Janet Woods

by I'll Get By

  Back at the window, he gazed at her through the net curtains. As if she could sense his presence, she gazed up at the house, her glance suspicious, and moving from window to window. He kept very still when her eyes seemed to gaze into his, but she couldn’t see him in the shadows.

  Then she shrugged and the pair linked arms and hurried off again.

  He went back to her bedroom and dropped her nightgown to the floor again, leaving the door open when he left. He wanted her to know he’d been there – watching her. It would teach her to be more cautious of strangers.

  The man couldn’t find much else worth taking. There were no collections of knick-knacks, silver or household goods. The couple lived with the basics, as though they were temporary tenants rather than permanent homemakers.

  There was a ring in a trinket bowl on the bedside table in the second bedroom, which obviously belonged to the girl. It had garnets in it. They weren’t worth much, but the setting was gold.

  A folded newspaper was on the bed, cryptic crossword face up. She was young to have mastered the cryptic. One clue was left unsolved. ‘Lively movement noted in the pit,’ he murmured. The s and h were filled in. He smiled, and unable to resist he picked up the pencil and supplied the rest, coming up with the answer. Scherzo.

  When he went downstairs the street was empty, except for a man and woman walking away from him. Pulling his hat down to shade his eyes he left via the front door. The key was dropped into the pot plant and he smoothed the earth over it when he pretended to do up his shoelace. The visit would have hardly been worth the risk in monetary terms, but it was the thrill of possible discovery and the touch of danger by being so close to his victim that he’d enjoyed. He certainly didn’t need the money.

  But now it was time to go and lunch with his uncle at their club. No doubt the old boy would be tedious and would want to discuss politics, and his future. He’d have a heart attack if he knew.

  Esmé wore a thoughtful air on the way to the bus stop.

  ‘Is something bothering you, Aunt Es?’

  ‘Yes, actually . . . you might put it down to my imagination, but I think we have a ghost in the house.’

  Meggie grinned widely, ‘How exciting; what did it look like?’

  ‘I didn’t see it, but I had this weird feeling that I was being watched when I went in. And I heard a creaking sound, as though someone was treading on a loose floorboard.’

  ‘Does a ghost weigh enough to make creaking sounds?’

  ‘Trust you to come up with a question like that. I’ve never weighed one. All I know is the hairs on my neck and arms prickled. And I was sure I’d left my purse on the dressing table, but I found it on the bed.’

  ‘Have you checked the contents?’

  ‘That’s a thought.’ Esmé opened it and gave a quick look. ‘There’s still some money in it, though I thought I had two or three pounds more.’

  ‘Perhaps Leo borrowed it.’

  ‘Yes, that must be it, though usually he tells me. I’ll have to go to the bank before we shop.’ Esmé shrugged. ‘I could have sworn my nightgown had been moved, too.’

  ‘Now you’re spooking me . . . if I see your nightgown floating around the house by itself I’m going to run a mile.’

  Esmé grinned, looking slightly shamefaced. ‘So will I.’

  Meggie spent a wonderful day with her aunt. She had her hair trimmed and fashioned into a style with easy, shoulder length curls. They had lunch in Lyons Café, and then went shopping at Selfridges.

  At the cosmetic counter Esmé advised. ‘Buy the Ponds cold cream and vanishing cream. It’s inexpensive, but a good product, and it smells nice.’ She added a powder compact, a pink lipstick and a bottle of flowery smelling cologne.’

  In the clothes department, Meggie fell in love with a blue checked dress with a velvet collar and cuffs, but couldn’t afford it. With a sigh, she hung the dress back on the rack.

  Her aunt bought her a serviceable grey suit with a slightly flared skirt, and two blouses, one white with a lace yoke and one in pale pink dotted with ruby coloured rosebuds, murmuring, ‘You can wear anything with this suit. Go and change back into your other clothes while I pay for this, then we’ll go and find some shoes.’

  There were dark grey shoes with heels and a matching handbag. A small brimmed hat trimmed with a pink silk rose and net completed the purchases.

  They forgot Esmé’s ghost until they arrived home, just as it was getting dark.

