Righteous Rumours (The Hero Next Door Series Book 4)

by Rebecca King

  ‘Do you see him?’ Joshua whispered suddenly from the undergrowth beside the track.

  Ronan nodded.

  ‘I’ll go round the front. You go around the back.’

  Ronan waited until Joshua had disappeared around the side of the house before following Gorman. He reached the back door of the safe house in time to watch Gorman creep into the kitchen. Ronan knew what Gorman would see – the pile of papers stacked in the corner of the kitchen. He suspected that Gorman was after the papers, although why he should feel the need to look for them in Geranium’s house was something he had yet to find out.

  Without saying a word, Ronan crept through the door. All he could see of Gorman was a dark shape hovering in the doorway of the sitting room. He stood and surveyed the room before returning to the kitchen. On silent feet, Ronan backstepped until his back was to the door. He watched Gorman peer around the dark kitchen. He looked in cupboards, although couldn’t see much and had to resort to dragging things out to see them properly. Gorman made no attempt to keep quiet, but then he thought that all the Star Elite were in the woods looking for him. He had no idea that Ronan was watching him.

  When he found nothing of interest in the cupboards, Gorman began to search the rest of the kitchen. It wasn’t long before he found the boxes of papers. He picked up a pile of papers from the uppermost box and stared down at them only to swear when he realised that he couldn’t see what was written. Gorman’s movements became more frantic as he searched through piles of papers. He removed the uppermost box and swore again when he tipped several papers from the second box toward the window and read Sminter’s name.

  ‘You see? You can never escape your crimes,’ Ronan drawled.

  Gorman froze.

  Ronan knew that if Gorman was armed he would have shot at Geranium earlier. Thankfully, the man had nothing to hand except for the papers he held. He couldn’t even throw them because he was on the opposite side of the room. Ronan, now that he had his victim cornered, waited until Joshua joined him. It didn’t take long.

  ‘He is in here,’ Ronan drawled casually once Joshua appeared in the doorway.

  ‘Damn, you are a sodding fool, aren’t you? What in the Hell? You actually thought you could walk into one of the Star Elite’s safe houses and not be challenged.’ Joshua frowned, a little confused as to why the man would be that bold.

  ‘We never said that he was a clever criminal,’ Ronan mused. ‘No criminal is as clever as they think they are. The truth often has a nasty way of prevailing no matter who lies about what. It seems that Gorman here became a little over-confident about how easy it is to shake us off. He thought we wouldn’t see fit to leave someone in the gardens to watch out for him. He thought he could walk into one of our safe houses and nobody would be here to protect the place. He has found our evidence. I suppose it must be the evidence he keeps pestering Geranium for.’

  ‘You have nothing on me,’ Gorman protested.

  ‘You are trespassing, just like your sister.’

  ‘Well, you are here,’ Gorman snorted. ‘You are trespassing as well. This isn’t your house. It belongs to Mr Quinton.’

  ‘We work for His Majesty’s Government. We have authority to go wherever we need to go to carry out our investigations into the activities of criminals like you,’ Joshua murmured, folding his arms and leaning one brawny shoulder against the door jamb. ‘We have the ability to arrest whomever we please, go wherever we like, shoot whoever we feel poses a danger to us or ordinary citizens in our country.’

  ‘That includes the citizens who occupy the workhouse. God, you are low, do you know that? I mean, stealing off the poor who are destitute enough to have to turn to the workhouse to eat and find shelter. How low can you bloody get?’ Ronan growled.

  ‘He has no conscience, scruples, or morals, do you?’ Joshua asked.

  Gorman glared at them both. He looked down at the papers in his hand but with far less interest than he had shown earlier. It was as if he finally realised that removing the evidence that they contained would do little to protect him from having to face justice.

  ‘You have the wrong man,’ Gorman murmured.

  ‘No, we don’t. While you have played a very clever game, you have made a major mistake, Gorman,’ Ronan replied.

