Midnight Capers

by Rebecca King

  “Well, their arrest sheds a different light on the situation, doesn’t it?” Mr Abrahams shoved his spectacles further up his nose and peered at them all over the top of them. “There is enough evidence to suggest that Mrs Snodgrass has a corrupting influence on her ward because she has made her daughters commit crimes. It might be enough for a judge to deem her guardianship unsafe.”

  “I take it that there is no conflict of interest here, sir?” Roger asked.

  “Oh, no. No. No. No. Nothing like that. I wouldn’t work for her, or her daughters,” Mr Abrahams muttered, doing his best not to curl his lip.

  Roger smiled. “Good, then you will put a case together? All bills must be sent to me at this address.” He handed the solicitor his card. “I can arrange for a judge to consider the case as a matter of urgency seeing as the young woman in question doesn’t have access to her fortune while her guardian is behind bars.”

  “I know that Mrs Snodgrass has been given a generous allowance to look after Miss Storley,” Mr Abrahams announced. “You see, Miss Storley’s father, Horace, was a client of mine. I warned him that it wasn’t normal to arrange for a guardian until his daughter was either married or five and twenty, but he wouldn’t listen. He said his daughter needed protection for as long as possible. I think he had some sort of romantic notion that his daughter would have an adopted family into her maturity if she had Mrs Snodgrass as a guardian. Of course, that wasn’t going to work with a woman like Mrs Snodgrass, but Horace wouldn’t hear of any alternative. Without Mrs Snodgrass’ guardianship there was nobody to look after Miss Storley.”

  “It had to be Augusta - Mrs Snodgrass - or Pheony would have been orphaned,” Dean muttered.

  “And vulnerable to every financial predator in the country,” Roger added.

  “Indeed. To protect her inheritance, Horace put his money into a trust which Pheony isn’t allowed to touch until she reaches five and twenty, or until her guardianship ends. Or, of course, if she marries then her fortune will be handed to her husband as is the case these days.” Mr Abrahams made a few notes on a piece of paper and rested his folded hands on his desk.

  “How much as Mrs Snodgrass’s allowance for looking after Pheony?”

  Mr Abraham named a sum that made the Star Elite look at him in astonishment.

  “That’s enough to feed them all,” Roger muttered, to which Mr Abraham nodded.

  “And clothe them and pay their bills,” Peregrine added.

  “But it is not enough to afford their luxurious accommodation, the free-flowing wine, and the generous amount of food they all consume while staying at the travelling inns,” Dean muttered. “No wonder they left the inns without paying.”

  “Well, they have been arrested for it,” Roger informed the shocked solicitor. “I don’t doubt they will be behind bars for a while, so the house will be empty.”

  “That isn’t Miss Storley’s house. The house her father owned was sold after he died, and the proceeds were put into her trust.”

  “She can afford to purchase somewhere of her own if we can get the guardianship removed,” Dean mused to which the solicitor nodded.

  “We will get the guardianship removed,” Roger assured him. “We have to.”

  “I shall see to the relevant paperwork today, sir,” Mr Abrahams confirmed.

  “I will be back later to tell you which judge will hear your case.”

  “But it is Friday, sir,” Mr Abrahams replied. “The judge won’t preside again until Monday.”

  Roger threw him a pointed look. “Oh, this will be a special court. Leave it to me. I will be in touch. Just make sure that a good legal argument is put together.”

  The Star Elite left Mr Abrahams looking bemused, and were soon standing outside the man’s office, studying the pedestrians on the street.

  “Do we go and tell her now?” Ronan asked.

  “We have to get the guardianship removed first,” Roger replied. “For now, we must resume our search for Morton. He is around here somewhere. I can feel it.”

  Dean was deep in thought as he mounted his horse. He was pleased for Pheony while at the same time worried, deeply worried. He wanted to see her, to know for definite that she was all right. It was alarming that he had no idea where she was staying, if the house was safe, if she was safe. While the Star Elite had eradicated the major cause of her problems, she still faced the huge problem of having nobody to help her find somewhere of her own that she could call home. Having seen her room at Augusta’s house, he felt she deserved a proper home.

  “I need to go and see her,” Dean only realised that he had said that aloud when Joshua rode up beside him.

  “You have to keep your mind on finding Morton now. I would recommend that you don’t do anything until we have the formal investigation completed. Then, you will be free to go and see her, and take as long as you need to resolve the differences between you.”

  “I don’t know if she wants to resolve the differences between us anymore,” Dean sighed. “I haven’t exactly been fair with her. I was cruel.” Winced and shook his head in disgust. He hated himself for the way he had treated her. “God, I was a bastard to her.”

  “Then go and apologise, but later. For now, we have work to do. You need to concentrate on it. You won’t be any good to her dead,” Joshua announced in his usual forthright manner. After throwing a pointed look at him, Joshua nudged his horse into a trot and went to speak to Roger leaving Dean with a few minutes to himself to contemplate how little sympathy he was getting from his friends and how much he deserved it.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “Let’s go and find Morton’s mistress.”

  “She lives in Willershaw, doesn’t she?” Joshua asked Roger.

  They studied the small stone marker at the side of the road.

