Death of a Debutante (Riley Rochester Investigates Book 1)

by Wendy Soliman

  ‘Because Terrance played a very quick game of billiards and quit the room not long afterwards?’

  ‘Precisely. Now, we know why Leith was so keen to walk outside. I don’t believe for a moment that his meeting with Murray was accidental. It was pre-arranged. They met not far from the kitchen door, beneath the terrace, as we know. It’s a location where no one above stairs would wander without a reason. If a guest wanted to stretch his legs, he would walk in the formal gardens, not in an area dedicated to the servants. However, it was perfect from Leith’s point of view since it all but guaranteed our two lovers privacy. The other servants were waiting upon the coachmen, and probably eating and drinking too. It was sheer bad luck that Grant happened to leave the terrace by that route—the same route that the coachmen had used to enter the kitchen—and observed them there.’

  ‘Emily, meanwhile, was in the music room, presumably meeting with Terrance,’ Salter surmised.

  ‘At about the same time, I would imagine. We know he left the billiards room not long after Leith.’

  Salter nodded. ‘Very likely, but he will never admit to it, sir.’

  ‘Not unless we exert a little pressure,’ Riley replied with a grim smile.

  ‘How?’

  ‘I think we will favour Mr Terrance Ashton with a visit.’ Riley paused. ‘Conspicuously, at his place of work.’

  ‘He will probably try to avoid seeing us.’

  ‘Which is why we will wait in their reception area, if needs be. With Peterson in full uniform, naturally.’

  Salter chuckled. ‘I like it.’

  The three policemen took a hansom to the heart of the City, where Ashton’s Investment Bank was housed in a building close to the Royal Exchange. Wide steps led to a grand portico and double doors manned by a splendidly-attired porter. He raised an eyebrow at Peterson in his official tall hat and dark uniform but refrained from comment when Riley, with Salter in tow, swept past him as though he owned the establishment. Recognising a figure of authority when he saw one, he even opened the door for Riley and saluted him as he passed through it.

  ‘Take good care of my constable,’ Riley said, leaving Peterson on ostentatious display on the steps, where passers-by would see him and inevitably wonder.

  Riley walked up to the young man behind a wide reception desk, presented his card and asked to see Terrance.

  ‘Do you have an appointment, sir?’ The man blanched beneath the weight of Riley’s stare. ‘I mean, Inspector Rochester.’

  ‘Tell Mr Ashton we’re here,’ Riley said in an imperious tone.

  ‘He’s…engaged, all the morning, sir,’ the man stuttered. ‘He left strict instructions not to be disturbed.’

  ‘In which case we will wait here until he is unengaged.’ Riley looked towards several comfortable chairs. ‘Have my constable come in. He will swelter outside in that heavy uniform.’

  ‘You’ve…you’ve left a constable outside?’

  Five minutes later Riley and Salter were seated in Terrance’s office. It was large, with full length windows looking out over the street, a great deal of marble, a grand fireplace and a couple of ugly but probably expensive oil paintings gracing the walls. Riley knew that the houses in this area had originally been built as private residences. As the district developed a reputation for commence and banking their owners sold up, unwilling to be associated with anything quite so vulgar. The buildings were turned into offices designed to impress and instil confidence into would-be investors. Riley wondered how much this particular one had set Ashton back and whether he had recouped that particular investment.

  ‘How can I help you, Lord Riley?’ Terrance asked.

  Riley didn’t immediately respond. Instead he examined the young man, who looked as though he hadn’t slept for a week. His eyes were bloodshot, his expression strained. His shoulders slumped and his movements were jerky and uncoordinated.

  ‘It’s time to tell the truth, Ashton,’ Riley said in a mildly intimidating tone.

  ‘A-about what?’

  ‘Emily.’ He paused. ‘And Susan.’

  ‘Susan?’ His eyes flared. ‘Susan killed herself. You can’t possibly think otherwise.’

  Salter tilted his chair back, lifted his feet from the floor and crossed them at the ankle on the corner of Terrance’s desk. ‘We all know that’s rubbish, Terrance,’ he said.

