A Jazzy Little Murder

by Beth Byers

“Everything will be fine,” Victor said desperately. He sounded as if he was going to vomit. “Everything is going to be just fine.”

  “Tell us about the almost dead man,” Kate said, running her hand through Violet’s hair. “You’ve still got all your shiny things on.”

  Violet started pulling off her bangles and necklaces, handing them to Victor. “This bloke named Bobby. He was abominable. Someone stabbed him and because he was using drugs, he didn’t feel it until he fell off the stage. Jack took him to the hospital.”

  “Ah,” Victor said. “Newly married. New near-murder. Someone doesn’t want to lie alone in the dark.”

  “Be quiet,” Kate told Victor, pushing back Violet’s hair. “Violet has bad dreams, and who can blame her? I’ve had them too. Sometimes I still remember Robert Moore and the way it felt when he was trying to kill us. He would have strangled the breath from me and Vi if he could have.”

  “Don’t speak of that,” Victor demanded, shoving Violet’s pile of jewelry onto the bedside table. “I prefer to pretend that never happened.”

  “Bad dreams and not wanting to be alone in the dark is perfectly reasonable when you consider the last few years.”

  Violet frowned but grinned when she felt the baby kick her hand. “I can’t wait to meet Violet Junior. Are you really going to the country?”

  “The country air. For Kate and the baby. Whatever it takes. Bloody hell, Violet, there’s another near murder. Kate isn’t going anywhere near that. It’s dangerous enough for her to be carrying a baby. She’s not going anywhere near someone who is poisoning people or whatever they’re doing.”

  “I think he was stabbed. I’m not really sure. I didn’t want the details.”

  “Violet,” Victor said very gently. “You know you can’t stay here. Jack will be worried.”

  “I know.” Violet turned to look at her twin, and she saw the worry in his gaze. Not only for her, but for Kate. It was nearly debilitating for him, she thought, and she couldn’t add to it. “I missed my Vi Junior.”

  Her lie was ineffective, but he let her get away with it. And because she loved him, she didn’t add that she was missing him. He needed to do what he could for Kate, and Vi was only going to help.

  “We’ll be down soon after you,” Vi said idly. “But you should take the auto and motor down. That way Kate can stretch her legs whenever she needs to.” Violet followed with a string of orders for Victor to keep Kate comfortable. If he focused on all the little things, he wouldn’t obsess over the one he could do nothing about.

  Before she left, Violet whispered to Kate about the woman who had defecated on herself to give Kate something stupid to worry over as well.

  “Really?” Kate demanded.

  “I swear,” Violet told her.

  Kate’s gaze was wide as she slowly said, “Thank you for telling me.” Then in a low mutter: “As if swelling up into a walrus and being unable to see my feet wasn’t humiliating enough.”

  Chapter Ten

  Vi found Jack sitting in the great hall with Hargreaves standing nearby. The two men looked up in utter unsurprise to see Violet heading down the stairs in Victor’s robe, wet hair, and no jewelry at all.

  “Poor Hargreaves,” Violet said as she put her hand on the railing and made her way down the stairs. “You must dream of working for Aunt Agatha.”

  Hargreaves was not impervious in the slightest when he shook his head. “I consider it both a duty and a privilege to look over you and Mr. Victor, my lady,” Hargreaves told her gently.

  “Then,” Victor said from the head of the stairs, “you’ll understand my dismissing you with the understanding that you’ll look over Vi.”

  Hargreaves froze, then relaxed. “Perhaps she needs me a little more than you.”

  “She showed up here without a coat, an umbrella, or an escort,” Victor said to both Jack and Hargreaves.

  “I am hardly a child,” Violet protested. She thought for a moment and then added, “Though we’d be honored to have you, of course, Hargreaves.”

  “We’ll take your fellow,” Victor said. “He’ll probably be relieved to have a more standard mistress.”

  “Out of curiosity,” Jack said, as he wrapped his arm around Violet, who was still wearing one of Victor’s robes, “what would you have done, Hargreaves? There would have been no stopping Violet when she decided she needed to speak with her brother.”

