The excursion train irc-2

by Edward Marston

  'You think that Hawkshaw was guilty?'

  'It's a possibility that we have to entertain, Victor.'

  'Then why are so many people certain of his innocence?' asked Leeming, touching the petition. 'They must have good cause.'

  'Yes,' said Colbeck, 'they must. But thank you for making the journey to Canterbury. It's thrown up some valuable information.'

  'What about you, sir?'

  'Oh, I, too, have made a number of discoveries.'

  Colbeck went on to describe what he had gleaned from the various people to whom he had talked that morning. In the middle of his account, the first course arrived and they were able to start their meal while the Inspector continued. Leeming seized on one detail.

  'Adam Hawkshaw went to Paddock Wood that night?' he said.

  'Someone resembling him did.'

  'Can't you get the stationmaster to make a positive identification? All we have to do is to take Hawkshaw along to the station.'

  'Even if it was him on that train from Ashford, it doesn't mean that he was implicated in the murder. Adam Hawkshaw can barely write. How could someone that illiterate be able to pick out a verse in the Bible to serve his purpose?'

  'Was he travelling alone?'

  'Yes, Victor, and that's another point in his favour. He had no female companion. Given his surly manner,' said Colbeck, 'I doubt if he ever will have one. I'm certain that he lied to me about being at home that evening but I don't think he's a suspect for the chaplain's murder.'

  'Who else travelled from Ashford to Paddock Wood on that train?'

  'Several people. Some of the men from the railway works live there and use the line regularly. The only reason that Adam Hawkshaw – or the person who looked like him – stayed in the stationmaster's mind was that he was so irascible.'

  'I still think that Hawkshaw needs watching.'

  'He'll stay under observation, Victor. Have no fear.'

  'What about this other character?' asked Leeming, spooning the last of his soup into his mouth. 'This gypsy that they're looking for?'

  'His name is Angel, apparently.'

  'He could turn out to be an Angel of Death.'

  'If he really exists.'

  'Is there any doubt about that, Inspector?'

  'I don't know,' said Colbeck, sprinkling more salt on his food. 'I'm not entirely sure how I feel about Gregory Newman. He's very plausible but he's obviously keeping certain things from me. This story about someone called Angel being the potential killer of Dykes might just be a way of misleading us.'

  'Why would Newman want to do that?'

  'We're policemen, Victor. We represent the law that sent his best friend to the gallows. He could be trying to confuse us out of spite.'

  'I'm confused enough already,' admitted Leeming.

  'We can soon find out if Newman was telling the truth. You simply have to ask your assistant if he's even heard of this man, Angel.'

  'My assistant?'

  'Constable Butterkiss,' said Colbeck, 'and while you're at it, show him this petition and ask him where we could find the first ten people on that list, excluding Newman and the Hawkshaw family.'

  'Why must I always be landed with George Butterkiss?'

  'The two of you clearly have an affinity, Victor.'

  'Is that what it's called?' Leeming was disconsolate. 'I can think of a very different word for it, sir.' He sat back while the waiter cleared the plates away. 'What will you be doing this afternoon?'

  'Trying to speak to Emily Hawkshaw. There's something about her behaviour that troubles me. I want to find out what it is.'

  Emily lay on her bed and stared up at the ceiling. She was so preoccupied that she did not hear the tap on the door. When her mother came into the room, the girl sat up guiltily.

  'You startled me,' she said.

  'I didn't mean to do that, Emily. I just came to warn you.'

  'About what?'

  'Inspector Colbeck just called again,' said Winifred Hawkshaw. 'He's very anxious to talk to you.'

  Emily was alarmed. 'Me?'

  'Yes.'

  'Why?'

  'It's nothing to be afraid of, dear,' said her mother, sitting on the bed beside her. 'He needs to ask you a few questions, that's all.'

  'Is he still here?'

  'No, I thought you'd need fair warning so I told him that you were asleep. The Inspector will be back later.'

  'What do I say to him?'

