Mystery of the Spiteful Letters (12 page)

‘So that’s it!’ said Pip, without thinking.

‘That’s what?’ asked Mrs. Moon sharply.

‘Nothing,’ said Pip hastily, feeling a nudge from Fatty. ‘Nothing at all!’

Mrs. Moon looked at the children curiously. Fatty got up. He didn’t want to make Mrs. Moon suspicious about anything.

‘Time I went,’ he said. ‘Your lunch will get cold, Pip and Bets, if you don’t go and have it. See you later.’

‘Here’s your notebook, Fatty!’ Bets called after him, as he went downstairs. ‘Your precious notebook with all its Clues and Suspects! Fatty, are you going to write up the case again? You’ve got some more to put down now, haven’t you?’

‘Chuck the book down to me,’ said Fatty. ‘Yes, I’ll write up the case as far as it’s gone. I bet old Goon would like to see my notes!’

He went out of the garden-door with Larry and Daisy. Fatty did not put on his wig or apron again. He stuffed them into his bicycle basket.

‘Good thing I’d taken them off before Mrs. Moon came in,’ he said. ‘She’d have wondered why you were hobnobbing with the butcher-boy!’

‘Fatty, who do you think is the letter-writer?’ said Daisy, who was burning with curiosity. ‘I think it’s Mrs. Moon. I do really.’

‘I do too,’ said Larry. ‘But I don’t see how we are to get any proof.’

‘Yes, it certainly might be Mrs. Moon,’ said Fatty thoughtfully. ‘You remember that Pip told us she wanted her niece to come here? She might have got Gladys out of the way for that. And yet - there are all the other letters too. Whoever wrote them must be a bit mad, I think.’

‘What do we do next?’ asked Larry.

‘I think we’ll try and find out a bit more about Mrs. Moon,’ said Fatty. ‘We’ll meet at Pip’s at half-past two.’

When they arrived back at Pip’s, they found him and Bets in a great state of excitement.

‘What do you think! Old Clear-Orf is here and he’s been going for Mrs. Moon like anything!’ cried Pip. ‘We heard a lot of it, because the kitchen window’s open and it’s just under our playroom!’

‘What’s he been going at her for? ’ asked Fatty.

‘Well, apparently she used to live near the Home where Gladys was,’ said Pip. ‘And once she was working there as cook, and she got the sack because the girls complained of her bad temper. Maybe Gladys was one of those that complained! Old Clear-Orf has been making inquiries himself, I suppose, and when he found out that Mrs. Moon actually knew the Home Gladys had been in, I suppose he came over all suspicious. He shouted at her like anything - and she shouted back!’

A noise of voices arose again. The children leaned out of the window.

‘And what right have you got to come here and talk to an innocent woman like you have!’ shouted Mrs. Moon. ‘I’ll have the law on you!’

‘I am the Law,’ came Mr. Goon’s ponderous voice. ‘I’m not accusing you of anything, Mrs. Moon, please understand that. I’m just asking you a few questions in the ordinary way of business, that’s all. Routine questions is what we call them. Checking up on people, and finding out about them. Clearing them if they’re innocent - as I’ve no doubt you are. You didn’t ought to go on like this just because the Law asks you a few civil questions!’

‘There’s others you could well ask questions of,’ said Mrs. Moon darkly. ‘Yes, others I could tell you of.’

‘I’ve got a list of people I’m asking questions of,’ said Mr. Goon. ‘And all I hope is they’ll be more civil than you’ve been. You don’t make a good impression, Mrs. Moon, you don’t, and that’s flat.’

Whereupon Mr. Goon took his departure, and cycled slowly and heavily up the drive, the back of his neck looking bright red with rage.

‘Old Goon’s a bit brighter than we think,’ said Fatty. ‘He seems to have got his list of Suspects just as we have - and Mrs. Moon is down on his too!’

‘I thought when he saw you posting that letter yesterday at Sheepsale he’d suspect you!’ said Larry.

‘Oh, I think he’s sure I’m “messing about” somehow, as he puts it,’ said Fatty. ‘He’s probably expecting someone to get a stupid letter from me, as well as from the real letter-writer. Well - I’ve a jolly good mind to let him have one!’

‘Oh no, Fatty!’ said Daisy.

Fatty grinned. ‘No, I didn’t mean it. Well, let’s go out into the garden, shall we? We’ll go up to that old summer-house. I’ll write up my notes there, whilst you all read or do something. It’s too hot to stay indoors.’

They all went up to the summer-house. It backed on to the next-door garden, and was a nice, secluded little place, well away from the house. The children pulled some early radishes from the garden and washed them, meaning to nibble them all the afternoon.

They all talked hard about their mystery. They discussed everything and everybody. They read out loud what Fatty had written. It sounded very good indeed. He had even written up the interview between Mr. Goon and Mrs. Moon that afternoon. It began:

‘Said Mr. Goon

To Mrs. Moon’

and went on in such a funny strain that the children roared.