  ‘Whoooooo . . . watch out for the ghost,’ she said as her aunt inserted the key in the lock.

  ‘Dry up, Meggie Moo else I’ll make you go in first in case something’s waiting there to eat us,’ she warned.

  The house was cold. They stood in the eerie dimness of the hall hugging their bags and looking at one another in the gloom, ears strained to collect every alien sound. Meggie gave a nervous giggle. ‘We’re being stupid. Come on let’s summon up some courage. We’ll take everything upstairs and then we’ll light the fire in the sitting room and have a cup of tea.’

  Meggie unpacked her new clothes, smiling over the blue-checked dress that her aunt had slipped into their purchases. She was arranging her beauty products on the dressing table when she noticed that her garnet ring was missing.

  She looked everywhere, and then went downstairs. ‘Remember that garnet ring you gave me? I can’t seem to find it. I’m sure I left it in the trinket bowl, and I’ve looked everywhere else.’

  ‘Perhaps you put it in my jewellery case. Remember, how you used to keep it in that secret compartment before I left home. Go and have a look there.’

  She did as she was told, and then went back downstairs, feeling scared. Her aunt was in the kitchen making the tea. ‘You know you said you thought you felt a ghost in here?’

  Esmé nodded, then laughed. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve seen one.’

  ‘Your jewellery box is empty.’

  Her aunt gazed at her, eyes wide. ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘There’s nothing wrong with my eyesight, and I know what empty looks like.’ She lowered her voice. ‘And someone finished my crossword.’

  ‘Finished your crossword? Oh, come on, Meggie, if you’re trying to scare me, you’re succeeding.’

  ‘No . . . really. There was one clue left that I hadn’t got. It’s been written in, but the slope of the handwriting is opposite to mine, as though the person was left-handed.’

  ‘So now we have a left-handed ghost that does crosswords. That’s a bit too far-fetched.’

  ‘Not a ghost but a burglar. I’m suggesting that someone has been in the house while we were absent. Doing cryptic crosswords is addictive. An unsolved clue would have been almost irresistible to anyone who enjoys doing them.’

  Her aunt took a rolling pin from the drawer. ‘We’d better have a look around the house before it gets totally dark. We’ll switch all the lights on.’

  When Meggie picked up the carving knife her sister said, ‘Put that back in the drawer. It could kill somebody.’

  ‘So could the rolling pin.’

  ‘Not if I hit him on the knee or calf. Besides, you don’t like blood, and that thing will have us wallowing in it. Bring the wooden spoon instead, you can use that in self-defence if you have to, but avoid hitting anyone on the head.’ She didn’t mince words. ‘Crack him one in the groin instead, men are vulnerable there.’

  ‘The giggle Meggie gave was from nerves rather than anything else. I imagine he’ll be gone by now, but can’t we wait for Leo to come home?’

  ‘That’s not for two hours. Come on, Meggie, be brave. I’m pretty sure you’re right and he’s gone. But we have to make sure.’

  Fully armed they headed out. The first thing they noticed was that the bolt on the door leading to the stairs down to the basement was unlocked. Her aunt shot the bolt across. ‘That’s always kept locked, but I’m not going down there to check on the door to the street in the dark. It’s full of creepy-crawlies.’

  They crept cautiously from roo
m to room, switching on lights. The house proved to be empty of strangers.

  ‘Should we call the police?’

  ‘Not until Leo arrives home and we’ve listed everything that’s been stolen; I think his gold cufflinks are gone.’

  ‘What about that policeman . . . Blessing? Perhaps I could telephone him.’

  ‘Later. We’ll let Leo handle it. Men take more notice of men. Let’s drink our tea then we’ll start on the vegetables.’

  They were sipping their tea when her aunt placed her cup into the saucer, buried her face in her hands and began to cry.

  Meggie went to where she sat and slid an arm round her shoulder. ‘Don’t let this upset you, Aunt Es.’ She placed a hand over her aunt’s. ‘At least you were wearing your wedding and engagement rings, so he didn’t get those. And I was wearing my silver locket.’

