Well Kept Secrets (The Adventures of Xavier & Vic Book 4)

by Liza O'Connor

  Lucky for David, he had a profession to go to every day, which limited his exposure to his wife to breakfast and evenings. So thus far, David was most pleased with both his wife and his new residence.

  To Vic’s view, his addition to the family was an improvement. David was a natural born mechanical genius. With Vic’s approval, and Claire’s money, the fellow had upgraded their archaic water closets into the latest water-flushing toilets, and built a separate ‘bath room’ with two tubs, both equipped with running hot water for baths and a drain to carry away the water. While Gregory had not been happy during the renovations, the reduced effort to ‘prepare a bath’ had him and the servants greatly impressed once it was done.

  David’s latest improvement had been installing an electric refrigerator in the kitchen based on designs used by the commercial icemakers.

  “Lacy!” Xavier snapped at Vic, using her alias name. “Did you hear a word I said?”

  Vic frowned. She hadn’t. To be honest, she’d been lost in her thoughts, happy to ignore the misery about them.

  Xavier studied her with concern.

  “Sorry, what?” Vic asked.

  “She’s not here, so I need a distraction, but wait until we near the west door.”

  Vic softly snorted. “Not a problem.”

  “Don’t get too confident...or crazy.” Xavier continued to study her, his brow furrowed deeply.

  “The captain will keep me in line.” Vic smiled.

  Xavier snorted and turned his hawk glare upon Meyers. “Good luck.”

  ***

  Once the ‘old couple’ left, Meyers spoke softly. “Exactly what are you planning to do?”

  “Not sure.” Vic focused upon her environment. A couple was laughing at some scraggly haired woman huddled in the corner of her cell, cooing at an invisible baby cradled in her boney arms.

  She rather hoped the laughing couple might come to harm’s way tonight. How could anyone find amusement at the poor woman’s predicament? More than likely, she’d been as sane as anyone until she lost her child.

  Vic walked closer to the woman. This lady had wanted her baby so much that losing it drove her mad. She suddenly felt guilty over her attitude to her own child. What if it knew it wasn’t wanted like it should be? What if her bad attitude turned its outlook in life to something dark and sinister?

  “You all right?” Meyer’s ask, placing his hand on her arm.

  “Yes, I just wished this place existed to help the mentally ill rather than to put them on display for the amusement of the more fortunate.”

  He nodded.

  Vic passed the laughing couple and continued down the aisle of cages filled with either pacing feral animals or huddled frightened ones.

  This place was worse than the zoo.

  After scoping out each inmate’s potential for creating chaos, Vic selected her first release. A large furry man trying his hardest to bend the bars apart so he could get out. Further study of his cage indicated his actions were merely a distraction from his true attempt to escape. She moved over to his cage door. “Would you like out of here now?”

  Crazed eyes turned to her. God, the man barely looked human. Grizzled hair covered his entire face and body. Even the back of his hands and fingers had two inch long hair on them.

  “I don’t think you should let this one out,” Meyers whispered.

  The wolfman bent down and stared up at her in a submissive manner. He whined, not in pleading, but in torment.

  Vic pulled out her picks and flipped the lock. “Don’t open the door until I’ve distracted the guard. Otherwise, he’ll shoot and kill you. Understand”

  The wolfman whined again.

  “I really think this is a bad idea,” Meyer said.

  “He shouldn’t be in here. He was born with a genetic defect. Beneath all that hair is or was a normal human.”

  “I was,” a whispered voice croaked from lack of use. “I thought myself human until my mother died. Then people came and screamed at the sight of me. Others came and threw nets over me and beat me unconscious. I woke up here.”

  “How long have you been here?”

  He shook his head. “Too long to remember.”

  “And what will you do if you escape?” Meyers asked as he stared at Vic. “Besides causing panic in the streets.”

  “There is a cabin Mother had built for me, deep in the woods. She’d told me to go there when she died, only I couldn’t leave her. I couldn’t abandon her.”

  “How will you find the cabin?” Meyers asked, clearly trying to convince Vic how futile this was.

