by Rebecca King
Panic began to build on Delilah’s face.
Jeb stared blankly down the garden but saw nothing of lush green grass and blossoming flora and fauna. It was hard to tear his gaze away from the spot he had witnessed the horrifying sight of his beloved in a lifeless heap on the floor. Everything, though; the entire focus of his being, remained with the heart and soul of his life: Sophia.
“Why kill her? What has she done to you?” Barnaby demanded.
Delilah stared down the garden, but Barnaby wasn’t going to be ignored. He moved sideways and blocked her view. She had no choice but to look at him. It was something he knew made her uncomfortable from the way she quickly dropped her eyes to her fingers and still refused to look.
“There is also the man in the woods,” Barnaby murmured. He couldn’t put a name to the man, mainly because he didn’t know who he was yet, but suspected the woman before him knew. “My, my, you have had a busy day, haven’t you?”
“What?” Delilah sucked in a startled breath and looked up at him. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“That man you killed in the woods this morning. What has he done to you?”
“I didn’t kill any man,” Delilah protested. She threw a panicked look at Marcus, but when she got no reaction from him, she turned her desperate gaze to Barnaby. “I didn’t. I don’t know what you are talking about. You can’t blame me for that.”
“There is another body?” Jeb asked with a frown.
Marcus nodded. “In the woods.”
“Show me,” Jeb ordered, and stalked out of the kitchen before he demanded answers from Delilah himself.
Minutes later, they drew to a stop beside the body. Marcus leaned down and lifted his jacket off the dead man’s face. Jeb cursed.
“Do you know him?” Marcus asked, covering the man over again.
“Yes, I do.” Jeb sighed and turned back to the house. He didn’t want to be gone too long. He wanted to see the doctor before he left. “Let’s go.”
Marcus didn’t get the chance to ask him anything else. The speed in which Jeb raced through the woods toward the house left him breathless, and he considered himself fit. He didn’t think Jeb’s haste had anything to do with his desire to question Delilah. His friend needed to get back to find out how Sophia was.
Panting, he caught up with him in the kitchen where they found Barnaby still trying to get Delilah to talk.
“You were seen trying to strangle your relative on the outskirts of those woods. Now there is also a man lying a little further into those woods, who has also been strangled at some time this morning. Unless there are two stranglers running around these parts, you are the one who is going to be held responsible for his killing too,” Barnaby warned her.
“I didn’t kill him,” she protested. “Look, I don’t know who you are to come into my house like this, but I am not speaking to you about anything.”
“You are going to,” Jeb snarled. “This isn’t your house either, Delilah. It is one of the reasons why you have not been able to throw Sophia out. It belongs to her father. Sophia told me. If anyone should be tossed out on their ear it should be you. I work for the government, or at least a crime fighting part of it run by the War Office. If we say you go to jail then off to jail you go. You tried to kill Sophia. Why, for God’s sake?”
He might have considered that Delilah had wanted to kill Sophia so she could steal from the Squire, but after finding the body in the woods he knew that theory didn’t have any credibility. His eyes met Delilah’s. In the depths of that calm gaze, Jeb saw nothing but defiant arrogance and suspected that her fate still hadn’t dawned on Delilah. It made him all the more determined to inform her of what awaited her, especially when she made no attempt to answer him.
“Do you know something? Prison is too good for the likes of you. I think you will enjoy getting up at dawn to wash out your dingy cell, which will have no more than one small barred window in it. You will empty your bucket and dress. Your breakfast will be meagre at best after which you will go to sew bags, work in the jail’s laundry room, or sweep and clean the corridors. If you don’t do that you will have to undertake some other laborious work you will stay at until sunset when you will be given another meal and confined to your cell for the night. You have no candles, nothing but a blanket, enough food to survive on but no more, absolutely no freedom with which to go where you want when you want, and will be beaten if you don’t comply. It is harsh. It is cruel. It is mercilessly cold because your cells won’t have a nice, cosy fire. There is nothing but bare walls and stone floors. Your jailer will decide if you are allowed out of it or not. If not, then you stay within those frozen confines all day, with nothing more than a few feet to move about in. You will be allowed out once a week to exercise, and will have to wash communally. There is a bath once a month if you are lucky, and you are not likely to ever be released. As far as I am concerned, that is still too good for you. I shall have no greater pleasure than making sure your stay there is even worse than that,” he promised in a voice that was as cold and as merciless as Delilah.
