Lies and Misdemeanours (19 page)

Charlie grinned at him. His straight white teeth gleamed in the darkness, but flashed so quickly that Hugo could have imagined it.

“Just doing my job,” Charlie drawled conversationally.

“Well, go and do it somewhere else. I don’t want to end up a bloody permanent resident in the graveyard.”

“Snetterton’s in there,” Charlie reported. “We can take a look at his house while he is out of the way.”

When Hugo nodded, Charlie turned and led the way to a small, rather nondescript cottage that was two doors down from the rectory.

“Is there a wife or family here?” Hugo asked with one hand on the window beside the back door.

Charlie shook his head, and watched Hugo wriggle a small knife along the window-frame. While his boss worked to get the window open, Charlie tried the back door. He stood back to study the rear of the house before he glanced down at the stone beneath his boots. When it rocked side to side, he bent down to study it more carefully. Seconds later, he hissed at his boss and showed him the key he had found.

Given that they were so close to the church, they couldn’t light any candles, and had to make do nothing more than moonlight.

“Well, will you look at this?” Charlie murmured aloud as he studied the empty front room.

“What?” Barnaby asked as he moved into the kitchen doorway.

“Snetterton doesn’t plan to come back for a while,” Charlie replied. “The furniture has gone.”

“See if you can find any hiding places where he would keep paperwork,” Hugo sighed. “I suspect they will be empty, but it is worth checking anyway.”

Unfortunately, it quickly became evident that Snetterton had left no trace of his presence in the property at all.

“Is he planning to move on, do you think?” Barnaby asked as he entered room as empty-handed as everyone else. “Everything is stripped bare.”

“Nothing upstairs either,” Luke reported.

“Looks like he has moved into the rectory,” Hugo drawled.

Charlie looked at him. “He can’t be expecting a new vicar for a while then.”

“He takes this standing in for the vicar situation a bit too seriously, doesn’t he?” Luke sighed.

“I think that he is either living at the rectory, or has gone to live somewhere else,” Hugo said quietly. He stood in front of the window and studied the road outside for several moments.

“Why is he at the rectory so late?” Charlie sighed. “I mean, it has gone midnight. It’s a bit late to be doing paperwork, isn’t it?”

“If he has moved in there, he can’t have notified the bishop of the vicar’s demise,” Hugo mused aloud.

Charlie nodded, in spite of the fact that nobody could see him. “The bishop would have sent a new vicar by now, if he knew that Reverend Potts was dead.”

Barnaby moved to stand beside Hugo. “Even a temporary one would have made his presence felt. It isn’t the verger’s duty to undertake the vicar’s work. The Bishop can’t have been informed.”

Hugo frowned at Charlie. “When did your friend write to you about Meldrew?”

“About six weeks ago now. There has been plenty of time for the Bishop to make arrangements for a new vicar to get here.”

“It points to the fact that Snetterton has something to hide,” Hugo said quietly.

Barnaby nodded. “He could have been paying Meldrew. To notify the Bishop of the vicar’s death means that they will send in a new vicar, who will look at the finances, realise that something is amiss, and investigate.”

“God help the new vicar if he notifies Meldrew that money has gone missing,” Charlie growled. “He will almost certainly end up as dead as poor Arthur.”

“We need to stop that from happening. We need to find out if the Bishop has been informed of the death of Reverend Potts, but also get him to refrain from sending a new vicar in until we have concluded the investigation.” Hugo turned away from the window and looked at his men. “I need to do that though, because I think that we may have to use a few select names from the War Office to convince the Bishop to agree.”

“Given that we are dealing with a case of murder, won’t he agree? I mean, it is a member of his clergy who has been killed,” Charlie countered.

Hugo sighed. “I hope so. I can pay him a visit as soon as practicable. Until then, we need to find out if Snetterton is conducting the services himself. We need to get into that rectory and take a look at the paperwork first. Then we need to keep a careful watch on the verger.”

“Do you think the verger is Meldrew’s link to what’s going on in the village? I mean, if he is doing the vicar’s work, he will have contact with the parishioners, and can find practically anything out through gossip. It’s the perfect way to keep up-to-date with what’s going on without having to go to the tavern,” Barnaby growled.

“I think that Meldrew and Snetterton may have done a deal,” Hugo replied. “The verger may have paid Meldrew his ‘protection’ money, and taken up residence at the rectory to stop the church authorities from finding out about the vicar’s death. I think that Snetterton is ideally placed to gather gossip about people, and pass on bits here and there to Meldrew to garner favour.” Hugo sighed with a shake of his head.

“So when I turned up here, and started asking questions about the vicar’s death, I drew Meldrew’s attention,” Charlie snarled.

“I think so,” Hugo said.

“How can he expect that to work?” Luke reasoned. “I mean, the Bishop won’t stay away forever. At some point it will become evident that a new vicar hasn’t been sent. The Bishop may want to pay a visit, or someone will say something about not having heard from Reverend Potts for a while. Correct me if I am wrong, but the verger can’t conduct marriages or anything; can he?”

Everyone shook their heads.

Hugo shook his head. “First, we need to find out what state the church finances are in. Theft from the Church is a punishable crime, and more than enough to allow us to put Snetterton behind bars. Whether he has killed Reverend Potts or not is something else to consider later.”

“Let’s go over to the church now?” Charlie suggested. Somehow, he just knew that life wasn’t going to be easy on him tonight.

Hugo nodded, and the men quietly made their way to the door.

Before the men got to the Rectory though, a furtive movement out on the street drew their attention.

“Snetterton,” Charlie whispered. They motioned to Barnaby, who paused and turned to study the man surreptitiously scurrying down the road.

