Authors: Alanna Knight

Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Genre Fiction, #Historical, #Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, #Thrillers & Suspense, #Crime, #Historical Fiction, #Crime Fiction

Deadly Beloved (24 page)

"Mabel. Mabel! You're alive!"

Chapter 17

Hearing her name, Mabel Kellar ran to Vince, who took her in his arms. Looking across at his stepfather, he made a gesture of helpless bewilderment and led her over to a chair.

Sobbing, she turned to Faro, "I had to come — I had to come."

"Mabel Kellar, I am taking you into custody for the attempted murder of your husband, Melville Kellar. Anything you say may be taken down and used in evidence," said Faro sternly.

She looked at him wide-eyed. "So you think it was me."

"We know it was you."

Suddenly she noticed the travelling bag. She gave a little cry as Faro slipped open the locks. At first glance the bundle he withdrew resembled a tailor's dummy, but closer inspection revealed a padded tunic.

Faro held it up triumphantly. "Behold the earthly remains of Mrs Flynn."

Mabel Kellar was suddenly calm. "All right, I admit it. I wanted him dead. I wanted to punish them both. I could have forgiven him if he hadn't destroyed my baby. Then to give Eveline a child and to want to marry her. I wanted him to suffer as he'd made me suffer through the years. He even told me how easy it would be for him to commit murder and get away with it."

"I decided to beat him at his own game. It seemed so easy. Ever since Christmas I'd been planning my revenge in every detail and Melville played into my hands when he dismissed the last housekeeper. I would pretend to engage a new one, Mrs Flynn. Melville hardly glanced at references and I knew he would never notice the new housekeeper or that he never saw us together. All I had to do was to appear a few times in the kitchen as Mrs Flynn, for Ina's benefit.

"I sent the letter to Tiz. I only intended being Mrs Flynn for a week or so, the longer I kept up the pretext the more dangerous it became, especially as I would have no excuse to remain in the house once Mrs Flynn had worked her notice."

"All I had to do was disappear, leave some evidence indicating that I had been murdered and then Melville would be convicted and hanged for it."

"How did you intend to return from the dead?"

"I'd wait a couple of years and pretend to have had a street accident in London and lost my memory. Something like that would work very well," she said dismissively, while Faro and Vince exchanged helpless glances indicating her extraordinary naivety.

"I had you, Inspector Faro, to the house the night before so that you would be prepared for Mrs Flynn. All I needed were spectacles, a grey wig and a maid's cap. The toothache and swathing my face with scarves was a great help," she added proudly and then with a sigh, "No one will ever know how hard it was. I'm not a very good cook at the best of times but it was a nightmare trying to cook for a dinner party and have everything ready at the right time.

"But my plan was working. Next morning Melville took me to the North Berwick train and that was where everything went wrong."

She stopped and stared miserably out of the window as Faro took up the story.

"When you boarded the train, you were fortunate enough to find an empty first-class compartment. Quickly you took off the fur cloak and became Mrs Flynn, but without the padded tunic because it hampered swift movement. You also had in the bag some raw butcher's meat which you intended to use for dabbing the fur cloak. However, you were unlucky. Another passenger got in. Correct?"

Mrs Kellar nodded dully. "Yes, at Musselburgh. I decided I must get out at Longniddry and work in the waiting-room, praying that it would be empty. I didn't have a great deal of time if I was to catch the train back to Edinburgh." She giggled. "A few minutes, that's all I needed.

And then — "

"And then you had your worst bit of luck. You were seen leaving and the man on duty thought you were trying to sneak out without a ticket. When he stopped you, he noticed blood on your hands. While he went for water, you disappeared down the road."

She shook her head. "I only went fifty yards, hid round a corner and doubled back and over the railway bridge in time for the Edinburgh train. As we left the station, I waited in the corridor and hurled out the cloak and the knife. If it hadn't been for the snow ... I began watching the weather. It got worse and worse. And what if someone had decided to keep the cloak? Despite the stains it was valuable — and warm. What if they weren't discovered before Mrs Flynn had worked her notice."

She paused and laughed bitterly. "Notice? Melville never noticed me at all, living in the same house. Can you credit that? All he did was leave notes on the table for me. And I hadn't bargained for all that anxiety, those hours of terror when I thought my plan had failed. I couldn't believe that no one would arrest Melville after the cloak and the knife were handed in. It was then I decided on the petticoat.

"If that didn't work., then it would have to be poison. When the postman delivered Eveline's letter, it was like gift from heaven — or hell," she added savagely. "My troubles were over. I had been given the perfect reason for his suicide."

"That old pistol, he was very proud of it. I slipped into the bedroom and he was breathing deeply, still asleep, I thought. But as I fired, he opened his eyes, turned his head - oh dear God. He fell back against the pillow. But he wasn't dead.

