Rubies Among the Roses

by Vivian Conroy

  ‘In the binding?’ Wadencourt’s expression was bewildered. ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘Your notebook has a leather binding. There’s room inside the spine. The ruby was in there. A clever hiding place but …’

  ‘This is insane! It can’t be in there. And besides, where are the rest of them? Just one stone … Can’t you see I’m being framed? First the bottle in my room, now this stone turning up. It’s a conspiracy!’

  ‘We’re taking you with us.’ LeFevre stood his ground, chin up. ‘We heard from locals you were seen talking to Jago, the man who died last night. Can it be a coincidence that a man dies, stones vanish … We’re taking you in and we’re going to see if we can charge you with both the theft of the stones and the murder.’

  ‘You must be mad. I wasn’t near that man when he died. I have no idea what happened there.’

  Wadencourt tried to step away when the policemen approached him, but they grabbed his arms and dragged him along. ‘This is an outrage!’ he cried. ‘I’ll tell the press. I’ll call a lawyer.’

  ‘I’ve already called a lawyer,’ LeFevre said. ‘You can be sure we’re doing things strictly by the book.’

  ‘I want my own lawyer. You can’t do this.’ Wadencourt tried to pull back as the policemen wrestled him through the doorframe.

  LeFevre nodded at the people left at the table. ‘Sorry to have ruined your meal. Goodnight.’

  Guinevere shot to her feet and followed the group into the hallway.

  Cador opened the front door. No emotion was visible on his face.

  Wadencourt was still struggling and protesting his innocence.

  Guinevere said to LeFevre, ‘How did you find the stone in the binding?’

  ‘During our search we came across the notebook as well. Wadencourt had carried it with him to the station this morning, but I didn’t ask to see it then. I didn’t think it was important. When I saw it again, I picked it up out of curiosity and leafed through it. I wondered how he had managed to locate an artefact that had been missing for such a long time. Then I felt something move about in the spine.’

  ‘You felt it? So if Wadencourt had handled the notebook, and it wasn’t him who put it there, he should also have noticed?’

  ‘I suppose so.’

  ‘So if he didn’t put it in there himself right after he had removed the stones from the goblet, somebody else did it shortly before the police got to the castle for their search. But why then?’

  LeFevre looked her over. ‘Does it matter? Besides, I find it very hard to believe that both the bottle of liquid and the ruby would have been planted on Wadencourt. He also met with Jago. He knows more than he told us before. I want to question him thoroughly. And maybe a night in the cell will loosen his tongue.’

  ‘Lady Serena was here just before dinner. I saw that her clothes were rumpled and she had dust on her skirt. As if she had been crawling about. She could have hidden things. She could have …’

  LeFevre touched her arm with friendly insistence. ‘Lady Serena wanted an intact goblet. Why would she have defaced it and then tried to frame Wadencourt for it?’

  ‘Wadencourt also wanted an intact goblet. A find at last after all those years of not getting recognition. The monetary value of the stones can never mean to him what a really important find would mean. Everybody who laughed at him behind his back would have had to take him seriously.’

  LeFevre shrugged. ‘That’s a matter of understanding motive. Weighing things against one another.’

  Guinevere held his gaze. ‘You said you want to question Wadencourt about the goblet and the murder. Why are you sure the two are related? Why don’t you assume that if Wadencourt defaced the goblet for some reason, somebody else might have hit Jago over the head?’

  LeFevre exhaled slowly as if he was considering how much he wanted to tell her. Then he said, ‘All right, you might as well know. On the pier we found a little dent, right, where something had fallen?’

  ‘The whisky flask, from Jago’s hand.’

  ‘No. The dent was not made by the flask. The flask was put there to make it look like that. But my team have tested the dent and the flask, and it doesn’t add up. The dent was made by something else falling. So … I had them look at the goblet.’

  Guinevere stared at him. ‘The goblet? The goblet was there on the pier with Jago? Before he died?’

  LeFevre nodded. ‘The goblet made the dent in the pier. So what does that tell us?’

  Guinevere’s mind raced. ‘That whoever took the goblet encountered Jago and killed him so his theft wouldn’t become known.’

