‘I wonder if he left under some sort of a cloud, Mr Hartley? Had he upset the family, I wonder? Did he do something very wrong so that his father wanted nothing more to do with him?’
‘Well, mebbe so. But there’s nowt in our family gossip to hint at that, Mr Pemberton. Mind, my own dad might have known, he’d have been around in 1916 when Luke left home. He’d have remembered summat but he died in 1951.’
‘I wonder if there was a concerted effort by your grandfather’s family to eradicate every reference to Luke?’
‘Now why would they do that, Mr Pemberton?’
‘They might have blamed him for James’s death,’ Pemberton heard himself say.
‘Bloody hell! He didn’t kill his own brother, did he?’ For George this was the third awful shock of the day.
Mark sighed. ‘I don’t know, but I rather suspect the family blamed him to some extent.’
‘Now why would they do that, Mr Pemberton?’
Mark told George about Luke’s movements that day and George listened intently.
‘If he’d got himself to t’station on time, he’d have picked James up and he wouldn’t have got shot? Is that it?’
‘That’s what the family might have thought,’ agreed Mark. ‘It’s very possible they blamed Luke for what happened to James, so he might have decided to begin a new life in Canada. If his family blamed him, then the locals might have done the same. Maybe he couldn’t tolerate their suspicions. Besides, it wasn’t all that unusual for farmers to emigrate to Canada. Lots of them from this area did emigrate to Canada after the First World War, they did it to find work and start afresh.’
‘But this was during a war, Mr Pemberton.’ George was shaken by what he was hearing. ‘I’m beginning to smell a rat here. Are you saying that Luke might actually have killed James? You used the word “suspicions”. Did Luke murder him — that’s different from just letting him get shot by somebody else?’
‘It’s a possibility. He was strongly suspected,’ Mark had to admit. ‘I didn’t really want to suggest that to you, but, well, you’ve asked, and I cannot lie to you. Luke was a very strong suspect and, having read the files myself, I’m inclined to believe he was the killer.’
‘So he ran away before they could catch him, is that what you’re saying?’
‘I don’t know. If he did kill James, we do not know the reason. I need to learn a lot more about the family.’
‘It would explain a lot, wouldn’t it, Mr Pemberton?’
‘You mean the lost family bible? The absence of any reference to Luke in your family history?’
‘Aye. All that.’
‘Yes, it would. It does suggest that efforts were made to keep Luke’s existence a secret — until this Vice-President arrives on the scene and begins to trace his family roots.’
‘I’m shocked, Mr Pemberton, honest I am. But I must thank you for discovering all this before the Vice-President comes here. Just think if he’d told me all this… So, what’ll I tell him?’
‘That’s going to be difficult. If his aides are any good, they’re bound to want to know more about James who died in the war; his grave shows the date of his death.’
‘So they could check up from that?’
‘Yes, just like I did. It’s easy to find a copy of the local paper with the murder story in it. They can’t find the actual murder file because I’ve got that, and so, in their minds, it’ll probably go down merely as an unsolved murder, without any hint of Luke’s part in it. But it wouldn’t take much to unearth the links with Luke.’
‘I’ll play dumb, Mr Pemberton. I’ll tell ’em I know nowt about the family history. And I’ll keep this to myself, at least for the time being.’
‘Thanks, I think that’s wise. I’ll keep you informed of what I discover; let’s hope we learn more before Vice-President Hartley arrives.’
‘Thanks — I hope we can get summat sorted out. Now, Mr Pemberton, answer me this, are you sure you don’t know the reason why James was murdered?’
‘Truthfully, I don’t know. I was hoping you might have heard something within the family that might help. If we can establish that, it might help us to decide whether Luke was involved.’
‘I’ve heard nothing, Mr Pemberton, not an inkling.’
‘There was an old verse the kids used to sing. It started after James died. I was told that the children of this dale, in the neighbouring villages, would sing it.’
Mark then sang the words to the Bobby Shafto tune which accompanied them:
Jimmy Hartley’s gone to hell,
And his brother’s gone as well;
Jimmy Hartley’s gone to hell,
Tainted Jimmy Hartley.
