Avery & Blake 02 - The Infidel Stain (20 page)

Lord Allington lived in a handsome town house on Charles Street in Mayfair, not far from my rooms at the Oriental Club. Freshly attired, we were ushered by a splendidly if soberly liveried doorman into a marble entrance hall in which grey
trompe l’œil
sculptures were painted into grey
trompe l’œil
niches. Inside, there was great activity. A deputation of ladies in black emerged through one door; several black-clad young men mounted the stairs, their arms full of piles of papers, while a footman descended with a small tray. Such was the dominance of grey and black, I felt quite ostentatious in what I had considered to be a discreetly elegant blue silk necktie and patterned waistcoat. The doorman consulted a footman, who vanished then returned with Mr Threlfall. He loftily indicated that we should leave our coats and then ushered us into a small drawing-room.

The room was sparsely, though richly, furnished. There was a marble bust, a small desk on which there was a pile of religious tracts – the uppermost being
The Road to Hell: Listen to Your Conscience
– a hard-looking settle and two spindly high-backed chairs, all pushed to the room’s edges. Over the fireplace was a framed Bible text embroidered in black thread: ‘Go to the Ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise.’ It was, I concluded, the most uncomfortable expensively furnished room I had ever entered.

‘Lady Agnes Bertram Vickers,’ said Threlfall.

Standing before the settle was a woman in a black silk dress with a high lace collar and a small waist. I recognized her: she was Lord Allington’s sister; I had seen her at the Lascar hostel where she had been so disappointed at her dismissal. The first impression was of someone demure and unassuming. Her thick soft brown hair was parted in the middle and twisted loosely over her ears into a wide knot. Her eyes were a dark brown but fringed with the same thick lashes as her brother’s.

‘Gentlemen,’ she said, but her glance rested chiefly upon Blake. ‘I am Lord Allington’s sister. I oversee his household and contribute what little I can as a female to his charitable causes. You must understand that he is very busy today and very likely will not have time to see you. He has to see representatives from the Society for the Relief of the Spitalfields Weavers, then delegates from the Short Hours movement who have come all the way from Manchester. Later, he will be dining with the Home Secretary and the Duke of Buccleuch.’ The imperious manner in which this was said at once despatched any impression of diffidence or shyness.

‘We have news which may affect the direction of future investigation, madam,’ said Blake. ‘We need to speak to him.’

‘You may speak to me. And you will address me as “Lady Agnes” or “My Lady”.’

‘I beg your pardon, Lady Agnes,’ I said, ‘but I am not sure the details are fit for a lady’s ears. Your brother did ask that you leave the room the other day when the matter was discussed.’

The comment did not please her but she assented to it with ill grace, giving a small cross nod to indicate that we might sit. So we perched on the two spindly chairs and waited, and she sat still and very upright and stared at Blake’s hand with its missing fingers.

‘What a contrast your appearance presents from two days ago, Mr Blake,’ she said.

He smiled. ‘My work obliges me to adopt a variety of different guises, Lady Agnes.’

‘But which is the real Mr Blake, and does he know it?’ There was something almost coquettish about her tone. ‘Tell me about yourself.’

‘I am a private inquiry agent. I find things, people. Avery is a former East India Company officer. We worked together in India.’

There was a long, awkward silence.

‘If I might, Lady Agnes,’ I said, ‘Mr Blake has many admirable qualities, but describing himself is not his greatest strength. Sir Theophilus Collinson, however, would give you a most thorough recommendation.’

She tapped her knuckles impatiently. ‘Might I ask in more general terms how your researches are progressing?’

‘We have not yet found what we are looking for,’ said Blake, ‘if that is what you mean.’

‘Do you believe you will be successful?’

‘Hard to say. We have made some progress.’