  LeFevre held her gaze. ‘Who says the thief had the goblet first?’

  Guinevere pursed her lips. ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘What if Jago found the goblet and was on his way to his boat to take it away to the mainland? The thief overtook him, killed him, and took the goblet back.’

  Guinevere was stunned. She had never looked at it that way.

  But thinking of the book Jago had borrowed from Meraud it was a possibility. Jago had been a fisherman all of his life. St Ganoc was his patron saint. A clue having to do with him would have immediately stood out to Jago.

  LeFevre said, ‘It all points to Wadencourt. He had met with Jago earlier yesterday. Jago had offered him help, and Wadencourt had refused to take it because he didn’t want to share the credit for the find with anyone. Jago came to Cornisea to prove he could locate the goblet on his own. Wadencourt saw him and …’

  Wadencourt had been out and about so that fit. Still Guinevere felt obliged to point out. ‘It doesn’t exclude others. Not Lady Serena or Mr Vex. They were also on the island. Staying at the B&B. I even saw Lady Serena, or in any case a woman who looked a lot like her, walking about with binoculars. She wanted to keep an eye on the castle. What if she saw Jago and realized that he was removing the goblet she felt entitled to?’

  ‘It’s possible of course. But right now I take into account what I discovered among Mr Wadencourt’s things. The liquid to age the goblet, the gemstone hidden in the spine of his notebook. Hard evidence, whereas about the others I can only speculate.’

  ‘And where are the rest of the stones?’ Guinevere pressed. ‘Why hide only one in the spine of a notebook?’

  LeFevre tapped her arm as if to stop her. ‘Thank you for your ideas, but I will pursue this suspect for the moment. Dinner is waiting for you. Goodnight.’

  He gestured to his men, and they led Wadencourt outside.

  Cador closed the door behind them.

  Guinevere turned to find Max standing behind her. The door to the dining room was ajar.

  Max said, ‘You don’t believe Wadencourt did it?’ His eyes challenged her to say so.

  ‘I’m not convinced, no.’

  ‘Why not? Don’t you see what a bastard he really is? He spent his life researching wedding goblets, symbols of love and loyalty while …’ Max almost choked and walked to the front door. ‘I need some air.’

  Cador opened the door and let him out. He closed it again and looked at Guinevere. ‘That is a very angry young man.’

  ‘Mr Wadencourt had mentioned something during dinner about other photographers coming in. I guess Max is angry about losing his job,’ Guinevere lied quickly.

  Her heart beat fast, straining her breathing. Max carried a terrible grudge against Wadencourt for having abandoned his mother and him. In his father’s presence his anger had only grown, at Wadencourt’s pompous behaviour and lofty statements that sounded so insincere in light of his life’s choices.

  But if your father was suddenly accused of theft and murder and arrested, wouldn’t you at least be upset and eager to deny it? Would you just walk off in anger at what your father had said just before the arrest was made?

  Did Max really believe Wadencourt was guilty? Did he want to be alone to work through the shock that his father was a thief and murderer?

  Earlier Max had denied the
historian would deface the goblet that had meant the world to him.

  But how then had a single ruby from the goblet ended up in the binding of Wadencourt’s notebook?

  Somehow this whole thing didn’t gel. Her mind was racing trying to make sense of it all. But the pieces didn’t fit.

  She rubbed her face with both hands. ‘I’m going up for a moment to check something. Let the others continue dinner. I’ll be right back.’

  Cador nodded and went into the dining room.

  Guinevere raced up the stairs and entered the library. Dolly stayed there during dinner and the doggy came over at once and circled her, wagging her tail.

  Guinevere took her into her lap as she sat down at the computer and brought the screen to life. She went to Max’s social media accounts and looked at the photographs he had put up during the day. The word FREEDOM in the sand was not among them. Just some very general shots of the island. The angle seemed to suggest they had been taken the previous day when he had arrived here with Wadencourt.

  There were many likes and comments underneath, also someone calling himself BlackSwan saying, ‘I now know where you are.’

