AS I WAS RETURNING to our room after returning the bathing costume to the gentleman minding the till at the lobby shop, and managing to mention the fate of the costume’s previous owner no less than three times, I heard my name called. I turned to see Mr. Douglas coming across the lobby. When he realized I’d seen him, he waved and sped up. “Miss Pengear, I was just going to come upstairs and see if Miss Prynne would like to go into town for a little while, get away from the hotel. You’d be welcome to join us.”
Going into town sounded nice; spending time with Milly and one of her gentlemen less so. “I’ll ask her for you.”
“That’s very kind of you. I just need to drop this off at the concierge desk and then I’ll be at your disposal.”
I glanced at the object he was holding. It wasn’t any sort of letter or instructions as I would have expected, but a silver case of some sort. “What is it?”
Mr. Douglas held it out for my inspection. “A cigarette case. Not yours, is it?”
“Neither of us smoke.”
“I didn’t think so. It’s heavy for a lady’s case.” He hefted it in his hand so I could see.
I held out my hand to take it. Mr. Douglas placed it into my palm. It was a silver case, not unusual in its design, with an etched pattern of Renaissance vines curling across it, unremarkable except that it was heavy, much heavier than I would have expected. Without asking for permission, I opened it and looked inside. There was nothing to see, not even any cigarettes. I ran my finger down the interior, but I didn’t feel any imperfections that would have suggested an extra layer or hidden panel to explain the weight, only a layer of oilcloth that seemed to be intended to keep whatever was inside dry. I closed the case and handed it back. “I almost expected it to be lead lined.”
“I know, but it’s nothing more than thick silver. Makes the engraving stand out more, I think. But there are no initials or anything to identify the owner.”
“Where did you find it?”
“In the baths. After Miss Caldwell...” He glanced around the lobby and changed what he was going to say. “When the proper help arrived, I went back to look for Miss Prynne’s earring, and this was at the bottom of the bath. Which reminds me.” He reached into his watch pocket and pulled out Milly’s missing earring. “If you’d be so kind.”
I held out my hand so he could drop the earring in my palm. “I’ll be sure she gets it. And I’ll ask if she’d like to go into town.”
“Thank you. I’ll be in the lobby for a short while at least, if either one of you are interested.” Mr. Douglas gave a small bow then headed off in the direction of the concierge’s desk.
I slipped the earring into my pocket as I went towards the staircase and wondered about Mr. Douglas. I hadn’t thought he was particularly interested in Milly, but perhaps I had been wrong. Why else would he go back to look for her earring? Unless he had wanted to get another look at the bathing pool and that was the best excuse he could find. Was the cigarette case what he went looking for? An odd thing to have in the bath, and why wouldn’t someone notice it falling? I patted my pocket to make certain I could still feel the earring. Then I paused, considering everything Mr. Douglas had just told me. It was possible... I hurried up to the room to tell Milly what I’d just figured out. Normally, I would be running to Scotland Yard, but as Inspector Sanders seemed to be the best I could get at the police station, Milly would have to do.
When I got to our room, Milly was fussing with her hair. I didn’t wait for her tell me the outcome of her meeting with Miss Grangeway but immediately blurted out, “Milly, I know what we saw in the baths.”
Milly didn’t grasp the significance of what I’d said. “We saw someone push Miss Caldwell under and hold her there. We already know that.”
“And we know there was no one there when help arrived. That’s why the police don’t believe us.”
“And that’s what you’ve figured out?” Milly sounded a bit more interested, at least interested enough to stop fussing and sit down on her bed to wait for an answer.
“When I spoke to Miss Bates this morning, she said when she saw the body at the funeral home, there were burns around Miss Caldwell’s mouth.”
“I heard that from Miss Grangeway. She said Miss Morrison said Miss Bates thought it was a side effect of drowning.”
“I don’t know about drowning, but I do know it’s a side effect of chloroform administration. I think that’s what we saw, someone giving her chloroform. A rag over her mouth or something. And that could explain why she died so quickly, if she was unconscious and breathed in too much water at once. If we were in London, I could ask Inspector Burrows if that makes sense.”
“All right, so she passed out and he dragged her under so she would breathe in water until she drowned. We saw him pull her down, why wasn’t he there?”
“He probably intended to be there, but when we raised the alarm, he had to leave, to swim away so he wouldn’t be caught.”
“But she didn’t float.”
“That’s what I’ve just figured out. I saw Mr. Douglas in the lobby just now. He went back to look for your earring, and he found a very heavy cigarette case on the bottom of the pool. I think it would be heavy enough to make it hard for her to float if she didn’t have the use of her limbs to swim with.”
