Pointing to a sentence at random, she read aloud, her voice echoing in the almost empty, still-chilly room. “‘Yes! Yes! Yes! He would create proudly out of the freedom and power of his soul…a living thing new and soaring and beautiful, impalpable, imperishable.’”
Maisie closed her eyes and repeated the words. “New and soaring and beautiful, impalpable, imperishable….” And she knew that she would rest little that night. Already it was as if Nick Bassington-Hope were beginning to speak to her. Even as she slept, she would strain to hear his message.
Four
“Mornin’, Miss. All right?”
Pulling her scarf down to her chin so that she could be heard, Maisie stamped her feet on the front step, put the key in the lock and pushed open the door. “Yes, thank you very much, Billy. How’s Lizzie?”
Billy closed the door behind him and replied as they made their way upstairs, “Still not well, Miss. Running a bit of a temperature, I’d say, and the poor little mite just spits out ’er food. Doreen bought a bit of brisket yesterday, put it in a soup to go round everybody, and Lizzie wouldn’t even take some of the broth.”
“‘Go round everybody’?” Maisie hung her coat on the hook behind the door, as did Billy. “You make it sound like a tribe!”
“Aw, it’s nothing, Miss, not any more than anyone has to put up with these days.”
Maisie stood in front of Billy’s desk as he placed his notebook on the polished oak surface and reached into his inside jacket pocket for a pencil.
“Is there anything wrong? Look, I know it’s not really my business, but are you stretched a bit?”
Billy would not sit down until Maisie had gone to her desk and taken a seat. He shook his head, then explained, “Doreen and me always thought we were lucky, you know, with a two-up, two-down for just the five of us. Reasonable landlord into the bargain. The nippers’ve got a bedroom, we’ve got a bedroom, and with cold running water, we don’t ’ave to walk down to the pump, not like a lot of ’em round our way.” He reached for the tray, ready to make a pot of tea. “Doing well, I am, thanks to you, so we’ve even been able to afford a few extras—a bit of beef every now and again, a toy each for the kids at Christmas….”
“What’s happened?”
“A few months ago, my brother-in-law—that’s Doreen’s sister’s husband, he’s a carpenter—lost ’is job. It got bad for ’em, they ’ad to move out because there weren’t money for the rent and they were feedin’ their boy and girl on bread and Oxo water—and there’s another one on the way, y’know, making it all the worse for ’em. So, Jim reckoned there’d be work in London, and they turned up wanting somewhere to live. Now they’re sleepin’ in one bedroom, the five of us are in the other, and it’s like sardines, it is. Jim still ’asn’t got work, Doreen’s all but ’ad to build a wall around ’er sewin’ machine to do the dressmaking she’s still got comin’ in, and, to tell you the truth, Miss, it’s a stretch, puttin’ food on the table for nine people every day. Not that Jim’s idle, no, the man’s wearing out what shoe leather’s left on ’is feet walking round all day tryin’ to get work.” Billy shook his head, then moved toward the door.
“No, don’t make tea just yet. Let’s sit down and talk about this.” Maisie nodded toward the table by the window where the case map was laid out. “Come on.”
Billy slumped into the chair alongside Maisie, who was, in fact, somewhat relieved. Only the year before, brought down by the constant lingering pain from his war wounds, Billy’s behavior had become unpredictable, and further investigation had revealed abuse of narcotics—not uncommon among men who had once been inadvertently overdosed on morphine in the dressing stations and casualty clearing stations of the Great War. At least he had not lapsed.
“Are you managing? Is there anything I can do?”
“Yes, Miss, I’m managing, it’s just tight, that’s all. My Doreen can make food for five go round ’undred and five, if needs be. It’ll just be better when Jim gets on ’is feet.” He paused. “Poor man fought for ’is country, and now look at what ’e’s bein’ treated like—it’s not good enough, Miss.”
“Billy, have you been in touch with the nurse, to come in to see Lizzie?” asked Maisie. It was common for a local nurse, instead of a doctor, to be summoned to see the sick, simply because of the greater cost of a physician.
“No. Fool’s choice, really, Miss. We thought she’d be over it by now, but I don’t know…”
Maisie checked her watch. “Look, I’m driving down to Dungeness later this morning—at least, I will be if I hear from Miss B-H—so I’ll detour and go to the house first, just to have a look at Lizzie. How does that sound?”
Billy shook his head. “Nah, Miss, don’t you go out of your way—we’ll get the nurse round later if Lizzie’s not any better by this evening.”
Maisie took several pencils of different colors from a jar on the table. She knew Billy’s pride and did not want to push. “All right, but the offer’s there, you know. You only have to say—and if things get any more troublesome…”
Billy simply nodded, so Maisie moved on to the Bassington-Hope case.
“Right then, let’s look at where we are. Per our conversation yesterday, it’s your job to find out more from Levitt about the gallery, Nick B-H and that mysterious lock-up of his. See what you can sniff out. And also see if you can uncover more about the younger brother and the credibility of that story about liaisons with a criminal element.” She paused. “In the meantime, I’ll be having a quick cup of coffee with Stratton this morning before I set off—I’m curious to know why he was so keen to support Georgina’s decision to seek my help. If he thought the case merited more investigation, why didn’t he do it himself?” Reaching out onto the case map, she began to link several notes, creating circles that she joined with arrows. “On Monday I’ll be doing some background research on Miss B-H and her family, and of course, I’ll have some impressions from my visit to the house.” Maisie consulted her watch. “The morning post should be here soon and I am expecting to hear from her.”
“Won’t she use the old dog ’n’ bone?”
“Perhaps, but I need a key, a map and some specific directions from her.”
Billy nodded. “And when’re you going to see the family?”
“I am to join her at Bassington Place on Saturday.”
“Bassington Place. Very posh, if you don’t mind me sayin’ so. And this is where you meet the rest of the cuckoos, eh, Miss?”
Maisie was glad to hear Billy joking, though he still looked drawn. “Yes, it appears so. I don’t think it’s over-egging the pudding to call the Bassington-Hopes eccentric, given Georgina’s description—and what did she call her sister, Nolly? I must admit, I—”
The doorbell rang. “Probably be that letter now.” Billy left the room, returning to the office less than three minutes later. “Messenger turned up at the same time as the postman, so you’ve got one thick envelope”—he passed a bulky package to Maisie—“and a few letters from the postie.”
Maisie placed the letters on the table and reached for an opener to slit the seal securing the envelope delivered by messenger. As she pulled out the letter, a second envelope in heavy cream vellum fell onto the table along with a key.
“Hmmm, looks like I will definitely be going alone to Dungeness, much as I suspected. Interesting…” Maisie allowed her words to fade as she began to read the accompanying letter aloud.