Bless the Bride

by Rhys Bowen

  I thought about this as we removed the aspics and cold salmon from the pantry where they had been sitting on ice. Was I really destined for a boring, respectable life with Daniel? Would he forbid me to attend such functions as this in future? Would he even pressure me eventually to break off my friendship with Sid and Gus? Rubbish, I said to myself. I was a strong person and not even my husband was going to tell me what to do. I swept out of the pantry with the platter of salmon, narrowly missing a calamity as it slid across the tilting plate.

  The first guests started to arrive—artists and actors, suffragists, and society ladies I had met through my hostesses, as well as people I had never met. Some were in fabulous costumes, while others had chosen more conventional evening dress. Sarah and Monty were of the latter. She looked enchanting in powder blue while he was dashing in white tie and tails. He looked distinctly uncomfortable as he examined the other occupants of the living room.

  “Come and try the punch, Mr. Warrington-Chase,” Gus whisked him away. “Or would you prefer champagne to start with?”

  “Most kind,” Monty muttered, looking distinctly uneasy as he was led away by a water sprite.

  “Oh, dear.” Sarah gave me an embarrassed grin. “I was not at all sure about this and I’m afraid it’s going to be a disaster. Monty really doesn’t approve of this sort of thing. I tried to persuade him to wear a costume—I suggested that he come as Lord Byron. That’s respectable enough, isn’t it? I even bought him the wig, but he refused to wear it.”

  “But they have costume balls in England.”

  “Yes, but with the right sort of people. It’s apparently all right if lords and ladies put on masks and costumes, but not bohemians. I know he only allows me to mix with Sid and Gus because it’s such a short time before we sail for our new life at his country estate.”

  “You must put your foot down and not find yourself under Monty’s thumb, Sarah,” I said. “Daniel would prefer that I not have Sid and Gus as my friends. He wanted us to take a house in a very different neighborhood so that I could be away from them, but I made it clear that I was not abandoning my friends.”

  She sighed. “You are so brave. But I shall be far away from friends and moving in a strange society. I won’t know how to behave and I shall need Monty to guide me.”

  “Of course you’ll know how to behave,” I said. “It’s not as if you started life in a peasant’s cottage like me. You were raised in a good family, and good manners are the same everywhere in the world. Trust me, Monty’s friends will be enchanted with you.”

  “I hope so.” She gave a weak smile.

  Monty returned, carrying two glasses of champagne. “Here you are, my dear,” he said. He was in the process of handing her the glass when he looked up and said, “What in God’s name is that?”

  My friend Ryan O’Hare, the flamboyant Irish playwright, had arrived. He was wearing tight black trousers, a frilly white jabot, and a red-lined cape. His dark hair was curled and flicked over his forehead. He looked devastatingly handsome as he held out his hands to me in dramatic gesture. “Molly, my dearest. Come and greet Lord Byron,” he said.

  I heard a grunt from Monty.

  Ryan crossed the room to me, took my hand, and kissed it. “Ravishing, as always,” he muttered. Then he noticed Monty standing beside me. “And who is this?” he asked. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

  “This is Montague Warrington-Chase,” I said.

  Ryan turned the full force of his charm on Monty. “Warrington-Chase? English? I believe I once had tea at your place.”

  “You did?” Monty looked incredulous.

  “When I was a child. Osbourne St. George, isn’t it?”

  “Good God,” Monty said curtly. “And what was your name, sir?”

  “Ryan O’Hare. The family has a nice little castle in Ireland and I moved in your circles before I was banished.”

  “Ryan O’Hare. You’re the playwright who caused that stir because of the play you wrote about Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.”

  “What a ridiculous fuss, wasn’t it?” Ryan said. “They were horribly stuffy and boring. They needed someone to poke fun at them.”

  “She was the monarch of our country, sir,” Monty said stiffly. “There are limits.”

  “To hell with limits, I say.” Ryan waved a frilly white sleeve.

  “As I heard it, you had to flee the country.”

