Lies and Misdemeanours

by Rebecca King

  “News,” he snapped as he stalked straight into the study. “Morning Hetty,” he called.

  Charlie looked at Hetty. “Come on, let’s go and see what’s gone wrong now.”

  They arrived in time to see Marcus slap a broadsheet onto the desk in front of Hugo, who was busy poring through the papers and books they had found in the verger’s house.

  “You aren’t going to like it,” he warned Charlie.

  “What?” Charlie frowned and picked up the broadsheet. “Oh, no,” he whispered as he read the main headline.

  “What?” Hetty demanded, and moved to his side to read the news.

  “More hangings,” Charlie said flatly. “Meldrew’s got himself more victims.”

  He glanced over at Simon and Wally, before he read out the names of the new convicts who had been arrested for helping two condemned prisoners escape execution. Their punishment would be meted out two days hence, once the new gallows were completed.

  “The gallows are being constructed on the upper floor of the jail,” Marcus growled. “The prisoners are going to be pushed out of the window. The gallows are being attached as a framework around the window, high off the ground. It’s been done before in Winchester.”

  “So there is no chance of escape,” Hugo sighed. “I have seen this done before too, but in Oxford.”

  Hetty felt sick. She clutched at Charlie’s arm when the room began to swirl around her alarmingly.

  “They all helped us escape,” Wally snapped in disgust.

  “How in the hell did Meldrew find them?” Simon growled. He took the broadsheet off Charlie, and read the article with Wally.

  Charlie described what he had witnessed in the tavern.

  “So Simpson is the village’s traitor?” Wally growled. “It’s the last time I give that bastard my business.”

  “Can’t we arrest him for being involved in Meldrew’s schemes?”

  “I think if we can find something to pin on him, by way of assisting Meldrew with his crimes, then we will,” Hugo replied firmly. “Right now, we don’t have evidence that Meldrew has committed any crimes. Although we know what he did with Charlie and Simon was illegal, it isn’t enough because it is his word against theirs, and they are now condemned criminals.”

  “I can’t believe that Simpson would betray the village like that,” Hetty whispered with a frown. “What a horrible thing to do.”

  She had known Simpson for a long time, and had always found him to be an affable man who was inclined to be a little roguish but, as far as she was concerned, that was part of his charm. Or so she had thought. Now that she knew just how deep his treachery went, he was by far the very last person she wanted to be associated with.

  “He was the one who provided Meldrew with the information about what you had been discussing,” she whispered as she studied the beloved face of her husband.

  He nodded and drew her closer to his side. She had suddenly gone so pale that he had to hold her because he feared that if he didn’t, she would fall over at any moment.

  “It appears so, darling. We were discussing things, in our cups as you do. I never thought the tavern owner would be the one we had to fear the most,” Simon replied.

  “He deserves to be punished,” Hetty snorted.

  Wally nodded. “He does. However, once word gets out of his association to Meldrew, nobody will go anywhere near the place. He doesn’t get much in the way of passing trade, and has to rely on the locals for his business.”

  Simon snorted. “Locals he has betrayed.”

  “It doesn’t matter now,” Hugo added darkly. “What’s done is done. What’s important now is bringing them all to justice.”

  Before anyone could speak, the slam of the back door drew their attention. Everyone turned to the door, and watched Joshua enter.

  Hetty groaned at the look on his face. She knew that the news he had to impart was not going to be good either, and wondered just how bad this day was going to get.

  “Go on then,” Hugo drawled. He leaned back in his chair and propped his boots up on the desk in a casual pose that was at odds with the tension in the room.

  “Come and sit down,” Charlie urged Hetty, and led her over to a seat on the opposite side of the desk to Hugo.