  'The truth, Emily. He's trying to help us.'

  'None of the other policemen did that.'

  'Their minds were already made up. They'd decided that your father was guilty and that was that. Inspector Colbeck is different. You'll have to speak to him, dear. He won't go away.'

  'What does he want to know?'

  'You'll find out when he comes back.'

  'Didn't he say?'

  'He did wonder why you didn't sign that petition for your father's release,' said her mother, 'and I told him it was because you were too young, but he still felt your name should have been there. So do I, really.' She touched the girl's arm. 'Why wasn't it?'

  'I don't know.'

  'Gregory asked you to sign but you refused.'

  'I had too many things on my mind,' whimpered the girl. 'I just couldn't bring myself to do it somehow. As soon as I saw that list of names, I lost heart. I knew that it would do no good.'

  'It showed everyone what we felt, Emily.'

  'I felt the same.'

  'Then you should have been part of it.'

  Emily stifled a cry then began to convulse wildly. Putting her arms around the girl, her mother tried to control the spasms but to no avail. Emily seemed to be in the grip of a seizure.

  'What's wrong with you?' asked Winifred, tightening her hold on her daughter. 'Emily, what's wrong?'

  Robert Colbeck had been in the town for over twenty-four hours without really exploring it properly. While he waited to speak to Emily Hawkshaw, therefore, he decided to stroll around Ashford and take the measure of the place. It also gave him an opportunity to reflect on what he had learnt earlier and to sift through the evidence that Leeming had obtained from his visit to Canterbury. The solution to the two murders aboard trains, he felt, still lay buried in the case of Nathan Hawkshaw. Until he could unearth the truth about the first killing, he was convinced that he would never catch those responsible for the other crimes. Deep in thought, he ambled gently along.

  Industry was encroaching fast but Ashford was still largely a pleasant market town with a paved high street at its heart and an ancient grammar school that, for well over two hundred years, had educated privileged pupils and turned them into useful citizens. Shops dominated the centre of the town. It was in the sidestreets that houses, tenements and artisans' villas abounded. Having stopped to admire the soaring church tower of St Mary's, Colbeck read some of the inscriptions on the gravestones surrounding it, sobered by the thought that Nathan Hawkshaw had been deprived of his right to a last resting place there.

  Continuing his walk, he went in a loop around the town so that he could see every aspect of it, his striking appearance causing much interest among the townspeople and more than a few comments. When he finally returned to the high street, he elected to call once more on Emily Hawkshaw but, before he could turn into Middle Row, he saw what at first he took to be some kind of mirage. Walking towards him with purposeful strides was an attractive young woman in a dress that he had seen once before. Colbeck rubbed his eyes to make sure that they were not deceiving him. At that moment, the woman saw him and quickened her step at once. Colbeck was astonished and excited to see her.

  It was Madeleine Andrews.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Robert Colbeck escorted her into the Saracen's Head and indicated some chairs. When they sat opposite each other near the window, he beamed at her, still unable to believe that she had come all the way from London to see him. For her part, Madeleine Andrews was delighted to have found him so quickly and to have been made so welcome. She was a
mused by the look of complete surprise on his face.

  'What's the matter, Robert?'

  'Did you really take the train by yourself?' he asked.

  'My father's an engine driver,' she reminded him. 'I'm well used to the railway, you know.'

  'Young ladies like you don't often travel alone. Except, of course,' he added, gallantly, 'that there's nobody quite like you, Madeleine.' She smiled at the compliment. 'You create your own rules.'

  'Do you disapprove?'

  'Not in the least. But how did you know where to find me?'

  'Your name was on the front page of the newspaper. The report said that you were conducting an investigation in Ashford.'

  'Ah, well,' he said with a sigh, 'I suppose it was too much to ask to keep my whereabouts secret for long. We'll have a batch of reporters down here in due course, assailing me with questions I refuse to answer and generally getting in my way. I'd hoped to avoid that.' He feasted his eyes on her. 'I'm so pleased to see you, Madeleine.'