  Hargreaves cleared his throat. “Ah, well. I try to think what Mrs. Davies would have told me to do and then I do that.”

  “And what would have Agatha told you to do?”

  “Chase her down with an umbrella and send over dry clothes,” Hargreaves answered simply. “Vi wouldn’t have been stopped even as a child, you realize.”

  Jack didn’t seem surprised at the answer. He nodded. “I’ll speak with Clarkson in the morning. Given his expression when he told me where Vi was, I’m sure he’d prefer working elsewhere.”

  Hargreaves hesitated and then excused himself.

  “Out of curiosity,” Victor asked, “did the fellow survive?”

  “For now,” Jack said. “It’s not looking good. The combination of the wound’s placement, the fact that he wasn’t clean when he was stabbed, and that he was using drugs has put a damper on his ability to survive.”

  “So the drugs masked the pain of being stabbed?”

  “That and the fact that the damage was hidden by his coat. No one realized he was slowly bleeding out until he couldn’t stand anymore. He probably only remained on his feet as long as he did because whatever he used gave him a false sense of strength. When his body processed the drugs, it all caught up with him.”

  “Somebody tried to kill him, though?” Victor asked. “It wasn’t an accident?”

  “It’s rather hard to make being stabbed in the back an accident. They’re trying to find the weapon, but we aren’t sure where it happened, and Bobby suggested it was Violet who stabbed him.”

  “He did what now?” Victor asked.

  “He said Violet did it. He said nobody hated him like Violet.”

  “Is Vi in trouble?” Victor demanded.

  “Hardly,” Jack said simply. “Of course Violet didn’t stab him, and no one believes she did. I even called in Detective Clarkson, who talked to Bobby, laughed when he said Violet stabbed him, and then said he’d find out what he could.”

  “You called in the fellow who investigated you,” Victor said, aghast. “What is wrong with you?”

  “Ham chose him for me because he’s a good detective,” Jack said. “Neither of us want Violet wrapped up in another case.”

  “Why would she be wrapped up in this one?” Victor turned to Violet, wild-eyed. “You can’t go sticking your oar in while Jack’s working another case and I’m in the country. Denny won’t keep an eye on you. By Jove! He’d shove her in if he thought it would be more fun.”

  “Lila’s sister Martha is a suspect. Perhaps even Lila or Denny, though not seriously on either of their cases. I’m sure as soon as Clarkson meets those two, they’ll be removed from the suspect list.”

  “The only thing Denny would murder is a box of chocolates,” Victor grumbled. “Why are we associating with such idiots? It’s like we’re cursed!”

  “That’s what I said earlier,” Violet agreed. “Do we think Martha is innocent?”

  “She seemed fairly upset over that whole princess thing.”

  “Wait, wait, wait,” Victor groaned. “It’s nearly morning. Go home, go to bed, we’ll talk in the morning. I’ll bring Kate to keep Violet in check since heaven knows neither of us are any good at it.”

  Jack didn’t argue. He opened the door to Victor’s house and took Violet’s hand.

  “I am,” she told him, “perfectly capable of determining if I need a coat or if I should stay out of something, and it is unnecessary to set Hargreaves on me as a personal nanny.”

  “Victor knows you don’t like Cuthbert,” Jack said, looking up at the sky. It was too overcast to see
anything but shreds of the moon.

  “He’s like an automaton,” Violet agreed.

  “Which doesn’t bother Victor or Kate but drives you mad.”

  “It will bug Victor,” Violet told Jack smugly. “It’ll just take longer and then he’ll want Hargreaves back, and we’ll say no.”

  “Instantly and fervently,” Jack agreed. He let them into their house and then lifted Violet into his arms and carried her up the stairs.

  “I can walk.”

  “I like holding you.”

  “Denny wants a baby,” Violet told Jack, watching his face for a reaction.

  “Denny wants a baby?” Jack laughed. “Can you imagine Denny with a child?”

  “Yes,” Violet agreed with a laugh of her own. “We’ll have to have Hargreaves find him the most tolerant and experienced nanny in all of England.”

  “Are you saying that because you’re ready for a child?”