‘Aye,’ George acknowledged. ‘That song was being sung when I was a lad at school. I sang it myself.’
‘Did it mean anything to you?’
‘Not really, not when I was five or six.’
‘Was it used by the other kids to tease you with?’
‘No, not really, I don’t think they knew what the words meant. It was like those nursery rhymes, they sang the words and danced around never really knowing what it was all about.’
‘Did you ever think it might be your great uncle they were singing about?’
‘Well, I did wonder if it was summat to do with the ghost they sometimes talked about. And Great Uncle James being shot by a spy — as a growing lad, I did wonder if he’d been a spy himself, even. Working for the Germans or summat nasty — tainted, you see. But I never gave it much thought — really, it meant nowt to me. Mind, once I sang it at home and Dad told me to shut up, but he never said why, never explained.’
‘I think it does refer to James,’ said Mark. ‘And I wonder if the brother referred to was in fact Luke — it said he’s gone as well. It said Jimmy had gone to hell.’
‘Some said going to fight in the Somme was like going to hell,’ commented George.
‘James never got there,’ Mark reminded him. ‘But if James was a wrong ’un for any reason, it would explain why the word “tainted” appears in the verse, and why they said he’d gone to hell when he died. That’s if we can rule out the spy business.’
‘Sorry, Mr Pemberton, you’ve baffled me now. So far as I know from family gossip, Great Uncle James was a lovely lad. He was an altar server at church, good with kids and helpful to his parents. A real decent young fellow, by all accounts.’
‘The police file also says he was a decent man,’ Mark agreed. ‘Then, as now, the police always delve into the character of the victim and they found nothing against James. He had no criminal record and they found nothing to suggest he had made enemies. And that makes his death more of a mystery.’
‘And it still is?’ said George.
‘Yes, and it still is,’ agreed Pemberton.
‘So what are you going to do now, Mr Pemberton?’ asked George Hartley.
‘I want to find out just what happened all those years ago,’ said Mark.
‘I’ll help in any way I can’ said George. ‘I want to get this thing sorted out.’
‘If we can find a motive for his death, we’ll be more than half-way to solving the puzzle as to who killed him. Now, are there any family heirlooms or anything that might provide a clue? Did James leave anything behind? Great Grandad Caleb? Did he leave anything?’
‘There’s a trunk of Great Uncle James’s belongings, things his mother kept after he died. We’ve still got that, it’s somewhere in the farmhouse. I’ll have a look for it, Mr Pemberton. You’ll be interested in it?’
‘Certainly — it might contain something of interest.’
‘I’ll ring you when I’ve found it,’ promised George, and so Mark left his Thirklewood Hall number, exhorting George to ring at any time. ‘And if I find anything about links with America or Canada, I’ll let you know that.’ He paused and said softly, ‘If the family have clammed up about Luke and James ever since 1916, there must be a reason, mustn’t there, Mr Pemberton?
‘Exact
ly,’ said Mark, getting up to leave the house. ‘And I reckon you need to know what it was before your American cousin finds out.’
‘Leave it with me, Mr Pemberton,’ said George Hartley.
Chapter Twelve
While Mark was chatting to George Hartley at Wolversdale, Lorraine was in conference with Mr John T Dunnock of the Vice-President’s staff. Upon learning that the tall and glamorous plain-clothes officer wished to speak to him, he had organised coffee and biscuits in his suite; he was clearly enchanted by the young detective. He had a large green file on his desk upon which she could see the legend ‘Operation Roots’.
‘Hi,’ he began in his distinctive drawl. ‘You are an English lady detective, is that so?’
‘Yes, I’m a detective constable. Lorraine Cashmore is my name.’
‘And I know you are working here, in Thirklewood Hall, for the duration of the Vice-Presidential visit. I’ve seen you around the place.’
‘I am, sir, yes. I’m engaged on internal security and am a member of the local force.’
‘Lucky old local force is what I say!’ He beamed at her as his secretary organised the coffee. ‘So you want to ask me about Vice-President Hartley’s family roots? Is that so?’
