Charlotte met Vivian’s sad expression. “I’m sorry we didn’t have a second son to carry on your line. To be honest, Daniel and I greatly disliked each other even from the first. Then dislike turned to contempt and hate, but we were both stuck pretending.” She then focused on Xavier. “The reason why you rarely saw me, is that I was often unpresentable. I quickly became Daniel’s punching bag.”
Xavier scowled. “And yet you intended to go to his rescue tonight.”
“I wasn’t going to save him. I was just going to appease him, so he wouldn’t beat me to death as he swore he would do if I didn’t come. I thought I would be safe. I could not imagine these men wanting me. They would no doubt take one look and run off.”
“Not these men. They would have kept you, so I would dance to their whim.”
“I’m ashamed to admit, I had no idea you worked for our country.”
“Nor I,” Vivian added.
“It’s not a job I’m allowed to discuss with anyone.”
“Not even Victor?”
“Not normally. On occasion we have done a job together, and last winter Victor performed an excellent rescue, retrieving me from a certain death.”
“Who is Victor?”
“Victor is my partner,” he replied. “A very fine young man.” He then glared at Vivian, hoping she knew not to share Vic’s secret.
She smiled in return.
Finally, the carriage slowed and entered their carriage house. Xavier helped both ladies out and led them to the kitchen door.
Chapter 5
Certain something had gone wrong with Xavier’s plan, Vic yelled for Jacko.
“Who needs rescued now?” Jacko asked as he came downstairs.
“Are you all well?” Vic asked.
“I’m a pirate. I don’t break!”
“I’m glad to hear it, because I’m worried about Xavier. Do you know Vivian’s address?”
“Not a clue.”
“Gregory, do you know Vivian’s address?” Vic asked.
“No. Is it not on the forged document?” Her butler/parent asked.
“It should be!” Vic ran to the safe and opened it. Pulling out the Will and Testament, she discovered the address had yet to be filled in. She opened the other document and sighed in relief. It had her address listed. Vic quickly wrote it down and placed both documents back in the safe.
“Jacko, help me gather up the crew. I’ve got a bad feeling.”
Once her fabulous crew was collected, she headed to the carriage. When she opened the door to the carriage house, Xavier smiled at her. She had almost thrown her arms around him, until she saw two women, one she knew, but one she didn’t.
“Thank God you’ve returned! We were just about to go in search of you. I had this feeling something had gone wrong.”
Xavier frowned. “You are correct. We have a serious problem.” He studied the group of people standing behind Vic. “I need Jacko, Tubs, Casey and Victor. The rest of you stay here.”
“That’s rude!” Vic snapped.
“No, it’s just being practical.” Xavier replied.
“Did you at least bring back Vivian’s clothes?”
“No, I did not,” he snapped.
Vic knew he hated for his jobs to go wrong. “Don’t worry. Whatever has gone wrong, we’ll fix,” she promised him.
“It’s not fixable,” Xavier snapped. “We are simply returning to attempt to save whatever servants remain alive. Now, go upstairs and grab every gun you’ve got.”
Ten minutes later, their reduced but heavily armed, crew was in Vic’s larger carriage, barreling down the streets. While it took Davy nearly an hour to get home, Casey had them at Vivian’s house in a half hour.
Xavier peeked through a window to see how many servants still lived. To his surprise only the gardener appeared to have been shot, and only in the arm. However, Daniel appeared to be nearly insane with rage and fear. Recalling Vivian’s request that he not kill the fool, Xavier motioned for Jacko to come to him. Ducking under windows, Jacko quickly arrived.
“Think you can take him out in one?” Xavier asked.
Jacko’s eyes rounded in shock. “I can, but do you really want me to kill your father?”
Vic pushed herself between the two. “He’s not Xavier’s father. He’s just a horrible human.”
“Good enough for me,” Jacko said and returned to the window with the best angle. He then slowly eased the window up two inches.
A young woman burst into tears, and Daniel started waving his gun at her. Jacko couldn’t wait for the man to calm down, because that could take hours. But if he shot Daniel now, an innocent might be hurt.
Just then, Vic released the loudest sneeze he had ever heard in his life. Daniel rushed to the window Vic had sneezed at. Fortunately, Xavier and Vic had already dived to safety long before Daniel reached the window.
Jacko waited until there were no innocents in the line of fire, then shot him in the temple. Daniel fell to the floor, safely dead. Jacko placed his gun in his vest, pushed the window open and climbed through.
“Everyone is safe now.” Jacko declared to the screaming women and yelling men. He wondered why Vic and Xavier were taking so long to come in. He hated dealing with screaming innocents.
Upon hearing pounding on the door, he realized that the front door was locked, and the butler was still tied up. So, he opened the door and smiled at Vic. “Great sneeze!”
She smiled in return and ran to the butler. “We have your mistress at our house. She is fine. However, this house is not safe for the present. There are three Crime Lords who may show up here soon. I strongly recommend all the young ladies seek safe shelter before that happens. If you do not have families to go home to, you can come to my house. But under no circumstances can you stay here. If you do, these men will make you sex slaves.”
The butler, still tied up, became very angry. “There is no need to frighten the maids.”
