by Jane, Bettie
Think, Julia.
What does Meredith have to gain by sitting on the bench? Does she think she can negotiate with whoever it is that set this up.
Frustrated, Julia recalled what Jacob had told her about the original body they found—the one that likely belonged to Sarah Brook. Such violent things had been done to her body, whether pre- or post-mortem were still unsure, that she couldn’t be identified. Jacob hadn’t been so clear about that with Meredith. She didn’t—couldn’t know—what a violent offender they were dealing with.
“Oh, bother,” Julia mumbled to herself as she realized what her body was already doing. She stepped out of her hiding place in the brush and walked toward the bench where Meredith sat. She could feel several pairs of eyes watching her and if she didn’t know better, she would have sworn she heard Jacob curse from clear across the clearing. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed activity from the undercover police, but she wouldn’t look. She didn’t want to draw attention to them for the killer to notice.
It occurred, slightly too late now that she was out of the cover of the bushes, that the police might suspect that she was coming to retrieve the satchel.
“You’ve stepped in it this time, Julia. You should think things through a bit more before you act, you impulsive thing.” She muttered to herself and tried to walk casually toward Meredith. She had to get her away from the bench and across the clearing so whoever was planning to retrieve it could be tracked back to Millie. This was the plan.
She felt only slightly better that at least she wasn’t the only impulsive one. Meredith was in good company with Julia Barlow around.
She approached the bench and sat down. Meredith startled, but relaxed when she realized who it was.
“Julia, what are you doing here?” She forced a smile on her face but spoke in a strained voice through clenched teeth.
“I’d like to ask you the same thing, Meredith.” Julia placed a hand on Meredith’s stockinged knee, play-acting that they’d only happened to run into each other. It likely wasn’t believable, but it was all she could think of in the heat of the moment. “This wasn’t the plan, love. Now, hug me like you are surprised to see me.”
They exchanged hugs and Julia hissed in her ear when close enough. “Meredith, whoever this is—they did unspeakable things to Sarah. It is not safe to change the plan like this. Get up and walk with me, like we are off for some tea. Leave it to the undercover police to track him to Millie.”
Their hug ended and they both sat on the bench, facing each other and forcing smiles while they spoke in low, urgent tones.
“If he wants the money, he’s going to have to come and take it from me. I have no assurances that he’ll release my sister and I won’t give him the option to refuse. What if his whole plan was to take the money and then kill her, washing his hands of the whole thing? Or what if she’s already dead? He obviously wants the thousand pounds. Certainly he’ll come get it, even if I did veer from his instructions a little.”
“A little?” Julia hissed through her fake smile and looked around. The undercover police that she could see from this vantage point were getting restless. She knew without seeing that Jacob would be absolutely beside himself. How was she going to get Meredith off this bench and out of potential harm’s way?
Then, Julia had an idea.
“Meredith, you trust me, right? You invited me into the PLC after my work with Eliza’s murder. I’m certain you remember my part in bringing Sydney to justice, yes?”
Meredith nodded. “Of course. There’s nobody I trust more to help me find and rescue my sister from this…this…this animal.” Her lower lip was quivering, and Julia could tell that as brave a front as Meredith was trying to put up, her composure had cracks that were about to shatter the foundation of her cool demeanor.
“All right, then. I’m going to sit here. You hug me goodbye and continue walking on the course that you were originally going to take. Jacob will meet you there. I’m sure he’s beside himself with concern for you. I will stay here as long as it takes until whoever it is comes to collect their money. The undercover police will stay as well. But you’re too close to this. Trust me?”
Meredith nodded a slightly uncertain nod. “I do trust you, Julia. I just—it’s just—I have to do something.”
“I know. I know what that feels like. And you are doing something by following the plan. You secured the money, you placed it under the bench. That is what will save your sister. Now you have to walk away and trust someone else to help you. I will help you. I will stay.”
Meredith gulped in a swallow of air. “I feel like I can’t breathe, Julia.”
“I know, darling. You are doing fine. Simply stand up and start walking. Jacob is only a few yards away. You can make it. I know you can.”
“Okay.” She started to stand, and Julia hugged her close.
“Julia? Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, love.”
Then louder, for anyone that might be within hearing distance. “It was so lovely to run into you today, Meredith. An unusually dry December day. Let’s get together for tea sometime soon, shall we?”
Meredith caught on and followed suit. “Yes, so wonderful to see you. I must be going. I have other commitments I’ve made.”
“Lovely. Cheers, love.”
Meredith walked away, and Julia remained in her spot on the bench, not at all sure what she was going to do now. Her only thought had been to get Meredith out of harm’s way, but now that she’d accomplished that, she wasn’t sure if staying behind was wise.
More impulsivity, Julia? You need a good dose of common sense.
She sat on the bench for several more minutes, pretending to be fascinated by the aviary population that lived at Hyde Park. She’d promised to stay, but to what end? Would the killer-kidnapper approach her to get the money? And if he did, what would happen? Certainly he wouldn’t simply walk up, take the satchel, and walk away? Maybe he would wait until Julia eventually gave up. Every moment that passed brought with it more urgency about Millie’s safety.