  The wolfman shook his head and howled before moving closer. “I will find it or die trying, but either will be better than this.”

  To drive home his point, he tossed his head back and released a louder cry of torment and pain.

  His howl brought the amused couple hurrying to his cage.

  Wasting no time, Vic whispered, “Your best chance is to wait until I’m near the guard. And don’t try to go out the front. Run down the hall to the west wing door. See the old man. He knows a way out of this place through the ceiling.”

  “Oh, it’s a werewolf,” the young woman exclaimed. “How hideous. Poke him with a stick and see if he barks.”

  Vic moved away before she poked them with a stick.

  She stopped two doors down and unlocked another cage, moved down one and did the same. She didn’t speak to the inhabitants because they really did look crazy.

  Xavier and Catherine waited by the west wing door, the taller of the two looking like a very impatient old man, constantly tapping his cane.

  Leaving Meyers, Vic sauntered up to the guard and smiled, which caused the fellow to grow two inches in height. “Excuse me, but where is the ladies’ room?”

  He returned her smile. “Go back out to the lobby and turn left.”

  She stepped closer and fluttered her fan. “Is there nothing closer?”

  His eyes rounded as he admired her crimson chest. “There is, but it’s not for public use.”

  She leaned in. “Please, can you not make an exception? I am a desperate woman.”

  Batting her eyes turned the trick. The guard led her into a room.

  Her first thought was this didn’t look like an entrance to any sort of ladies’ room. Her second thought was ‘What the bloody hell?’ as large hands grabbed her breasts from behind. She screamed for help as she struggled to escape the guard’s grip, cursing the damn dress for tangling about her legs.

  Captain Meyers burst into the room and pulled the fellow off her.

  “I’d arrest you now if you didn’t have a damn riot outside.” He picked up the fellow and slung him into the hallway.

  Vic appreciated his timely rescue. “Is there really a riot out there?” She headed to the door.

  A woman’s scream pierced the walls.

  “Just stay here,” Meyers snapped. “If anyone finds out I accompanied the person who let those lunatics out, I’ll lose my badge for sure.”

  “I had nothing to do with this. I was being accosted by the guard when it happened.”

  His furrowed brow deepened. “Ladies do not flirt when requesting the location of a water closet. They blush and stare at their feet. The guard thought you were asking for something else entirely.”

  Vic rubbed her breast. “I gathered that.”

  Meyers chuckled. “Boy, would he have been surprised.” Then he sobered. “But that might not have stopped him. You need to be careful, Vic.”

  “I was careful. You were ten feet away and responded to my yelp most quickly.”

  Someone slammed against the door. Then the hall filled with shrill whistles.

  Vic chuckled. “Sounds like everything is working just fine. And this time, the only person who attacked me was a crazed guard.”

  Meyers rubbed his face as if this particular case was stressing him to his limits. “I really should go out and help them.”

  “And leave your distressed lady alone? Let’s wa
it a bit longer. I’m sure Xavier will call us if we’re needed.”

  As if on cue, Xavier’s voice could be heard in the hallway. “Captain Meyers. I require your attendance!”

  Both Meyers and Vic rushed from the room. Vic spotted Xavier and two old women near the red door.

  “There he is,” Xavier stated. “Please tell this fellow that I am this woman’s son and the courts have given me custody of her.”

  Meyers approached and showed his Scotland Yard badge. “This gentleman has legal authority to take this woman.”

  “Did you go through Dr. Beldwin? ‘Cause I didn’t hear nothing about it,” the guard grumbled.

  “That’s not my problem…or yours. You have inmates running amuck in your halls. This woman has someplace better to go. Take care of your problems and allow this gentleman to take care of his.”

  The guard’s eyes narrowed, and looked as if he intended to argue further, only a crazed woman latched onto his back and attempted to blind him with her nails.

  “Let’s go,” Meyers barked and hurried the group out to the waiting carriage.

  Once inside the carriage, Vic turned to Xavier. “Did a wolfman ask you how to escape through the attic?”

  That earned her a smack on her fancy hair. Both the other women gasped in shock.

