Chapter Fifteen
At least the weather cooperated with Riley’s plans, which he chose to interpret as an encouraging omen. He travelled to work the following morning in conditions that felt tropical after the recent cold snap.
‘Morning, sir,’ Salter said. ‘A fine day for a walk in the park.’
‘I wouldn’t go that far, Jack.’ Riley threw himself into his chair, endeavouring to tamp down his misgivings about the entire rigmarole. The plans were in place and it was his duty to lead by example. ‘Any developments overnight that I need to know about?’
‘Nothing, sir, I’m sorry to say. Did Lord and Lady Torbay managed to set the bait?’
‘They did, most successfully by all accounts. All our suspects attended Lady Eldridge’s reception and none of them could have failed to learn of Rod’s secret passion. Some of the ladies were quite put out, I gather.’
Salter chuckled. ‘I imagine they would have been. Each of them seemed to think that she was his one and only. You have to hand it to the man, he had stamina. Mrs Salter is more than enough to wear me out. Can’t imagine the trouble it would cause, juggling all them women’s expectations and keeping ’em secret from one another.’
‘It was his living, Jack, and a very lucrative one too, as we’ve already found out.’
Salter sniffed. ‘Not an honest living though, even if none of his victims were…well, dissatisfied.’
Riley chuckled. ‘That’s one way of looking at it.’
Riley and his sergeant immersed themselves in the preparations, going over everything three times to ensure that no eventualities had been overlooked. The two constables that Riley had borrowed from Barton—sadly not Peterson or Harper who were known to some of the suspects—arrived dressed in the scruffy attire of outdoor workers. Mufflers covered the lower parts of their faces and their drab clothing failed to draw attention to them. They were both young, tall and fit, which was one of the reasons why Riley had selected them. If matters turned ugly, he felt confident that they could handle themselves and, more to the point, protect Alice.
By late morning Riley had run through the procedure a dozen times and people were starting to become restless with his fastidiousness.
‘I understand your concerns, guv’nor, I absolutely do,’ Barton said, taking Riley aside and addressing him in a calm, avuncular manner, ‘but you’d be best advised to put your trust in my men. They won’t let you down. If they do they’ll have me to contend with, and that ain’t a situation they’d knowingly put themselves in.’
‘You’re right, Barton.’ Riley sighed. ‘I just wish I could shake the feeling that I’ve overlooked something significant.’
‘You can’t cater for every eventuality. There’s always an element of risk in situations like this one. The girl knows all about that and still wants to help, so let her.’
Riley offered the wise old sergeant a wry smile. ‘Not many people have the courage to tell me to my face when I’m making an ass out of myself.’
‘Ah well, I tend to speak as I find.’
‘Salter and I will take ourselves off to collect Miss Fanshaw and make sure that she’s fully prepared. You know where I shall be if there are any developments.’
Riley and Salter arrived at Bond Street to find Alice dressed in respectable and warm outdoor clothing that reflected her status as a senior servant. She looked nervous yet resolute.
‘Still time to change your mind,’ Riley told her.
She lifted her chin defiantly. ‘Not a chance.’
‘Very well, if you’re absolutely sure then we should get you to the park. You would ordinarily travel by omnibus, I imagine.’
‘I would, sir.’
‘Good, since that is how anyone watching would expect you to arrive.’ Riley conducted her to the side of the road. There were no designated stopping places for the omnibuses but several people had gathered on a corner, Parker included, waiting to flag one down. Riley pointed Parker out to Alice.
‘That man will follow you every step of the way,’ he told her. ‘Don’t speak to him unless you sense danger. He will ignore you, but rest assured he will have you in his sights continuously.’ Riley squeezed her shoulder. ‘Good luck, my dear.’
Riley and Salter watched as on omnibus swerved to collect the waiting passengers. The two of them took a hansom to the park and were there, concealed across the road, in time to watch Alice arrive. She played her part superbly, looking neither left nor right as she waited for a gap in the traffic and crossed the road to the park’s entrance. Parker sauntered along behind her, casually scanning the headlines in the newspaper held in front of his face.
‘Now we wait,’ Riley said, tapping his hand anxiously against his thigh.