  Gorman stared at him. ‘I have been sent here by Lynchgate. It’s all his fault. He was the one who told me to do it. He told me to come here and get the evidence no matter what. It condemns him, you see, for the theft of the money from the workhouse. He is the Governor there. He wanted all the other governors forced away, so they didn’t find out about the money he had stolen. It’s Lynchgate who has been behind all of this. He needs money, you see. He is broke and has helped himself to the coffers in the workhouse to help him get by, but the donations have dried up because the donators have heard the gossip that the money they have given to the workhouse hasn’t been paying for the things the workhouse should be providing.’

  ‘Like food for the occupants,’ Ronan mused with a wise nod.

  ‘You forgot about your mistake,’ Joshua reminded him.

  ‘I-I shouldn’t be here,’ Gorman agreed with a huffed laugh. ‘I need money as well. He – Lynchgate – has paid me to come here.’

  ‘But I thought you said that he had no money.’ Ronan lifted his brows and waited.

  ‘Until recently. He told me that getting the evidence would mean that we could go back to how we were, and that nobody would be able to find out what had gone on in the workhouse if we made sure that the evidence was gone,’ Gorman muttered. ‘Lynchgate is a liar. You should know that. He is a fraud. You know what he did at Muldoon’s. Now that isn’t the behaviour of an honest man, is it?’

  ‘No, but neither is trying to break into an innocent woman’s house in the dead of night and getting yourself shot for threatening her. Nor is hiding in your sister’s house. Nor is it the actions of an honest man to help a known fraudster like Lynchgate,’ Joshua argued, raking Gorman with a scornful look. ‘Nor is it honest to break into someone else’s house and start to rifle through courthouse paperwork.’

  To prove that he wasn’t lying, Joshua lit a candle on the dresser beside him. It didn’t erase all the shadows in the room, but it removed enough for them all to see the papers in Gorman’s hands. Gorman stared down at them as if he had never seen them before.

  ‘Lynchgate made me do it,’ Gorman protested.

  ‘Like I have said, you have forgotten one very important point,’ Joshua drawled.

  It was clear from the silence that followed, and the way Gorman looked around the room as if in search of something, that he had no idea what he had forgotten.

  ‘Everyone you have dealings with ends up dead,’ Ronan drawled. ‘First Sminter, who you have been living right next door to. It was easy for you to kill him seeing as he was within easy reach. You crept into his house when you suspected nobody was able to see you and left him with no option but to take his own life.’

  Gorman’s face immediately hardened.

  ‘He knew too much about what you were doing in that workhouse, didn’t he? He also knew about your criminal past, didn’t he? When it became evident that we were on to Lynchgate, Sminter, and everyone who has been helping you, they had to go, didn’t they?’ Joshua stepped closer.

  ‘Then there was Wardle, who had some papers on you about your criminal past that you had to get off him. When you caught up with him, he had no papers on him, did he? So you decided to try to find them,’ Ronan added. ‘So, once you followed Geranium to Wardle’s house, and saw her speak to him, you had to try to get to speak to her to find out what papers Wardle had on him when she last saw him. Wardle was no longer able to tell you himself because you killed him on the country lane just a few miles away. Then there was Lynchgate, the man you thought you could set up to take responsibility for what you did in the workhouse.’

  ‘Lynchgate was responsible,’ Gorman insisted.

  ‘Well, I am sure you are forgetting another poi
nt,’ Ronan drawled.

  ‘Oh?’ Gorman looked spitefully at him as if a sinister look would silence one of the Star Elite.

  ‘I am afraid that while Lynchgate was a Governor, and would take responsibility for giving you the situation as Master of the workhouse, I am afraid that you will take responsibility for taking such a position and using it to commit thefts from the workhouse and abuse the workhouse’s occupants. I am sure that they will be able to tell me the true story of what you have been doing behind closed doors there. After all, there is no truer witness to crimes of any nature than the victims themselves. They have a tendency not to lie because they want justice served against criminals like you.’ Ronan stepped closer.

  Gorman hadn’t noticed yet, but it wouldn’t be too long before he realised that both Ronan and Joshua had him cornered, literally, in the farthest corner of the kitchen.