“You are lying,” Delilah whispered.
“No, he is not,” Barnaby drawled. “That is the harsh reality of prison life. But I am sure you will get used it.”
“How can you make that worse?” she challenged, some of her arrogance now replaced with horror.
“I can make sure you get solitary confinement.” Jeb stared at her. “Just think of it,” he taunted. “There will be nobody to speak to; to hear you moan, or give a damn whether you are alive or dead. You can stay that way throughout your entire sentence. Just think, Delilah, never speaking to anybody again. Given the risk you pose to the other convicts, the jail will have no qualms about agreeing to our request that you stay away from everyone else. Unfortunately, in prison, the only way to do that is to keep you in your cell – alone.”
It was enough to secure her compliance.
“I didn’t kill the man in the woods,” she whispered. “I swear it wasn’t me. I-I don’t even know who he is.”
If he was honest, although he now despised the woman, and wouldn’t trust her as far as he could spit, he suspected that she hadn’t murdered the Squire. The odds didn’t stack up that she could kill a man. She was outclassed in size and strength, and not maniacal enough.
“Why Sophia? She is your relation, Delilah. Does that not mean anything to you?” Barnaby growled.
He stopped forward when he saw anger flash in Jeb’s eyes, and knew his colleague’s emotional connection to the woman fighting for survival upstairs meant that he was far from rational toward her tormentor. There was no knowing what Jeb was apt to do if Delilah challenged him in any way. It was best if he was able to keep his mind on his work, and focus on what the Star Elite needed to do to get the woman put behind bars for her attempted murder. However, he also knew that his friend needed to vent a little fury, and if scaring the woman into talking was Jeb’s way of doing that then as far as Barnaby was concerned he could terrify the woman.
“Tell me!” Jeb roared when at first Delilah didn’t speak. He thumped the table with a beefy fist and leaned forward when Delilah jumped back.
“I am fed up of her poking her nose into everything and refusing to go home,” she snapped coldly.
There was nothing but condescension in her eyes and that irked Jeb. He had to draw upon all of his experience with the Star Elite to keep his mind focused on defeating the enemy; in this case, Delilah.
“She has come to see you,” Jeb snarled. “I have to say that you have been a less than gracious hostess.”
“I didn’t invite her,” Delilah all but shouted. “The damned fool girl just turned up one day with her bags and helped herself to my house. I didn’t want her here. Why would I?”
“You invited her in the letters you wrote to her,” Jeb protested. He knew Sophia well enough to know she wasn’t the kind of person who would just impose on anybody.
“Pah! Rubbish,” she scoffed. “I did nothing m
ore than mention in passing that should she happen this way she would be welcome to call upon me. At no point did we make any official arrangements, nor did I ever extend the invite to include an overnight stay. The stupid woman has practically taken over the whole house. I have done my damnedest to get her to go. I have been rude, churlish, and often unkind, but she just won’t take the hint.”
“She was only doing what Hooky told her to do. He ordered her to come here to help curb your spending because you are damned near bankrupt because of your frivolous ways. You don’t work and have no credible source of income. Did you not stop to consider that your crimes would catch up with you?” Jeb countered.
“Clearly not,” Barnaby answered for her. “She has carried on regardless and refused to correct her crimes even when her niece caught her red-handed. Of course, when Sophia threatened to take it to the magistrate if you didn’t stop then you knew you had to do something to silence her, didn’t you Delilah? What better way to get rid of her than killing her in those woods. Given how remotely you live, those woods are practically your own. Who would be around to hear her scream?”