There were several entrances to the park, but the one they watched was the busiest and the most convenient if one arrived on foot or in a hired carriage. They waited for an hour and saw absolutely nothing to excite their interest. The better weather held but was not sufficiently warm to tempt any but the hardiest of souls to venture into the park. Riley began to fear that they were wasting their time. He felt frustrated yet relieved that Alice would come to no harm.
‘Nothing’s gonna happen,’ Salter complained.
No sooner had the words left his lips when a sudden commotion and a loud whistle had both detectives running across the street, narrowly avoiding being run down by a cart. Its driver swerved to avoid them and turned the air blue with his language. Riley ignored him and ran hell for leather into the park.
‘What?’ he asked breathlessly, aware of his people surrounding Alice and another figure. They parted to allow Riley through. He thought at first that he was seeing things when he observed Susan Kempton squirming on the muddy ground, held down by Barton’s two constables, screaming at them to unhand her. She turned her head, saw Riley and demanded that he do something. Riley obliged by having her hauled from the ground and held firmly in the clutches of Barton’s constables.
Riley ignored her continuing protestations and turned his attention to Alice. She sagged on her bench, leaning forward and clutching her arms around her body. Riley noticed that her teeth were chattering.
‘She tried to manhandle you?’ Riley asked, crouching in front of her. ‘Are you all right? Did she harm you?’
‘I’m fine. Just a little winded.’
Satisfied that Alice would not swoon, Riley turned furious eyes upon his men. ‘How in the name of Hades did she get so close?’ he demanded in a mordent tone.
‘Begging your pardon, sir,’ one of the constables said, ‘but we was told to look out for a man. We didn’t think nothing of another woman sauntering along and sitting on the same bench as Miss Fanshaw.’
No, Riley thought, and that was all his fault. He had been convinced that a woman wouldn’t have had the strength to commit the crime and so didn’t allow for that possibility.
‘Did she speak to you?’ Riley asked Alice.
‘Yes, sir. She asked me if I was Rod Woodrow’s intended? Looked ever so put out when I said that I was. Did I do right, sir? I wasn’t sure, you see. I didn’t expect…well, I didn’t rightly know what to expect. She took me by surprise.’
‘You did very well indeed, Alice,’ Riley replied. ‘What happened then?’
‘She grabbed my arm and said we needed to talk somewhere more secluded. I think…well, she kept looking at those trees over there. She wanted us to go in there, but then Mr Parker and the others realised what was happening and dragged her off me. Is she…did she kill my Rod?’
‘It looks that way, Alice.’
‘Who is she, sir? She never gave me her name.’
‘I will come and see you as soon as I’ve sorted all this out and explain everything. In the meantime, you need to get yourself somewhere warm. Thank you so much for being brave and helping us, Alice. We never would have got this far without you.’
‘It’s my pleasure, sir.’
‘Escort Alice home, Stout,’ he said. ‘The rest of you back to the Yard with me. Needless to say, Mrs Kempton is under arrest for the murder of Roderick Woodrow.’
‘Murder. I did not kill him!’ she spat at Riley. ‘I loved him and this…this strumpet turned him against me. I simply wanted to talk to her, to understand how she managed it and make her realise how impossible it would have been.’
‘Don’t you just love it when suspects condemn themselves with their own words, sir,’ Salter said gleefully, watching Stout solicitously escorting Alice to a hansom. ‘That is one brave woman,’ he added.
‘Indeed it is.’ And I almost got her killed.
Mrs Kempton was thrust, protesting, into a cell and left there to contemplate her situation. Meanwhile, Riley organised a full search of her property to be carried out, leaving Carter and Soames to arrange it. They knew what to look for. He had a feeling that Mrs Kempton would continue to deny all involvement in Rod’s murder and that he would need more than her attack on Alice to strengthen the case against her.
‘Well, Jack,’ he said after an hour of receiving individual reports from those present in the park. ‘Shall we see what she has to say for herself?’
‘Should be interesting,’ Salter grinned. ‘I’ll arrange for her to be brought up. Do you really think she killed him, sir?’
