The Complete Adventures of Victoria Neaves & Romney

by Michael White

  “Bit of a mummy’s boy I suspect.” Victoria smiled back at the policeman as the door opened and Nigel Cavendish strode into the room, almost marching across to the empty chair by the fireside.

  “Quite so I suspect,” she answered and smiled at Cavendish, who held his hand out and shook Vaillant's hand and then Victoria’s for good measure too.

  “Tell me Mister Cavendish” said Victoria, “Precisely what is your relationship to the Harrington family?”

  “Well now.” Said Nigel, leaning back in the chair and crossing his legs, “I have known Albus Harrington all of my life. Inseparable at school we were. He had a way about him. Great friends we were. Recently I have been advising him on certain financial matters with regards the sale of the house.”

  “So you knew about this already then? Said Vaillant and Cavendish nodded.

  “Absolutely. I had suspected for a while that Albus was thinking of selling the place but he only really confirmed this to me over the last few days. Two days ago in fact. He always was very good at keeping his cards close to his chest, the old dog! You see, I have a background in property development and I have several large companies who would be interested in a piece of land of this size. Ostensibly I am working in the best interest of my client, though Lord Harrington was much more than that. He was a very close friend too.”

  “So where do you think he has gone?”

  “Well if I was him then I would get as far away from his nagging wife as I possibly could. She never left him alone, you know. Apart from that I have no idea. Perhaps a conjuring trick of some sort.”

  Victoria exchanged a glance with the Inspector.

  “You think Lady Harrington nags her husband then?”

  “Oh mercilessly.” He said. “I have been a financial advisor as I say for some five years now. Before that I worked in the city with the Topping company.

  “I have never heard of them.” Smiled Victoria.

  “Well it was similar work. They produced miniaturised parts for the latest Babbage engines. In all fairness I did not really understand it. I was more involved on the accounts side. But even then poor old Albus was under the thumb. We used to have some terribly good parties at the weekend. All work sponsored of course and I asked him up several times but he never did make it. Poor old chap nagged out of it I suspect.”

  “Perhaps he just did not want to come.” Said Victoria, smiling broadly.

  “Perhaps.” Smiled back Cavendish, “Though the Albus Harrington I knew was always a man up for a social gathering if you catch my meaning. He enjoyed a joke, he did.”

  “A joke like disappearing from inside a locked room.” Said the Inspector, barely masking a look of irritation upon his face.

  “Quite so.” Said Nigel. “Quite so.”

  “Thank you.” Said Victoria. “That will be all for now. If you could call Royston for me, please I would be extremely grateful. Would you let him know some tea would be greatly appreciated?”

  “Very well.” Smiled Nigel. “I shall see to it at once.”

  “I think Mister Cavendish has rather a high opinion of himself.” Said Victoria after he had left the room.

  “Looks that way.” Said the Inspector. “Shall we compare notes?” He looked at Victoria’s lack of a notepad and she smiled.

  “I never forget anything.” She smiled. “Big memory you see.”

  “Very good.” Said Vaillant. “I have to write my own name at the top of the page or I forget it.” He laughed and flicked his notebook back a couple of pages. Victoria laughed as the Inspector continued.

  “So from the beginning. Lady Harrington to my eye seems to be terribly distressed by her husband's disappearance. To my mind I can see no evidence of the nagging or hectoring behaviour towards her absentee husband that Cavendish seems to suggest is the nature of the woman.”

  “Agreed.” Said Victoria. “She seems quite genuine to me and is without a doubt distressed by her husband’s disappearance. “

  “Of course it could be the case that Lord Harrington was quite simply not interested in Cavendish's wild parties in the city and used his wife as an excuse not to attend.”

  “That sounds correct to me by all accounts.” Said Victoria. “I think Mister Cavendish is a man who does not take “no” for an answer easily.”

  “To Montague then.” Said Vaillant.

  “The eldest son.”