  Violet shook her head as Jack held her with one arm and pushed open the door to their bedroom with the other. “Lila has been asking everyone she knows who has had children about childbirth.”

  Jack’s brows lifted.

  “It’s terrifying,” Violet told Jack.

  He set her down in the bath. “I know you want a bath after the evening.”

  Vi did, so she turned on the water and began haphazardly dumping salts and oils into the filling tub.

  “I don’t know what to say about the childbirth thing,” Jack finally said.

  Violet kissed him on the cheek. “You don’t have to say anything.”

  “I don’t want you to be afraid either, Vi.”

  “I want children, Jack. That hasn’t changed. I might not be ready yet to have them, but I want them.”

  Jack shook his head and left the bath, glancing back at her and shaking his head again. Vi laughed, then dropped into the water and scrubbed her body quickly. She had gotten a bit of a chill and even the hot water of the bath didn’t solve it fully. She dressed warmly and hurried to bed, crawling in next to Jack and laying her head on his chest as he wrapped one arm around her.

  “At least it wasn’t someone we love,” Violet said, twining their fingers together.

  “True.” Jack sighed. “Someone must have been shocked that they’d stabbed him and he’d kept moving, even showing up to play at the club. Joshie said Bobby was belligerent when the club opened, shouting at everyone. Was that because he didn’t feel well? Or was he stabbed because someone finally had enough?”

  “Did the doctor say when he’d been stabbed? Could he narrow it down?”

  “No one knows when he took the drugs or how long he’d been bleeding.”

  Violet pressed her hand against Jack’s chest to feel his heartbeat, grateful that his heart wasn’t struggling.

  “If he hadn’t been using those drugs,” Violet said, “he might have felt the injury and gotten help in time. What a terrible mess.”

  “That Heather girl left early. They stayed long enough to check on Bobby, and I got their information. Detective Clarkson will stop by to talk to them.”

  Violet knew that it meant that Jack had their addresses listed in his notebook.

  “What about Sally?”

  “She came, she cried over him, answered questions and blamed you too.”

  “What? What did I do to her?”

  “She was dismissed while you were there, Vi.”

  “Any manager of a business would have dismissed both of them. Bobby, especially, deserved to be let go for how he was behaving. We weren’t friends. All of us paid to be there. Any manager would have dismissed an employee for how they were behaving in front of guests. I didn’t slap her at her workplace, Bobby did.”

  Violet sat up, staring down at Jack, who seemed a little amused. She scowled at him, and he wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and pulled just enough to let her know he’d rather she snuggled into his side. Vi flopped back down on his chest, curling into his side and making sure her cold toes were under his leg.

  He tugged a strand of hair to let her know he was aware she’d put her cold toes on him on purpose.

  “What else did you find out?”

  Jack humphed. “No one admitted to stabbing him. They turned on each other, with Martha and Sally yelling at each other and then turning on Heather for realizing that Bobby loved her. Joshie and Henry both seemed shocked, but Joshie made sure that we knew Henry also used drugs and knew where they were coming from. Henry made sure we knew that Bobby owed Joshie rather a lot of money. Both men said the girls were in a constant cat fight over Bobby.”

  Vi groaned. “Do you think if we were murder suspects we’d all turn on each other?”

  “You mean would Lila start telling everyone your secrets and make you look guilty?” Jack laughed. “No, Vi. If any of you were legitimately responsible for a death, it would either be an accident or as close to being deserved as possible. The rest of us would line up and lie without hesitation for each other. They’d never get any of us. Even Rita. She’s new, but she’s one of us.”

  “Where did Ham go tonight?” Violet demanded.

  Jack grunted and didn’t answer.

  “What’s wrong with him?”

  “Vi—”

  “Rita is going to Siam. Ham might want to know.”

  Jack steeled, turning her comfortable pillow to a stone. “Siam?”

  “That’s the plan. By the end of the week. She’s says she’ll be back for our repeat trip to Cuba or wherever we go after the baby.”

  “Siam?” Jack repeated.

  “She agreed to take Martha.”

  “Siam! Has she gone mad?”

  “Jack.” Violet was gentle as she said, “Those stories about African Safaris and Egypt and India weren’t lies.”

