The King Street townhouse was decorated with bright flowers, and Mrs. Malone kept the punch flowing and the side tables towering with all of Jasper’s favorite treats.
Ray and I arrived at nearly the same moment. I smiled, hoping to win one from him in return, but there was no chance to speak privately, and we fell apart, forced into small talk with some of our acquaintances.
Several officers—some on brief relief from duty—stopped by to toast the man of the hour and wring his hand. Jasper’s kind parents stood sentry in the corner, excusing themselves early but not before showering their son with an affection that made me swallow a lump in my throat. Reverend Talbot’s baritone led us in “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow,” Skip McCoy’s camera flashed, and young Jones flushed proudly to be in the company of his superior officer.
But the easy joy of the night was undercut by the tension prickling between Jasper, Merinda, Ray, and me. Merinda sang a few bars of a popular ballad along with the crackling gramophone, and Ray tucked into a plateful of lemon sandwiches Mrs. Malone set beside him with a matronly wink. But between the four of us, smiles were subdued.
One of Jasper’s colleagues slapped him on the arm. “Quite bold to be in league with ladies who would want to see poor Chief Tipton locked up for a stolen rooster,” he jabbed.
“I never accused or encountered him,” Merinda said.
“The fellow from the Morality Squad found the note used to trap you. You’re such an easy target, Miss Herringford.”
Jasper swallowed and continued avoiding eye contact with Merinda. Ray overheard and made to interject and defend his friend, but Jasper smiled and shook his head.
Meanwhile, Skip McCoy, Ray’s colleague at the Hogtown Herald, was failing at his own joke. “What headline will you use, Mr. DeLuca? None so drastic as the Globe! Shame I didn’t snap a picture of your wife face-first in a mud puddle.”
I flushed, but Ray waved it off. “Ah, but Skip, you forget as far as my readership is considered, she is just one half of Herringford and Watts. If she wants to run recklessly off and get tossed into a reformatory, it can do little but help us sell more papers.”
The air in the room was stifling. I might have ducked outside to breathe more freely, but just then Merinda tinged her punch glass with a spoon with a force that resounded more like a dissonant bell than a celebratory chime.
“Excuse me!” she said.
Eyes drifted upward.
“As hostess, it is my duty to give a speech.” She swallowed. “Detective Constable Jasper Forth is a longtime friend of mine. I first met him in university when he almost knocked me backward down the stairs balancing a tray of test tubes. From there, I couldn’t go two steps without his pestering me to join him in the chemistry labs as he pursued his love of forensic science.”
I coughed and motioned for Merinda to say something—anything—nice.
“We all know that Jasper is rather a human golden retriever of a sorts. Always smiling and willing to do anything for you. It’s a surprise a man of his disposition has done so well on the police force. Nonetheless, despite numerous demotions, he has persevered and even enjoyed a recent promotion.”
I looked at Ray, who was apparently very interested in his shoes, and then Jasper, whose face was a strange hybrid of horror and hurt.
“Merinda!” I whispered. “Please say something nice about Jasper for his birthday.”
I was louder than I thought. The collective gazes swiftly moved from Merinda to myself.
“I am saying something nice, Jem.”
I side-eyed her and said from the corner of my mouth, “You called him a dog.”
“I meant the dog bit as a compliment,” Merinda said innocently, taking in the coughs and silence in confident stride. “Jasper?” She raised her glass in his mortified direction. “You’re a real swell egg, and I’m chuffed you’re my friend. Happy birthday.”
Thankfully, a chorus of Happy birthday! and Many happy returns! erupted, and Jasper’s ashen face stretched into a smile.
The guests meandered out shortly thereafter, and Mrs. Malone set to clearing the plates.
“Part of me hoped the Chief might attend,” Jasper said ruefully as he sank into an armchair and loosened his bow tie. “As a gesture of goodwill toward my new promotion.”
“He’s recovering from a wrongful accusation.” Ray smirked at me.
“I repeat: No one actually accused him!” Merinda snapped. “We received a note we thought was from a legitimate client. It was his fault for entrapping us!”
“He wouldn’t need to entrap you,” Jasper said exasperatedly, “if you showed a little more decorum!”
Merinda stiffened her spine and stood at attention. “I clearly thought the note came from a real client! Why else would I risk a night in a cell?”
“And you didn’t ever consider”—Ray’s voice was sharp as a knife—“that your client might be the Morality Squad?”
I laughed awkwardly, looking around me, hoping our tension would be diffused. It wasn’t. “It’s rather funny when you think about it,” I said. “A missing rooster. Our face-first collision with a mud puddle!” I looked to Merinda for encouragement. She rolled her eyes.
Jasper picked up Ray’s theme. “No, you don’t think at all, Merinda. Of anything but yourself—and sometimes Jem if you’re in an amicable mood. And that’s why I had eight people’s work to do smoothing things over at St. Jerome’s. Not to mention my own men undermining me with cheap jokes about our association. I am trying to assert my new authority!”