  ‘We had such a lovely day together, and now this. It’s horrid to think that a complete stranger has violated my home and rifled through my things. Everything in the drawers was in disarray. I feel so . . . grubby.’

  ‘He’s the grubby one, not you,’ Meggie said fiercely. ‘I wonder how he got in.’

  ‘The basement, I expect.’

  ‘He couldn’t have done. It was bolted from the inside. And you keep the door to the street bolted, too.’

  They gazed at each other and Esmé said almost inaudibly, ‘He must have found the key in the pot plant.’

  The sound of a key scraping in the lock made them both jump. Exchanging a look they picked up their weapons and headed for the hall at a run.

  ‘Leo, thank God it’s you.’

  ‘Yes . . . I managed to get off early.’ His vivid blue eyes sharpened when they took in Esmé’s face. His smile faded and he gazed at the rolling pin. ‘You look as though you’re about to flatten a cockroach. What’s happened, my lovely girl?’

  ‘We’ve been burgled. My jewellery box . . . money . . . your gold cuff links.’

  ‘I wondered why the house was lit up like a Christmas tree. I thought you’d turned them on to guide me home.’

  When her aunt gave a bit of a sniffle Leo drew her close. ‘All right, Es, tell me about it.’

  ‘I think he was in the house before we caught the bus . . . I’d forgotten my purse you see, and we came back. I’m sure I left it on the dressing table but it was on the bed when we came back. I thought some money was missing, but I wasn’t certain. I could sense his presence too, and one of those shivery feelings . . . as though someone was watching me. I picked my nightgown up and put it back on the bed, and I closed the bedroom door when I left that second time. I rattled the handle to make sure it had latched. When we came back from shopping the nightgown was on the floor again, and the door had been opened and left open. It was as if he’d wanted to make sure I knew he’d been there. He could have been hidden under the bed or in the wardrobe that first time.’

  Leo’s other arm came protectively round her when she shuddered. He pressed a kiss against her forehead, as if she was the most precious thing in the world to him. Meggie hoped that one day a man would love her as much as Leo loved Esmé.

  Leo’s gaze wandered her way, and he held out his arm and drew her into the circle. ‘How are you holding up, love . . . scared?’

  ‘Not any more, but I’m angry. The rotter stole the garnet ring Aunt Es gave me. I feel a bit safer now you’re home. Aunt Es thought it was a ghost at first,’ Meggie said with a shudder. ‘We were laughing about it all day . . . until we arrived home. We were just about to check and see if the spare key was still in the pot plant, in case he comes back.’

  ‘That was an invitation to come inside if ever I saw one. I’ll telephone a locksmith and have some new locks fitted to the front and back doors. They might have time to do it now.’

  They promised to come the next morning.

  By six o’clock the basement had been checked, the house secured and the spare key plucked from the pot. A list was made of the missing goods and the police informed.

  A thin man verging on middle age and answering to the title of Constable Duffy arrived. He accepted a cup of tea and a couple of ginger biscuits to go with it.

  ‘There have been a few burglaries recently. Another house further up the road was robbed a couple of days ago, not long after the fog rolled in. Luckily there was a police sergeant at hand. He said somebody had reported seeing a man loitering. He checked the house for the owner while she waited on the pavement. The robber got away with a large amount of money. The police officer wasn’t one of our chaps.’

  ‘His name wasn’t Sergeant Benjamin Blessing, by any chance, was it?’ Esmé asked.

  The constable offered her a sharp look. ‘That sounds familiar. Do you know him then?’

  ‘I’ve met him . . . on the same day you mentioned.’

  Meggie chimed in. ‘He helped me find my way here that same afternoon in the fog. He told me he worked at the station round the corner.’

  ‘There’s nobody by that name working in our patch.’ The man took out his notebook and licked the end of his pencil. ‘Do you have a description of this man? Miss Elliot . . . Mrs Thornton?’

  Meggie went first. ‘He was about six feet tall. His helmet was too big, it shaded his face.’

  ‘He was polite and his voice was quite . . . cultured, I suppose,’ Esmé offered.

  ‘And he did cryptic crosswords.’