That’s when she noticed Jacob enter the clearing from the other side. He walked as though he were out for a stroll, and Julia tried not to watch him. He casually approached a bench like hers and sat next to the undercover police already there, and pretended to make small talk.
The tension in Julia’s body pulled tight across her neck, back, and shoulders. She shifted uncomfortably on the bench and continued to not look at the bench where Jacob was.
She started when someone sat down on the bench next to her.
“Good afternoon,” the smartly-dressed gentleman said. “A lovely day for a stroll in the park, don’t you think? It’s nice and quiet. I simply adore silence, don’t you?”
Julia turned to face the visitor and nodded. “Yes, it’s quite peaceful.” He wore a suit that appeared much too big for his thin frame and a hat that hung low over his eyes. A mustache that looked altogether unreal was perched above his lip like a tiny rogue bird had landed there and couldn’t take flight again. Dark glasses covered his eyes so that Julia couldn’t note the color.
Was this a random passerby? Was this the person who had come for the ransom money?
Julia felt quite out of her depth, and she didn’t like admitting that, even though it was only to herself.
Now what do I do?
Before she had to decide, her bench companion spoke. “It wasn’t part of the plan for anyone to remain behind guarding the package that Meredith delivered. What games are you playing at and who are you? Why do you interfere?”
“My apologies, kind sir. It was not my intention to interfere. Meredith was worried about her sister. She didn’t know what to do and so she asked me to meet her here. She didn’t give me any details, only that she needed to deliver a package to the park and that it was important for her sister. I honestly thought maybe her sister was coming to collect it. Meredith asked me to wait until someone came to get the package so that it wouldn’t b
e stolen.”
“Meredith, scared? Somehow I find that difficult to believe. What will I do with you now that you’ve put a wrench in the gears, my dear?”
“Oh, well, you certainly don’t need to do anything. No recompense necessary. It was my pleasure to do something nice for Meredith. If that will be all, I’ll leave you to your package and wish you and Meredith’s sister the best of luck.”
He stiffened. “Wait, I recognize you. You’re that nosy journalist that works for the World News. Julia Barlow.”
Julia’s blood ran cold at having been recognized by this person. “I’m afraid you have me at a loss. You know my name, but I’m not sure we’ve met. Are you a friend of Millie’s?”
Julia noted movement out of the corner of her eye from the direction of where Jacob sat and risked a glance. He appeared to be preparing to stand. However, she was in a position to helpfully get some information from this man. Julia turned her attention back to the visitor and spoke while making an exaggerated hand movement with the hand that was out of sight of the visitor.
Wait, Jacob. I’m fine. Don’t move.
As she willed her thoughts to cross the clearing to Jacob and for him to understand her hand signal to stay put, she continued making small talk with her new friend. He wasn’t going to answer directly about his name, but perhaps she could glean some kind of information from him that would help them.
“I don’t know Millie well,” Julia said, keeping her tone light. “She was a few years behind me in school, but Meredith speaks quite highly of her. You’re quite lucky to have her as a friend.”
Julia didn’t even know what she was saying at this point. She simply kept moving her lips and hoping words would come out. She was surprised when the stranger replied.
“No friend of Millie’s is lucky. She’s a plague to those who know her. Quite honestly, I’m surprised Meredith would put up the money to save her. I’d rather hoped to have justification for killing her.”
Julia gasped in only somewhat feigned surprise. “Why, whatever do you mean? Killing her? What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play dumb with me. I don’t know what you know, but this wasn’t some random happenstance that you met Meredith in the park. I’m certain those are undercover police on that bench over there. You, though, you perplex me.”
He pulled out a cigarette and lit it, taking a big draw.
Julia looked at the bench where Jacob sat and grimaced inside.
“Where is Millie now?” Julia asked, done with the charades and nearly glad about it.
He blew out the breath he was holding.
“As if I would tell you. Cigarette?”
“You want the money, correct?” Julia held out her hand and he passed her the cigarette. She took a long pull from it and handed it back. After a moment, she exhaled, feeling somewhat calmed by the inhalation of smoke.
Julia bent over and pulled the satchel out from under the bench, placing the impossibly heavy bag on her lap. “You want the money and I want Millie. Tell me where she is, and I’ll get up and walk away, leaving you with one thousand pounds with which to make your escape.”
“You are quite confident, aren’t you?”
“Where is Millie?”
“You’ll find Millie Howard bound in a warehouse on the East End. When I last saw her, she was alive. I cannot, however, guarantee her condition will remain that way for long. You see, I left someone with instructions to kill her if I didn’t arrive at our meeting point by 1pm.”
He glanced at his pocket watch. “I should get going. It’s 12:40 and we wouldn’t want anything untoward to happen to your friend’s sister, now would we?”
“What’s the address of the warehouse?”