  ‘Then, when you found Wardle, and realised that he had no papers on him you could destroy, you turned your attention to Geranium because she was the last person to see Wardle alive and talk to him. You had no idea what the man told her and so she had to be silenced. First, you tried to get Lynchgate to retrieve the papers, but when he failed, he sealed his Fate, didn’t he?’ Joshua asked. ‘He had to die because the Star Elite are in the village. As soon as we arrived you knew that your scheme had come to an end and that you had to move on. You left the workhouse but couldn’t leave the village because you had to get rid of all the evidence against you so that Lynchgate took the blame. Unfortunately for you, the evidence has been scattered to the four winds and you struggled to find out what so many people had done with potential evidence against you, so you panicked because you have a lot to hide.’

  ‘Let me guess what happened next,’ Joshua drawled, tipping his head to study Gorman as if he was a piece of evidence. ‘You probably learnt from your sister, via the gossips or she might have seen us herself, that the Star Elite were in the village. She needed to find out who we were and so challenged Geranium in the churchyard and, spiteful as ever, scorned her in public and demanded that Geranium explain herself. It wasn’t because your sister was offended by anything Geranium had done. She challenged Geranium because she needed to find out who we were. When Geranium confirmed we were Star Elite, you decided that you had to rid yourself of Lynchgate. What better way to get rid of him than shooting him in the head in his office in the workhouse and making it look like he had killed himself as well.’

  ‘I doubt the man would kill himself. Like someone who knows him very well has recently said, the man was too arrogant to do something like take his own life,’ Ronan added. ‘He would have boldly tried to do what you are trying to do now.’

  ‘While you want to blame the Governor for everything, unfortunately for you, there is the minor problem of Lynchgate’s recent trip to Muldoon’s. He has been on the opposite side of the county for several weeks, and so wasn’t even in the workhouse to steal anything. Moreover, he struggled with finances and needed to get his hands on some money to help furnish his lavish lifestyle. He wasn’t even visiting the workhouse when the latest thefts took place. It had to be you, unless you have been so lapse in your running of the place that you have allowed the guards to steal money right from under your nose.’

  ‘Before you try to lie to us about that, I suggest you think very carefully about the fact that we have already arrested the guards. They are all on their way to gaol as we speak, as will your sister and her husband just as soon as the gaoler’s cart can be returned to the village. They will be able to tell us who has been running the place, and who they really work for. We have it on good authority from the other governors in the workhouse, whom Lynchgate insisted on bullying away from the offices and financial paperwork, that you refused to answer to anybody but Lynchgate. Ergo, if Lynchgate wasn’t around to steal the funds, you had to be the thief. You have, after all, been running the place for several months while Lynchgate has been at Muldoon’s.’

  Joshua nodded. ‘And you have a history of abusing people, and theft. Now, why would a thief like you want to run a workhouse, eh? Might it be that you knew that Lynchgate was greedy and desperately wanted to be able to take up a coveted position of Governor at the workhouse? Might it be that you used his need to lord it over the people and other Governors there to get a foot through the door? What did you promise him, eh? That you could use your network of thieves and criminals to help him take control? That you could steal the money for him and hide it?’

  ‘What did Wardle have that you want? Papers or money or both?’ Ronan asked.

  Gorman looked from Ronan to Joshua to Ronan again before looking at the door on the opposite side of the room. He seemed to realise then just how close Ronan and Joshua had managed to get to him. Straightening, Gorman stared at them and sighed. He shook his head, and huffed a laugh, as if completely disbelieving that his careful plans had been destroyed so simply by the Star Elite.

  ‘Well?’ Joshua prompted when Gorman didn’t speak.

  ‘Has your sister been helping you hide the cash? We are going to search her house,’ Ronan warned.

  ‘She has to have quite a lot of money but doesn’t appear to have any visible source of income. I do believe that neither her nor her husband work. Maybe they get their income from the proceeds of crime,’ Joshua suggested.

  ‘We will find out,’ Ronan said when a lengthy silence ensued.