Jeb placed his hands flat on the table, primarily to stop himself reaching for her. “So you decided to kill her because you wanted to go back to your thieving, didn’t you? Especially given the orders you had from your contact to steal the jewels from the Squire.”
Delilah looked up in shock.
“Oh, yes, we know all about the jewellery you have been ordered to take next from the Squire’s house,” Jeb murmured sinisterly.
“W-wha-?” Her gaze flew from Jeb to Barnaby and back again.
“We have him too. Your contact, Myers. He is in prison now. He has told us all about your little plan. Unfortunately for you, Sophia had already threatened to report you if you didn’t stop stealing so you had to get rid of her to be able to take the jewels. With the Squire’s ball in a few days, you had to take matters into your own hands. You had to get rid of her. However, how on earth you expected to go to the Squire’s ball when you were recently aggrieved by the death of your-” Jeb paused and thought about that for a moment.
Suddenly the penny dropped, and he realised then what she had intended to do.
“That was the perfect cover for you, wasn’t it? I mean, you wouldn’t go to the ball at all because you were busy grieving for your newly departed niece, so nobody would expect you to be in the house. You would have the perfect cover to steal the jewels, wouldn’t you?”
Delilah remained quiet.
Barnaby snorted shook his head in disbelief. “So why kill Morwenna Banks? What had she done to you?” He lifted a finger when Delilah opened her mouth to speak. “I warn you now that if you try to tell me any lies it shall add to the sentence the magistrate issues.”
“I swear to you on the Holy Bible that I didn’t kill Tabitha, the Squire, or Morwenna. I didn’t. It wasn’t me.” Delilah’s voice was thick with fear and worry. She looked at Jeb with a frown. “Who are you? You have been sniffing around Sophia to get information on me, haven’t you?” Before Jeb could reply she burst out laughing. “Oh, how rich! Hooky’s precious Sophia has been conned by a lothario.”
“He is a bit more than that,” Barnaby replied crisply. “We work for a branch of the War Office, as you have been told. You have been caught stealing quite considerable amounts from people of wealth within the village, and murdering innocent individuals who happen to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was here to investigate your contact, Roland Myers, who led us to you. Any connection he may have made with Sophia is purely a personal matter between him and Sophia.”
“Sophia was just waiting for her father to let her know what to do about your finances before she returned home. She had every intention of just handing the matter over to him to deal with given how arrogant you are. You just don’t listen to reason and are not prepared to hear anybody else’s point of view or the voice of wisdom. You are nothing short of an arrogant, disrespectful, and the most contemptuous human being I have ever set eyes on,” Jeb declared coldly. “I am glad Sophia will be rid of you. She deserves better. The matter of your finances is irrelevant now because you shall not need money where you are going. Your meals, home, and days will be decided for you. As far as I am concerned, you can go to Hell. It is nothing less than you deserve.”
Before Delilah could respond, Jeb stood back to allow Marcus and Joe to secure the woman with a rope and lead her toward the door.
“Where am I going?” she demanded from the doorway.
“To jail,” Barnaby replied with a smirk. “It’s the closest thing to Hell we can send you to.”
She looked at Jeb. “I don’t regret any of it.”
“I don’t believe you do,” Jeb declared coldly and nodded to Marcus and Joe. “Get her out of here.”
“God awful woman,” Barnaby muttered as she disappeared from sight.
Jeb took a seat at the table.
“I am going to arrange for the Squire’s body to be moved,” Barnaby reported. “Are you sure it’s the Squire?”
Jeb nodded. “I am sure. He was killed this morning from the look of him. He was probably on his way here for some reason. I doubt he usually visits the woods here. There is a larger one closer to his home. He has no reason to be in the area.”