  “Oh, absolutely. Hunted to the Kentish coast. Almost had to swim the Channel.”

  “Ryan, you are a terrible liar,” I said, slipping my arm through his. “And I should point out to you that Monty is the fiancé of my friend Sarah Lindley.”

  “Oh,” Ryan said, clearly disappointed that his charm was being wasted on Monty. Instead he turned and managed to be charming to Sarah.

  Twenty-four

  The gathering became more lively as the evening went on. People ate, drank, and were merry. There were musicians and the carpet was rolled back in the dining room for people to dance. A large pile of presents appeared on the hall table. I kept glancing toward the front door, wondering if Daniel would come. But as the festivities went on, I found I was actually having quite a good time myself, forgetting the way the day had started and the decisions I had made. I was chatting with Sarah when Monty came up to us with a strange expression on his face.

  “I’ve just had the most astounding encounter,” he said. “I went upstairs, needing to visit—I mean heeding the call of nature, so to speak.” He coughed, uncomfortable at mentioning this subject to ladies. “I located what I believed to be the WC and just as I was about to open the door, it opened and you’ll never guess who stepped out—a Chinese girl. I thought for a moment she was one of the guests in a dashed authentic-looking costume, but she was the real thing. Where on earth did she come from?”

  When we didn’t answer immediately he went on, “Sarah, she’s not the girl you told me about, is she? The one at that place where you work who you said was dying of consumption, because she looked quite hale and hearty.”

  “No, this is a different girl altogether,” Sarah said quickly. “That girl is still at the settlement house.”

  “Thank God. I thought for a moment someone had been injudicious enough to bring consumption into this house. Terribly catching, you know. So who is this girl? I had always understood that the Chinese were not allowed to bring their families to this country, but now Chinese women seem to be springing up all over the place.”

  My heart was racing. “She was raised by missionaries, who sent her over here,” I said, before Sarah could answer. “We are training her to go into service.”

  “Oh. I see. Splendid idea. I gather the Chinese are frightfully hard workers. She doesn’t have any contagious diseases, does she?”

  I attempted a light laugh. “No, she’s quite healthy.”

  “She got an awful shock seeing me.” He chuckled. “You should have seen her face. Scurried up the stairs as if I was the big bad wolf.”

  “I told her to stay in her room,” I said. “So I expect she thought she’d get into trouble.”

  “Why is your bridegroom not at your side?” Ryan asked, coming up to us with a glass of champagne in either hand. “Doesn’t he realize that you are in danger of being carried off by all the jealous males at this party?”

  “Ryan, you still haven’t lost your Irish blarney,” I replied, laughing. “I’m in no danger of being carried off by you or anyone else and Daniel has to work, I’m afraid.”

  “Then you’ll need one of these to cheer you up.” He handed me a champagne glass. “Foolish man to put work before love. I’ve never done that in my life. Love always comes first.”

  Monty looked at him with distaste. “So your fiancé has to work on a Sunday evening?” he asked.

  “Policemen have to work whenever there is a case to be worked on,” I said. “It’s something I’m going to have to get used to, I suppose.”

  “And he’s on a big case now, is he?” Monty asked. “Som
ething exciting?”

  “I don’t really know,” I said. “He’s not allowed to discuss his work with me.”

  “I find detective work quite fascinating,” Monty said. “I rather feel I should have been a good detective if I’d put my mind to it. A gifted amateur like Sherlock Holmes. But I should have been careful not to have let my enemy throw me over the Reichenbach Falls.” And he gave a self-congratulatory chuckle.

  At that moment there was a knock at the front door and Sid appeared, beaming. “Look who has just arrived,” she said and ushered in Daniel. “Look everyone, the bridegroom cometh!”

  There were suitable murmurs of excitement as Daniel, looking distinctly uncomfortable, was surrounded by outlandishly costumed figures who patted him on the back and attempted to shake his hand.

  “How clever,” Ryan said, appearing at his side. “You’ve come disguised as a policeman. Very novel.”