Then, quite suddenly, they heard voices very near them. They stopped their talk, startled. Who could be so near?

They peeped out of the summer-house. They saw Mrs. Moon, with some lettuces in her hand, talking to a stranger over the wall, almost within touch of their summer-house.

‘Well, that’s what I always say, Miss Tittle,’ they heard Mrs. Moon say. ‘If a thing’s too tight, it’s not worth wearing!’

‘You’re quite right,’ said the little, neat woman looking over the wall. ‘But people will have their things made so tight. Well, do come in and see me about that dress of yours, Mrs. Moon, sometime. I’d enjoy a good talk with you.’

‘I bet she would,’ whispered Daisy. ‘The two of them together would just about pull every one in Peterswood to pieces!’

‘Miss Tittle didn’t look a very nice person,’ said Bets, watching Mrs. Moon go down the path with her lettuces. She had obviously just been up the kitchen garden nearby to pull them.

‘I suppose you realize that we’ve been talking very loudly, and that both Miss Tittle and Mrs. Moon could have heard every word, if they’d been listening?’ said Fatty, witn a groan. ‘I never thought of anyone coming up here. Miss Tittle must have been just the other side of the wall, and Mrs. Moon must have come up to get the lettuces. They grow quite near the summer-house. Now both will be on their guard, if they’ve heard what we’ve been saying!’

‘They won’t have heard!’ said Pip.

‘They may quite well have done,’ said Fatty. ‘What idiots we are. Really! Giving all our clues and facts away at the tops of our voices. And Bets reading out loud from my notes!’

‘Why didn’t Buster bark?’ said Bets.

‘Well, he knows Mrs. Moon all right and wouldn’t bark if she came by,’ said Fatty. ‘And I don’t expect he bothers about anyone in the next garden. Do you, Buster, old fellow?’

‘Woof,’ said Buster lazily. He was lying in a patch of sun and it was pleasantly warm on him. He cocked his ears up, hoping to hear the magic word ‘Walk.’

He soon heard it. ‘I vote we go for a walk,’ said Larry. ‘It’s getting stuffy here. Let’s go down to the river and watch the swans. We’ll take some bread.’

Pip asked Mrs. Moon for some bread. She seemed sulky and upset. ‘No wonder,’ thought Pip, ‘after having Mr. Goon bellowing at her!’

They had a lovely time by the river. They sauntered back to tea, but parted at Pip’s, because each had to get back home for tea that afternoon.

‘See you tomorrow,’ said Fatty. ‘We seem to be rather stuck again, don’t we? This mystery wants oiling a bit! Well - maybe something will happen tomorrow!’

Fatty was quite right. Plenty happened - and it was very exciting too!

MR. GOON IS PUZZLED

Fatty thought he would wear his butcher-boy disguise the next morning, in case he had to go and do a bit more snooping or interviewing. It was a simple disguise, and very effective. He put on his red wig, with no cap. He adjusted the black eyebrows and made his face red. Then, with his striped apron tied round his middle, he set off to Pip’s.

Mrs. Hilton saw him as he flashed by the window. ‘Ah, the butcher-boy,’ she thought. ‘Now Mrs. Moon won’t have to go and fetch the meat again.’

The others greeted Fatty with delight. They were always thrilled when he disguised himself. He pulled off his wig, eyebrows, and apron when he got up into the playroom in case Mrs. Hilton should come in and see him.

He had no sooner done this than a great commotion began downstairs. The children listened, quite startled. They heard wails and groans, and somebody speaking sharply, then more wails.

They went to the head of the stairs and listened. ‘It’s Mrs. Moon - and Mother,’ said Pip. ‘Whatever is happening? Mrs. Moon is crying and howling like anything and Mother is trying to make her stop. Gracious, what can be the matter?’

‘Perhaps Mother’s discovered that Mrs. Moon is the bad letter-writer!’ suggested Bets, looking rather scared.

‘I’ll go down and see what’s up,’ said Fatty, rising to the occasion as usual. He went downstairs quietly. He heard Mrs. Hilton’s stern voice.

‘Now Mrs. Moon, you are not to go on like this. I won’t have it! Pull yourself together at once!’

‘Oh Mam, to think I’d get one of those nasty letters!’ wailed Mrs. Moon’s voice. ‘And such a spiteful one too! Look here what it says.’

‘I don’t want to see, Mrs. Moon. Pay no attention to it,’ said Mrs. Hilton. ‘You know quite well it is only something written out of somebody’s spiteful imagination. Let Mr. Goon see it, and then forget all about it.’

‘That Mr. Goon!’ wailed Mrs. Moon. ‘Didn’t he come here yesterday and tell me I might be one of them he suspects could have written the letters - me, a law-abiding, peaceful woman that never did no one no harm. Ooooooo-o-oh!’