“I’m just trying to save their lives. And any young men or boys, you need to go somewhere safe. Otherwise, they’ll make you a sex-slave as well. Trust me, I know.”
Finally, she began cutting the knots binding the butler. “I don’t know if you’re safe here or not. You’re too old to be a sex slave. However, these Crime Lords will be in a fowl temper when they arrive, and they might just shoot you because they need to vent some rage. So, if you have family, you should go visit.”
Tubs ran inside, causing half the girls to swoon and the other half to scream and cry.
“Oh, for God’s sake, stop howling. This is Tubs. He’s a good guy.” Vic patted his lower back. “I need to get Vivian some clean clothes.” Vic paused and stared at the frightened girls. “Which one of you is Vivian’s personal maid?”
No one answered. Vic studied all the women and girls, then pointed to a woman in her forties. “You. Come with me.”
With clear hesitation, the woman slowly followed Vic upstairs. Since she wasn’t being any help at all, Vic opened each door and sniffed. Finally, four doors down she located Vivian’s perfume.
Vic hurried inside and pulled out clothes appropriate for spring. She glanced at the woman standing at the door. “What’s your name?”
The woman made no reply.
“I’m going to call you Worthless. Seems a good name for you.”
“How dare you!”
“Yep, I do crazy stuff, like try to save ungrateful people. However, I really like Vivian, so I want her to have some proper clothes to wear. You, on the other hand, can go downstairs if you like, because I am not taking you home with me.”
Just then the wailing downstairs became louder. Worthless ran into the closet Vic had been collecting dresses from and slammed the door. “I named you well,” Vic bellowed at the now locked door. After a heavy sigh, she went to the chest of drawers and added undergarments to the trunk.
As she held up some fine lace, a familiar voice barked, “Put your hands up!”
Instead, she dropped the frilly ite
m into the trunk. “Barns, what are you doing here?”
Barns put away his gun. “A great many wealthy people who live on this street, evidently have phones. I have received calls claiming there were sex slaves here, that the owner was murdered by a pirate, and a giant pale monster was tearing the place apart. Only when I arrived, the first thing I discovered was Xavier staring at a corpse, crying.”
“Oh, God. He was crying?” Now her eyes grew watery as well.
“Did he shoot the man?”
“No. I sneezed, rather loudly, to distract him from Jacko, and he tried to shoot me. So Jacko shot him. I should mention before that happened, he had tied up all the staff and was holding them prisoners, and he’d shot one of them.”
Barns handed Vic his handkerchief. “You are making more sense than anyone downstairs, so keep talking.”
“The horrible cretin’s name is Daniel Thorn.”
“Xavier’s father?”
“Yes and no. Turns out he wasn’t his father, but Xavier just learned that today, so he has all these years in which he thought Daniel was his father, albeit a terrible one to come to terms with. And now he’s dead. However, we still may have a problem. Daniel owed a lot of money to three Crime Lords. I don’t know which three, but I believe Xavier knows.
“The cretin convinced his wife, Charlotte, to come here. Daniel hated his wife and she hated him, but she was going to come because if she didn’t she feared he would beat her to death. What she didn’t realize was that he intended to sell her to these three Crime Lords.”
Barns shook his head “Are you certain of your facts? Sex slaves, even pretty ones, don’t cost much. A common slave only goes for fifteen pounds these days.”
“We need to work on your ability to connect troubles. The woman is Xavier’s mother. What Crime Lord wouldn’t want to capture Xavier’s mother, so they could make Xavier dance to their tune?”
“Interesting theory, but if true, why would this not have occurred before now?”
“Because Xavier hasn’t spoken to his parents in over twenty years.”
“Ah. It all comes together,” Barns chuckled. “When do you expect the Crime Lords to show up?”
“The only one who knew the schedule, other than the Crime Lords, is dead.”
Suddenly the closet door burst open. Barns reacted at once and pulled his gun.
“Don’t shoot her. She’s worthless, not dangerous!” Vic warned.
“Then why did you lock her in the closet?” Barns asked.
“I didn’t. She locked herself in the closet.”
“Leave the house,” he barked at Worthless. A second later the woman was gone.
“You want to help me drag this trunk downstairs?” Vic asked.
“I am the Director of Scotland Yard. I do not carry trunks.”
Vic stormed into the hall and called for Tubs. Three seconds later, he was bounding up the steps. When he arrived, she pointed to the trunk, he picked it up and took it downstairs. “There is no one better than Tubs.”
“Back to my problem,” Barns growled. “Does your intuition have any thoughts about when the Crime Lords might show up? If I keep a full squad here and they don’t show, the ministers will be all over me.”
“I thought they loved you,” she teased.
“That lasted a week. So, what is your intuition saying about this case?” Barns asked.
Vic paused. “He called his wife over here. He didn’t tell her to bring luggage, so he expected it to happen tonight.” Vic walked to the window and pointed to the moon just barely visible on the horizon. “They should be coming soon, unless they see all the policemen—”
Barns flew down the stairs giving orders left and right. When she followed him at a slower pace, he ordered her to get her men and leave.