‘Oh yes, and I should not have dismissed the possibility out of hand when I learned that Rod had fathered her child and she was still in love with him. We knew she was a woman scorned, determined to have Rod at whatever cost. We also know he would have let her into his rooms if she’d lain in wait for him, rather than deal with her in the street where anyone might have overheard their conversation. He wouldn’t have felt threatened by her and probably assumed that he would be able to calm her down as easily as he always had in the past.’
‘He underestimated her grievances, and didn’t realise he had pushed her too far.’
Riley stood. ‘Let’s find out, shall we?’
A short time later Riley and Salter joined a dishevelled, pale and clearly frightened woman in one of the bleak interview rooms.
‘Tell me what happened just now in the park,’ Riley said without preamble as he took occupation of the chair across from her.
‘I was about to ask you the same question. I had just begun to address that woman in the park, and the next thing I knew I was wrestled to the ground by your thuggish constables,’ Mrs Kempton replied, attempting to gain the moral high ground. She would have been more successful if she had been able to conceal the fear in her eyes. ‘I shall be making a complaint to your superiors, make no mistake about it. Your officers’ conduct was beyond the pale. They manhandled me and humiliated me.’
‘Why did you want to speak with the lady?’ Salter asked.
‘Lady?’ She clucked her tongue against her teeth and sent him a sour look. ‘That was no lady. You can take my word for it.’
‘Answer the question,’ Salter snapped.
‘Since you insist, I heard a rumour at Lady Eldridge’s reception about Rod having developed a passion for a servant.’ She flapped a hand. ‘I knew it couldn’t possibly be true, of course, yet I needed to satisfy my curiosity. Someone said she frequented that park so…well, I just wanted to talk to her. I suggested we went somewhere out of the wind and the next thing I knew I was face down in the mud.’
Salter broke the silence that greeted this fiction with a slow round of applause. ‘More entertaining than the music hall, the stories we hear in this room, wouldn’t you say, sir?’
‘My sergeant’s in the right of it, Mrs Kempton. We don’t believe a word of what you just said.’ Riley settled himself into a more comfortable position. ‘Shall we try again?’
‘I have nothing more to say to you and I would like to go home now,’ Mrs Kempton said with a lofty toss of her head.
‘I don’t think you realise quite how much trouble you’re actually in,’ Salter said sharply. ‘We are on the point of charging you with Rod Woodrow’s murder, for which you will hang.’
‘Hang?’ He face paled even more. ‘But I loved him. We were going to make a life together. Why would I kill him and destroy my own future?’
‘No, Mrs Kempton, Rod wasn’t going to give up his lucrative blackmailing business for you and your daughter. Or for any of his other women either,’ Riley replied. ‘He was in love with the lady you saw in the park today.’
‘No! That’s impossible.’ She dismissed the statement with a flap of one hand and a trill little laugh. ‘Rod had his standards.’ But her denial sounded less than convincing.
‘This is your opportunity to tell us what happened that night in Rod’s rooms.’ Riley fixed her with a frosty look. ‘For what it’s worth, I don’t believe that you went there with the intention of killing him. Matters got out of hand. It was a crime of passion. If you admit that, it just might save you from the hangman.’
‘I am admitting nothing. You have no proof.’
‘I should warn you that officers are currently searching your home for evidence of your culpability.’
‘What!’ She suddenly looked terrified. ‘You can’t do that. You have no right to search my home without my permission.’
‘We have every right. And when we find evidence of your guilt, it will be too late for you to claim that your argument with Rod escalated and that he died accidentally.’ Not that he could have accidently strangled himself, but still…Riley paused. ‘It’s now or never, Mrs Kempton.’
Neither detective said another word, and silence enveloped the room. Riley could almost hear Mrs Kempton’s mind working and was conscious of her laboured breathing. Before she could decide how best to absolve herself a tap at the door preceded Carter putting his head round it. Riley went out to see what had been found at the Kempton residence, feeling elated when he noticed Carter’s wide smile and the two lead crystal glasses that he held in his hand.
‘Where were they?’ Riley asked.
‘In a box in her ladyship’s boudoir, tied up with a pink ribbon, along with other bits and pieces,’ Carter said, grinning. ‘A man’s handkerchief, a dried flower, a necktie, letters, theatre programmes. She kept everything the man gave her by the looks of things. They never learn, do they?’