‘Yes. I’m working with Detective Superintendent Pemberton and, as you know, we are responsible for internal security.’
‘And a very good job you are doing, all of you!’ He beamed again. ‘So what is it you wish to know?’
‘Superintendent Pemberton is anxious to know more about the Vice-President’s relations in the UK.’ She smiled. ‘We need to know their background and location so that we can carry out a full security check. I understand the Vice-President will be going to the homes of the people he believes to be his relations. We’ll need a list of all the venues and people involved — we’d like to give them all a security check, through our own network.’
‘That figures. You might have some local information on them that isn’t known nationally by the DPG in Scotland Yard. So, well, why don’t I give you a copy of our own details? It's confidential material but we’re all in this together, aren’t we? Although, Lorraine, you know it’s never been confirmed that he actually does have relations in the UK? That’s why he’s coming here, to find out if the local Hartleys are part of his family.’
‘Yes, I know that, Mr Dunnock, but I believe that some preliminary research has been undertaken? Some links have been suggested but not yet established?’
‘Sure, Vice-President Hartley has done a little himself, but, well, time’s in rather short supply for a man of his position and to be honest with you, Lorraine, that sort of research is hardly the kind that the White House staff could undertake on his behalf. It’s a private matter, you see. He wants to come here to find out as much as he can. In three days, though, he’s not going to discover a great deal.’
‘Quite.’ Lorraine flashed her smile at the American. ‘Now, I believe he claims that Luke Caleb Hartley settled in the States after emigrating from the UK in 1916. He was from Yorkshire and originally settled in Brockville, Canada, before moving to Utica in the State of New York.’
‘Right,’ smiled Dunnock.
‘I’m interested in details of the actual emigration, Mr Dunnock, so that I might be able to link Luke with existing people here. Then we can do our checks on them. I understand that immigration and emigration records show details of next of kin, for example. There are lots of Hartleys in this part of Yorkshire, you see, and we don’t want to waste time checking on them all if only one family is of interest.’
‘I do know that your city of Hull was mentioned by the Vice-President — he has some relations there, I believe. He’s going to visit them, store-owners they are, Hartleys of Hull. And the main ones are, as I’m sure you know, the Hartleys of Wolversdale. Now, let’s see what the file says.’
As she sipped the strong coffee, he scanned the file before him, refreshing his memory.
‘I did study his papers before coming here, but as one gets older, one’s memory gets poorer.’ He grinned. ‘Now, Vice-President Hartley was hunting through his father’s belongings some years ago when he found a letter from his father’s Aunt Sophie in Hull, Yorkshire, England.’
‘She founded a big store in Hull.’
‘Sure. Now, that letter, it was addressed to the Vice-President’s Aunt Sarah but the Vice-President’s father — that’s Caleb James Hartley — had kept it for some reason. I think our Vice-President felt it was quite important, from a family point of view.’
‘Do we know anything about the Vice-President’s Aunt Sarah? I know nothing of her.’
‘She was quite a lady, it seems — she founded the James Hartley Foundation, a children’s home in the US. I think the letter prompted him to find out more.’ Lorraine wondered if the Foundation had been named in honour of the deceased James but did not refer to that at this juncture. Instead, she asked, ‘So he regarded the letter from Sophie as important?’
‘I don’t see why. It wasn’t much; it consisted of a very short note. It was dated 1924 and said that Patrick had made his first Holy Communion. It didn’t say anything else, except to wish everyone luck in their new life.’
‘Maybe Patrick had come to England from her Foundation in the US?’ suggested Lorraine. ‘I’ve not come across that name before — Patrick, I mean — but I do remember reading about Sophie. She was one of twins, brother and sister of Luke Caleb, we think.’
‘Right, well, the Vice-President found that letter to his Aunt Sarah — she died in 1991 in New England, by the way. By then, she was Mrs Walter J Swinburne and was eighty-eight years old. She had no family, her husband was a college lecturer, and he’d retired long ago. Anyway, Lorraine, when the Vice-President found that letter, he vowed to trace his roots. Till then, you see, he’d never even thought he might have English ancestry. He started to enquire in Hull and found a big store called Hartleys of Hull.’