‘I will be honest, Mr Blake,’ she said. ‘I strongly believe that my brother’s pursuit of this matter is misplaced and potentially dangerous. Nor am I convinced that you are the right man to conduct this inquiry. Our work is to bring salvation to the poor and charity to the needy. That is what we do best. I fear my brother strays into territory that might bring upon him unwelcome attention, even criticism and censure. My brother is a shining star – a beacon of salvation. Nothing must be allowed to diminish his brightness. What do you say to that?’ She gazed at him with a curious mixture of severity and appetite. Fatigue sent my mind into odd byways and I found myself wondering what woman other than the daughter of an earl would have so brazenly and directly stared at and addressed a man she did not know. The only other answer that presented itself was a whore. I knew I must be very tired indeed.

‘My answer is that there is a murderer at large and he should be stopped.’

‘Surely that is the task of the new police? Besides, from what I can gather, his victims were infidels, men who had already by their own actions damned themselves.’

I was taken aback by the casual ruthlessness of her words.

‘We disagree, Lady Agnes,’ he said. ‘And I too will be honest. As I told your brother, I do not share your religious convictions. I do not believe anyone is damned, though life can produce its own kinds of hell.’

‘Indeed?’ she said, closing her mouth as if someone had dropped something unpleasant into it. She rose. Threlfall opened the door for her, shooting us a disdainful look, and she swept out, he following after.

‘Could you not have been just a little more tactful?’ I said in a low tone, knowing all too well the answer.

‘I’m not employed for my tact. And she has none.’

‘She is an aristocrat, and your employer’s sister.’

Still we waited. Despite the discomfort of the chair, I began to doze. I was roused by a sudden cacophony of children’s voices proceeding from beyond the drawing-room door. It took me a moment to recognize that they were giving a not-altogether-tuneful rendition of the hymn ‘Lo, He Comes Down’.

I went into the hall. His Lordship towered over a troop of small, well-scrubbed children in grey smocks. A cluster of footmen and maids, soberly dressed secretaries, as well as Mr Threlfall and Lady Agnes, stood on the stairs, listening. When the children had finished, His Lordship applauded, as did the rest of the audience. He knelt down to thank them and they crowded about him. It was a magical scene and everyone seemed delighted. Lord Allington rose and the children were ushered outside by their white-capped matrons.

‘Captain Avery,’ said His Lordship, glancing apprehensively over my shoulder at Blake. Seeing him slightly more appropriately togged, his expression turned to one of relief. ‘I am so glad you are here. You heard our orphans? I am patron of a home for abandoned children in Norwood.’

His Lordship wore a pristine white shirt beneath his waistcoat and a cream silk ascot around his neck. He looked the acme of sombre elegance.

‘I shall speak to the gentlemen alone, but Threlfall will take notes. Come, Threlfall,’ he said, and a footman strode over to escort him into the room. Lady Agnes looked at us both searchingly. Threlfall seemed hardly more pleased to be staying, his hand creeping up to his moustache, which he toyed with distractedly until His Lordship shot him a pained smile.

‘Well, gentlemen,’ said His Lordship, his blue eyes cast heavenward, ‘I would be grateful if you would tell me what you have discovered.’

Blake sketched out our various encounters, disclosed the matter of Nat Wedderburn and Blundell’s occupations, but painted a poignant picture of Wedderburn’s family. He recounted the meeting with Woundy but gave a somewhat abridged description of my fisticuffs, then went on to what O’Toole had told us of Woundy’s history. He omitted Daniel Wedderburn’s violent outbursts, our visit to the Chartist meeting and his belief that Matty Horner had been less than honest, and ended with our discovery of Woundy’s body and interview with the new police, making light of their all-too-palpable dislike of us.

His Lordship’s angelic brow puckered anxiously. He began to pace.

‘It is most unfortunate that you were the first to discover Mr Woundy’s corpse. There is something I should tell you. Some months ago I met this Mr Eldred Woundy. He introduced himself as a self-made man of some substance who had voiced a desire to make a sizeable donation to several charities, and perhaps to serve on several charitable boards. We do not want to attract the wrong kind of attention. This is most awkward. I suppose I shall have to disclose this to the new police.’

