he's ever killed anyone. Jessup. But it's been a near run thing, a time or two.”

“I want Morrison alive.”

“But how did you know?”

“A curate by the name of Morrison tried to visit young Fowler in hospital. An alert constable kept a list of all callers. They were afraid the killer might come back. And he did. Only no one guessed. Later he wrote an anonymous note.”

“But Morrison was here, wasn't he?”

“No. He accepted St. Edward's when he learned somehow that Fowler was going to be sent to River's Edge. He's cagey about the time he arrived in Essex. But I'll have London document the date and his background, now that we know where to look.”

“Why did he kill the others?”

“Morrison had killed the Fowlers out of jealousy. But when Justin survived and came to River's Edge to live with a new family, it must have seemed doubly unfair. Two families when he had none. He made certain that Mrs. Russell died first, a warning to Fowler that he would be next. And when Russell finally came back to River's Edge, another opportunity presented itself. The man was clever enough to be patient. He'd got away with murder before and he intended to get away with it again. Look—Jessup is just turning into the Rectory drive! We're in time.”

But Morrison saw the motorcar, came to the cottage door, and then frowned when he realized that Jessup was driving.

“What's happened?” he called. “Where's Rutledge?” He turned to stare at the van barreling toward them.

Jessup was out the motorcar door, and Rutledge saw that he had the heavy torch that lived under the passenger seat.

Rutledge brought the van to a skidding stop and raced to intercept Jessup. Morrison, looking from one to the other as Rutledge used his shoulder to slam into the older man, took himself inside the Rectory, slamming the door shut.

With a roar of rage, Jessup recovered his balance and ran the short distance to the cottage door, hitting it with his own shoulder and bursting inside. Rutledge and Barber were just behind him, but he'd already cornered Morrison, who was standing with his back to the wall, glaring at Jessup. It was impossible to tell if he was armed or not. Rutledge prayed all three revolvers were still at River's Edge, safe in the gun case.

“What's this all about?” he demanded, looking to Rutledge for his answer. “I thought—”

“I'm arresting you for the murders of Justin Fowler's parents,” Rutledge broke in, putting himself between Jessup and Morrison. “He's my prisoner,” he said, turning to Jessup, “you can't touch him.”

And then everything happened at once. Barber yelled something and then there was a deafening explosion almost in Rutledge's ear. He was momentarily back in the trenches, stunned into memory. Only vaguely aware of Jessup swearing and Barber racing past him, he fought to hold on to the present. Then Morrison fired again, and Barber was stumbling backward, his hands outstretched, as if to ward off a blow.

The third shot, meant for Rutledge, went wild as he shook off the war and grappled with Morrison for the revolver. Morrison fought with all the violence of a cornered animal, growling incoherently as Rutledge reached out for the weapon. It went off again, and Rutledge heard a window breaking, glass raining down on the floor.

And then he had Morrison's wrist, driving him back against the wall and battering his arm against the low mantel. Morrison cried out in pain but held on to the weapon. It took all the strength he could muster for Rutledge to bring the arm down hard on the oak edge of the mantelpiece, expecting to hear it snap. Instead, Morrison's fingers flew open as the blow hit a nerve instead, and the revolver went thudding to the floor. Morrison fell back, nursing his arm, and for good measure, Rutledge hit him hard on the edge of his jaw. The rector slid down the wall, unconscious, sprawling there in a heap.