  Terrance gawped at Salter’s worn boots and attempted to gather his dignity about him but, unlike his father, he had yet to master the art of intimidation. ‘I don’t know any such thing.’

  ‘Leaving aside the question of the unfortunate Susan, just for a moment, let’s concentrate upon Emily’s last moments on this earth,’ Riley said in quiet and reasonable tones.

  ‘I don’t know anything about that.’ Terrance made an effort to straighten his shoulders and add a note of authority to his voice, but the display was pathetically inadequate. ‘I was in the billiards room and my friends will confirm it.’

  Salter lifted his feet off the desk and the front legs of his chair struck the floor with a loud crash. ‘Your so-called friends have changed their story…Terrance.’ Salter used his name like an insult and rose to his feet, placing his fists on the corner of Ashton’s ostentatious desk.

  ‘What? No!’ Ashton’s shoulders slumped again. He looked from Riley to Salter and back again, his expression pleading for assistance from a member of his own class. Riley simply sat where he was, tapping the fingers of one hand on the arm of his chair, waiting him out in silence. ‘Well, all right,’ he eventually said. ‘In the heat of the moment I couldn’t remember the exact time we were in the billiards room, so maybe we didn’t play for as long as I said. It was too hot to concentrate. But one of the others could just as easily have killed Emily. Leith or Granville. Either could have done it. Have you asked them where they were? Why pick on me?’ He looked Riley straight in the eye. ‘It wasn’t me. I loved her and would have died to protect her if I’d known she was in trouble.’

  Oddly, Riley believed him. ‘Do you have any idea who killed her?’

  Ashton’s gaze slid off to the left. ‘None whatsoever.’

  ‘This is what I think happened. You had Susan lure Emily into the music room. Susan would do anything to please you, so it was easy enough for you to persuade her. You couldn’t invite her there yourself because you knew that Leith and Grenville wouldn’t leave you alone with her. Anyway, you met Emily there when you told me you were playing billiards. You proposed to her and you were delighted when this time she accepted you.’ Ashton’s mouth fell open and he said nothing. ‘You happened to see your father on the terrace when you left the room and told him the glad tidings. But he wasn’t happy for you, was he? This bank is in trouble and he needed you to throw in your lot with a wealthy young woman, not one whose family needed your financial support. He was depending upon you doing so, just as much as Emily’s father was depending upon her to do the same thing in reverse. Ironic that. Anyway, you refused to withdraw your proposal so your father went into the music room to iron out the misunderstanding. Things got out of hand, Emily died and you are covering for one another.’

  ‘Rubbish! I never saw Emily alone that night, I swear it by all that I hold most dear.’

  ‘The person you held most dear is dead, Terrance, so we don’t believe you,’ Salter said. ‘Your father left her on the floor and when you found her you closed her eyes and set her hands across her chest because you couldn’t bear to see her looking so…so dead.’

  ‘I didn’t see her and you can’t prove that I did,’ Terrance blustered. He looked back at Riley. ‘Because…well, I didn’t do it, and there’s no one who can say that I did.’

  ‘Not any more,’ Salter continued. ‘Susan knew, but she’s not in a position to tell us anything. Seeing as how you killed her.’

  Riley uncrossed his legs and leaned forward. ‘Come on, Ashton,’ he said in encouraging tones. ‘It’s time to tell us what you know.’

&
nbsp; There was a short silence, then Ashton let out a slow breath. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘I did ask Susan to call Emily into the music room so that I could talk to her alone, but by the time I got there she was already dead. I was shocked rigid, wondering what to do, when Father found me leaning over the body.’

  ‘And that’s what you argued about?’

  ‘Yes. I couldn’t convince him that I hadn’t killed her, even though there was absolutely no reason for me to have killed the woman I adored.’

  ‘Unless she told you that she had accepted one of your friends instead of you,’ Salter suggested. ‘Jealousy is a powerful motivator.’