  “Ryan, you are being wicked again.” I went over to rescue Daniel. “I didn’t think you’d be able to come,” I said as I extracted him from the crush. “It was really good of you. I know how busy you are.”

  “My conscience got the better of me,” he said. “I realized that this party was important to you and I should make some effort to get along with your friends, just as I hope you’ll get along with mine.”

  “They don’t always look as strange as this,” I muttered as I slipped my hand through his. “And most them are really Sid and Gus’s friends. But you’re a good man.”

  He smiled. “How much of a hardship is it to exchange a hasty sandwich at police headquarters for champagne and good food,” he said. “I haven’t had a good meal in days.”

  “Come through to the conservatory and you shall eat your fill,” I said. “And take a look at that table in the hallway. Wedding presents, I believe.”

  “For us?” Daniel looked surprised.

  “It is our wedding party,” I said.

  “Good God. We’ll need a bigger house to put them in.”

  “We won’t. But we’ll be able to entertain more elegantly, which is what you want, isn’t it?”

  We reached the conservatory and Daniel helped himself liberally to the fare on the tables. “I must say your friends have really pulled out all the stops, haven’t they?” he exclaimed. “What an incredible array of food.”

  “You know Sid and Gus. When they do something, they throw themselves into it wholeheartedly.”

  “I rather fear it will make our wedding breakfast seem pale in comparison,” he said. He piled a plate. As I was about to go back to the living room he said, “Can’t we find a quiet corner? I’d enjoy this food so much more if I didn’t have that O’Hare person commenting on the way I eat.”

  “You have to understand that Ryan enjoys getting a rise out of other people,” I said. “Especially members of the establishment like you. Come on, let’s sit out here for a while.”

  We found two chairs in a corner of the conservatory and I let him eat in silence while rain drummed on the glass roof. After a few bites he put down his fork. “I’m afraid I can’t stay long,” he said. “This Chinese business has just added to my workload.”

  “Daniel, I really am sorry,” I said. “I didn’t intend to get involved in anything difficult or dangerous.”

  “You never do, do you?” he said. “You just seem to stumble into trouble, and then miraculously to stumble out of it again. At least you didn’t need rescuing this time and at least you’re not in any way involved in the machinations of Chinatown. And believe me, you’re well to be out of it, Molly. That Lee fellow was a nasty piece of work. I’m not at all surprised that somebody finished him off. I just hope we can find out who that was before the tongs start hurling accusations at each other.”

  “So you’re going to take over the case, are you?”

  “I can’t really step on Kear’s toes. He’s the same rank as I and it’s in his precinct, so I should let him handle it.”

  “But he’s got it all worked out in his mind,” I said. “He wants it to be Frederick Lee, so he’s not going to look any farther. And who knows what kind of methods he might use to make Frederick confess to something he didn’t do.”

  Daniel looked at me strangely. “You sound as if you care about what happens to this Frederick fellow.”

  “I’ve only met him a couple of times,” I said carefully. “But he seemed such a nice, polite young man. Not one who would murder anybody, especially not someone from his own clan.”

  “I must say I’m inclined to think it wasn’t he,” Daniel said. “I went back and took a look at the Lee apartment with the fingerprint expert. Somebody definitely went through that cabinet in a big hurry. Papers were literally stuffed back in all the drawers.”

  “And did you find any interesting fingerprints?”

  “Bobby Lee’s were on it,” he said, “but not Frederick Lee’s. There was also a set of prints that we can’t identify yet. And apparently plenty of motives for killing Lee in those little drawers—protection money contracts, IOUs for large sums of money, and who knows what else. Most of them in Chinese, but not all. What seem to be promissory notes from Americans were there as well. I didn’t have time to get much of the Chinese translated for me. Just enough to get the idea that a lot of very diverse people owed Lee money.”

  “Did you happen to come across a document involving Bobby Lee?” I asked. “One concerning his status as a paper son?”

  “No,” Daniel said. “What are you hinting at?”

