‘Be quiet, I said!’
When he raised his arm to strike her, she cowered on the bed and pleaded for mercy. Tunnadine turned away from her and grabbed his discarded apparel. He dressed quickly in a bruised silence, then stormed out, leaving her bewildered. The cosy world in which Lucinda Graham lived suddenly seemed to be under threat.
‘What did I do wrong?’ she asked, plaintively.
The fact that a hat belonging to Rhoda Wills had been found on a railway line had caused great distress to Vernon Tolley. He brooded on it all the way to Shrub Hill station. Sir Marcus’s behaviour troubled him. Without explanation, he demanded to be taken to the station and seemed to be excessively anxious. Clearly, there’d been an unwelcome development. After waiting until Sir Marcus had left on the first stage of his journey to London, the coachman had driven back slowly towards Burnhope Manor, stopping so that he could pause for reflection in a clearing. Heartened by Colbeck’s promise that his job would be safe and that the missing women would therefore be found unharmed, he’d then been shown the hat that Rhoda had been wearing on the previous day. It robbed him instantly of his faith in the two detectives. What he’d been offered was false hope. If Rhoda’s hat could be thrown from a moving train, she could just as easily be pushed out herself. A search of the line was continuing but limited resources meant that it would be days before the whole fifty-seven miles had been thoroughly explored. Rhoda’s dead body — and that of Imogen, perhaps — could be lying at the bottom of an embankment.
Common sense argued that nobody could have got into their compartment while the train was in transit yet the hat, to him, showed at the very least that there’d been some kind of struggle. It was inconceivable that the two women had argued and resorted to violence. When they’d set off, they were both so happy in each other’s company. A third person had to be involved and there was a way in which he could have entered their compartment. Tolley remembered hearing of a driver who’d been sacked by the OWWR for leaving the footplate of his freight train while it was in motion and climbing back to the brake van so that he could enjoy a drink of beer with the guard. Both men had been dismissed along with the fireman who’d been left in charge of the locomotive. Out of this stray recollection, Tolley concocted a narrative that involved someone who watched the two women getting onto the train at Shrub Hill station, concealed himself under the brake van, then climbed on top of it once the train was haring along. Having made his way along the roofs of the carriages, he lowered himself down, opened the door of the compartment in which the women were travelling and killed them before disposing of the bodies.
It was an absurd idea but, once it had taken hold if his mind, it quickly gained veracity. Instead of walking down the aisle with Rhoda Wills, he’d be attending her funeral. As a consequence of the crime, he would almost certainly lose his position as coachman. The future looked unrelievedly black to Tolley. It was hours before he was able to shake off his despair and return to Burnhope Manor. Having unharnessed, stabled and fed the horses, he wanted some time alone in his room. Win Eagleton had other ideas. She intercepted him on the stairs.
‘I hear that Rhoda’s hat has been found,’ she said, feigning concern.
‘Yes, it has.’
‘I told you that the Mickleton Tunnel would be involved.’
‘It’s just a coincidence, Win.’
‘If they search it properly, they’ll probably find her corpse in there as well.’
‘Don’t be silly.’
‘Dark deeds have taken place, Vernon. I know it.’
‘Then you know a lot more than the rest of us,’ he said, robustly. ‘You must be the only cook in England with second sight. You’ve probably never even been on that railway. How is it that you can tell exactly what happens on it?’
‘I didn’t mean to upset you, Vernon.’
‘Then leave me alone.’
‘There’s no need to speak so harshly,’ she said, hand on his shoulder. ‘I can see that you’re upset — we all are. Rhoda was a good friend to me. I’ll always remember that. This is a time when we should all pull together for her sake.’ She flashed her gap-toothed smile at him. ‘Are you hungry?’
‘No, I’m not.’
‘Would you like me to bring something up to your room?’
‘Stay away from me, Win.’
‘It’s no trouble.’
‘Stay away,’ he repeated, moving her hand from his shoulder. ‘I need to be alone. I’m not hungry and I don’t need company. All I want is peace and quiet.’ He glared at her. ‘Is that too much to ask?’
Climbing up the stairs, he left her with his rhetorical question hanging in the air. Win was not disturbed by his abrupt manner. He was in mourning for Rhoda Wills. Allowances had to be made for that. Tolley would come round in time. All that Win had to do was to be patient and to wait. When she went back to the kitchen, she wore a smile.
‘When did this come?’
‘It was early in the afternoon.’
‘Who delivered it?’
‘A boy, apparently — he tossed it into the porch and made off.’
‘Did nobody go after him?’ asked Tunnadine, angrily.
‘It would have been a waste of time, sir,’ said Colbeck.
‘What makes you say that?’
‘The boy is not an accomplice. He’s probably just some local lad who was offered a few pence to deliver the ransom note to Burnhope Manor. The kidnapper would never have dared to do it himself. He needed an intermediary.’
‘The inspector is right,’ confirmed Tallis. ‘Forget the boy.’
‘But he might have been able to describe the man who employed him to run the errand,’ contended Tunnadine. ‘He should have been stopped.’
‘Nobody knew what he’d just delivered,’ explained Colbeck. ‘They had no reason to stop him. It might just have been a note from one of the tenant farmers.’
‘If that boy is the son of one of my tenants,’ said Sir Marcus, grinding his teeth, ‘I’ll have the whole family turned out.’
‘That would be cruel and undeserved. Blame the man who sent the message and not the messenger himself. The important point is that your daughter and her maid are being held against their will. We have to rescue them.’
‘And kill those responsible!’ said Tunnadine, vengefully.
When he’d returned to his home after his visit to Lucinda Graham, he found Sir Marcus’s letter waiting for him. It threw him into a rage and sent him hastening to the club in Pall Mall. Sir Marcus was still in the private room with the two detectives. After being shown the ransom demand, Tunnadine was pulsing with fury. He turned on the superintendent.
‘I told you before,’ he snarled, ‘we need more men deployed.’
‘What good would that do?’ asked Tallis.
‘We could surround the area where the money is supposed to be handed over and catch this rogue.’
‘With respect, Mr Tunnadine, that would be a foolish thing to attempt.’
‘A show of force is required.’
‘That’s the last thing we must resort to, sir,’ said Colbeck. ‘We will be seen coming. The moment any of the conditions set down in the demand are not met, you may wave farewell to your bride. We are dealing with a ruthless man. If the two ladies do not bring in the reward he seeks, he’ll have no compunction in killing them.’
‘Are you able to read his mind, then?’ sneered Tunnadine.
‘He has not gone to such trouble in order to walk away empty-handed. If his captors can be exchanged for money,’ said Colbeck, ‘they have value. If we fail to cooperate, they will become a burden to him.’
‘We follow your advice, Inspector,’ decreed Sir Marcus.
‘It’s what I would have advised,’ said Tallis.
‘Well, I still think that you’re wrong to give in to him like this,’ said Tunnadine. ‘Think before you act, Sir Marcus. Do you really want to hand over all that money to this despicable villain?’
‘Of course I do not,’ barked Sir Marcus, ‘but the inspector assures me that there’s a good chance that we may retrieve it once Imogen and her maid are safe.’