Milly perked up at the mention of Mr. Douglas’s name. “Did he find my earring?” So much for her interest in the case.
“What? Oh, yes, I have it here.” I fished around in my pocket and handed it over. “In any case, I think our killer realized he needed to get away when there was so much activity in the water, signaling that we knew something was wrong, so he shoved the case into her pocket and swam away. Remember the pocket on her bathing costume was torn? The case must have been too heavy and fallen out, so Mr. Douglas was able to find it. Unless it was his case all along. But then why turn it into the concierge, why not get rid of it altogether?”
Milly interrupted my deducing. “Is Mr. Douglas still in the lobby?”
“What? Oh, yes, he wanted to know if you wanted to go into town with him.”
“That sounds like a wonderful idea. Let’s get away from here for a few hours.”
“I was going to...” I wasn’t certain what I had intended to do, only that it didn’t involve trailing along after Milly.
“But you have to come. How will it look if I go without a chaperone?”
I glared at Milly. I hardly qualified as a chaperone; I was only a few months older than her. And Milly never worried about chaperones when they were an inconvenience.
“Besides, it will give you the chance to find out if he knows anything else about the cigarette case.”
I sighed. Milly could be very good at convincing me when she wanted to. “All right. I’ll come along.”
Mr. Douglas was still in the lobby when we went downstairs, sitting by one of the potted palms with a newspaper. When I spotted him, I had the distinct impression that the newspaper was being used as a prop, not something he was interested in reading, and I wondered what his real purpose was. Before I could speculate too much, Milly hurried over to him. I followed in time to hear her say, “It’s so kind of you to ask.”
Mr. Douglas looked over at me as soon as I was close enough to speak to. “Were you coming as well, Miss Pengear?”
“If it isn’t too much trouble,” Milly answered for me.
“Of course not. How could such charming company be a bother? What did you wish to see?”
I let Milly babble out her list of shops while we exited the hotel, but I had the impression that Mr. Douglas was only half listening to her. The rest of his mind seemed to be somewhere else, but I didn’t see anything in the lobby that could have distracted him. Perhaps he was waiting for another of his telegrams. Or perhaps he simply wasn’t interested in Milly’s list of shops.
Mr. Douglas brought us to the center of town, right in the heart of the Regency sights. I should have been thrilled and plotting how to convince him to either ignore Milly’s protests or get her out of my way so I could explore on my own. But I found the case was too deeply tangled in my mind, and instead of wondering where Mr. Darcy or Emma Woodhouse would have walked, I was remembering what Mr. Langley had said about Mr. McSwain’s barber shop and, as we passed the Pump Room, I couldn’t help looking around for the building where Mr. McSwain worked.
“Did you ladies want to stop and sample the waters or see the Roman Baths?”
“We had water at the hotel, didn’t we, Cassie? And the Roman Baths sound very–” Milly made a gesture with her hand that I interpreted as either boring or stuffy, but I was too busy trying to locate Mr. McSwain’s place of employment to give my own opinion.
“There are some shops along the way. Perhaps those are more to your taste.”
“I think that sounds wonderful, don’t you, Cassie?”
“Why don’t you two go on ahead. There’s something I want to have a glance at.”
“We could... Oh, didn’t Mr. Langley say Mr. McSwain worked around here? Is that where you’re going?” Milly turned to Mr. Douglas. “He was at the baths, you know.”
Apparently Milly hadn’t taken my lectures on suspecting everyone nearly as seriously as I’d thought. Mr. Douglas had been at the baths, but no one we’d spoken to yet had seen him during the key period before Miss Caldwell was killed.
Mr. Douglas turned to me. “Would you like someone to accompany you?”
Certainly not him, not until I was at least certain as Milly that he wasn’t involved. “No, I’ll be fine. I only want to know if he saw anything that afternoon.” I wasn’t certain if it was merely a polite question or a warning to be careful. If it was a warning, I hoped he understood that I had no intention of accusing anyone of murder, not at this stage of the investigation and with no proof.
“Very well. We’ll go on to the shops along there,” he pointed in the direction of a small street with a milliner’s on the corner, “and when you’ve finished, we can meet up there.”
I nodded and waited until they were on their way, just in case Milly decided they ought to accompany me, then I went in search of the barber shop.
Mr. McSwain’s shop wasn’t hard to find. Mr. Langley had said it was quite near the Pump Room, and once I found the correct street, the shop was easy to locate. There was only one person inside when I entered, the dark-haired man behind the counter whom I recognized from the brief glimpse I’d had of him at the baths. He looked surprised to see a lady walk into the shop. “Can I be of assistance, miss?” he asked in a tone of voice that suggested he was prepared to give me directions to where ever it was I was actually trying to get to.
