29

The girls were sitting side by side on the sofa.

“My father met Lydia in America. He was looking for a magician’s assistant and she applied. She was an unsuccessful actress, down on her luck. Papa could see her potential – but even if she had been hamfisted he would have employed Lydia. It was love at first sight for him. He adored her. He taught her everything he knew, and I have to admit she learned quickly.

“The act was doing well. It wasn’t an easy life, but there was more than enough money, and as the halls my father played got bigger, so did the financial rewards. Papa was very homesick – he longed to return to England and settle quietly here in Southend, where he had spent his holidays as a boy before the Duchess made him start learning his trade as a pickpocket and conman. But that was impossible, because the Duchess would hunt him down. In America he was making a decent living, and doing it honestly, and that made him feel good. He proposed to Lydia and she accepted. I don’t think she loved him, but I like to think she was fond of him, and at that point in her life she was grateful for some security. My father would do anything to please her, so marriage was an agreeable prospect.”

“But it didn’t last?” asked Rose.

Amy shook her head. “It might have done if we’d stayed in the backwaters, but as the act got more successful we moved to bigger cities, where Lydia’s eyes were opened to real wealth. She became more and more discontented. She had the love of my father and more than enough money, but as Lydia saw how some other people lived she was eaten up with envy. She didn’t just want a good life; she wanted a charmed life. And she realised she had the opportunity to get it. Men buzzed around Lydia.

“After we’d been in New York for a few weeks she disappeared. She left a note for Papa, speaking of her regret but saying that there was a big world out there, that she was still young and she wanted to discover it. He was heartbroken – utterly crushed. He took to his bed for days. Even though by then he knew full well what Lydia was like, he still adored her. He only saw the best in her. She was like a drug to him. He kept hoping that she would return, and when she didn’t, it was as if a light had gone out inside him. The homesickness got worse, and he talked more and more about returning to England, despite the danger from the Duchess. Something else happened too. He developed terrible stage fright. It was as if Lydia leaving had knocked his confidence in every way. The run-up to every performance started to become a terror for him. But he had no choice. Conning or conjuring were the only things he knew. He dreamed of giving up the stage and coming to live here permanently. He had been secretly renting the cottage from the Gandini family for years, starting shortly after my mother was murdered. It was a bolthole away from the Duchess’s world.”

“Tell me about coming back to England,” said Rose.

“News reached us that the Duchess had been banged up in Holloway for life. Papa decided that we should return home. The plan was to perform in England for a short while and then come here to Southend and live quietly. He negotiated a share in the Gandini ice cream shop in preparation for that time – the Gandinis are getting elderly and need help. He wanted me to stay in Southend as soon as we returned. He was very cautious, concerned that if any of the Duchess’s old cronies were looking for us, they would be looking for a father and daughter together. But I didn’t like being here on my own. It’s too isolated. And then one night he was performing at a suburban hall, when who should turn up like a bad penny?”

“Lydia,” breathed Rose.

Amy nodded. “Yes, on the arm of Stratford-Mark. She returned alone the next day. My father was thrilled. He was a clever man, but always a fool when it came to Lydia. He thought that this was his second chance with her, and she gave him every indication that was the case. She’s a sly one, Lydia. She knows how to flatter a man.”

Rose suddenly thought about Tobias Fraggles floating sightless in the Thames with a slit throat. Lydia must have charmed him into lying in court and then dispatched him when he had served his purpose.

“When Lydia proposed I work for her as a dresser, Papa jumped at the idea. It kept both Lydia and me close to him, but in my case not close enough that it might attract attention. What he didn’t know was that it was all part of Lydia’s plan to steal the Doomstone from around her own neck. She was in league with Stratford-Mark – he has terrible debts and would stoop to anything to save his theatre. They made an agreement. Stratford-Mark had the connections to provide the opportunity for Lydia to wear the diamond, and the means for its disposal if Lydia would do the deed. Lydia was skilled at conjuring, and she knew that a magic act, during which the audience’s attention is diverted, would be the perfect opportunity for her to steal the Star of the Sea. Better still, who would ever imagine that Lydia had stolen the diamond from around her own neck? It could have been taken at the Alhambra or somewhere else, but it was at Campion’s. It was Lydia who encouraged my father to approach Campion’s. She said that she had heard that it was small and friendly and that it might suit my father, particularly because of his issues with stage fright, and he thought that it wasn’t high profile enough to attract attention from the police or any of the Duchess’s former cronies.