  “Blagmire’s wife has been driven out of the tavern. The place was run into the ground through lack of trade because Meldrew’s men blocked passing traffic from getting there,” Josh sighed as he took a seat on the window seat so that he could face everyone as he explained. “After Blagmire’s death, strange things started to happen at night. As a single woman living alone with nobody but her children to protect her, she was forced to flee to the safety of her sister’s house. She now lives in Northampton, which is why I have been gone a bit longer than I should have.”

  “So the tavern is closed up?” Charlie frowned when Joshua slowly shook his head.

  “Who is there then?” Hugo demanded. He dropped his boots and leaned his elbows on the table.

  “There is a man who drops in. He is about Hetty’s height, with an ample stomach on him.”

  “It’s Simpson,” Wally growled.

  Charlie nodded, and described hair and eye colour.

  “That’s the one,” Joshua agreed. “He dropped in and out on several occasions while I was watching the place. There appears to be two other men who are there all the time.”

  “Simpson could be providing Meldrew with information and, in exchange, gets the new tavern as a reward for his compliance,” Hugo murmured thoughtfully.

  “There is more,” Joshua warned.

  “Has Blagmire’s wife handed over ownership?”

  Joshua shook his head. “Nope. She just upped sticks and left. She has the paperwork for the tavern with her. She has confirmed that Meldrew had tried to pressure her husband into paying ‘protection’ money. Blagmire adamantly refused and stood his ground, even when Meldrew tried to ruin the business through blocking trade from getting there. They stuck it out for as long as they could but, eventually, the money ran out. Still, Blagmire refused to give Meldrew anything, especially since he ran the business dry. He said he would rather die than hand Meldrew a damned thing; which of course, he did. The evening that Blagmire was murdered, Meldrew’s men demanded a meeting with him. Rather than threaten him in the tavern like they usually did, they said they wanted a word with Blagmire and he had to go with them.”

  “It was the last his wife saw of him,” Hugo drawled.

  Hetty gasped. “That poor woman.”

  “They took him to his death in the woods,” Wally murmured quietly.

  “They set us up,” Simon sighed as he ran his hands down his face.

  Joshua threw a roll of parchment onto the desk. “I got the wife to sign a statement saying that the last she saw of her husband was with Meldrew’s men. She has also confirmed that Meldrew had demanded Blagmire pay ‘protection’ money prior to his death. She is going to stay at her sister’s house, so we need to tell her when it is safe for her to return to the tavern.”

  “I can’t see how she could hope to run it herself,” Wally sighed. “Not if the business is damaged.”

  “If Meldrew’s men intend to run it as a business, they have to make it viable again,” Charlie replied.

  “She can sell it though, and set herself up somewhere else,” Hetty argued.

  “We need as much of this kind of evidence as we can get,” Hugo said. He unrolled the parchment and read the contents. “I will put this somewhere safe.”

  “What about the verger?” Barnaby added. “He has links with Meldrew. We know that from last night. We need to get him to sign a confession, and get him out of the way.”

  “We need to get the tavern owner from the Horse and Carriage too,” Charlie growled.

  “We need the statement from the verger first. We need to know if the verger murdered Arthur, or whether Meldrew’s men carried out the killing. We can be fairly certain that Meldrew didn’t murder Blagmire personally, but he ma
y have ordered the death.”

  “It’s the same thing, surely? I mean, ordering someone you employ to murder an innocent person has got to be the same as actually killing someone with your own hands, hasn’t it?” Hetty asked.

  Her stomach churned at the very thought of anyone being that ruthless, but she knew it happened and couldn’t ignore it, especially given that it was happening on her doorstep.

  “It is one and the same thing, Hetty,” Hugo nodded. “Demanding protection money from businesses he has no legal recourse to collect is also illegal.”

  “Punishable by death?” Charlie asked hopefully, only to wrinkle his nose up in disgust when Hugo slowly shook his head.

