A Bloody Hot Summer

by Trevor D'Silva

  “How did you know that the statue had to be pushed?” asked Flora.

  “Because of the way the mechanism behind it is positioned. I suspected the statue covered the entrance to the tunnel because a part of the wall behind the statue looked ancient and the rest looked like it had been renovated in the previous century. I noticed that difference when I first came into the library,” said Dermot pointing to the spot where the difference was noticeable.

  “How did you discover this tunnel, Miss Carter?” asked Lilian.

  Miss Carter smiled. “When I first started working here, I was in the attic looking for books for the library and I found the diary of Lord Cecil Fitzhugh in a trunk. He wrote about the hidden tunnel and I knew it would be useful one day.”

  “What made me suspect Richard was a broken piece of glass that I found in the tunnel behind the statue,” said Dermot. “I questioned Richard about the torch and he told me that he had put it in Hector’s saddle bag and that it had probably fallen out when Hector had his accident. I went to the accident site and found the torch under a bush, the glass piece from the tunnel was part of the torch’s lens.”

  Dermot produced the torch from his briefcase, pulled out a handkerchief from his coat pocket and unwrapped it to reveal a piece of glass. He placed the glass piece into the gap in the lens and it fitted perfectly.

  “So if the torch was found where Hector fell, how could a piece of the lens then be inside the tunnel?” Dermot asked. “That led me to think of what happened after Richard cut the strap. He came running through the tunnel and that’s why he was drenched with sweat, which Pippa noticed when he came out of the library. Due to the dampness in the tunnel, a little mud clung to his shoes and Alice found the mud on the floor when she was cleaning the library. She had also seen mud in the library the night after her Ladyship was murdered.

  “Richard accidently dropped the torch when he was coming out of the tunnel and into the library, since the entrance is very low. Pippa heard the sound while she was knocking on the door and asked him what was wrong. Richard picked up the torch, hurriedly closed the tunnel by pushing the statue into place, and broke one of the teacups. That was the second sound that Pippa heard. Richard then moved the hands on the clock to four-thirty p.m. and Pippa heard the clock chime from outside the door. This was the same chime that Abigail heard while airing clothes in the laundry yard.

  “In his haste, Richard didn’t realise that a piece of the torch’s lens was in the tunnel, but discovered it only after he had closed the tunnel. He had to get rid of the torch, so he put it in his pocket and told Pippa that they could explore the caves near the stream. While in the stables, Richard placed the torch in Hector’s saddle knowing that it would come off when Hector fell.”

  “Detective, how did they communicate? Miss Carter disliked Richard and would always reprimand him for not keeping the books in place,” said Flora.

  “That’s true, but the library books were the link to their communication. They first communicated through letters, which stopped after Richard was introduced to the family. Then, Miss Carter and Richard had to pretend that they had never met before. When I questioned Hector after his accident, he mentioned that on the night Richard first came to the manor he saw Richard in the library putting a note in one of the books. He thought it was a love note for Pippa, but it was a note informing Miss Carter about overhearing Irene telling Charles about being added to the will and why.

  “Later, I discovered that when Richard visited the manor, he would frequently head to the library and pick a book that he then pretended to read. Whenever Richard or Miss Carter wanted to communicate with each other, to pass on information or instructions, one of them would put a note in a book and then tell the other that the book was out of place.”

  “Fascinating! But how did Miss Carter know that Hector was not taking his tonic?” asked Cora.

  “I suspect that she saw the stain in Hector’s bathroom sink, like I did. She then suggested that Hector go horse riding with Pippa and Richard. Once she knew Hector had your permission, she wrote her instructions and put them in Moby Dick and told Richard that Moby Dick was out of place.”

  “Who killed that hospital worker?” asked Flora. “Surely, you cannot blame Richard or Miss Carter.”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact, I can. Unfortunately, Miss Carter answered the phone when Sister Fleming called here to tell me that she had found the staff picture with Ethel and David Northam in it. Miss Carter recognised the voice and the name of her former co-worker. Sister Fleming disclosed to her the reason that she was calling. When I took the call, Miss Carter pretended to go down the staircase to the kitchen, but instead she stood behind the door and listened to me telling Sister Fleming where I would meet her.