“Of course, on the night the Doomstone went missing, my father and I realised that Lydia’s suggestion of Campion’s had all been a set-up. She and Stratford-Mark knew of Edward’s strong connection with the place and used it to their advantage, to make it seem as if the visit there was utterly unplanned and spontaneous.”

Rose frowned. “So you and your father had nothing to do with the disappearance of the Doomstone?”

“Of course not,” said Amy indignantly. “Papa had turned his back forever on a life of crime. He wouldn’t have gone back to it, not even for Lydia. He was furious when he realised what she had done, incandescent with rage. He felt that he had been a dupe and that she had endangered him and me too. He had me change lodgings immediately, just in case.”

“So why didn’t he tell the police?”

Amy shrugged. “Two reasons. He still loved Lydia too much to put her behind bars for life, and he was worried about his own situation. Here in England he not only feared the possible threat of the Duchess, but also the much more substantial threat of the police. He had done some things in his past of which he was very ashamed. Unlike the Duchess, he never killed anybody but he had robbed and conned. He would still be wanted for those crimes. The second the Doomstone went missing he knew that Lydia was the only person who could possibly be responsible, but when it turned out that Inspector Cliff was present at Campion’s on that night he became worried. He thought it less likely that the inspector knew in advance about Lydia and Stratford-Mark’s plot to steal the Doomstone, and far more probable that the inspector was on his trail, having made a connection between Paul Bray and Gandini. He was furious with Lydia for putting his position in such jeopardy. But he decided that staying put was the safest option. If he fled it would look like guilt, and he’d be on the run for the rest of his life, and if arrested he’d get done for stealing the Doomstone on top of everything else. And if he told the inspector that he knew that Lydia had stolen the Doomstone from around her own neck, he’d be betraying the woman he still loved.

“It was an impossible position and of course Lydia played on it, insisting that her relationship with Edward was simply faked for the purpose of stealing the Doomstone, and hinting that my father was the great love of her life. As soon as all the fuss died down, she claimed that she would be returning to his arms. Of course, I could see from spending time with Lydia and Edward every day that Papa was a fool to believe a word, but he was blindsided by love. He didn’t like it when I told him he was being a dupe again.

“So when the heat was on and it looked as if the inspector might be about to make an arrest, he came up with the plan for me to fake my own death. He thought that if everyone believed that I was the culprit, and the Doomstone was at the bottom of the river, the inspector would close the investigation – perhaps even lose interest in my father. Of course, Lydia was thrilled by the plan – so thrilled that she told my father she regretted her terrible mistake in stealing the Doomstone, and promised him that as soon as the fuss faded away she would return to live with him in Southend.

“I knew that would never happen. Can you imagine Lydia living here? In any case, she’s not just in love with Edward – it’s more like an obsession. I don’t know what happened next, but I assume my father must have finally realised, or been told by somebody, that Lydia was lying to him, and confronted her in some fashion, and so she killed him and framed Effie.

“As soon as I heard that he’d been killed, I knew that Lydia would come looking for me next. That’s why I went to the court, in the hope that I’d be able to find Thomas or Edward and confess all. I saw you outside and hoped you’d help. I was anxious how you’d react because you thought I was dead. But there was no choice. Then, as I approached you, I saw Lydia with Edward in the distance looming from the other crowd. It was too risky. So I scribbled the note and stuffed it in your pocket.”

Rose nodded. It was all falling into place. Effie had casually told Gandini just before the show about Lydia and Edward’s forthcoming nuptials, and Rose hadn’t misheard when she had thought that she had heard Gandini say softly to Lydia, “I know. I’ll stop it,” during the bullet trick. Those words had sealed his fate. Lydia would know that the only way she could ensure his silence was to kill him.

“So,” said Rose excitedly. “Lydia killed Gandini, setting it up to make it look as if Effie was responsible with the pearl bullet and the faked note. Then, just to make sure that Effie took the blame, she got Tobias to testify against Effie and killed him to ensure his silence. You’ve good reason to be worried that Lydia will come for you next.”

“Yes,” said a voice behind them. “She does. And sadly so do you.”

They spun round. Lydia was standing behind them, pointing a pistol. She looked very pale and unusually dishevelled. She must have entered the house through the back door in the scullery, and the noise of the storm meant that they hadn’t heard her. “It’s such a pity that I can’t risk you telling anyone else.”