  “He would get a lengthy prison term which, for a magistrate, is bad enough. However, given Meldrew’s penchant for associating with known thugs, it probably won’t be too much of an ordeal for someone like him. Whatever the case, I want him at the end of the noose.” He threw Hetty an apologetic glance. “I am sorry, my dear, but Meldrew has contacts far and wide. Heaven only knows how many people would be prepared to step into the breach, and keep the protection rackets going, if we don’t make an example of someone like Meldrew. I know it sounds ruthless but, for the sake of putting a stop to his crimes once and for all, we must make an example of him and ensure that everyone, up and down the country is aware of his crimes and the severity of the punishment they incur.”

  “Men like Meldrew rarely give up their lives of crime,” Charlie said. “If he had, say, ten years in prison, he would most probably come out after it and start all over again, just not as a magistrate.”

  “He is a horrible creature,” Hetty murmured.

  She felt dirty just talking about him, and wanted to take a bath to wash the whole sordid mess away. She was suddenly very glad that Charlie was there, but was left to wonder how he dealt with matters like this on a daily basis, and didn’t go quietly out of his mind.

  She suddenly had a new respect for the work the men from the Star Elite did, but was horrified by just how casually they talked about people’s lives. It was something she found more than a little disturbing. However, she couldn’t quite bring herself to be too critical of them for it. After all, they were working to protect innocent lives from the likes of Meldrew of his men; who had proven that they had little respect for other people. So, in essence, didn’t deserve anyone else’s consideration.

  “Let’s get the verger,” Hugo sighed as he pushed to his feet.

  The words launched everyone into action. Hetty jumped, and tried to remember what had been said over the past couple of minutes that she had missed.

  What had she missed? She had been so busy with her own musings that she hadn’t really paid attention to what had just been discussed.

  Her eyes flew to Charlie, who winked at her. “We will be back soon.”

  He threw Wally and Simon a cautious look before he turned his attention to Hetty. The rest of the men from the Star Elite quietly made their way out of the room to prepare the horses, leaving Charlie to talk to Hetty and her brothers.

  “Right now, you just need to sit and wait here. We will have to bring him back here because there is nowhere else we can take him. Not until Meldrew is arrested anyway.” He turned to look at Simon and Wally. “Pick a room at the back of the house, and remove everything from it, then secure the shutters in some way. We will take Snetterton straight to it, and will keep him there under armed guard until he can go to jail.”

  “Leave that to us. We are damned all use when it comes to the work you do, but we can keep a little oink like Snetterton under guard while you are gathering evidence,” Simon growled.

  Charlie nodded and turned to Hetty. He read the worry in the depths of her eyes, and wished that he could find something for her to do so that she didn’t go quietly out of her mind.

  “You need to keep an eye on the driveway, and the woods around the house. For God’s sakes, don’t go anywhere. If you see anyone coming to the house, lock all of the doors and stay out of sight. Don’t challenge them,” he ordered.

  Hetty nodded. Words tumbled through her but she couldn’t put voice to them with her brothers present.

  Once again, Charlie seemed to understand and, for several long moments, their gazes met and held as a silent interplay took place.

  He silently willed her to stay strong while he was gone.

  She pleaded with him to be safe and hurry home.

  In the end, he dropped a kiss on her cheek before he stalked out of the room.

  She hurried to the window and watched him walk across the yard to the waiting horses. The men quickly thundered out of the yard, leaving silence in their wake.

  It was an impressive sight, and one that should have reassured her, if it hadn’t looked so damned threatening.

  “You love him, don’t you,” Wally murmured gently as he watched the riders disappear around the side of the house.

  Hetty kept her gaze locked on the billowing dust they had kicked up in the yard while she sought to find a way to answer him.

  Did she? She was fairly certain that she did, but how could she be sure? What was love?

  “I do,” she whispered.

  “He will deal with this, Hetty,” Simon assured her. “You only have to watch the way they work to know that these men know what they are doing. Look what they have managed to do so far. They have evidence, and are making sure that the key people, those who pose such a risk to us, are brought to justice in ways that mean that they won’t escape the harshest sentences.”