  “Don’t go telling people trade secrets!” he barked.

  “Sorry, but did you tell him?”

  “No.”

  Catherine interceded at this point. “He pointed, and the strange creature disappeared into the attic a second later.” Turning to Lady Thurman, she added, “And Xavier did not strike a lady.”

  The rescued lady huffed. “That is most obvious, but even lesser women should not be struck.”

  Catherine chuckled. “No. That is not what I meant.”

  Vic touched Lady Meridan’s arm. “No, that’s fine. Let the woman speak poorly of a person who just helped rescue her from Bedlam.” She then smiled at Xavier. “Thank you for helping the wolfman. He didn’t deserve to be put in there.”

  Xavier’s eyebrow rose in challenge. “I will have to take your word for that.”

  Catherine added. “I almost screamed at the sight of …whatever it was. Do you really believe he was part wolf?”

  “No!” Vic snapped. “He has a mutation that triggers all his hair follicles to grow excessively. He was once loved and raised as a human… only a very furry one. Then upon his mother’s death, he was beaten unconscious and brought to Bedlam.”

  Xavier frowned. “Is that what took you so bloody long to cause a riot? You stopped to interview a furry creature?”

  “Shame on you, Mr. Holmes,” Lady Thurman chided. “Using a young lady in your outlandish prank. Whatever were you thinking?”

  His angry glare turned to their ungrateful rescued victim.

  “Yes, indeed. Whatever was I thinking?”

  Meyers leaned forward. “Lady Thurman. Are you aware why you were put in Bedlam?”

  That shut the old woman up tight as a drum. Her arms hugged her chest and she sniffed. “I wish to go home.”

  “Margaret. You cannot go home to the man who put you in an asylum.”

  The old woman’s eyes turned glassy. “I don’t understand why he did that. I would never tell a soul what I discovered. I am his faithful wife.”

  Vic was tempted to turn the carriage around and take the old bat back to Bedlam. After all their effort, she wasn’t even going to cooperate? “Well, at least we saved the wolfman, so our night was not a complete waste.”

  “How dare you!” Lady Thurman snapped.

  “No, ma’am, how dare you!” Vic yelled in return. “Your husband is part of a criminal ring that helps husbands get rid of wives while keeping their property. Yet, even after he has sent you to hell, you still protect him so other women will be placed in Bedlam and die.”

  When no one came to her rescue, the old woman burst into tears. “It is horrible, I know…and then to blackmail the gentlemen afterwards…I could hardly believe it was my Mr. Thurman. I went to him, confessed I had found the papers while scrubbing off the old wax on the cherry cabinet. I wanted him to tell me it was all a misunderstanding and his letters meant something else altogether.”

  Lady Meridan took pity on her and provided her a handkerchief. After five minutes of the woman snorting into the cloth, Xavier lost patience.

  “And did he?”

  With another minute of sniffles, she finally replied. “No. He just kissed me on my forehead and said he would miss me. I thought he meant to kill himself so I begged him to reconsider. God would forgive him for those minor sins, but not suicide.” She paused. “He promised he had no intention of taking his life, not when he was so close to being First Minister. Then he told me to go upstairs and sleep. He would make this problem go away.”

  Vic finished the old woman’s story. “And you woke up with a very nasty headache in Bedlam.”

  “Is that where I was? I thought I was perhaps in jail, that Scotland Yard had come in the night and arrested me.”

  “No,” Vic stated, still not liking this woman. “Your husband had you chloroformed and taken to Bedlam where you were given a new name so you would die incognito.”

  “But…he always said I was the perfect wife.”

  Catherine placed her hand on Vic’s arm to stop her from responding. Since Vic was about to observe she was soon to be the perfectly dead wife, she remained quiet.

  “Margaret, you were the perfect wife,” Catherine said. “You changed everything about yourself to suit his whim. He had no right to do this to you.”

  Her head wobbled in a frantic shake. “No, he didn’t! It was wrong of him to do so.”

  “Most wrong, unforgivably wrong. But by those letters you found, he was not the man you thought.” Catherine’s voice was almost mesmerizing.

