✥
IT WAS EASTERLY who spoke first.
‘Hi am very sorry to hear that, Mr Hesketh. No one should suffer such pain alone.’ And, not being so presumptuous as to pat his superior’s hand, he patted his own consolingly.
‘The agony is no better for the sharing of it.’ Hesketh hid his face in both hands. ‘Danny was my only child. I saw him the day before the murders. We would meet for a drink sometimes when I went out on an errand. When it came out he had been arrested for affray, I was shocked. Danny was so good-natured and sensible. He had never been in trouble with the law. Mr Nathan explained that it was not their fault and that he had paid Danny’s fine, for which I was truly grateful. It saved my son from a prison sentence. Then Mr Nathan said that Danny had decided to make a fresh start. The idea of having a criminal record upset him greatly and he was determined to work his passage to America,’ Hesketh recounted. ‘I was obviously very perturbed by this news. Danny was a delicate young man. He had been weakened by severe bouts of pneumonia and had never set foot on a ship. I could not imagine what work he would do on board or in America.’
‘A nation of savages colonized by savages,’ Mr G declaimed.
‘I thought it was probably just a whim – he was always a bit of a dreamer – and that I could easily talk him out of it.’ Hesketh pressed a thumb and second finger on to the corners of his eyes. ‘But I never saw or heard from him again.’
‘Were you not suspicious?’ I asked.
‘Anxious,’ Hesketh told me. ‘But suspicious of what? Of whom?’
‘So how did you find out it was him?’ I saw a sparrow land on the window sill.
Hesketh twiddled the top button of his waistcoat. ‘A father knows when his son is dead. Danny was such an affectionate son, I knew that if he could contact me he would. I began to frequent the city morgue. There is a disgusting man called Parker who let me view the bodies for a shilling a time.’
‘You know that is against the regulations?’ I watched another sparrow join the first one.
‘Only for Parker.’ My guardian seemed edgy. Perhaps he could hear the sparrows squabbling twenty feet behind him. I could only see their tussle.
‘Hi cannot himagine what you must have gone through every time.’ Easterly went pink.
‘I only went when there were reports in the papers,’ Hesketh said flatly. ‘Unidentified males, often dragged out of the Thames, anyone estimated to be between Danny’s age when I last saw him and what he would be now. And then, when I saw that a body had been found after many years in the north wing, I knew.’
Hesketh drew his fingertips repeatedly over his brow.
‘And you traced him to Snushall’s undertakers,’ I remarked, contributing to my godfather’s annoyance, ‘where you covered your face and spoke in a French accent.’
‘It is the only accent I can do.’ Hesketh looked abashed.
I paused before adding, ‘And there you saw Danny.’
‘My boy.’ Hesketh stroked his own cheek. ‘He had been turned to leather but I still knew him. How could I not? He was perfectly preserved. Mr Snushall took every penny I had – my life savings – but what did I need the money for?’
‘Hi bet you did him proud,’ Easterly said.
‘He did,’ I agreed.
‘If only that were an end to it.’ Sidney Grice rubbed his shoulder. ‘We all know what was found on your son’s body.’
‘Danny was not a pickpocket.’ Hesketh’s neck muscles bulged.
‘But what did Mr Mortlock say to the policeman who brought it?’ I pressed.
Hesketh tugged at his hair. ‘I do not remember exactly.’ He let go. ‘But he was horrified.’
‘So you have found him,’ I quoted.
Hesketh shied away from the words. ‘I think he said found it.’
‘Him,’ I insisted.
‘And with that one word – Austin Anthony Hesketh – it all fell into place.’ Mr G punched his own shoulder to drive away the pain. ‘Mr Mortlock – the boy with whom you had played and the man you had served so devotedly – slipped his own watch into his friend’s pocket to give him an excuse to start a fight. Your son, loyal to the end, tried to help him, and Nathan made sure they were both arrested. The nearly perfect alibi.’
‘I never knew how he got out, until I made him tell me,’ Hesketh stated matter-of-factly.
‘And how did you do that?’ I asked.
‘Don’t answer that, Mr Hesketh,’ Easterly urged. ‘They are trying to trick you.’
I changed tack.
‘Those wooden wedges interest me,’ I announced. ‘They were all dented – except for yours.’
‘I was probably more careful with mine, miss.’
‘It was not used,’ I insisted. ‘If you had told me you did not use it because you trusted your friends, I might have believed you, but why pretend you had used it when you had not?’
‘Mr Grice has taught you well,’ Hesketh said without rancour.
‘But not how to share information,’ Mr G remarked sourly.
‘I learn by example,’ I told him. ‘Did you mention the rings or Hesketh’s release form?’ I did not wait for a response but resumed my pressure on the valet. ‘Answer the question please, Hesketh.’
‘What does it matter if Mr Hesketh used his wedge or not?’ Easterly protested.
My godfather watched me with something vaguely approaching a smile.
‘Because only the killer would know that he did not need to lock himself in at night,’ I reasoned.
Hesketh pondered my statement. ‘I did worry when I saw you examining it,’ he admitted at last.
‘Don’t say any more, Mr Hesketh,’ Easterly burst out. ‘They don’t know anything.’
‘Take your junior colleague’s advice by all means,’ Sidney Grice agreed. ‘And let me tell you exactly what went on.’
*
The coal-hole lid is still off. I slide it back into place and stand up and, as I glance back at the house which is mine now, the curtain moves on the second floor, just as it did when I wedged the lid, and I think, who the hell can that be? And then I realize it’s only a breeze. I would have just got rid of the Garstangs if that curtain hadn’t twitched and made me think I had been seen. So the others all died because of a draught.
But I don’t have time to think about that now. Is that somebody walking their dog? At this time? It’s that woman from number 4 across the Crescent. I put my head down and run.