  “Quite. Now Charlotte said that she heard him and Lord Harrington arguing over his trust fund.”

  “The son does seem to be incomparably dim.” Said Victoria and the Inspector laughed.

  “Sadly, yes he does. He was also quite enraged by his father’s plans to sell up. Said it was his “inheritance” being squandered.”

  “Yes. But the question of course is what advantage would his father’s death have for him?” Sighed Victoria. The Inspector frowned.

  “Death?” He said, scowling at her. “This is not the first time that you have said that. We have no death Victoria. We have a man who has vanished, but a vanished man is not necessarily dead you know.”

  “Oh he is dead for sure.” She said. “I just don’t know how yet.” She paused, looking into the fire. “Or why.”

  “To Charlotte then.” Said the Inspector, looking increasingly rattled. “She seemed almost disinterested. It was as if all of our questions were nothing but an inconvenience to her.”

  “Yes.” said Victoria, “Though she did seem rather keen to spill the beans about Montague's argument with his father about his trust fund.”

  “I think she mentioned it purely as it amused her.” Said the Inspector and Victoria nodded slowly.

  “Yes.” she said, “Quite so. You are absolutely correct. Also she seemed to spend more of her time looking into the fire than listening to us. We almost had to push her out of the room when we were done.”

  “William is an innocent abroad I think.” Said Victoria.

  “Agreed.” Said the Inspector. I think the age difference between him and his siblings is enough to make for them not looking on him very seriously and as such he leans on his mother perhaps. An oversimplification maybe, but I do not think the boy has any malicious tendencies whatsoever.”

  “Agreed.” Said Victoria as there was a slight tap on the door and in strode Royston, carrying a silver tray with a tea pot and two cups and saucers placed upon it.

  “Ah, excellent.” Said Victoria as the butler poured the tea. ‘Tell me, Royston. What other members of staff were on the premises when Lord Harrington disappeared?”

  Royston paused, cup in hand.

  “Well ma’am. There are two maids and a manservant apart from I but they do not live on the grounds. Not since the fire. Both they and the chef live in the village and will have left in the early evening. Seventy thirty they finish work. There is only really I who would be in the house apart from the family. It is, as I am sure you can imagine, my busiest time of the day.”

  He placed the cup in his hands in front of Victoria and then did the same for the Inspector.

  “Just as a formality.” Said the policeman, “When Lord Harrington vanished where were you?”

  “Ah.” said Royston, smiling, “The butler is always the culprit I suspect.” Victoria and the Inspector both laughed aloud.

  “I was in the butler’s pantry sir.” He said. “I have no witnesses to that as I am as I say the only member of staff on duty of an evening. Yet when William came for the key that is where he found me. It is impossible for these old legs to cover the distance from the tower to the pantry faster than master William did I am sure.”

  “I am sure too.” Said Victoria, sipping her tea and finding it very agreeable. “Thank you Royston.”

  The butler gave a slight bow and walked from the room.

  “So to Mister Cavendish.” Said the Inspector.

  “Quite a contrast to the Harrington family, is he not?”

  “Quite.” Said the Inspector, “Yet it makes sense that he assisted Albus or certainly sought h
is advice about selling the house.”

  “I suspect he only asked for advice.” Said Victoria and the Inspector nodded.

  “I think so. Yet he had previous knowledge of the potential sale that none of the rest of the family had. I suspect the question here is, did he tell any other members of the family of Lord Harrington’s plans?”

  “Who would want him dead?” Asked Victoria and the Inspector flinched again.

  “You seem rather convinced that he is dead.” He said and Victoria turned, looking into the fire.

  “There was no way to escape that room.” She said. “He definitely went into it. The whole family saw that. There is also the small matter that the key to the door was inside the locked room. So the door remained locked too.”

  “It is all rather a puzzle.” Said Vaillant.

  “I think I would like to look the room over once again.” Said Victoria. “A few things occur to me.”