  “Where exactly were those letters?” Xavier asked.

  “In the cherry cabinet, in his library. I don’t understand where they came from. They just seemed to pop out at me.”

  ***

  Xavier rolled his eyes and leaned back.

  Vic was right, saving the hideous furry creature was probably their only achievement of the night. This woman was not only hopeless, but bloody useless as well.

  Nor did she show any outrage or need for revenge against Thurman. If they turned her over to Scotland Yard now, she’d demand to be returned to her husband.

  Xavier yelled a new address to Davy. Catherine nodded her agreement once he slid back into his seat. Given time, perhaps Catherine could seed some outrage in the spineless woman.

  As far as evidence needed to take Thurman down, they still had nothing. However, they did know he used to and might still have incriminating evidence in his library.

  Once they dropped off their passengers at Catherine’s house, he instructed Davy to take them to Jacko. Davy drove them back to the office.

  “Davy…” Xavier growled as he determined Jacko was nowhere to be found. Only Tubs sat in the kitchen.

  “Davy drove off,” Vic said and slammed the tea kettle on the stove.

  “Didn’t find the lady?” Tubs asked.

  “Oh, we found her, useless creature.” Vic turned and glared at Xavier. “If the bossy lady can’t bully a spine into Mrs. Thurman can we take the useless creature back to Bedlam? I’m sure I can find several people more worth saving.”

  “Not through my passage you won’t,” Xavier snapped. He turned to Tubs. “Vic decided this furry creature needed saving, and tells him I have a way out through the attic. That left me no choice but to point out the access panel. Otherwise, the creature would have ripped out the entire ceiling looking for the right one, bringing the passage to everyone’s attention.”

  “Vic!” Tubs stated in shock.

  “I didn’t tell him to rip away panels. I told him to ask the old man at the end of the hall to show him the way out. Which he did.”

  Tubs smiled at her, clearly happy she had done the right thing.

&nb
sp; “Smile all you want, Tubs, but the pup released a large wolfman that will probably eat and kill half the population of London.”

  Tubs smile grew wider, which Xavier found most disturbing.

  “You saved the wolfman of Bedlam?”

  “He’s not really a wolfman. It’s a mutation.” Vic grumbled.

  “Glad you did. He didn’t belong in there. He’s not crazy. He’s just hairy.”

  Xavier stared at Tubs. “How do you know him?”

  “I get tired of frightening good people, so sometimes when I’m down, I go to Bedlam and frighten people who have nothing better to do than laugh at other people’s misfortune. I noticed the hairy man was trying to bend bars that just went into another cell.”

  “That’s just a deflection. His real attempt to escape was the window,” Vic said as she poured water in three cups.

  Tubs chuckled and nodded. “Took me almost an hour to notice that. So I figured he was more rational than all that growling, whining, and howling indicated. I’ve been stopping by once a week to bring him some decent food, so he could keep his strength up.”

  Vic rose and went to Tubs, kissing him on his bald head while hugging his neck from behind. “You’re a good man, Sonny Tubs.”

  She handed out the cups of tea, laughing when Xavier eyed his with caution.

  To prove there was no poison, she slurped her tea and offered it to him, taking his neglected cup on the table.

  Once she finished her cup, Vic stood up straight and yawned. “I’m exhausted.” Her loving eyes met Xavier’s.

  “I’ll be in shortly,” Xavier replied, wishing he could join her. Unfortunately, he needed to give Jacko an urgent mission first.

  She sighed and left the kitchen.

  Tubs frowned at his response, evidently thinking his boss had missed the less than subtle clue that Vic wanted him in bed with her. So Xavier explained, “I’m hoping Jacko can help me wrap this up tonight. Then Vic and I can go someplace warmer...”

  “Try my house in Spain,” Jacko stated as he entered the kitchen. He glanced at the steaming kettle. “Mind if I make myself a cup of tea?”

  “By all means.” Xavier smiled at his friend’s timely appearance.

  Tubs rose. “I’ll be getting to bed then.” He walked to the door and turned to Xavier. “Will I be going with you to Spain?”