She thought that a bit rude, but climbed into a packed carriage, and that was even with Tubs missing. “Where’s Tubs?”
“Do you not check out the drivers before you enter a carriage?” Xavier scolded.
“It was dark,” she grumbled.
He replied with a smack across her head. “Always verify you have the proper driver.”
She contemplated yelling at him, but she couldn’t. First, he was right. And second because he had been inexplicably wounded by the death of Daniel.
Chapter 6
Early the next morning, a Scotland Yard officer gave Gregory a note for Victor.
Gregory took the liberty of reading the message, so he could determine if he needed to wake them, despite their few hours of sleep last night.
Vic-stop by today when you have a moment—Barns.
Satisfied it could wait, he put the maids to work early since he ran a lean staff and presently, the house was brimming with guests. There was David, Jacko and his four boys, Vivian, and Charlotte.
Fortunately, the only one who woke up early was David, and he was satisfied with day-old scones which he took back to his room. The remainder of the guests did not wake until noon. At ten o’clock Xavier and Vic came down for breakfast. The cook provided the choice of oatmeal, bacon, and eggs.
Xavier chose oatmeal. Vic asked for all three.
Once they had consumed their meals, Gregory handed the Director’s note to Vic. Only Xavier snatched it from her hand before she had a chance to read it.
Gregory wasted no time scolding Xavier. “The note was addressed to Victor. Had it been addressed to you, I would have given it to you.”
Xavier ignored his scold and read the note. “Bloody Hell, he doesn’t say what he wants!”
Vic snatched the note from him, read it, then laughed. “He’s become very polite now.”
“Mark my word. The reason why he didn’t state ‘why’ we should stop by, is because we aren’t going to like it. He no doubt plans to arrest me,” Xavier warned.
“First of all, he only asked me to come see him. And secondly, I was planning to visit him anyway to discuss a few matters.”
“What are you up to now, Victor?” Xavier demanded.
“Nothing serious. First, I want to find out if he managed to arrest the Crime Lords for an actual crime. I realized last night, that arresting them just for showing up at the house might not impress a judge.”
Xavier laughed. “I can’t argue with your conclusion. And your second reason?”
“I want to teach his men why forgeries are a serious crime, and how they should go about shutting forgers down.”
“Do you even know how to do that?”
“I have some suggestions. However, I would greatly appreciate your assistance if you wished to come with me.”
Xavier glared up at the ceiling as he muttered, “God help us all! Exactly, where did you go and what did you learn yesterday?”
We went to Mr. Granger’s place of business, which happens to be in the same building as Mr. Ascot’s office, only Granger’s business is on the ground floor. So, in the future we can easily check up on Granger and encourage him to stay on the straight and narrow.”
“What precisely did you learn yesterday?” Xavier demanded.
“Well, I learned the code they use to warn others of trouble coming. They run electrical wiring which can transmit a sound or light signal from the watcher’s post beneath floorboards to the rooms that engage in illegal activity. In the situation I saw, it was sound, but David says he could create one with a bulb that goes on and off as well.
“According to Tubs, in these rooms, they will have a vault hiding behind a hidden door where they will quickly hide their forgeries before anyone arrives.”
“And how exactly will that help you.” Xavier asked.
“Well, the wiring, even when wrapped, sends out a signal that can be traced, even under floorboards. We can either disconnect it, or if they have already sent the alarm, we can send the never mind code.”
“And what if they change their codes now that you’ve threatened them?” Xavier challenged her.
“Well, assuming the police are dressed in street clothes, they can mul
l about with the customers, drop something and check to see if there is a button beneath the desk. If there is, with a simple device that David has made, they can follow the signal back to the forger’s office. However, I will advise them to take the person sitting at the desk with the warning button, and let him know, he’ll be going in first. In our recent effort, that caused the young man to tell us the truth.”
Xavier chuckled. “You actually do have something to teach them.”
“Well, I hope to have more. I want Granger to talk to the officers.”
“Why would he tell them anything?”
“Because he’s out of the business.”
“I assure you, he cannot possibly be out of the business. Cheating is rather like an addiction.”
“Tubs disagrees. While he doesn’t believe the other two men will reform, he believes Granger will.”
Xavier threw up his hands. “Tubs knows him better than I do. However, given it would probably get him killed, Granger will not share all his knowledge.”
Vic scowled. “But I thought forgers never killed people.”
Xavier rubbed his temples as if Vic had given him a headache. “They wouldn’t personally shoot Granger. However, if he sends the police after them, they will hire someone to retaliate.”
“What if Granger taught me the forgery trade?”
“I doubt he would agree to that.”
“He seems to like me,” Vic protested.
“Which is exactly why he would not teach you. Then the other two men would put a target on you. And if for a moment they believed Granger taught you anything about their trade, they’d send an assassin after him as well.”
Vic growled and left the room. She hurried up to see if David knew more about forgeries than she had already learned. When she entered, David had turned half his room into a classroom and all the boys were drawing on paper, while Arroo chewed on a bone.
Little Danny was in his crib. David lifted his son up and asked the boys to continue working while he stepped out to talk to Vic.
A Despicable Crime Page 6