  Nothing more, just that, but it did sound a bit ominous.

  Had Max taken the job with Wadencourt to do something different, be away for a while? Had he had a reason to want to get away? Did it have to do with the fight Oliver had mentioned to her? With his temper and the bad name it had given him in the industry?

  Then again it wasn’t smart to include pictures of an island that was so recognizable. It was a dead giveaway of Max’s location. He hadn’t posted the arrival photos the other day so why today? He had enough other shots to choose from.

  Thoughtful, Guinevere clicked away and leaned back in the chair.

  Dolly rubbed her head against her and licked her cheek.

  Guinevere fondled her ears, saying softly, ‘If the ruby had been hidden in the notebook when Wadencourt was carrying it around that morning, he would have noticed. LeFevre said he noticed it right away. Would he notice but the notebook’s owner didn’t?’

  Dolly squeaked as if she was following along.

  Encouraged, Guinevere continued her reasoning: ‘So the ruby was put in the spine later. Not right after the theft. But why? To incriminate Wadencourt? Who hates him enough to do that? Lady Serena? As far as I can see, her gripe is with Vex.’

  At the name of the arrogant garden historian Dolly growled low.

  Guinevere said, ‘Lady Serena did come to the castle and crawled about. The clump of dust gave her away. We have to know what she’s done. Wadencourt has been arrested and LeFevre even mentioned a night in the cell. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. You?’

  Dolly squeaked again and jumped off her lap. She ran to the door and waited at it, wagging her tail.

  ‘Right, girl. Let’s go see Lady Serena and get some solid answers this time. I’m sure Cador will save me some dinner to eat when I’m back.’

  Chapter Fourteen

  At the B&B dinner was also being served and the hostess was none too happy to have to drag one of her best guests away from the fruits de mer. But when Guinevere emphasized it was important and it had to do with Jago’s death, Mildred sighed and went to fetch her ladyship. Under the pretence of a phone call as Guinevere had instructed her.

  Dolly sat beside Guinevere on the rug in front of the desk, her nose moving to inhale all the food scents. Guinevere guessed there was also something sweet among them like caramel pudding.

  Or on Mildred’s menu: crème brûlée.

  Lady Serena came to the reception desk with a look of bewilderment, clearly wondering why someone wouldn’t call her directly, on her mobile phone. She saw Guinevere and froze.

  Guinevere smiled at her. ‘No call, Lady Serena, but a little conversation, woman to woman. About the ruby you hid in Mr Wadencourt’s notebook.’

  ‘Ruby? Notebook?’ Lady Serena widened her eyes. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

  ‘No? I saw you, remember? You were walking about near the library and the guest rooms. There was dust on your skirt. You had been crawling on the floor. You’d been in Wadencourt’s room.’ Guinevere was bluffing, hoping to draw the aristocratic suspect into a mistake.

  ‘No.’ Lady Serena shook her head violently.

  Guinevere smiled. ‘I saw you,’ she repeated. ‘I came here to give you a chance to explain it to me. But I will just as gladly share my story with the police. I have a very good relationship with Inspector LeFevre. He can be here before you’ve finished your after-dinner coffee.’

  She pretended to turn away. Dolly shot to her feet to follow her.

  Lady Serena said, ‘I have not been in Wadencourt’s room.’

  Guinevere looked over her shoulder. ‘But you were snooping around. Why?’

  Lady Serena sighed. ‘I can’t tell you. It’s personal. But it has nothing to do with Mr Wadencourt.’

  ‘I find that hard to believe. Especially as he’s been arrested because of evidence found in his room. Evidence he claims was planted there.’

  Lady Serena paled. ‘And you think I did that?’

  ‘Yes. And I’m sure the police will believe that as well.’ Guinevere tried to sound absolutely certain, even though LeFevre hadn’t exactly embraced her theory. ‘I’ll talk to them now. They will realize soon enough they have arrested the wrong person and rush to rectify their mistake. Goodnight.’

  ‘No! Wait.’

  Guinevere halted, Dolly by her side. The dachshund stood motionless as if she was also waiting for Lady Serena’s explanation.