As a way to ease into the questions I had, I asked, “Are you Mr. McSwain?” When he nodded, I went on. “You were pointed out to me at the Fellcroft Hotel. I’m staying there, and I was in the baths when Miss Caldwell’s unfortunate incident occurred.”
“Oh my, I’m very sorry. Did you know her?”
“Not well, but it was very sad. I was hoping you might have seen something. I saw you were there before the incident.”
“I was there, yes. I go for my back, you see. The heat helps, and the water is warmer there than at the more historical baths, probably from the heater they try not to let us see, not to mention it’s cheaper and less crowded. I’ve tried most of the other places in town, but I don’t really believe there’s any magic property to the water, nothing that can’t be done with heated river water and a few minerals added. None of it provides more than temporary relief. Still, it’s better than nothing. Normally I go to the men’s bathing in the morning when, well, as you can see, there’s no one about here, and I can put up a closed sign for an hour or so without any real loss of business. But I attempted to move one of the chairs on my own, and it aggravated my back, so I really had no choice but to slip away that afternoon and see if it would give me some relief. And it did for a time. So no, I wasn’t paying attention to anything until I heard the commotion. That was you, wasn’t it? One of the two ladies who alerted everyone to the problem?”
“My cousin was there with me, yes.”
“When I realized something was wrong, I did try to swim over, but there were stronger swimmers there already, and just about anyone is a stronger swimmer than I am, so I was looking around to see if there was any other way to help. There was a family with children, but the young man the hotel likes to have swan around in his bathing costume was already getting them out the side door. I tried looking for someone who might have been with the girl who might need assistance, but she seemed to be alone.”
“Her companion doesn’t swim, so she’d stayed behind.”
“I see. Is she all right?”
“As well as can be expected.” I paid close attention to the tone of his answers, but from what I could tell, he was genuinely interested in what he was asking and not trying to distract me. “Can you tell me what you did see?”
“There was a pair of spinsters who seemed nice enough. I was considering going over and speaking to them, but Dr. Gaines went over to them, and I didn’t want to see him. He’s always trying to get me over to his consulting room to try some new-fangled contraption of his. I suspect most of them are nothing more than noisy gears and a battery to give a little shock and make you think it’s done something so you won’t balk when you’re handed the account. Since I was avoiding him, I stayed in my corner and tried to find a comfortable position. And then the commotion started, and as I said, when I saw there were people more capable of rendering her aid than I, I went looking for another way to be of assistance.” As he was speaking, Mr. McSwain was beginning to fidget. At first I thought he was hinting for me to hurry up and leave, then I realized he was merely trying to find a comfortable position for his back.
As he seemed to know the regular bathers, I asked, “Did it surprise you that Dr. Gaines didn’t go to render assistance?”
“Not at all. Most likely he thought the girl was beyond help and got away as quickly as he could in case anyone heard that he hadn’t been able to save her. It might have damaged his reputation for infallibility, although he’s the only one who believes he is.”
“Did you see anything at the time she went under the water?”
“No, or if I did, I didn’t realize that’s what I was seeing. How long was she under? Were they able to tell?”
“Not very long at all.”
“Hmm, that seems quite fast to have drowned. Do you suppose she fainted for some reason? I’ve heard if one is unconscious and not struggling, it happens faster. You don’t know not to try breathing, I suppose.”
If that were true, it was further support for the chloroform theory. If I were in London, I could have asked one of my friends at Scotland Yard, but it didn’t seem worth a mechanical bird or telegram, not yet anyway.
“But no, I was looking away from Dr. Gaines for a good five minutes before it happened.”
As I was thinking of another question, the door opened and a boy of about twelve came in. “Any work today, Mr. McSwain?”
“Hello, Andy. The boxes by the door there. They belong in the back room.”
“Right.” Andy started to pick up the boxes, stacking three on top of each other—a fourth would have blocked his view—and carrying them to the back.
“A relative of yours?”
“Andy? No, he lives down the street. I pay him a couple of shillings a day to come and move boxes for me, do a little sweeping, things that aggravate my back.”
“That’s very generous.”
“Not really. I tried moving those boxes this morning. It’s why I’m having so much trouble staying still. I think I’ll have to go to the baths again tomorrow if it doesn’t loosen up soon, but I suppose the Fellcroft Hotel’s are closed?”
“I believe so, yes.”
“Then I suppose I’ll brave the crowds at the Roman Baths.”
I hadn’t heard anything to make me think he was a good suspect. “I hope they help. And thank you very much for telling me all this.”
“Of course. I wish I’d seen something. It would be a fine thing to have helped figure out what went wrong.” He made to show me to the door, but I assured him it wasn’t necessary and saw myself out.