  “We are closer to Willershaw than we are the safe house,” Daniel shrugged. “Morton may be with her. If not, he can’t be all that far away. She must be the only contact he has left now. Everyone else is either behind bars, or has deserted him, or is dead like Boulton.”

  “Where is the address?” Roger dragged two folded pieces of paper out of his pocket both of which contained addresses. He lifted a troubled gaze to Dean when he realised that one of those addresses was for Pheony’s house. Without hesitation, he read the address on the piece of paper. “Let’s go.”

  But when they reached the village of Willershaw, the Star Elite received a nasty surprise.

  “Sir, can you tell us where to find this address?” Roger handed the blacksmith the piece of paper.

  The blacksmith scratched his head and pursed his lips. “That isn’t an address in this village.”

  “Are you sure?”

  The blacksmith glared at him. “I have lived here all my life. I am sure,” he snapped, affronted that Roger thought he was lying.

  Roger swore fluidly and quickly unfolded the second piece of paper. “How about this one?”

  The blacksmith mumbled something but dutifully read what was written. “That’s just down the road. The third house on the right.”

  “Thank you. Tell me something, have you had any newcomers in the village?”

  The blacksmith scratched his head. “Not that I know of, why?”

  “No reason,” Roger smiled his thanks and nudged his horse down the road a little.

  “What is it?” Hamish muttered when he saw the dark scowl on Roger’s face.

  Roger looked at his men. “Let’s go and pay a visit to Morton’s mistress,” was all he said, before leading the way.

  When they reached the house in question, the men split up. Daniel, and Hamish, disappeared around the back of the property while Roger, Dean, and Joshua, took up position beside the front door and front windows of the property. The rest of the men remained in the street and garden, just in case Morton was inside and decided to run.

  Roger eased the front door open. It was disturbing to find that it was off the latch.

  “Hello?” Roger called. Removi
ng his gun, he stepped deeper into the still and silent house.

  Dean stuck his head into the sitting room beside the front door but shook his head. The room was empty. He watched Roger enter the room opposite. Roger’s curse warned him that the news was not good.

  “He has killed her,” Roger growled. He stepped out of the doorway so that Dean could enter the room and see the body of the young woman lying in the centre of the sitting room.

  “She has been strangled,” Dean announced, studying the ligature marks around the woman’s neck. “But he took the weapon with him from the looks of things.” He looked around the floor and chairs in the room but there was nothing nearby that could have been used to strangle the woman.

  “He must have killed her to stop her talking to us,” Hamish announced, whistling for his colleagues to stand down. One by one the men from the Star Elite all entered the house.

  “There is nothing here of Morton’s. He is very clever because we have no proof that Boulton didn’t do this,” Ronan muttered, pointing to the corpse.

  “There is no reason why Boulton would want her dead, is there?” Roger asked.

  “Not that we know of. The locals said that Morton was her lover. They never mentioned anything about Boulton being her lover too,” Luke announced with a shrug. “Morton must be the killer.”

  “This has gone far beyond the work of a fraudster, or someone thieving from innocent shop keepers now,” Hamish announced.

  Roger nodded. “This is now an official murder investigation, gentlemen. Search the house then send for the magistrate. He can notify her family of her demise if she has any relatives. We need to go after Morton.”

  “What is the point? We have searched every town and village for miles around already. Besides, we have shopkeepers and locals looking out for him. They will tell us if he appears.” Ronan protested.

  “We have to wait,” Peregrine sighed. “There is no reason why he should start to randomly kill people. Morton is panicking and trying to silence people who know him and know what he has been up to. He will resurface when he needs funds. Right now, he has nothing. No home. No family. No life to go back to. No income. No means of supporting himself. If we secure this property and get the locals to watch it, someone will tell us if Morton does return, then we can arrest him.”

  “We can arrest him for breaking and entering just to get him off the street and add charges of murder once he is behind bars,” Hamish reasoned.

  Roger hated to have to admit it, but his colleagues were right. They could spend their lives chasing around the countryside after the unpredictable fraudster but weren’t likely to be able to catch him. “We will have to wait for him to resurface then,” he agreed.

  “Pheony lives in Willershaw, doesn’t she?” Hamish asked of Roger as he slid a sly look at Dean.

  Dean was shaken by the wild surge of warmth that blossomed in the centre of his chest when he heard that. His head snapped up with the realisation that he was so close to her. For the first time in several days, his eyes lit with interest, and he didn’t immediately snarl like a wounded bear at his colleagues.

  “Ah, well.” Roger coughed uncomfortably and tried to think of a way of breaking the bad news.

  “Go on,” Dean growled when it was clear that Roger was uncomfortable.

  “She doesn’t live here,” Roger announced, tossing the useless piece of paper Bert had given him onto the kitchen table. “The address doesn’t exist. That is what the blacksmith told me. It was the first address I showed him, the one that Bert gave me.”

  “What?” Hamish blinked at Roger. It was the last thing he had expected his boss to say. “Why would Bert lie about something like that? Where has she gone? What has he done with her?”

  They were all questions Dean wanted, needed to ask, but he couldn’t think of anything other than the address didn’t exist. He picked up the paper and unfolded it. Even written on crumpled paper, the address was still legible. “Where is she then?” he breathed.