‘Her sentimentality will see her hang,’ Riley said grimly. ‘Well done, Carter.’
‘We found these too, sir,’ Soames added, dangling a set of keys from his forefinger. ‘I reckon they’re Woodrow’s missing keys.’
‘In the same place?’
‘Actually, no. They were thrown in a drawer in Kempton’s room. We couldn’t fit them to any locks in the Kempton household. We asked their butler but he’d never seen them before.’
Riley took a moment to ponder what he had just learned. It sounded as though they were both in on it—husband and wife.
‘Go round to Half Moon Street,’ Riley said to his detectives. ‘If those keys fit Rod’s rooms then arrest Kempton at his business premises and bring him in.’
‘Right you are sir,’ Carter said with alacrity.
Riley squared his shoulders and returned to the interview room.
‘I’ll tell you everything,’ Mrs Kempton said before he’d even resumed his seat.
‘Too late. You had your chance.’ Riley produced the glasses from behind his back and placed them on the table. ‘Why did you keep them?’ he asked.
‘Oh God!’ She leaned her elbows on the table and dropped her head into her splayed hands, shaking it from side to side.
‘He won’t help you now, love,’ Salter said. ‘Best make a clean breast of it.’
Mrs Kempton reached for her handkerchief, mopped her eyes and struggled to regain her composure. Both detectives watched her in silence.
‘I did go round to see Rod that evening, but I swear on my daughter’s life that I didn’t kill him,’ she said. ‘I just wanted to talk to him. To make him see reason. I didn’t tell you the truth when I said I wasn’t prepared to defy Papa when he declined his permission for us to marry. I would have done so in a heartbeat, but Rod said I’d never forgive myself if I became estranged from my own father.’
‘A father who threatened to disinherit you if you married Rod, I would imagine,’ Riley remarked with a cynical twist to his lips.
‘Well yes, that too. Rod and I were passionately in love. No one will convince me that he loved anyone other than me,’ she added, lifting her chin. ‘He said we needed to be patient and we’d eventually find a way to be together. But of course, we’d reckoned without Giles saying I would never see our daughter again if I divorced him. Rod said not to worry, that we’d work it out somehow. But I felt him drifting away from me. He cancelled our last two rendezvous without good reason and never seemed quite like himself when we were together. He was distracted all the time and…well, perfunctory.’ Two red blotches of colour stained her cheeks at the implication.
‘Go on,’ Riley encouraged.
‘I’d decided to sell the house without Giles’ knowledge and then we could have gone off together, Rod and me and our daughter, and Giles couldn’t have done a thing to prevent it. Without me to support him, he would have had too many financial problems to spare a thought for us. But Rod kept finding excuses, telling me there was no rush and that we had to do it right.’
‘So you decided to corner him in his rooms and have it out with him once and for all,’ Riley said.
‘I did. I’d had enough of his excuses and I needed to know what the real problem was. He seemed surprised to see me and didn’t want to invite me in, but I threatened to scream the street down if he did not. Once we were inside he poured himself a glass of whisky, sat down and laughed himself silly when I insisted that we finalise our plans. He called me naïve, said he’d never loved me and never would. He didn’t intend to waste his life on a woman with loose morals.’ Her bosom swelled. ‘Loose morals! I ask you. I gave myself to him because I was passionately in love, and he convinced me that we would marry as soon as Papa was persuaded to see reason.’
‘But you realised then that his sole purpose had always been to get his hands on your money,’ Riley suggested.
She nodded. ‘The humiliation. I cannot begin to tell you how angry and foolish I felt. He told me not to upset myself. I was not the only woman who had made an idiot of herself over him and he laughed at the ease with which we all fell for his lies. He told me it was over and to go away and be a good little girl. He wanted one more large payment from me and then I would never see him again. If I didn’t pay, all the letters I had written to him would find their way into the public domain, my reputation would be in tatters and the small foothold I’d managed to retain in society would be lost to me.’ Tears spilled down her cheeks. ‘Honestly, Lord Riley, it was as though I had never known him.’
‘I can well imagine.’
