Malice at the Palace (The Royal Spyness Series Book 9)
By: Rhys Bowen
This time I did not present myself to Frederick at the front entrance to Bobo’s building. Instead I went skulking around until I found an alley leading past the dustbins to a back way in. What’s more, the outer door opened without a key and I found myself in a narrow, dark hallway, facing a small service lift. Up I went and let myself into Bobo’s flat without anybody seeing me. I was feeling rather proud of myself. I was going to take my gloves off, but then decided I should leave no fingerprints. I went through the sitting room, finding nothing. In the bathroom I found a syringe and what must have been some kind of drug. But then, the police knew about her habit. I expected they’d found out by now who supplied it to her. I hoped so, as that was certainly something I didn’t want to look into. Dealing with drug gangs was out of my league.
I’d managed to put Darcy from my mind until I went through into the bedroom. There was that dressing gown hanging behind the door, thick navy blue wool with his initials on it. And my insides clenched themselves into knots again. Had he been visiting her all the time he’d professed he loved me? And then the second thought—had he gone to her because I had refused to sleep with him? I didn’t know whether to be glad the police were now grilling him and giving him an unpleasant time, or frightened that they might really try to pin this murder on him.
I turned my back on that door and forced him out of my mind. I had to work quickly and thoroughly. There was a small modern writing desk by the window. I went through it but it contained nothing revealing. No checkbook. No personal letters. Of course the police had probably taken them away. It was silly of me really to think I could find anything of value here. I was about to walk away from the desk when I noticed the blotter. It hadn’t been changed and there was the faintest imprint of writing on it. I lifted it up and carried it over to the mirror. Holding it up, I read with some difficulty:
Mary Boyle, 14 Edward Street, Deptford, London
I wasn’t familiar with all parts of London but I was fairly sure that Deptford was not one of the more fashionable parts. Somewhere south of the river Thames, I thought. And I wondered who Bobo would be writing to there. The last letter she had written, presumably, unless the police had removed more recent sheets of blotting paper. Mary Boyle sounded like an Irish name to me and it occurred to me that this might be her former maid, of whom she had seemed to be fond. I wondered if she had dismissed her when she discovered she was pregnant, not wanting anyone close to her at such a time. Or maybe the Irish maid had left her when she threatened to get an abortion . . . and Bobo had written to her to tell her she had changed her mind and was going to have the child. This was all complete supposition. It could equally have been her dressmaker to whom she was sending a check. But it was all worth thinking about.
I copied down the address with a sheet of Bobo’s own writing paper. Then there didn’t seem anything more to be done. I knew I should get out of Bobo’s flat while the going was good. As I was crossing the floor, stepping over Bobo’s various piles of discarded clothing, I somehow put my hand through the strap of a brassiere that she had left hanging from her bedpost. I should I have realized that I had been accident free for longer than usual and that disaster was looming. I was jerked off balance, tripped over a dress on the floor and found myself careening across the room. The wall came rushing up to meet me, with one of Bobo’s large and rather tasteless paintings directly in my path. The last thing I wanted was to put my hand through the canvas, so I grabbed at the frame. The painting fell. I tried to hold on to it, but I was still off balance and it was heavy. It slipped through my fingers and landed on the floor with an almighty thud.
“Bugger,” I muttered, looking around guiltily just in case anyone had heard such an unladylike outburst. I picked it up and was relieved to see it was more or less intact. When I went to lift it, to put it back in place, I saw why Bobo had chosen to hang it here, on a wall of her bedroom where it could not properly be admired and got no real light. There was a safe behind it. With trembling fingers I tried to open it. Of course the wheels turned on the dial but it remained firmly shut. No wonder she had nothing of interest in her desk, I thought. It was all in here, and it looked very much as if the police had not yet discovered it. Now all I had to do was find a way to open it.
I had no idea where to find someone who knew how to open a safe, but I knew someone who might. I made my way to Green Park tube station as quickly as possible and soon was heading out of town to Essex and my grandfather.
YOU WANT A what?” he asked me after he had seated me in his warm little kitchen.
“I wondered if you knew how to open a safe.”
“Blimey, ducks. You haven’t taken up burglary now as a hobby, have you?” He didn’t know whether to laugh or be shocked.
“No, but I’m helping the authorities in an investigation I can’t tell you about, and I’ve just discovered a safe in someone’s bedroom. So I thought if you knew how to open it . . .” I let the rest of the sentence hang.
He laughed, a trifle nervously. “My job was apprehending criminals, love. Not joining them. But come to think of it I might know someone who can help us. Willie Lightfingers Buxton. He was reputed to be the best there was. And I know he’s out of the Scrubs.”
“The Scrubs?”
“Wormwood Scrubs. Clink. Prison.”
I wasn’t sure I wanted to extend my investigation to include convicted felons.