  “Very well.” Said the inspector, looking at the clock on the wall. “It is eleven o’clock now. Do we wait until the morning or ask for the family's patience and ask them to stay awake a little longer?”

  “I think we need them awake.” Smiled Victoria. “If you keep them busy I will return to the tower. There is a scan I can run I did not think of previously.”

  “But you have no equipment.” Said Vaillant as he rose, placing his tea cup back on the table.

  “I do not need it.” She smiled. “Romney and I are quite sufficient I think you will find.” Noticing his puzzled look she tapped the amulet that was hung around her neck. “My assistant.” she said and the Inspector nodded as he realised what she meant.

  She strode from the room and finding a lantern by the door left the family in discussion with the Inspector. As she made her way across the next room she could hear raised voices and groans from the family as Vaillant gave them the news, but she put it to the back of her mind, remembering the route to the King’s tower.

  “What scan we going to run, boss?” asked Romney, “I did all the low and high level stuff before and found nothing.”

  “Nothing at all?” She asked.

  “A slightly elevated level of carbon in the air perhaps, but you can explain that by the fact that when we arrived the room was full of bloody rozzers breathing out all over the ruddy place.”

  “I would like to run a low level psychic scan.” said Victoria. “Point of death and thirty seconds before.”

  “You know I can’t scan after death by law.” He said cautiously.

  “I am aware of that Romney, yes. But we have an empty room and no body. There are two people who know what happened in there and I am almost one hundred percent sure that I know who they are.

  “Really?” Said Romney, “I am impressed boss. I really am.” Victoria laughed.

  “Indeed.” She said as she entered the archway and began to climb the tower.

  “How they give themselves away?” Asked the demon, clearly puzzled.

  “Oh very easily.” Said Victoria, racing up the staircase now, her legs moving her at a speed that was inhumanly fast, her reinforced skeleton allowing her to ascend the tower rapidly. “Two of the people interviewed made a very basic error.”

  “What’s that then?” Asked Romney.

  “They referred to Lord Harrington in the past tense.” Said Victoria and Romney began to chuckle.

  ***

  “Romney I need you to run me a low level psychic scan from the time of the door closing to the demise of Lord Harrington.” said Victoria. “That should assist me hopefully in determining how it was done. I am quite sure I know already who did it but I cannot ascertain a motive for their actions.

  “It would help boss if we could replicate the scene as much as possible.”

  “Such as?”

  “Well we can lock the door for a start. Did Harrington have a torch?”

  “It was found outside the door.” Said Victoria. “He must have put it down to open the door and when he went inside his family were right behind him and he had no time to pick it back up.”

  “Okay. Well darkness then.”

  “Fine.” said Victoria. She walked to the still open door of the room and placed the lamp outside on the stairs before returning and locking the door behind her. She stood in the centre of the room.

  “Ready.” she whispered, “Ready when you are.”

  “Okay boss.” Said Romney, “Let’s do this. I have concentrated the psychic field across the spectrum to help with visibility.”

  “What does that mean?” laughed Victoria.

  “It means you will be able to see in the dark.” said Romney. Victoria got the distinct impression the third circle demon was definitely rolling his eyes but she thought it was probably best to say nothing.

  Silence fell about the room. The air itself seemed to grow heavy as it moved slowly about her. Suddenly a man appeared at the top of the stairs, staring wildly over his shoulder down the steps below, his eyes wide and anger turning his mouth down into a sneer. Voices could be heard from below, growing nearer by the second. He raced to the door and pulled at it, cursing under his breath as he saw that it was locked. He placed the lamp on the floor and patted his pockets, but he gave a small grunt as he noticed that the key was already in the lock.

  “Damn it!” he growled and twisted the key in the lock and opened the door, removing the key from the lock as he did so. The door creaked open with a loud strangled sound and he rushed inside, then remembering that the lamp was still outside the door he turned, one hand on the doorframe, the other reaching forward just as several figures appeared at the flight of the stairs, racing towards him and the still open door. Grunting again he swung the door shut and turned the key. Instantly the room was plunged into darkness. So tight was the door in the frame that there was only the slightest show of light under the door.