  ‘I don’t really think she wanted any of us. I didn’t see her pay any one of us particular attention. No exchanges of looks, no secret smiles, nothing like that. Believe me, I would have noticed if there had been.’ He threw up his hands. ‘Obviously, the young man you have in custody killed her but you are determined to accuse me simply because you don’t like me.’

  ‘Very well. Leaving aside for a minute the question of Emily, we come to the more straightforward case of Susan.’

  Ashton shrugged. ‘Suicide is pretty straightforward.’

  ‘Don’t treat me like a fool.’ Riley didn’t raise his voice but Ashton still looked terrified by his mildly threatening tone. ‘Susan was carrying your child.’

  ‘Rubbish!’

  ‘And yet you show no surprise when I tell you that she was pregnant.’

  He waved a hand in casual dismissal. ‘Young girls from the working classes can be free with their favours. It’s common knowledge.’

  Riley tried to disguise his abhorrence at the man’s lack of empathy. ‘And you wonder why I don’t like you?’ he said. ‘It sounds to me as though you speak from experience.’

  Ashton shrugged. ‘I am a man. I have needs.’

  ‘That you satisfy with young girls from the working classes?’

  ‘Not necessarily.’ He tried to seem offhand but it didn’t quite work. The tremor in his hands and the tick beneath one eye gave him away. ‘I hear what people say about them.’

  ‘Well then, if you are so keen on gossip, whom do you suppose impregnated Susan?’

  ‘How the devil should I know?’

  ‘She had no friends and certainly didn’t associate with any young man outside of the workplace that we can find. She adored you and you took advantage of her. You just said it yourself, you are a man and you have needs.’

  ‘I didn’t mean it like that.’ Blooms of colour appeared on Terrance’s cheeks. ‘You’re twisting everything I say!’

  ‘You used her, you let her think you had feelings for her and the poor girl was simple enough to believe it. But she became a liability when she told you she was pregnant. That revelation left you with a bit of a dilemma. She wouldn’t go away quietly. You’d made vague promises to her that you had no intention of fulfilling but she was insisting that you do the right thing by her.’

  ‘Balderdash!’ But Ashton’s protest lacked conviction.

  ‘Your father would be furious if she told him the truth and he’d recognise the danger she presented to your family even if you did not. You would then bear the brunt of his anger, and we both know that he has a terrible temper. I assume he is not here, by the way.’ Riley glanced towards a pair of handsome connecting doors which he assumed led to the corner office, the only one in the building larger than Terrance’s. ‘Otherwise he would have heard that we are here and would demand to know what’s going on.’

  ‘He has gone to meet a client,’ Ashton said sullenly.

  Riley nodded to Salter, who stood and sauntered over to the connecting doors. He rattled them, but they were locked. Salter took two steps back and kicked the doors open. They crashed against the walls of the far room and a couple of splinters flew. Terrance jumped. Salter walked through them and glanced around the office. He looked at Riley and shook his head.

  ‘Nobody here, guv’nor,’ he said.

  ‘Thank you, sergeant.’ Riley turned back to Terrance. ‘Right, where was I? Susan wanted more from you than you were willing to give. She finally saw you for what you are and…well, hell hath no fury and all that. She threatened to reveal that she had lured Emily to the music room, or worse, to tell your father, who already suspected you of killing Emily and was beginning to consider you a liability. So you pretended that everything would be all right, that you would stand by her, and gave her a glass of wine doctored with arsenic to drink to seal your bargain. You may even have had a glass yourself, being careful to remember which one held the poison. “Cheers, Susan, bottoms up, old girl!”’ Riley grinned mirthlessly at Terrance and mimed a man raising a glass. ‘That was your first mistake. That wine was a good vintage and Susan wouldn’t have had access to it. Then you wrote that ridiculous suicide note.’ Riley sighed. ‘You are one of the most inept murderers I have ever had to deal with. You’re an insult to my intelligence. You made so many mistakes that it’s hard to know where to begin. Suffice it to say that Susan wouldn’t have used such sophisticated language in her note and would have misspelt the words even if she had known what they meant. “Conscience”? “Behest”? The girl left rag school at twelve, Ashton, you colossal idiot.’