  Slowly Jack relaxed, finally admitting, “I suppose I knew that. I expected her to simply join our trips from now on. Like Lila and Denny do.”

  “I don’t think a hotel by the sea sounds all that intriguing to her.” Violet wanted to demand why Ham had left. She wanted to know what was happening with their friends and why Jack wasn’t telling her, and she wanted to scold him for keeping secrets all the while knowing she’d have kept Rita’s secrets if she were asked.

  Was there something Violet could do to help Ham and Rita see that they’d fallen in love or was it better to stay out of it? Maybe the best thing was to focus on the problem ahead of her and simply love and support Rita and Ham as best she could.

  Chapter Eleven

  Violet woke screaming from the nightmare of someone stabbing Victor and Kate’s baby. Jack placed his hand on her stomach and whispered, “It’s all right, love. It’s all right.”

  “It’s not,” Violet gasped, her heart racing so much it hurt. “It’s not. It was the baby. She needed me, and I couldn’t get her, and then they took her away from me.”

  “The baby is safe, Vi. I promise, she’s safe.”

  “She wasn’t though,” Violet said, turning into Jack’s side. “She wasn’t.”

  Jack didn’t argue with her any further. He rubbed her back until she fell back asleep.

  The sun was well and truly up when she woke. She felt as though someone had beat her and her head ached. She’d had several cocktails, but she knew the headache was from the dreams rather than the drinks. Violet slowly rose, ringing the bell. Usually she dressed herself and then appeared for breakfast, but today was a day where Violet was going to have coffee delivered to her room and sip it in the bath with two aspirin until she felt slightly human.

  Beatrice appeared in Violet’s room and Violet said, “You’re a secretary now, my love.”

  “Mr. Wakefield asked me to look after you today.”

  “Did he leave already?”

  “Just after dawn, my lady. He switched Mr. Cuthbert with Mr. Hargreaves?”

  Violet nodded. “Victor dismissed Hargreaves with the understanding he’d look after me. I, apparently, need babysitting.”

  Beatrice grinned. “I’m
glad that he’ll be here. Mr. Cuthbert is very professional,” she added rather diplomatically.

  “He’s a very effective automaton,” Violet agreed and Beatrice laughed. “I need coffee and aspirin, darling.”

  Violet dropped into the bath with her eye mask replaced on her face. She slowly pushed it back when the door to her bath opened and found Beatrice with the coffee. Violet took it and sipped slowly until the headache moved from a constant, throbbing ache to a dull steady pain. After she’d soaked until the water turned tepid, she returned to her bedroom wrapped in one of her kimonos and found that Beatrice had arrived with the dogs.

  “Did you name the puppy?” Beatrice asked as Vi lifted the little fellow up.

  “Holmes,” Vi replied, accepting his kisses. “Did everyone stay?”

  “No one else has come down from their rooms except for Mr. Denny, who arranged for the chalkboards from Mr. Victor’s house to arrive. Mr. Victor sent over Hargreaves and a request to send for them when you appear for breakfast.”

  Violet nodded, holding back a sigh. “Give me a dress, darling. Anything.”

  Beatrice pulled out a cream dress with an overlay of lace and beading along the hem and short sleeves. Violet put it on without comment, adding the pink pearl earbobs Jack had bought in Madrid. She dressed slowly and acknowledged to herself that Denny would never let her get away without at least discussing what had happened to Bobby.

  Violet made her way down to the breakfast room and found Hargreaves standing at the door. “How are you today, Hargreaves?”

  “Quite well, my lady,” he said.

  Violet reached out and squeezed his hand. It was surprising how much his presence made her house truly feel like home. He followed her into the room and watched as she made herself another cup of coffee. There might not be enough, she thought, to get through the day. “Thank you for coming.”

  “I am happy to look after either of you, my lady.”

  “I’m afraid we’re so entwined that looking after one of us is looking after the other. Mr. Cuthbert will work better with Kate, I think.”

  When Violet sat down only with the coffee, Mr. Hargreaves crossed to the buffet and made her a plate with toast and fruit. Violet laughed when he placed it in front of her. “Jack?”