Merinda switched off the gramophone, whose happy tunes seemed to undercut our argument, and planted her fists on her hips. “And that’s the thanks I get for throwing you a lovely birthday party, Jasper Forth!”
“Stick to the point,” Ray said. “Neither Jasper nor I have any idea what led you to be as foolish as you have ever been. Jem nearly burned down my house. You, Merinda, got my wife locked up in a reformatory. I wouldn’t have blamed them for throwing away the key!”
“That’s a horrible joke,” Merinda said
“Stop sniffling, Jem,” Ray admonished. “I can hear you from over here! You cry at the drop of a hat.”
“I’m not crying,” I cried. The sleeplessness and tension of the day still ebbed over me. “And it’s Jasper’s birthday.”
“Ray makes a good point,” Jasper blurted. “A few more nights in St. Jerome’s might blast some sense into you two.”
“Et tu, Jasper?” I said sulkily.
“It’s bad enough we’re at a constant war with the rest of Toronto,” Merinda said levelly “You two are supposed to be our allies.”
“Not when you behave this recklessly,” Jasper said. “Is it your mission in life to keep seeing me demoted, Merinda? I worked years for this promotion, and I will keep it. I refuse to let you ruin it for me. If that means not involving you in the police business… ” He stopped at Merinda’s dagger glare. He had reached the intended effect if he wanted her to stumble and falter under his threat. He cleared his throat, and when he spoke again it was in a lower register: “I am not saying it has to come to that… ” he began, not knowing how to finish.
Merinda mumbled something I was glad I couldn’t hear.
“Our behavior isn’t some surprise to either of you,” I said. “We’ve been doing this for an age. Why are we all up in arms? And on Jasper’s birthday!”
“Truthfully, Jemima,” Ray said, “it’s because it’s getting harder and harder to watch you two humiliate yourselves. Leave this to the professionals, won’t you?”
He couldn’t have hurt us more if he struck us. Merinda floundered, her face white. “Professionals like second-rate reporters? I am a wonderful detective! And I will prove it. So will Jem!” She reached into her vest and whipped out a piece of paper.
“Dearest Merinda and Jemima,” she began reading angrily. Then she spluttered and thrust the paper at me, and I continued.
My dear friend Miriam has relocated to Boston and is in need of assistance. Last week she and her sister, Delphina, took the train to Concord for a day’s autumn sojourn. Delphina has not been seen since.
The police have been of little help. They feel her disappearance may be the result of a planned rendezvous with a suitor, and they seem unwilling to dig deeper into this mystery. Miri is beside herself and asked about my detective friends in Canada.
I know Herringford and Watts cast their net exclusively in Toronto, but I hope I might persuade you to cross stateside. Miri is more than willing to cover your train trip and any other expenses. She requests you stay with her in her Back Bay home.
Please telephone should you require any further information—TRE 2456.
With fondest regards,
Martha Kingston
“Martha!” I cried, delighted to hear the name of a client from a previous case.
“Splendid!” Ray cried. “Now instead of recklessly dragging Jem into danger at home, you can do so in another country!”
I straightened my shoulders. “She drags me nowhere, Ray. I choose to go.”
His eyes flashed. What was eating at him tonight? We had gotten ourselves in far worse scrapes! Almost transported with a female slavery ring, tied up at the mercy of a known killer… For all my playing at detective, I couldn’t see what was working behind those black eyes of his.
“So you’ll go?” Jasper said. “Just like that?”
“Just like that,” said Merinda. “And I propose we put a bet on it.”
“Betting is a sin!” My outrage fell on deaf ears.
“You’ll go and find this missing girl?” Ray narrowed his eyes at Merinda.
“We’ll be staying with a quite respectable woman in the Back Bay,” Merinda said by way of assurance. “I already telephoned the number. So we will be as safe as houses!”
“And what is the wager?” Ray asked.
“Now, let me see. It’s Thursday night. If we find this girl and solve this mystery by Monday, Jasper has to give Jem and me loan of one of those marvelous new motorbicycles for an entire weekend.”
“And if we win”—Jasper rubbed his hands together, sporting his first true smile of the evening—“you two have to make our lunches for an entire week! From a menu of our choosing. No Mrs. Malone to help.”
“I am such a rotten housekeeper that my husband has to win a bet to be fed.” I buried my face in my hands.
“You’d better practice!” Jasper said. “Knowing how long it took you to figure out the Corktown Murders, we may be old and gray before you find the missing girl!”
“Jasper, how fast does a motorbicycle go?” Merinda’s eyes drifted, and I could tell she was thinking of the thrill of speeding around the city.
Jasper grinned, and I was pleased to see that a bit of his buoyancy had returned. “You’ll have to win this bet to find out!”