  The man jumped back startled as several loud thumps resounded from the door. It was old but still sturdy and the heavy blows did not damage it at all.

  The room grew dark. From outside they heard a woman call angrily, “Come out!”

  Cordelia.

  “I will come out in the morning!” Shouted Lord Harrington inside the locked room, staring at the darkness of the ceiling as if in despair. “And we shall discuss matters tomorrow. Until then I would be greatly obliged if you….” said the man and there was a small grunt that was almost as of disgust and he said something under his breath. There came a slight almost insignificant hissing sound. To Victoria it looked almost like a fine rain fell down from above and as it pattered in the darkness on the man he gasped and as she watched he slowly dissolved into nothing wherever the rain fell on him. This lasted for no more than a few seconds and then everything was silent except for the sound of a key falling to the floor.

  The air loosened almost about her and light began to seep back into the room and then they were returned to the present.

  “What on Earth?” asked Victoria.

  “Wow.” said Romney. “I saw all of that but I don’t understand any of it.”

  “He dissolved.” said Victoria, “In a rain that fell from above,”

  “The roof is not open to the sky.” said Romney. “All that’s up there is a solid stone ceiling.”

  “What did he say just before he…”

  “Melted?” said Romney and Victoria wrinkled her nose.

  “It’s as good a description as any.” She said, looking around the room and then peering up at the ceiling. “Nothing up there but cobwebs. Where on Earth did that liquid come from?”

  “Not only that but what was it?” said Romney. “None of the scans I ran detected anything unusual at all.”

  “It melted him on contact.” she said, kneeling down at looking at the floor, rubbing her fingers across the cold grey flagstones. “Leaving not a trace. Nothing at all.” She widened the circle of the stone she was sweeping her fingers across but stopped and stood up. “No traces. Nothing whatsoever. Just an ordinary dusty floor covered with flagst
ones.”

  “Just before that when he looked up he looked as if he was disgusted by something. He said something under his breath too. I couldn’t catch it.”

  “Me neither.” said Romney.

  “Take it back.” said Victoria and although Romney did not answer she saw the air change again and suddenly a man strode into the room and quickly locked the door after him.

  “Come out!” came the female voice from the other side of the door and the man looked even more agitated if that was possible.

  “I will come out in the morning!” He shouted, looking up to the ceiling as if appealing to the heavens, “And we shall discuss matters tomorrow. Until then I would be greatly obliged if you….” said the man and there was a small grunt that was almost as of disgust and he said something under his breath. There came a slight almost insignificant hissing sound.

  “Stop.” said Victoria and the scene stopped suddenly, the man ceasing to move, suspended in time looking up at the ceiling.”

  “Back five seconds and magnify his voice.”

  “Done.” grunted Romney as if he was under a great strain. The man jerked backwards as Romney said this and then paused before moving forward again, though Victoria noticed that he moved a little slower this time, as if time itself was dragging its heels.

  “And we shall discuss matters tomorrow. Until then I would be greatly obliged if you….” said the man and there was a small grunt that was almost as of disgust. “Ugh. Spider.” he said and then the air cleared and the man vanished altogether, light returning to the room.

  “Spider?” said Victoria, raising an eyebrow and peering up at the ceiling. There were indeed a number of cobwebs on the ceiling, but hardly an excessive amount.

  “I don’t think a spider is capable of dissolving a grown man in a second.” said Romney doubtfully, but Victoria was already at the edge of the wall, looking for handholds amongst the mortar of the granite wall. She looked at a number of places and then, testing the bricks with her fingers she began to scale the wall. Her hands were reinforced by the alloy skeletal frame that she had been fitted with during her augmentation and she supported her weight easily on her strengthened fingers. The ceiling was a good twenty foot above and she climbed quickly and began to peer around the ceiling.