I could almost hear Blake grinding his teeth. ‘Can you tell us anything about your meeting with Mr Woundy?’ he said.

‘He came to the Lords to meet with me. I take a number of such meetings from time to time, to encourage donations and enlistment to our causes. I spoke to him for perhaps ten or fifteen minutes. He seemed a forceful, if somewhat coarse, man. He said he had done well for himself and wished to do something for the London poor to alleviate their needs and salve their souls.’

‘If I may speak for my colleague,’ I said, ‘I believe Mr Blake thinks that the fact that we were the first to find Eldred Woundy’s body has given us an advantage. We know much more about the murders now and their perpetrator.’

Lord Allington continued to pace. ‘There is something terrible in
the thought of advantage accruing from the discovery of a poor murdered soul,’ he said, ‘though I take your meaning. You are certain then that all three men were killed by the same person or persons?’

Blake nodded.

‘Captain Avery, you agree with him?’

‘As I have said before, I am no expert, but I feel certain that this is the case.’

‘If I may, Your Lordship,’ Blake said, so quietly that I suspected he was twitching with irritation, ‘the question is, do you wish us to proceed? As your sister has informed us, in the eyes of your church these men had by their own actions already damned themselves.’

Allington’s pale-blue eyes grew round. ‘Mr Blake, I may abhor what these men did, but their untimely ends deserve as much investigation as a good man’s. I engaged you to carry this thing through to its conclusion. Besides, you may have the advantage over the police, for you are further along than they.’

Then, a strange thing happened. He suddenly looked utterly dejected, as if something had knocked the air out of him, and he seemed to almost forget we were there.

‘We could turn what we know over to the police,’ I said.

Viscount Allington stared at the floor and did not reply. Mr Threlfall looked alarmed. ‘Your Lordship?’ I ventured.

‘What? Oh yes, I trust you will do that anyway.’ There was an awkward silence.

‘Sir?’ I said. His Lordship was startled and distracted.

‘What? Yes, quite well, thank you.’ He sat down on the settle and clasped his hands together so tightly the veins stood out. Threlfall bit his lip and looked desperately at the door but did nothing. Allington wrested his attention back to us, but it was an effort to do so.

‘Gentlemen, you must persevere. I hope the police will now act, but whatever happens we must pursue this. Such evil cannot be left at large.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Are you of a mind on how you might continue?’

‘Yes.’

‘And?’

‘The murderer might have been blackmailed by these men, or had an association with them and did not wish it to emerge.’ Blake’s brusqueness made me wince. ‘The ways in which the bodies were laid out, however, suggest to me that their deaths might have been intended both as some kind of punishment and also as a warning.’

‘For what?’

‘I do not know yet,’ said Blake.

‘Mr Blake, forgive me, I do not wish to interfere in your inquiries, but is it possible that the Chartists might be in some way responsible?’

Blake scratched his ear.

‘Do you have any reason for thinking that, Your Lordship?’ I said.

‘Nothing I can say with any certainty.’

‘Something,’ said Blake.

‘No, no,’ he said, ‘I should not have spoken. I must confess that I feel almost defeated in the face of such darkness. I have seen many instances of cruelty, ignorance and want, and I rejoice in meeting these head-on and fighting them. We are making progress. We should pass the new factory bill in the next parliament and I shall be proud to put my name to it. I believe it will both help the poor and discourage the Chartists from their foolish ideas. But there are certain kinds of darkness, of godlessness, that leave me close to despair. When my thoughts should be with the victims and their families I find myself thinking of the perpetrator. One who murders has moved so far from God, must be so lost, in so dark and terrible a place. It is a thought I can hardly bear.’

Threlfall had long since stopped writing and hovered uneasily behind His Lordship, frantically smoothing his moustache.

‘Captain Avery,’ His Lordship said, ‘would you join me in prayer? Threlfall?’ He knelt down.