“2121 Water St. Now if you don’t mind, the money please?”
Julia moved her hands from the bag. He stood up and took it with a final comment before he disappeared into the brush.
“Call off your hounds. As I said, if I don’t reach my destination, Millie will be dead before you get there.”
He walked away swiftly, and Julia stood and ran in the opposite direction toward Jacob.
“Don’t. Don’t follow him. I have the address where he was holding Millie, but if he doesn’t make his rendezvous by 1pm, his partner has instructions to kill her. She’s at 2121 Water St. A warehouse on the East End. Go, quickly.”
Jacob gave his officers the information and they raced from the park, presumably to rescue Millie Howard from her fate.
Chapter 6
3pm
December 21, 1921
Scotland Yard Headquarters
London
Julia and Jacob made their way back to Scotland Yard headquarters. It crossed Julia’s mind that she’d spent an inordinate amount of time here and was starting to feel very comfortable. Like a home away from home.
Meredith hailed a cab directly from Hyde Park to Mayfair to get a change of clothes for Millie and would meet them at the station.
The police officers who went to the East End returned with Millie around the same time as Jacob and Julia. She was alive but in pretty rough shape. Her dark hair was matted and she had a bruise forming under her left eye. Traces of dried blood remained below her nose, more evidence that she’d probably been hit in the face. Her hands shook and her shoulders slumped. She was shorter than Meredith and curvier, but other than her disheveled appearance, there was no question these two were sisters. She’d been beaten and bound and gagged, but she hadn’t been set on fire unlike Sarah Brook. Likely she hadn’t eaten in at least twenty-four hours. Nobody had seen her since she’d met with Meredith at Piccadilly Ladies’ Club yesterday morning.
Jacob asked, rather politely, if Julia would take copious notes about everything that happened when she encountered the stranger at the bench.
“We hope to find whoever was responsible for this and bring them into custody before they manage to escape the country, which is the likeliest possible outcome given that amount of money would make it easy to walk away from one’s life and completely begin again.”
“Of course. I’ll be happy to write up my recollection. Will you give me the names of the police who were involved in assaulting Mille and Sarah?”
She was certain that line of questioning would help them catch up to the man in the park and whoever his partner in crime was.
“Yes, I’ll be getting to that.”
“Mrs. Howard, I need to interview you so we can gather all the clues possible.”
Millie nodded mutely.
“And Julia—“
“I know. You need me to write down everything about my encounter. Show me where I can work and I’ll get to it.”
Jacob looked surprised, as if he had prepared for an argument that she wasn’t making.
“Good. Well, then, through that door you’ll find a quiet space. And thank you, Julia.”
Julia sat in a quiet room and wrote down every detail she could remember about him from the words he’d used, the types of cigarettes he’d smoked, and the demeanor with which he’d carried himself. She tried not to skimp on any detail because anything could be helpful in solving a puzzle. She was very anxious to hear the information Jacob was obtaining right now, but today found herself being much more reasonable about his need to separate his work from his friendship with her. She knew he’d eventually give her the information, but of course it made sense to not take her into an interrogation room. Other officers would consider that strange, and it would, as he’d explained, be a breach in police protocol to let a reporter have access to that information. Julia would have to accept that for now.
Something seemed off to her in her recounting of the details. Like there was a piece of obvious information that her brain wasn’t quite grabbing hold of. The harder she focused her mind, the blurrier the details became, so she wrote what she could and then closed her notebook and went for a walk to clear her head. She couldn’t do much more without the information that Jacob was acquiring right now, but Juli
a was extremely uncomfortable with the idea that the man from the park knew her name. It made her nervous to be on the radar of someone capable of such violence.
Maybe that’s what was bugging her. It wasn’t completely unusual for her to be recognized since her picture appeared next to her byline often enough. The Withers’ murder that she’d been integral in solving had been quite a spectacle. Beyond her stories concerning the murders, she’d been the subject of other stories in rival papers…sometimes on the front page. She supposed a sort of celebrity went along with involvement in these high profile stories, and she wasn’t about to give up her passion, so she’d have to find a way to live with it.
Her walk took her out of the building and for a stroll through a park that was nearby the Yard. As she walked, she thought. She stared at the face of every man that walked by, both worried and hopeful that she’d recognize the kidnapper from the park.
Nothing. She came up empty every time and was secretly relieved. What did she think she would do with him anyway if he turned up? He’d probably knock her over the head, and she’d suffer the same fate as Millie, or worse, Sarah.
Sarah still needed to be identified for certain. Julia wondered if the police had any luck getting dental x-rays from Dr. Hickson. Maybe the coroner would know.
Julia turned to leave the park and to find the coroner when motion caught her eye. It was a couple sitting down on a bench, just as she had done earlier with the mystery man. She watched the man light a cigarette and take a draw. He offered the cigarette to the woman but she declined, pulling her own from her cigarette case. She allowed him to light it for her.
The way that man held his hands when he lit the cigarette pulled her back into the moment from earlier this afternoon.