  “After I left to go to London, Miss Carter called Richard at his London flat. He then went to where I was meeting Sister Fleming and forcibly took her handbag containing the picture. Richard then pushed her in front of an oncoming car. I checked with the Meadowford telephone exchange and the telephone operator remembers that a call was placed to London around the time I headed to London; that confirmed my suspicions.”

  “I was painting Felicity on that day. She’ll vouch for me,” said Richard.

  “We have already questioned Felicity and she said that you left after receiving the call. You told her that you had to run an errand and went away. When you returned, you were breathless and very brusque. You went into your room, then came back a while later and continued painting her.”

  “No, Felicity wouldn’t lie,” said Richard.

  “No, she wouldn’t… but she was upset with you. She tearfully told me that she overheard you comparing her to a common tart when she came back to get her purse. She was slighted by your comment and waited near the lift. I almost bumped into her after I left your flat and there was something bizarre about her manner, and now I know why. She was also annoyed with you for getting engaged to Pippa.”

  “Richard, you’re a fiend. My sisters-in-law were right about you,” said Cora with anger.

  Richard looked defeated and hung his head in shame.

  “You’re forgetting that I was housekeeper to Mrs. Evans in Cumbria from 1902 to 1922 and not a hospital worker,” asserted Miss Carter arrogantly.

  “No, you were not,” replied Dermot. “When I knew you made up the story of a man killing Abigail, I suspected that you were not honest about everything. Gerard Argyle told me that his grandmother subscribed to the London Times from 1916 to 1922. You joined here in September of 1922. In June, 1922, Lady Fitzhugh placed an advertisement for the position of a housekeeper at Fitzhugh Manor and that was exactly the opportunity you were waiting for. The advertisement asked not only for a housekeeper, but someone who would also be a companion to three older women. The reference letter was probably written by you or Lady Argyle.

  “The expertise of Miss Cartwright from the London Library helped me. She discovered in the obituary column of the London Times in May, 1922, that a Mrs. Mable Evans had died of cancer in Silescroft village in Cumbria. Her housekeeper and companion was Miss Esmey Carter, who died a few days later in a gas leak from an apparent suicide because she was distraught over the death of her mistress. I went to Silescroft and verified everything, including the dates of employment of Miss Carter with Mrs. Evans’ niece, Molly Stanwick, who has just returned from the Far East.

  “In England, birth and death documents are public record. So, you went to the General Register Office for information on Esmey Carter and you found that she was the same age as you, unmarried, and had no relatives. It was convenient for you to exploit their deaths because they were from an obscure village.”

  Everyone looked at Miss Carter in disbelief and couldn’t understand how this seemingly respectable older woman could be capabl
e of such subterfuge.

  Dermot turned to Richard, wagging a finger at him. “I suspect that you took the name of Ruiseart Seymour, the butler of Lady Argyle who was injured in the Somme. You thought it was convenient to use his name and also his war record for your new identity as Richard Seymour. Like Esmey Carter, Ruiseart lived in an obscure village where nobody outside knew him. He died in 1922 at Argyle Castle, supposedly of the effects of being gassed in the Somme but I suspect that he was poisoned by either you or Miss Carter. His death was never reported to the Office of the Paymaster General and so they have been sending you his cheques. Ruiseart Seymour’s body was exhumed yesterday and his remains are being tested for arsenic poisoning.

  “Miss Cartwright, from the London Library, also checked that Ruiseart is the Gaelic version of Richard. Just as Constable Andrew Barnaby told me that his name is actually Aindrea, which in Gaelic means Andrew… am I right?”

  Constable Barnaby nodded.

  Dermot signalled to Constable Clarke. He went out and brought Pippa and Francis into the room with him.

  “Pippa, you’re free!” said Cora. “Who’s this man with you?”

  “This is Francis, the owner of the theatre company where I work as an actress.”

  The two older sisters gasped in disbelief.