"He was lying there bleeding to death. And in that moment, I knew how wicked I had been. I knew that I loved him and whatever he had done to me, I wanted him alive again. Especially now that Eveline didn't want him. He would need me again. I would be able to comfort him, prove what a wife's faithful love could be. He would never stray again, he would be so grateful to me for taking him back. And we would be happy," she added with a wistful sigh and then the tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Oh dear God, what had I done. I had killed him for nothing, nothing," she added pathetically.

"I must have been out of my mind. I rushed downstairs, got a basin and water — I think I fainted, because when I came to I was lying on the kitchen floor, the water spilt. I refilled it, ran upstairs — and he had gone, bleeding, terribly injured as he was, he had managed to get out of the house."

She stopped. "You know the rest." She looked at Faro. "I had some other awful moments, when you kept picking up my hair brushes. I was sure you guessed then and I thought Vince had recognised my voice last night."

"I did — or thought I did," said Vince.

With a sigh she stood up, "I'm ready to go with you, but — but I just wanted to see him — just once more."

She turned to Vince. "I still love him, even though I wanted my revenge. When I saw him lying dying I knew then that I had only destroyed myself." Staring across at the bed where Kellar lay, still and inert, she whispered, "May I kiss him goodbye before I go with you?"

Over her head, Vince nodded eagerly to Faro.

"All right, Mrs Kellar."

Kellar opened his eyes as she bent over him. "Mabel — Mabel is that you . . . ?" His voice was faint, far-off. "I thought you were Flynn."

She fell sobbing at his bedside. "Forgive me, forgive me — for loving you."

Kellar, bewildered, put out a hand and stroked her hair. "Mabel, you idiot," he whispered.

Faro and Vince stood by the window watching the motionless couple, the weeping woman whispering at her husband's bedside, holding his hand, his white bandaged face staring straight ahead.

At last, she dried her tears and said, "I'm ready to go now."

"Where are you taking her?" asked Kellar weakly. "Not jail. Oh, no, not until I've talked to Superintendent McIntosh. I've sent for him, he should be here directly." And in a voice gathering strength, "Please leave us alone, Faro."

They joined McQuinn in the corridor and a few minutes later the Superintendent stormed along and, with a face like thunder, motioned Faro towards the waiting-room.

"Mind leaving us, Dr Laurie?" When the door closed, McIntosh sat down and said. "All right, Faro. Now let's have your version of what all this is about." He listened grimly and at the end said, "I'm inclined to agree with your story. But Kellar tells me in confidence that he tried to commit suicide for personal reasons, especially since his wife had gone off and left him."

It was Faro's turn to look amazed.

"For the record this will go down as an accident with an old pistol he was priming."

"What about all the evidence, the cloak and the knife, for instance?"

"It will be filed away under mysteries unsolved."

"And Mrs Flynn?"

"The housekeeper? Oh, she disappeared without leaving a forwarding address. Not unusual where a servant's working notice."

Faro decided to say nothing of the contents of the travelling bag.

"As for that rather simple maid, we would never call her to give evidence."

There was a short interval before Faro spoke. "This is a miscarriage of justice, you understand that, sir, don't you," he said severely. "And you are contributing to it."

McIntosh grinned. "Of course. But we take our choice and frankly I'd rather distort the truth a little than have the scandal of the Kellar affair, his wife's imprisonment with the inevitable repercussions on the honour of the Edinburgh City Police, made public."

McIntosh was unlucky. Kellar's accident found its way into the Sunday newspapers and so too did the scandal regarding Mrs Shaw. No one knew quite how or who to blame for 'Sensational story of police surgeon's secret amour. Disappearing wife returns home. After discovering awful truth about her husband's double life...'

There was no knighthood possible after that. Mabel could not have had a more perfect revenge since Melville was not only thwarted of honour but also of the woman he had loved and the son he craved, who went with his true father and mother to live in Yorkshire.

Kellar, released from hospital, went home to Mabel.

Vince, although sympathetic, considered it prudent to remain at a distance in future. "She obviously hadn't even thought it through, had she? I mean, how could she possibly reappear and reclaim all her property without some very searching questions being asked?"

Faro shrugged. "I don't think it would have ever got that far. The moment she knew Kellar had been convicted, she would never have let him hang. Not after that performance when he was only injured."

"What would she have got, if he'd let her be taken? Not the death sentence, I hope," said Vince.

"A few years for attempted murder."

Vince sighed. "Poor Mabel. Her sentence has already begun."

"Yes, lad, it began by his bedside and I'm afraid it will continue for the rest of her life."

###

There are fifteen titles in the Inspector Faro series available from bookstores and on www.amazon.co.uk. Available on Kindle:

Enter Second Murderer

Bloodline

Deadly Beloved

Killing Cousins

A Quiet Death

To Kill A Queen