‘It’s still operating.’
‘It sure is. Well, the PRO for the store sent a booklet over to him. It contained a potted history of the Hartley family of Hull and said the family originated at Pike Hill Farm, Wolversdale. It told how Caleb Hartley had married Sarah Hodgson in 1877 and how they had had eight children. And with our Vice-President being called Caleb Hodgson Hartley, well, that really set him thinking. We learned that Thomas and Sophie were twins and together they had moved to Hull in 1910, when they were only twenty-six years old, to establish a store which grew into the highly successful Hartleys of Hull. No one at the store knew anything in detail about the Hartleys of Pike Hill Farm, but our Embassy did establish that Hartleys continued to live there.’
‘The Hartleys are still living at Pike Hill Farm,’ confirmed Lorraine.
‘Sure, we’ve checked that out. When our agents went to interview the oldest member there, George Hartley, he claimed to know nothing about a Luke Caleb, although they did know of the Hull connections. But the Vice-President felt sure the secret of his family roots lay in Wolversdale at that farm. And so he decided to visit the farm at the first opportunity. Well, when he had to come to England on government business, it seemed that Providence was being kind to him. He decided to stop off a while and check out his ancestry.’
‘He won’t have much time to delve into family records,’ said Lorraine. ‘Researching a family history can take months.’
‘He appreciates that. He just wants to see the graves of his ancestors in Wolversdale, Sarah and Caleb in particular. And, of course, he wants to establish that his grandfather, Luke Caleb, was born at Wolversdale and lived at that farm.’
‘There is no grave of a Luke Caleb in Wolversdale,’ Lorraine pointed out. ‘The family graves are in the Catholic churchyard there. He’ll find the other graves without any trouble; George Hartley has been cutting the grass around them to make them tidy!’
‘You British cops take your duties seriously, eh?’ He smiled. ‘So, have I helped?’
‘There is a little more. Do we know
when Luke sailed from England or when he arrived in Canada? Where he sailed from, for example?’
‘Sure. Hang on, it’s all here somewhere.’
From the files, Dunnock was able to tell Lorraine that, from records held in the National Archives of Canada, it was known that Luke Caleb Hartley, along with his wife Edith, daughter Sarah and two sons Caleb James and Paul Stephen, had arrived in Quebec on 4th November 1916, having sailed from Liverpool, England. The ship was the Montcalm which, during the earlier stages of the war, had been disguised as the HMS Audacious in an attempt to fool the German fleet. It had reverted to a passenger vessel in September 1915, not long before Germany began her spring submarine campaign in the Atlantic. German U-boats had torpedoed several passenger ships — indeed, in March 1916 the passenger vessel Sussex, crowded with passengers heading for Dieppe, had been sunk by German submarines.
There was considerable risk in sailing the ocean at that time, but passenger vessels did continue their work. Passenger manifests of the time contained a lot of genealogical information, and the one bearing Luke’s particulars included the destination of the passengers, which in Luke’s case was Brockville on the northern banks of the St Lawrence Seaway, some 120 miles to the South-West of Montreal. There the Hartley family intended to establish a livestock farm comprising cattle and horses. Luke was fairly successful, but after ten years decided that his future lay in America. He then moved to Utica in the State of New York where he and his sons established a successful business in real estate, housing and property dealing.
‘The thing is,’ said Mr Dunnock, ‘that from 1907, the law changed so that every ship’s manifest had to contain additional information about emigrants. It had to include details of their health, whether they could read and write, who paid their passage, the amount of cash they carried, whether they were anarchists and, more important for us, the names of next of kin back in the UK.’
‘So the Canadians weren’t accepting everyone who wanted to enter their country?’
‘Not by any means. They were aware that there were draft-dodgers in the war and so they were very careful who they allowed into their country. Luke was accepted, even though he had a slight heart problem. The manifest does contain the names of his next of kin — and they were given as Sarah and Caleb Hartley of Pike Hill Farm, Wolversdale, Yorkshire, England.’
Family Ties (The Mark Pemberton Cases Book 1) Page 12