  Lady Serena said in a hoarse whisper, ‘I had to come. It had nothing to do with the goblet. I was in the room of that blackmailer.’

  ‘Blackmailer?’ Guinevere echoed, perplexed. She looked at Lady Serena, who was fussing with one of her expensive bracelets.

  ‘Max DeBurgh,’ Lady Serena spat. ‘I saw him when he was snapping a shot of me and Vex arguing. He knows we were in the tabloids together so he must want money for those pictures. I don’t intend to pay. All I wanted was to get my hands on his camera and delete those particular shots.’

  Lady Serena held Guinevere’s gaze. ‘But I couldn’t turn the camera on.’

  ‘Couldn’t turn it on?’ Guinevere repeated, puzzled.

  ‘No. The battery must have been dead. I pressed the on button, but nothing happened. I considered just pulling out the memory card, but I realized he might file charges against me if he found it missing. I didn’t want any legal trouble. That would create an even bigger scandal. So I left his room. The dust must have ended up on my skirt when I leaned over the table trying to turn on the camera. Ruddy battery.’

  Guinevere said, ‘Why would you care so much about pictures of you and Vex getting around?’

  ‘He worked himself into my life and confidence with lies, under an alias! If that got out, on top of the goblet turning out to be damaged and the stones missing, the scandal would be explosive. I am …’ Lady Serena smoothed down her skirt with a self-conscious expression ‘… seeing someone else now. A man who likes discretion and guarding his reputation. He might break it off with me if he hears about …’

  ‘And this man means so much to you that you’re breaking and entering for it and trying to delete photos?’

  Lady Serena pulled up the necklace she wore around her neck. It held a ring with a large glittering stone. ‘This ring is worth over seventy thousand pounds. He gave it to me as a little present for my birthday. The man is loaded. I won’t risk losing him for anything in the world. You understand?’

  Guinevere stared at the ring. The facets of the stone caught the light, reflecting little prisms. And seventy thousand pounds was some incentive!

  Lady Serena said, ‘You can tell the police what I did. I did it because I was desperate. It was stupid, I admit. I should just have offered DeBurgh money to delete the photos he took. But in spite of this …’ she dangled the ring on the necklace
‘… I’m in rather short supply of cash.’

  ‘You sold off some jewellery this afternoon. Couldn’t you have offered that money to Max?’

  Lady Serena sighed. ‘I already owed that money to somebody else. Somebody who was rather insistent that I pay up.’

  She laughed shortly. ‘Somehow things never seem to work out right in my life.’

  She eyed Guinevere a moment, then said, ‘If you do have a good relationship with the police like you just said, I’d better tell you everything. Maybe you know how I can solve this discreetly. Come into my room.’

  Guinevere was stunned by the sudden invitation and followed her to a door.

  Lady Serena unlocked it and let her in. The room had cosy furnishings in blue and purple. One wall was dominated by a large dressing table with a brass-rimmed mirror and bookshelves beside it.

  Lady Serena pointed at them. ‘Inside one of those is the book Jago borrowed from the woman at the bookshop. He offered it first to Wadencourt, then to me. I was interested and I borrowed it from him. I said I’d give him money for it if it proved to hold any valuable clues. After I heard he was dead, I figured it might look bad for me if I confessed I had the book so I said nothing. I took a colourful loose cover off another hardback book and slipped it around the cover of Legends of Love and Loss. I had planned on simply leaving it behind on that shelf when I went away again. It might take months before Mrs Reeves ever discovered that there was another book under that cover.’

  ‘The police didn’t come to look here? In your room and Mr Vex’s?’

  ‘They looked for the stones, yes, and even glanced across the book collection but they didn’t take down each and every book. They didn’t suspect I had changed its appearance.’

  ‘Clever. Which book is it?’

  Lady Serena pointed at a volume with a shiny plasticized spine. It looked so modern no one would have suspected a 1920s-era book to be inside.

  Guinevere said, ‘I know Meraud. She can confirm it’s the right one.’

  Lady Serena looked piqued. ‘Of course it’s the right one. I confessed. I have no reason to be lying now.’