‘I asked him why he had done it. Deceived so many of us, I mean, and he said because he could. At first it had been a game, an easy way to keep the wolf from the door without actually working for a living, but then he fell in love with that…that girl, and everything changed. He held up his whisky glass and said she was as pure and as precious as hand-blown crystal. It was the ultimate insult and I’m afraid a red mist of anger coloured my vision. I grabbed one of his precious glasses and whacked him on the back of the head with it while he sat in his chair, openly laughing at me. I have no idea where I found the strength. Anyway, he gave me a look of absolute shock and then slumped to the floor.’ She shuddered, presumably as she remembered what she had done.
‘I thought at first that I had killed him. When I regained my wits I felt for a pulse, which was there, but he was out cold. I didn’t know what to do, but did know that my dreams, my desires, would never come to fruition. I also knew he would never stop demanding money from me; unless I got my letters back.’
‘You searched for them?’ Salter asked.
‘No. I was too afraid to linger. There were other tenants in that house. I wasn’t sure if anyone had heard anything or what Rod would do if he regained consciousness. So I grabbed Rod’s keys, let myself out and ran home. Our house in not far from Half Moon Street, an easy walk. I woke Giles up and told him everything. He ordered me to go to bed and said that he would handle things. I knew he would too because he’d asked me for money to support the business and I’d declined. Naturally I promised to reconsider. I knew he would help me even without the offer of financial help. He hated Rod, suspected that I was still seeing him and besides, he wanted to protect my reputation and put a stop to the blackmail once and for all.’
‘Did he tell you what he did?’
‘No, we never spoke of it, but when I heard that Rod was dead, I knew. He said he’d looked for the letters but there was nothing in that room.’
‘Which was your real reason for accosting Alice in the park today.’
‘Yes.’ She lowered her head. ‘I intended to offer her money in return for whatever she’d kept for him. I didn’t mean her any harm, even though I disliked her intensely.’
‘Then why try to get her alone in a quiet spot?’ Salter asked.
Mrs Kempton merely shrugged and had the good sense not to condemn herself further.
‘Why, if you were in such a panic, did you take two of Rod’s glasses when you fled his rooms and then keep them?’ Riley asked, having always known somehow that they would be the key to solving the case.
‘I wish I knew.’ She looked genuinely bewildered. ‘I wasn’t thinking clearly. I suppose I looked upon them as a symbol that summed up Rod’s existence. He wanted the best of everything, which is what those glasses represented. I’d never been to his rooms before, but he told me once that they’d been a gift from his father and cost a small fortune. He was inordinately attached to them, but his greed cost him his life.’
When they had extracted everything from Mrs Kempton that she had to tell them, Riley had her sent back to the cells.
‘You were right then sir,’ Salter said a little later, after Kempton had admitted his part in actually carrying out the strangling. ‘A woman didn’t commit the crime.’
‘She caused it though, Salter, and then invented an elaborate charade that she hoped would throw up so many suspects that they’d get away with the crime. She knew he was a blackmailer and that those letters would come to light sooner or later, so she told me about her relationship with Rod, pretending that her husband was ignorant of the particulars, and insisted I call when he wasn’t at home. Very clever.’
‘But not clever enough.’
‘Well done, Rochester, Salter,’ Superintendent Thompson put his head round Riley’s door, beaming, and offered both men his hand. ‘I knew you’d manage to get to the bottom of things.’
‘Thank you, sir,’ Riley replied.
‘Get off home, guv,’ Salter said once Danforth had stopped by to add his less than fulsome congratulations. ‘I’ll get the paperwork started. I dare say Mrs Cosgrove is feeling neglected. Can’t have that now, can we?’
‘Thank you, Jack, I think I’ll do just that. But first I am going to ask Tom Morton to offer his services to Alice. Since you managed to have it confirmed that she’s Rod’s beneficiary, it also means that she’s now a wealthy young woman. Beautiful too. A volatile combination. She will need a guiding hand from a dependable person like Tom, who just happens to be well versed in the law.’
Salter hitched a bushy brow. ‘Not matchmaking are you, sir?’
‘I wouldn’t dream of such a thing, sergeant,’ Riley shrugged into his coat and plonked his hat on his head. ‘Good night.’
‘Good night, sir.’