  'Thank you.'

  'Where were you going when I saw you in the high street?'

  'To the Saracen's Head.'

  'You knew that I was staying here?'

  'No,' she replied, 'but I guessed that you'd choose the best place in the town. When I asked at the station where that would be, they directed me here.'

  He laughed. 'You're a detective in your own right.'

  'That's what brought me to Ashford.'

  Mary interrupted them to see if they required anything. Colbeck ordered a pot of tea and some cakes before sending the girl on her way. He switched his attention back to Madeleine again.

  'I'm a detective by accident,' she explained. 'I don't know why but, when I saw that Jacob Guttridge's funeral was being held today, I took it into my head to go to it.'

  He was stunned. 'You went to Hoxton alone?'

  'I do most things on my own, Robert, and I felt perfectly safe inside a church. Unfortunately, there was hardly anyone there for the service. It was very sad.'

  'What about Michael Guttridge?'

  'No sign of him – or of his wife. That upset his mother.'

  'You spoke to her?'

  'Yes,' said Madeleine. 'I didn't mean to. I kept out of the way during the ceremony and didn't think that she even knew I was there. But Mrs Guttridge did notice me somehow. She said how grateful she was to see me then invited me back to the house.'

  'What sort of state was she in?'

  'Very calm, in view of the fact that she'd just buried her husband. Mrs Guttridge must have a lot of willpower. After my mother's funeral, I was unable to speak, let alone hold a conversation like that.'

  'I put it down to her religion.'

  'She told me that her priest, Father Cleary, had been a rock.'

  'Why did she invite you back to the house?'

  'Because she wanted to talk to someone and she said that it was easier for her to speak to a stranger like me.'

  'So you were a mother-confessor.'

  'Mrs Guttridge seemed to trust me,' said Madeleine. 'She didn't admit this but I had the feeling that she was using me to get information back to you. She's not an educated woman, Robert, but she's quite shrewd in her own way. She knew that you only took me to the house because she was more likely to confide in a woman.'

  'I'm glad that I did take you, Madeleine,' he said with an admiring glance. 'Extremely glad.'

  'So am I.'

  'Much as I like Victor, you're far more appealing to the eye.'

  'Oh, I see,' she said with mock annoyance, 'I was only there as decoration, was I?'

  'Of course not,' he replied. 'I took you along for the pleasure of your company and because I thought that Mrs Guttridge would find you less threatening than a Detective Inspector from Scotland Yard.'

  'She did, Robert.'

  'What did you learn this time?'

  'Quite a lot,' said Madeleine. 'After we left the house that day, she prayed for the courage to go into the room that her husband had always kept locked. It was a revelation to her.'

  'I took away the most distressing items in his bizarre collection but I had to leave some of his souvenirs behind – and his bottles of brandy.'

  'It was the alcohol that really upset her. She only agreed to marry Jacob Guttridge because he promised to stop drinking. She firmly believed that he had. But what disturbed her about that room,' she went on, 'was how dirty and untidy it was. She called it an animal's lair. You saw how house-proud she was. She was disgusted that her husband spent so much time, behind a locked door, in that squalor.'

  'Gloating over his mementos and drinking brandy.'

  'It helped Mrs Guttridge to accept his death more easily. She said that God had punished him for going astray. When she saw what was in that room, she realised that her husband's life away from her was much more important to him than their marriage. I tried to comfort her,' said Madeleine. 'I told her that very few men could meet the high moral standards that she set.'

  'Jacob Guttridge went to the other extreme. He executed people on the gallows then gloried in their deaths.' Colbeck chose not to mention the hangman's passion for retaining the clothing of his female victims. 'It gave him a weird satisfaction of some sort. But I'm holding you up,' he said, penitently. 'Do please go on.'

  'It was what she told me next that made me come here, Robert. On the day when he hanged Nathan Hawkshaw, his wife expected him home that night. But he never turned up.'