  “As soon as they have done their work, we can go home and forget all about Meldrew and the people he has had working for him,” Wally assured her.

  “You can,” Hetty challenged. “But what about me? I am his wife now. Where do I go?”

  “You won’t find a better, more reliable man than Charlie,” Simon assured her.

  “I know, but I cannot help but worry about the work he does. I mean, look at what has happened to him since he has been here. All because he came to investigate his friend’s death.” Her voice quivered with the strength of the emotion she struggled to hide from her brothers. She sucked in a deep breath to try to steady herself and keep the tumultuous emotions at bay, but couldn’t do anything about the tears that trickled slowly down her face. “He puts his life at risk every day, and just seems to blaze about it.”

  Wally sighed as he drew her into a hug. “This could have happened to any of us.”

  “Look at us,” Simon added. “I mean, we were going about our lives, minding our own business. We didn’t do anything even remotely dangerous, apart from drink too much in the tavern at night, but we were still hassled by Meldrew. I was still put on those gallows, all for doing nothing more than saying no to someone’s greed.”

  “There are no guarantees in life for anyone, Hetty, you know that,” Wally added. “At least Charlie is doing something commendable with his life. He is stopping men like Meldrew from hurting innocent people, and can hardly be criticised for it.”

  “I am not criticising him for it,” Hetty argued. “I just don’t like him putting himself in danger every day.”

  “Everyone is in danger every day of their lives. Things happen, Hetty. Things that are unexpected,” Simon argued.

  Wally nodded. “One day, you can be going about your business, as we were.”

  “The next, you can be facing the gallows, like I was,” Simon added darkly.

  Hetty wiped the tears from her face, and looked from Wally to Simon, then back to Wally. “Anyone would think you two are fighting his cause.”

  “He is a good man, Hetty. A sterling character in my book,” Wally assured her. “You won’t get better than him.”

  “I need some fresh air,” she whispered suddenly. She sighed and looked at the rose garden beside them.

  “Charlie said that we aren’t to go anywhere,” Wally reminded her.

  “I am just going to wander around there for a bit. I need some fresh air,” Hetty snapped and gla
red at her brothers. “You told him that you would clear the room in preparation for Snetterton. I am just going to be here. Look, it’s no more than a few feet away from the door. What harm can it do? I promise that if I see, or hear of anyone then I will come straight back.”

  Before either man could say anything else, she hurried toward the rose garden.

  Once outside, she immediately drew in a deep lungful of crisp morning air, but it did little to calm her. She had no idea where the sudden need to be alone with her thoughts came from.

  Was she shaken by the thought of being in love with Charlie? Or more shaken by the fact that she suspected Charlie didn’t return the affection? Could she risk spending her life with someone who may go to work one day, and not come back?

  She frowned and studied the grass beneath her feet. In reality, she saw very little of the myriad roses that lined the walkway. Her thoughts were locked firmly on the man who was now racing toward Hemsley in search of Snetterton. Was this what married life to Charlie would be like? Could she bear it, if it was?

  With that thought lurking in her mind, she had to ask herself if she could bear a life without Charlie in it. Just the thought of him leaving left her with a strange ache in the centre of her chest that she knew wouldn’t ease until he returned to her.

  It would be a strong woman who would wave him off when he left for one of his investigations, not knowing if he would ever come back. It wasn’t her; she wasn’t that strong. She wanted the man she spent her future with to be beside her so she could share her day with him and raise a family with him. She didn’t want to wave him off, then sit and wait to see if her future was going to be destroyed by some arrogant bully somewhere.

  As far as she could see, she would be damned if she settled on a future with Charlie, and damned to a life of misery if she didn’t. It was a helpless situation really because she was already married to him. She could hardly undo the marriage now, not now that it had been consummated. Neither could she demand that he change what he did for work because she knew about it prior to their marriage, and it was such a large part of who he was.