  “Just a thought,” I said. “Mr. Lee had this girl brought over because he wanted a son—a real son. Bobby Lee was no relative really, so he would be supplanted by a real flesh-and-blood son, and apparently Mr. Lee had made it clear that Bobby would inherit nothing when he died.”

  “How on earth did you learn this?” Daniel demanded.

  Of course I’d learned it from Bo Kei. “Frederick Lee told me a little of it after Bobby was so rude to him, then more came out when Captain Kear was questioning Bobby. And I’ll tell you another thing that was suspicious. Mr. Lee wore the key to that cabinet in a chain around his neck. Today it was in the cabinet. So I wondered if the body showed any kind of bruising around the neck where the chain had been.”

  Daniel laughed. “Where the chain had been?—my dear, he was in such a mess that his whole body was bruised and bleeding. But that was an interesting observation. You noticed the chain around his neck when he was alive, did you?”

  “Yes,” I said, although that wasn’t exactly true. But I did have it on good authority from one who had seen him in his night attire.

  “So your suggestion is that we look more closely at Bobby Lee?” Daniel said after a pause. “And we hunt for some kind of document that proves he isn’t Lee’s true son and he doesn’t stand to inherit when Lee dies?”

  “That is what I am suggesting,” I said. “Although I can’t see why he wouldn’t have had time to remove an incriminating piece of paper before the police arrived.”

  “The houseboy slept just on the other side of the screen. Perhaps he woke up before Bobby could go through the whole cabinet.”

  “Then if he knew Bobby had been there, why didn’t he tell that to the police when Captain Kear questioned him?” I asked.

  “Either loyalty or fear. From what I’ve heard of Bobby Lee, and from what I know of the ways the tongs operate, the boy could have been afraid of having his hand or ear or tongue cut off.”

  I tried not to gasp, but my body gave an involuntary shudder.

  Daniel noticed. “They are ruthless people, Molly. They have different notions of loyalty and revenge and they regard life as cheap. That’s why I’m relieved you had the sense to want no part in this whole sordid business.”

  I nodded demurely, looking down so that I didn’t meet his eye.

  “You’d have thought that Bobby would have had opportunities before this to sneak in and remove a piece of paper, wouldn’t you? That really must mean that he could never get his hands on Mr. Lee�
�s key or that the paper was cleverly hidden.”

  “Or that Lee checked at regular intervals,” Daniel suggested. “Bobby wouldn’t have dared to remove it while his father was alive. He was much too afraid of him.”

  “So what will you do now?” I asked.

  “It’s still Kear’s case. I’ll tell him to get an official translation of everything in that cabinet.” He paused, studying my expression. “Better yet, I’ll find my own translator and put him to work on it right away. Thank you, you’ve been a big help.” He took a couple of more bites of cold salmon, a swig of champagne, then got to his feet. “I suppose we’d better go and mingle before I have to leave again.”

  We came out into the hallway. “I know you’re suggesting it was Bobby Lee,” he said, “but I really want that girl found.”

  “Girl?” I asked innocently.

  “This missing bride. She has an equally good motive for killing the old man. The timing of her flight is just too coincidental for me, and I did notice small footprints when I was up on the roof.”

  I tried not to glance up the stairs.

  “If she was his bride, and his bed was up there, she might well have walked around quite legitimately on the roof,” I pointed out.

  “But these looked rather fresh, didn’t they? And they were at the edge of the roof. At the very least she used the roof as a way to escape, and at worst, she came back that way to kill Lee.”

  “If you were examining footprints, what did you think about those heavy men’s boots?” I asked. “Weren’t they equally fresh?”

  “Ah, yes. The big boots. I suppose they could be,” he said. “It’s hard to tell. Lee could have brought in a Caucasian workman to fix a leaking roof. The Chinese don’t have that kind of footwear. But to come back to the missing woman—tell me, exactly how far did you get in your search for her?” His voice echoed up the stairwell.

  I glanced up nervously, half expecting to hear scurrying feet. “Not very far,” I said. “I tried the various missions around Chinatown and while doing so, I found out what was going on and didn’t want to return the girl to Mr. Lee.”