  “What about the address Bert gave you that was supposedly the one he was going to move to? Does that exist?” Ronan demanded, worried about how angry Dean looked.

  “I don’t know, but I think we need to find out, don’t you?” Roger almost dreaded what they were going to find, but the Star Elite set off to try to locate Bert’s house anyway.

  “Damn it all to Hell,” Dean snarled when they had stopped to ask an elderly lady, and lifelong resident of Sprankley, where Bert’s supposed address was only to find that it didn’t exist either.

  “They have both vanished,” Joshua cried in horror. “Why? If they have nothing to hide, and they weren’t involved in disappearing from taverns without paying their bills, why would they need to hide?”

  “Do you think they are linked to Morton? That it was Bert who led Morton to our safe house?” Hamish asked. He hated to think that they had been made to look such fools but had to suggest it if only so one of his colleagues could dismiss it.

  “Maybe they were involved with what Augusta had been doing and don’t want to get arrested for it so decided to hide. I mean, we have no idea how long Bert was in the bed chamber with her. We don’t know what story they agreed to tell us, or what they planned before we found them,” Hamish warned.

  “We have to find her, if only so we can get the truth. If I find them together, living under the same roof, I am going to assume that these false addresses they gave us are an attempt to stay out of gaol, and that they were involved in Augusta’s scheming,” Dean hissed. He felt as if every word was wrenched out of his chest. He hated to even contemplate that Pheony was capable of such duplicity.

  “She isn’t the kind to do something like that,” Hamish muttered. “She hates Augusta, remember.”

  “Pheony seemed far too kind, too open, and honest, to be involved with robbing people,” Daniel added. “I don’t believe it. I think that it is more likely that Pheony is worried that we intend to return her to Augusta’s guardianship when we find her. Bert did come to the safe house to try to protect her don’t forget but had no intention of returning her to Augusta either.”

  “But Pheony knew that we were going to arrest Augusta before she left the safe house. There was no reason for her to feel the need to hide,” Hamish argued.

  “But did she trust us enough to believe us?” Ronan tried to avoid looking at Dean because it sounded as if he was really asking everyone if Pheony was likely to trust Dean since she had been treated so abysmally by him.

  Roger looked worriedly at Dean. “The only reason either of them would have for needing to hide is that they know something or have done something that they don’t want us to find out about.”

  Dean closed his eyes but when he did the image of Pheony’s bed chamber rose to the forefront of his mind. “She isn’t a thief. She wouldn’t willingly steal from someone. The night that I spoke to her in the tavern, she wanted help. Pheony asked me to help her escape the tavern. She knew then that I was with the Star Elite. If she were involved in thieving from taverns, why would she approach me? No criminal would draw our attention to themselves if they wanted to avoid gaol.”

  “Maybe she was being embroiled in their crimes and didn’t want to face being arrested for them. I mean, if she wasn’t a willing accomplice, it would be best to ask for the Star Elite’s help and protection and in doing so distance herself from what Augusta was about to do.” Hamish shrugged when Dean looked thoughtfully at him.

  “I think that we are all in agreement that Pheony isn’t the criminal here. What we must concern ourselves with is that it was Bert who lied about where she was going to live. We don’t know if she has actually been taken there because the property Bert told us about doesn’t exist.”

  Dean stared at his colleague. “Are you suggesting that Bert has kidnapped her?”

  “Once he realised that Augusta was going to prison, which he knew might happen once he realised that Pheony was with the Star Elite, Bert might have realised that Pheony’s guardianship w
as no longer viable, and that Pheony would soon be an extraordinarily rich young woman. Money can make people do foolish things. Look at Morton,” Roger reasoned.

  “Do we treat this as an investigation into abduction then?” Hamish asked.

  “I think we have to, and because Bert has disappeared too, it has to be our priority right now. Morton has gone underground but has too many enemies in the villages around here to resurface and not be seen. Someone he has crossed or pressured for money or goods will undoubtedly see him and report his location to us. Now that they know he is going to be arrested, the shop keepers in the area will not have any qualms about telling us where to find him.” Roger ran a frustrated hand down his face. “However, Pheony is missing. We have no idea where she is, or why Bert has taken her. One thing is for definite, Bert whatever the Hell his name is, has made us look like damned fools.”

  “We trusted him because Pheony trusted him. Augusta has already confirmed that Bert has worked for Pheony’s family for many years,” Ronan replied. “There is no reason why she should doubt his honesty. She would willingly go with him.”

  “We have to find her,” Dean muttered. “We have to find them both.”

  “But where do we start? I mean, we have no idea where they might have gone either. We are no more able to find Bert and Pheony than we are able to find Morton,” Joshua snorted. “There must be at least two hundred villages in this county. Do we search every single one of them? How in the Hell do we know that Bert hasn’t taken Pheony to Scotland, Wales, or even London?”

  The heavy silence that met his question was condemning.

  Pheony was climbing the narrow stairs to go to bed when she heard a dull thud somewhere at the back of the house. In the silence of the isolated residence, it was so loud it sounded like gunfire.