  Pippa looked at Richard, tears in her eyes. “Is it true that you’re not Richard Seymour? That you’re only interested in marrying me for my inheritance and that you were also cheating on me with your model, Felicity?”

  Richard suddenly stood up, drew a gun and aimed it at the crowd. “Very smart of you, Detective, but I’ve had enough. Constable, put your hands up and move away from the door.”

  Constable Clarke complied and Richard began walking towards the door. Frida held her walking stick out, tripping him. The gun discharged as it fell from his hand, making the women scream. The bullet lodged into the wall above Cora’s head. As Richard grabbed the gun, Charles lunged at him trying to wrestle the gun away. Lilian took the walking stick and hit Richard on his head and he released his grip on the gun.

  “I always knew you were a scoundrel. My sisters and I were right about you.”

  Constable Barnaby took the gun away and aimed it at Richard. Charles made him stand up, while Constable Clarke handcuffed him. Then he was made to sit back down on his chair.

  Chapter 26: The Final Act

  As the people in the library settled down, the sky darkened and they heard a roll of thunder.

  “Looks like Constable Blackwood was right when he said that a storm was approaching. Will somebody please turn on the lights?” said Dermot.

  After the lights were switched on, Lilian turned to Dermot. “Detective, in what way have we harmed them for them to hate us so much that they want to kill us? These people are total strangers.”

  “Nothing. Your only crime was being related to Lord Fitzhugh. It’s all about revenge, and he was responsible for this whole mess.”

  “But Father died many years before Miss Carter and Richard Seymour came here,” said Flora.

  “He didn’t know them either, but they were related to his business partner, Christiaan De Villiers.” Dermot put his hand into his breast pocket and removed a few telegrams. “These telegrams were sent to me by Mr. Griffin, a contact of my father in South Africa. His investigation revealed that a marriage had taken place between Peter De Villiers and Hermine Naude on the tenth of June, 1901, at the Dutch Reformed Church, close to where the family lived in Kimberley.

  “Miss Carter, or Rowena Naude, was the bride’s mother. Her husband, Johan Naude, died before the Boer War, but her son, David, survived the war and there’s no record of him being married. A death certificate for Peter De Villiers was issued by the Boer Army but, Richard, you’re really Peter De Villiers and Nancy is your daughter, am I right?”

  Richard sat silently and refused to speak.

  “Oh, what’s the point of being silent when he already knows the facts? Yes, you’re right, Detective,” said Miss Carter in anger.

  “Major Havelock, who was in Lord Fitzhugh’s regiment during the Boer War, harboured a dreadful secret. He helped Lord Fitzhugh eliminate his business partner so that he could become the sole owner of the mine.”

  “Impossible… you must be raving mad,” said Flora. “Father had his faults, but he wasn’t a murderer.”

  “I’m sorry, but he did, and we have the sworn testimony of Major Havelock. He told me a few days ago that he rejoined his unit after convalescing in a British hospital in Pretoria on the tenth of September, 1901, but Slattery had written in his memoir that it was on the fifth of September.

  “Mr. Griffin met Pastor Jan Louw of the Dutch Reformed Church where the family attended services. The pastor said that on the night of the seventh of September, 1901, a native servant of the De Villiers family came to the church and, before succumbing to his bullet wounds, he told Pastor Louw that the De Villiers family had been arrested and their property had been destroyed by Lord Fitzhugh. Incidentally, that was the same date that Slattery had mentioned that Lord Fitzhugh, Major Havelock – who was at that time a private – and a few men from the unit went hunting. Major Havelock confirmed that the hunting expedition was actually to the De Villiers’ farm in Kimberley.”

  “Why would he have done such a thing?” asked Lilian.

  “Because the mine produced hardly any diamonds; however, in 1901, Christiaan had discovered a huge deposit of diamonds, which was confirmed by a geologist from the Parr & Monroe Geology Company in Kimberley. Christiaan had trusted Lord Fitzhugh implicitly and sent him a letter – dated the twenty-fifth of August, 1901 – about the discovery. After reading the letter, Lord Fitzhugh decided to get rid of the De Villiers family so that he could get sole ownership of the mine.