  'He was probably too afraid to leave the prison in case the mob got their hands on him. What explanation did he give her?'

  'That he was delayed on business.'

  'Had that sort of thing happened before?'

  'Once or twice,' she said. 'Mrs Guttridge was vexed that, as soon as he got home on the following day, he went straight out again to see some friends in Bethnal Green.'

  'He must have been going to the Seven Stars.'

  'What's that?'

  'A public house where fighters train. As an avid follower of the sport, Guttridge knew it well – though he called himself Jake Bransby whenever he was there. Over a hundred people from the Seven Stars went to that championship contest on the excursion train.'

  'How did you find that out?'

  'Victor Leeming visited the place for me,' said Colbeck, 'though he was not exactly made welcome.' He flicked a hand. 'However, I'm spoiling your story. I'm sorry.'

  'It was what happened afterwards that puzzled Mrs Guttridge,' she said, 'though she thought nothing of it at the time.'

  'Of what?'

  'That evening – when he got back from Bethnal Green – her husband seemed to have been running and that was most unusual for him. He was out of breath and sweating. For the next few weeks, he never stirred out of the house after dark. He used to go off to these "friends" regularly, it seems, but he suddenly stopped altogether.'

  'Did she know why?'

  'Not until a few days after her husband had been murdered. One of her neighbours – an old Irish woman – was leaving some flowers on her step when Mrs Guttridge opened the door and saw her there. They'd never talked properly before,' said Madeleine, 'but they'd waved to each other in the street. The old woman lived almost opposite.'

  'And?'

  'She remembered something.'

  'Was it about Guttridge?'

  'Yes, Robert. She remembered looking out of her bedroom window the night that he came hurrying back home. A man was following him. He stood outside the house for some time.'

  'And Guttridge said nothing to his wife about this man?'

  'Not a word. I thought it might be important so I made a point of calling on the old lady – Mrs O'Rourke, by name – when I left.'

  'That was very enterprising.'

  'She told me the same story.'

  'Was she able to describe this man?'

  'Not very well,' said Madeleine, 'because it was getting dark and her eyesight is not good. All she could tell me was he was short and fat. Oh, and he walked in this strange way.'

 
'With a limp?'

  'No, he waddled from side to side.'

  'Age?'

  'Mrs O'Rourke couldn't be sure but the man wasn't young.' She smiled hopefully. 'Was I right to pass on this information to you?'

  'Yes,' he said, 'and I'm very grateful. It could just be someone he fell out with at the Seven Stars but, then, a man spoiling for a fight wouldn't have gone all the way back to Hoxton to confront him. He would have tackled Guttridge outside the pub,' he went on, recalling what had happened to Leeming. 'It sounds to me as if this man was more interested in simply finding out where Guttridge lived.'

  'Do you think that he might be the killer?'

  'It's possible, Madeleine, but unlikely.'

  'Why?'

  'A short, fat man with a strange walk doesn't strike me as someone who could overpower Jacob Guttridge, not to mention Narcissus Jones. I shook hands with the prison chaplain. He was a powerful man.'

  'Then who do you think this person was, Robert?'

  'An intermediary,' he decided. 'Someone who found out where the hangman lived and who established that he'd be on that excursion train. He could be the link that I've been searching for,' said Colbeck, 'and you've been kind enough to find him for me.'

  'Ever since you took me to Hoxton, I feel involved in the case.'

  'You are – very much so.'

  Mary arrived with a tray and set out the tea things on the table. She stayed long enough to pour them a cup each then gave a little curtsey before going out again. Colbeck picked up the cake stand and offered it to Madeleine.

  'Thank you,' she said, choosing a cake daintily, 'I'm hungry. I was so anxious to get here that I didn't have time for lunch.'

  'Then you must let me buy you dinner in recompense.'

  'Oh, I can't stay. I have to get back to cook for Father. He likes his meal on the table when he comes home of an evening.' She nibbled her cake and swallowed before speaking again. 'I made a note of the train times. One leaves for London on the hour.'