The men disappeared into the shadows, and followed him all the way to the tavern. It was difficult to get around the back of the inn’s yard, but they arrived in time to watch the verger disappear through the back door. A huge, burly guard then moved into position to block it.

Charlie looked at Hugo. “I don’t think he is paying a visit to give the last rights to anyone, do you?”

Hugo shook his head absently and eyed the heavily built man guarding the door.

“We are going to replace him,” Hugo growled.

Charlie crept silently across the yard. The guard was removed quickly and silently. Once tied and gagged, he was left in the trees at the back of the yard before Charlie swept his hat off the floor, and dragged his over large jacket over his own clothing.

Thankfully, the meeting place was just on the opposite side of the back door. It was difficult to hear what was said, but Charlie was able to peer into the room though the poorly fitting shutters over the windows. The solitary candle in the room gave enough light to see Snetterton, Meldrew and two other men, whom Charlie was sure had been present on the night of Blagmire’s murder, all seated around a table.

The sight of the package being handed to Meldrew was all Charlie needed to see, but he watched Meldrew carefully remove the ties that held the package together. The huge pile of notes the man carefully flicked through before he gave Snetterton a nod was enough to condemn the verger to a very long time in jail.

Charlie looked at Barnaby, who was standing on the opposite side of the window, also witnessing what was happening.

“It’s a pay-off,” Hugo whispered in Charlie’s ear.

Charlie nodded. “Silence money for the murder? Or protection money because he is scared that he is going to be Meldrew’s next victim if he doesn’t pay?”

He lifted his brows at Hugo, who nodded toward the men in the room. “Looks a bit too friendly to me.”

Charlie looked back in time to catch the hearty hand-shake the men exchanged amid grins and a liberal helping of the innkeeper’s best brandy.

“I think the innkeeper himself is passing on information to Meldrew about what is discussed in his tavern,” Charlie whispered. He nodded to the man who was busy replenishing everybody’s glasses, including his own, and bit back a surge of anger at the innkeeper’s duplicity.

“Is there anything there we can arrest him for?”

“Providing Meldrew with information?” Charlie asked hopefully only for Hugo to roll his eyes and shake his head.

“We need something far more substantial,” Hugo sighed. “Although, I think that once the locals find out what the innkeeper has been doing to their families and businesses, his trade will be destroyed.”

“Mob justice,” Charlie drawled with satisfaction.

The satisfied tone of his voice was all Hugo needed to hear, and he clapped his colleague on the shoulder in a gesture of solidarity.

“Come on. Let’s find somewhere to watch where Meldrew goes next.” He motioned to Barnaby. “You and Luke follow Meldrew, but keep your distance. I don’t want that bastard getting you too. Charlie and I will go and search the rectory while our verger is being less than holy.”

Barnaby nodded and melted into the shadows.

Luke nodded to the door. “What do we do about the guard?”

Charlie grinned, and eyed a crate of empty bottles at the back of the yard. He beckoned to his colleague, who helped carry the still unconscious man back to the door. Once he was half-seated, Charlie placed an empty bottle under his arm and, with a smirk at Hugo, left the man to face his employer.

Satisfied that nobody would know what had happened, Charlie followed Hugo to the Rectory. They gained entrance through a side window that was partly covered by rampant clematis, but provided more than enough coverage to hide them from prying eyes. Once inside, they wasted no time searching the ground floor before they met in the vicar’s study.

“There are a lot of Arthur’s things still here,” Charlie sighed. He eyed the ornate pot of ink sadly. Charlie knew Arthur’s father had gifted him on his eighteenth birthday. It was something of a family heirloom, but the last thing Arthur had wanted at the time. He had griped about it for days afterward, before he had promptly gone out and purchased the one thing he had truly desired above all else - a new curricle.

“I think that Arthur’s family haven’t been informed,” Charlie sighed as he eyed the ink pot.

“What makes you say that?” Hugo frowned.

He quickly explained. “Arthur’s family would almost certainly want his possessions returning to them. Some of these items are heirlooms, and have belonged to the family for generations. I don’t know of any family that would simply forget about them – do you?”

Hugo shook his head. “So nobody other than the locals who are busy trying to deal with Meldrew’s bullying antics, know that the Vicar is dead.”

“Looks like it,” Charlie growled. “He is buried in the churchyard here too.”

“The family would have requested him to be interred in the family crypt rather than be buried in a nondescript place like this.” Hugo swore viciously, picked up several pieces of parchment, and tipped them toward the window so that he could read the writing.

Charlie turned his attention to the rest of the study. Together, the men began to search.

Minutes later, they both froze when the soft rattle of the front door broke the silence. Unfortunately, given the way the room was furnished, there was no place for either man to hide.

Charlie quickly moved into position behind the door. Hugo vanished into the darkest shadows in the corner of the room. Both men remained perfectly still while the verger entered the house. The front door closed. The sound of the bolt being slid across was followed by the heavy thump of boots on the stairs as Snetterton made his way to bed. Their eyes traced the footsteps across the ceiling, all the way to the bedroom that overlooked the front of the building.

They gave Snetterton enough time to get himself into bed and, once the house had settled once more into silence, began to search in earnest.

Hugo took the opportunity now to close the shutters a little, and lit one of the candles.

The soft glow was more than enough for them to be able to see properly, and helped to speed up the search of the papers.

“This helpful?” Charlie drawled quietly, and slid an accounting ledger onto the desk in front of Hugo. Beside it was a small leather bound book which contained a series of figures.

“Payments,” Hugo sighed as he studied the contents. He threw Charlie a relieved look. “It looks like it details all of the payments Snetterton has made to Meldrew.”

“Out of church funds, do you think?”

“I think they are almost certainly out of church funds, don’t you?” Hugo whispered.