  “When Havelock returned from Pretoria after his recovery, Lord Fitzhugh promised to help him advance his career in the British Army if he helped to get rid of Christiaan and his family. So they arrested the family and sent them to the Kimberley Concentration Camp because the mortality rate there was high. Rowena Naude, who was staying with the De Villiers family, was also incarcerated, but she survived. She sits before us now as Miss Carter.”

  They all looked at Miss Carter whose face was ashen, but then she started talking in a very low voice that was filled with emotion. She explained how Lord Fitzhugh came with a few soldiers and arrested them. Christiaan had pleaded for his family to be spared and reminded Lord Fitzhugh of his promise to protect them. Lord Fitzhugh laughed however and asked Christiaan about the diamonds, but he had already sent them to his sister in Scotland. The whole family was sent to the Kimberley Concentration Camp, while the servants were either killed or driven away. The house and the farm were destroyed.

  In the camp, conditions were squalid and food was in extremely short supply. Christiaan and his wife died of starvation after giving their rations to Hermine who was pregnant at the time. Three days after giving birth in the camp, Hermine succumbed to septicaemia, but the baby survived. Peter found Rowena and his infant daughter at Pastor Louw’s church after the end of the war and they decided to exact revenge on Lord Fitzhugh.

  They first planned to kill Lord Fitzhugh at the mine. Peter signed up as a worker when the newspaper advertised for miners. On the day of the inauguration, he rigged some of the dynamite used to blast the rocks. He lit the fuse as Lord Fitzhugh and a group of British dignitaries approached the mine. However, it exploded too early and nobody was killed. After Lord Fitzhugh was cleared of insurance fraud and returned to England, Peter and Rowena decided to change their names to Ethel and David Northam and come to England to kill Lord Fitzhugh.

  Peter and Rowena knew that Lord Fitzhugh visited St. Cuthbert’s Hospital for treatment of his gall bladder problems,
because he had once told Christiaan that Meadowford did not have a good hospital. They got employment at St Cuthbert’s Hospital under their new identities, but Rowena couldn’t doctor his medication because it would be traced to the dispensary where she worked. One day, Rowena pointed Lord Fitzhugh out to Peter. Peter followed him onto the street to kill him, but lost him in the crowd. Rowena chided him and cautioned him to be patient. Their chance for vengeance, she assured him, would eventually come. When Lord Fitzhugh came in for his surgery, they had their opportunity to take their revenge. Since Hermine had died of septicaemia, they decided to use the pus from the patient in the next room to infect bandages so that Lord Fitzhugh died of septicaemia too.

  “So Father was also murdered by these people?” asked Lilian, stunned.

  “Yes, and that’s what Sister Fleming realised when she showed the staff photo to Dr. Butterworth and they were talking about Dr. Steward, who was Lord Fitzhugh’s doctor. Thank heavens she told her suspicions to Eunice, her assistant, before she was killed by Richard. We’ll have to now reclassify Lord Fitzhugh’s death as murder.”

  “Detective, there’s something I don’t understand. You said that one of the murderers was part of the family. Miss Carter is our housekeeper and Richard is only engaged to Pippa,” said Lilian.

  Dermot looked at Miss Carter. “Oh, yes, there’s just one more thing I need clarified, Miss Carter. Are you the daughter of Theo Fitzhugh?”

  She looked at him dumbfounded. “How… how did you know?”

  Dermot told her that two things got him suspicious. The first was when the two elderly sisters told him that when Miss Carter was interviewed for the job they felt that they had met her before. That was one of the reasons why she was hired. Another was when he questioned Miss Carter about the missing necklace after Abigail’s murder and she looked directly at him saying that the necklace would never adorn the neck of another beautiful lady. Dermot had thought that she meant Lady Fitzhugh’s neck, but only later realised that she’d actually been looking at the painting of Theo Fitzhugh and his family, which was behind him, and was talking about her mother, Rosalyn Fitzhugh. She was reminiscing about being a young girl and seeing her mother wearing the same emerald necklace. Irene had also mentioned that Miss Carter had shown unusual interest in the necklace when Lady Fitzhugh had first shown it to them.