“Why kill the Squire? The ball is certain to be cancelled,” Barnaby murmured thoughtfully.
“It gets him nicely out of the way, doesn’t it? I mean, with the Squire gone the house is going to be thrown into chaos. There will be a flurry of people in and out of there to pay their condolences, and undoubtedly guests attending the funeral whenever that is arranged. I am sure that at some point during the mourning period those jewels are going to be stolen,” Jeb said thoughtfully.
“Why dump his body so close to this house, though? Why not leave him in the woods closer to his home?”
Jeb pushed to his feet and began to pace. “I think we are being warned. Bamber followed me from London. He knows we are here and are investigating him. I think Bamber killed him to get him out of the way. I am not sure if Bamber knows we have Roland yet, or whether he is sending us a message to tease us that he has strangled Samson and Balgravia.”
“Do you think he is leaving us his calling card? He could be taunting us to catch him. I mean, Belgravia was left in woods and was strangled.”
Jeb nodded. “I think Bamber is the killer, and he is playing a careful game of cat and mouse with us. The similarities between the deaths are just too striking to be ignored.”
“Myers could be his accomplice,” Barnaby mused. “I mean, Balgravia was moved after his death. Bamber wouldn’t be able to move a man all by himself, not someone of Balgravia’s size anyway. He had to have help.”
Jeb shook his head. “I think Myers has been living around these parts somewhere. We need to interrogate him to find out where he lives. Right now, all I am interested in Sophia.”
He looked toward the ceiling longingly and wished the Hell the doctor would appear.
“You care a lot about her, don’t you?” Barnaby murmured. He took a seat at the table and watched Jeb nod.
“I didn’t expect it, I will be honest with you,” Jeb whispered. “But now that it has happened I cannot help but be delighted. I think I have wanted to settle down for a long time, but the circumstances just haven’t been right. It is safe to say that my work for the Star Elite needs to continue for the time being, but Sophia has to be my priority. She is too important to me to lose. I will quit if I have to, just to be with her.”
“It won’t come to that,” Barnaby assured him. “I think it is going to take some time to get to the bottom of this investigation and put Sayers behind bars, but we can do it. If you are sure that you want to see this through to the bitter end then I am immensely grateful to you. We could use your help, but if you want to leave us then I completely understand. However, it is possible to have both you know. Look at Archie, Christian, Sir Hugo, Simon, and all of the others. They are
all happily married with a tribe of children, and they still work efficiently. You can have it all. It just takes a little juggling, that’s all.”
“And one heck of an understanding wife,” Jeb smiled.
“That too, but if you keep your wife busy with children then she won’t really notice you are gone all that much,” Barnaby retorted with a smirk.
Jeb shook his head but conceded that Barnaby may well have a point.
“I am pleased for you,” Barnaby assured him with a grin. “Now all you have to do is persuade her that you a likeable man.”
Jeb smiled. “I am a likeable man.”
He knew his friend was trying to lighten his worry but couldn’t shift the fear and anxiety riding him. He wouldn’t until could be sure that Sophia was going to survive.
“I think we need to decamp to the Squire’s house once we are sure Sophia is alright. We need to inform his wife about his death, but also warn her about the intended theft. I think it would be best if, for the time being, we sent her to stay with relatives. Then, once someone does try to steal the jewels, we can hopefully capture Bamber, and close this part of the investigation.”
“Then it is back to Sayers in London,” Jeb murmured, partly to get confirmation from Barnaby that was where they were going to go next.
He had no doubt Sophia wasn’t going to want to stay in this house indefinitely, and he couldn’t expect her to go all the way to London to stay in some hotel while he worked. Neither could he contemplate her returning to Hooky in Buckinghamshire. He knew Hooky hoped to be here by the end of the week in three days hence. That being the case, Jeb could remain in Framley Meadow until Hooky arrived. Hopefully, Sophia would be at Briggleberry recuperating, and getting to know his father a little better by then.