‘Pull yourself together at once,’ said Mrs. Hilton sharply. ‘You’re getting hysterical and I won’t have it! When did the letter come?’

‘Just this minute as ever was!’ wailed Mrs. Moon. ‘Somebody pushed it in at the kitchen door, and I picked it up and opened it - and there was that nasty spiteful message - oh, to think somebody could write to me like that, me that hasn’t an enemy in the world.’

‘Somebody pushed it in just now?’ said Mrs. Hilton thoughtfully. ‘Well now - I saw the butcher-boy coming by my window a minute ago.’

‘He never came to my back door!’ declared Mrs. Moon. ‘Never left any meat or nothing.’

‘Strange,’ said Mrs. Hilton. ‘Could it possibly have been that boy who delivered the note - for somebody else? Well, we can easily make inquiries at the butcher’s.’

Fatty wished heartily that he hadn’t put on his butcher-boy disguise. He must hide it well away when he went upstairs.

‘I’ll go and telephone to Mr. Goon now,’ said Mrs. Hilton. ‘Make yourself a cup of tea, Mrs. Moon, and try and be sensible.’

Fatty shot upstairs as Mrs. Hilton came out into the hall to telephone. The others clutched him.

‘What’s the row about?’ they asked. ‘Quick, tell us!’

‘What do you think!’ said Fatty. ‘Mrs. Moon’s had one of those letters - delivered by hand a few minutes ago. We might any of us have seen who it was that left it here - but we didn’t. But your mother spotted me in my butcher-boy disguise, Pip, and that’s a pity, because she thinks I’m the one that delivered the letter!’

‘Mrs. Moon’s had a letter!’ said Larry, and gave a low whistle. ‘Well, that rules her out then. That leaves only Nosey and Miss Tittle.’

‘Let’s watch for Mr. Goon,’ said Bets. So they watched. He came cycling up the drive and dismounted by the front door. Mrs. Hilton let him in. The children stood at the top of the stairs, but Mrs. Hilton, worried and puzzled, did not even see them.

‘I sent for you to say that Mrs. Moon has now had one of those unpleasant letters,’ said Mrs. Hilton. ‘She is naturally very upset.’

‘Well, Madam, I may tell you that I’ve had one too, this morning!’ said Mr. Goon. ‘It’s getting beyond a joke, this is. I found mine in the letter-box this morning. Course, it may have been delivered in the dark of night, probably was. Making fun of the Law like that. Things have come to a pretty pass if the Law can be treated like that!’

‘It’s very worrying,’ said Mrs. Hilton. ‘I can’t imagine anyone wanting to send you that kind of letter, Mr. Goon.’

‘Ah, no doubt the wrong-doer knows I’m on their track,’ said Mr. Goon. ‘Thinks to put me off, no doubt! Tells me I’m a meddler and a muddler! Ah, wait till I get me hands on them!’

‘Well - come and see Mrs. Moon,’ said Mrs. Hilton. ‘Please handle her carefully, Mr. Goon. She’s almost hysterical.’

Obviously Mr. Goon couldn’t handle a hysterical person, judging by the angry voices soon to be heard from the kitchen. The door opened again at last and Mr. Goon came out into the hall, looking extremely flustered, to find Mrs. Hilton, who had retired to the drawing-room.

‘And that’ll teach you to come pestering and accusing a poor, innocent woman!’ Mrs. Moon’s voice came from the kitchen. ‘Pestering me yesterday like you did - and me struck all of a heap today!’

Mr. Goon heard next about the red-headed butcher-boy, who had so mysteriously ridden up and left no meat, and had apparently departed without being seen.

Mr. Goon immediately thought of the red-headed telegraph-boy. ‘Funny goings-on!’ he said to himself. ‘Them dropped letters now - and that telegraph-boy picking them up - and now this red-headed butcher-boy, without his meat - and maybe delivering that letter to Mrs. Moon. This wants looking into.’

‘The five children are upstairs,’ said Mrs. Hilton. ‘I don’t know if you want to ask them if they saw the butcher-boy. They may give you a few more details.’

‘I’ll see them,’ said Mr. Goon, and went upstairs to the playroom. When he got there the children were apparently playing a game of snap. They looked up as Mr. Goon walked heavily into the room.

‘Good morning,’ he said. ‘Did any of you see a red-headed butcher-boy coming along here this morning?’

‘Yes, I saw him,’ said Pip with a grin.

‘Ho, you did! What did he do?’ asked Mr. Goon.

‘Just rode up the drive,’ said Pip.

‘And rode down again at once, I suppose,’ said Mr. Goon.

‘No. I didn’t see him ride down,’ said Pip. Nobody had apparently. Mr. Goon began to feel that this mysterious red-headed boy must be somewhere about the premises.