  Both men were ready for the attack when it happened. What they weren’t prepared for was the ferocity of it now that Gorman was desperate. Gorman, being a tall, well built gentleman, wasted no time lashing out now that Ronan and Joshua were close enough. Fists appeared in both directions which were quickly followed by feet as Gorman kicked Joshua in the stomach. Within seconds of slamming bodily into Ronan, Gorman slammed a volley of punches into Ronan’s stomach that propelled Ronan backward. Leaning forward, Ronan slammed punches down onto Gorman’s back, but heard rather than felt the soft click of a knife being flicked open. He dodged sideways but not quickly enough to avoid the sharp stab of the knife as it scraped his side. Ronan swore, and grabbed the handle but not before the tip of the blade was slid into his side. Joshua jumped over the table and yanked Gorman’s hand away from Ronan and bent the hand behind his back and high so that Gorman was forced face down on the table. The cruel force of Joshua’s grip made Gorman loosen his hold on the knife. Once the weapon was thrown into the corner of the room with the paperwork, Joshua and Ronan worked to subdue Gorman.

  ‘Get some pressure on that,’ Joshua snapped to his friend and colleague. He stared down in horror at the red stain spreading outward on Ronan’s white shirt but was temporarily distracted by the need to restrain Gorman.

  ‘I’ll get the irons,’ Ronan grunted. Gritting his teeth, he stomped outside to the box where the Star Elite kept the chains that they used to secure their captives. Seconds later, both he and Joshua were snapping them onto Gorman’s wrists and bolting them into place.

  While Joshua informed Gorman of the long list of crimes he was being arrested for, Ronan saw to his wound, but given it was around his back it was difficult to see much.

  ‘Go and see Geranium. I will look after our new convict here.’

  ‘He has to go and wait with the others. We can keep an eye on them all,’ Ronan growled.

  Together, he and Joshua yanked Gorman upright and forced him out of the house. This time, they locked the door behind them and dragged their helpless convict to Geranium’s garden. It was reassuring to see Mr and Mrs Unwin were where they had been left, still tied together, still seated in the middle of the garden. It was clear from the dark look Mrs Unwin threw at her brother that she was livid with him. Gorman had no defence. He merely glared at his sister with equal malevolence as he was forced to his knees at the base of the stone steps leading to Geranium’s terrace.

  ‘Go and see if Geranium has something for that wound,’ Joshua ordered Ronan. ‘I’ll keep an eye on this lot until the others get back.’

  Before
Ronan could, Joshua tipped his head back and hooted like an owl three times. He paused and then hooted three more times. After doing this sequence three times, Joshua then fell quiet. With nothing else to do, Ronan went to see Geranium.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Geranium watched Ronan and Joshua drag Gorman into the garden. She had the door open by the time they shoved their convict to his knees. She was so amazed by the sight of the man who had tried to break into her house now heavily bound by a long length of chains that she almost forgot about the gun in her hand. It wasn’t until Ronan reached out to gently take it off her that she jerked and looked down at the warm metal.

  ‘What happened?’ she gasped when she saw the blood stain on his shirt. ‘Are you hurt? What did he do?’

  ‘It is just a flesh wound, that’s all,’ Ronan tried to assure her only to find himself being dragged into the house.

  ‘Come on in here. Sit down. Do you need a doctor?’ Geranium demanded as she tugged him into the kitchen.

  ‘Geranium.’

  ‘Let me get some water. It needs to be cleaned. Then we can look at it.’ But when Geranium did peek at it, her gaze immediately slid away again. Her stomach began to churn. To take her mind off her worry, she busied herself by filling a bowl full of warm water. When she turned to face Ronan, she found him still standing inside the door, staring at her in consternation. It was clear from the awkward way he tugged at his ear, and looked around nonplussed, that he wasn’t sure what to do.

  ‘Well? Come on. Sit down,’ Geranium urged sharply.

  When Ronan still didn’t move, she stalked across the kitchen and yanked him deeper into the room before shoving him down into a chair. She busied herself by fetching several pieces of clean cloth. Soaking half of them, she turned to face him only to gasp when she realised that he had stood up and was now leaning his hips against the kitchen table.