  Meggie was the recipient of a surprised look. She shrugged. ‘He completed the one in my bedroom.’

  The man wrote it down. ‘Anything else?’

  Meggie stole a glance at his sensible black boots and remembered. ‘Sergeant Blessing wore brown shoes with his uniform . . . brogues, I think. I thought it odd.’

  ‘Why did you think it odd?’

  ‘Perhaps I should have said a coincidence more than odd. My stepfather has a pair just like it.’ She hesitated, and then said. ‘No . . . I did mean odd. Daddy paid nearly eleven pounds for his, and grumbled about the price all the way home. I thought a policeman might not earn enough to be able to afford a pair of expensive shoes. I know that sounds snobbish, and he might be a well-off policeman for all I know about him. I suppose there are some.’

  ‘That might be true, but I’ve never come across one. Besides, he should have been wearing regulation uniform.’

  ‘Perhaps he won the money to buy the shoes with a bet on a horse.’

  The constable licked his pencil again and gazed at her, his expression bland. ‘Do you have a description of the winning horse, miss?’

  Uncertain, she gazed at her aunt who was in the process of exchanging a smile with Leo. She giggled. ‘I think you’re all perfectly horrid, including you, Constable Duffy.’

  ‘I’m sorry but I couldn’t resist it, young lady.’

  ‘Oh, I forgot. I think the burglar was left-handed. His writing sloped as if he was.’

  Constable Duffy wrote it down and closed his notebook. ‘Actually, you’ve been most helpful, and observant. You’d make a good detective, were you a man.’

  The lightning bolt Meggie sent his way bounced off him.

  ‘At least we have a definite suspect now. It’s possible your Sergeant Blessing is impersonating a police officer.’

  ‘You mean he might be the crook?’ Though he’d denied he was Jack the Ripper. ‘He’s coming to morning tea on Friday. You can come and meet him if you like.’

  The constable smiled. ‘If he keeps the appointment telephone me.’ Finishing his tea, he stood, and picked up his helmet. Unless your goods happen to turn up, which is highly unlikely, you won’t hear from me again. Thank you for your hospitality, Doctor and Mrs Thornton. Miss Elliot. I never say no to a cup of tea.’

  After he’d gone Leo gazed at his watch. ‘Get your coats and lipstick on ladies. As I’m not on call tonight I’m taking you both out to dine at a restaurant.’

  ‘What if the burglar comes back?’

  ‘He’s already taken anything that’s worth having, so he might as well have the res
t of it?’

  ‘Don’t think this will let you off when it’s your turn to cook the dinner,’ Esmé told him as they scrambled off up the stairs.

  Leo gave a martyred sigh. ‘As if I’d be so devious.’

  ‘As you once told me, there’s a first time for everything.’

  ‘So I did, Mrs Thornton, so I did. I remember the occasion clearly.’ He winked at her and consulted his watch, grinning when colour touched her cheeks. ‘You have exactly ten minutes.’

  Three

  Sergeant Blessing failed to turn up for morning tea.

  Meggie felt guilty for encouraging him into the house, and said so to Leo.

  ‘You couldn’t help getting lost in the fog, my angel. He certainly had his eye on the main chance. Two houses within sight of each other . . . I could almost admire him for his nerve.’

  ‘Do you think Aunt Es will be all right? She was really shaken up.’

  ‘She’ll be fine now the locks have been changed. My Es is made of strong stuff.’

  Meggie slid him a look. ‘You really love her, don’t you?’

  ‘I’d walk a mile over hot coals if it made her happy. Luckily it wouldn’t.’ His smile lit his eyes. ‘Go and put your slacks on while I fetch Esmé’s leather flying gear for you to wear.’

  Excitement filled her. ‘We’re definitely going flying then?’

  ‘With a vengeance, since I’ve got the plane booked. It’s a good day for it. I hope you’re ready for some excitement this time because I won’t be doddering about up there.’

  ‘I thought you just mentioned it because Aunt Es wasn’t keen on having that fake policeman in the house.’

  He slid her a gaze. ‘You don’t miss much, do you? As it turned out, Es was right to distrust him.’