  A soft groan emanated from Terrance’s throat. He looked even paler, the ugly blotches more pronounced than a few seconds before. A leg began to jerk spasmodically beneath his desk.

  ‘Your next mistake was to use good quality paper and then remove the pen and ink she supposedly used from her room,’ Riley let out an elaborate sigh. ‘Need I go on?’

  ‘You had Susan lure Emily to the music room,’ Salter said, he walked back over to Terrance’s desk and perched himself on a corner of it next to the younger man. ‘She must have known you intended to propose to the young lady. Did you even stop to imagine how she felt about that when she knew she was carrying your child? No. Stupid question. Of course you didn’t.’

  ‘She was not! How many more times? The child wasn’t mine.’

  ‘Well whose was it then?’ Salter shouted into Terrance’s face. ‘Your old man’s? Anything you can do he can do better. How does that feel, eh? You killed her. You poisoned her and you watched her choke on her own vomit. Then you sat by her body and made a stupid attempt to make her suicide look like the actions of a jealous and desperate woman,’ Salter trailed off as Riley raised a calming hand.

  ‘And that’s why you’ve now admitted asking her to lure Emily inside,’ Riley concluded.

  ‘Nonsense!’

  ‘Why else make that admission?’ Riley asked with a shrug. ‘It’s the only honest words that have passed your lips since we walked into this room.’

  ‘Perhaps Susan really did kill Emily and felt remorse,’ Terrance suggested, a desperate edge to his voice.

  ‘Do you think we came down in the last shower?’ Salter asked, his tone so threatening that even Riley felt intimidated by it.

  ‘Well at least you’re admitting to being involved with her,’ Riley concluded.

  ‘I’m not admitting anything and you can’t prove any of your wild theories,’ Ashton said with an unconvincing display of bravado.

  ‘Not yet, but the suicide note and a sample of your handwriting is being examined by an expert as we speak.’ Riley hoped that Harper had delivered it, as he had been instructed to. ‘His testimony will see you hang.’

  ‘Hang?’ Wild eyes bulged from Terrance’s face as he tugged at his hair. He pushed his chair back so abruptly that it clattered to the floor. Ashton jumped to his feet and paced the length of the room. Riley sensed Salter tense beside him, in case Ashton tried something desperate. Riley motioned to his sergeant to stay where he was. Ashton was too cowardly to attack them, and even if he attempted it he wouldn’t land a single blow before they subdued him. Besides, anything so reckless would give Riley a legitimate reason to arrest him. ‘I didn’t kill Emily. Why won’t you believe me?’

  ‘We’re not talking about Emily,
’ Salter said. ‘We’ve moved on to Susan, in case you hadn’t noticed. You think a judge is going slap your wrist and let you off with a caution for poisoning the girl because she was from the lower classes? If you don’t swing for both you’ll swing for one.’

  ‘Sit down.’ Riley spoke with enough authority in his voice for Ashton to right his chair and comply. ‘Susan’s death is also a hanging offence, despite the fact that you so easily dismiss her as an irrelevance.’

  ‘The more so,’ Salter added, ‘since she was carrying your bastard.’

  ‘Yes, yes of course. She didn’t deserve to die, but I didn’t kill her.’

  Riley stood and Salter followed suit. ‘I shall have the handwriting expert’s opinion by the end of the day. You have until then to come to me voluntarily and admit to your crimes. If you do so, there is a possibility that you will evade the hangman’s noose. If you do not, there is nothing I can do to help you. Good day to you.’

  ‘He was lying,’ Salter said as they collected Peterson and the three of them returned to the crowded street to hail a cab.

  ‘About Susan, undoubtedly. But I’m still not sure that he killed Emily.’

  ‘The father must have done it then.’

  ‘Very likely, but we’ll have the devil of a job proving it. We have no actual evidence and there are lots of other suspects he can point the finger at.’

  ‘Including Grant.’

  ‘Not a chance. I am going to release him, regardless of Danforth’s protests, right now, this minute, and ensure that he returns to Paris until this business is settled. It is the only way I can ensure that he isn’t falsely accused.’