Lies and Misdemeanours (22 page)

“He will,” Charlie assured him. “Not even the best solicitor in the country can get him off with just a prison sentence.”

Hetty was suddenly sick of discussing death, prison sentences and hangings. It seemed to be all anyone ever talked about. It was so run-of-the-mill to them that she just couldn’t understand how they could be so blaze about such a momentous event. Each and every time she closed her eyes, she could still see those nooses hanging, silently waiting for their prey.

“I have to get some air,” she whispered weakly.

At that moment, the door to the temporary holding cell opened, and Barnaby appeared. He looked at Charlie. “Come on back in, you need to witness this.”

Charlie nodded, but threw a warning look at Hetty. “Don’t go outside. Sit at a window if you need to, but don’t go outside.”

“Joshua is seeing to the horses,” Hetty argued. “I am going to stand and talk to him for a while.”

Hetty stomped out of the door before he could say anything else. She hated being so afraid of just doing even the simplest things. Stepping outside and taking some air was something that she had done every day for as long as she could remember. To be denied that now seemed overly cautious; ridiculous even.

After all, what could happen to her?

Half an hour later, Charlie closed the door to the holding cell with a sigh of relief.

The signature was on the parchment which was now tucked safely in Hugo’s hand. It would be added to Mrs Blagmire’s account of her experiences at Meldrew’s hands and, together with his and Simon’s statements would be enough to ensure that Meldrew could now be arrested for extortion, murder, and many other crimes yet to be decided by Hugo.

“Where’s Hetty?” Charlie demanded as he stalked into the kitchen only to find it empty.

He found Wally and Simon playing cards in front of the fire in the library.

“Where’s Hetty? Has she taken a nap?” Charlie demanded.

“I thought she was with Joshua,” Wally replied with a frown.

Charlie stared at him for a moment. He tried to warn himself not to over-react, that everything was alright. She had been told not to leave the house. He shouldn’t panic – not yet. Still, his step was hurried as he made his way outside in search of her.

“She went back inside about twenty minutes ago,” Joshua grunted as he dropped the hoof he was picking and looked up at Charlie. “She is fine. I watched her go back inside. She must have taken a nap or something.”

He grinned at Charlie’s back. He had barely finished speaking before his colleague was hurrying off in search of the beautiful lady who had captured his heart.

When the horse beside him shifted impatiently, Joshua turned his attention back to the hoof, and tried to coax the horse to lift it off the ground again.

Charlie closed the bedroom door behind him, and eyed the wild cascade of his wife’s hair sprawled out amongst the white sheets.

She looked so tired that he tried hard not to disturb her. However, she looked so damned desirable that he just couldn’t bring himself to leave her.

He took a moment to lock the door before he tugged his shirt over his head, and made his way across the room.

“Charlie?” Hetty mumbled when the bed dipped beneath his weight and teased her out of her slumber.

Before she could open her eyes, her lips were captured at the same time that he drew her into his arms.

A shiver swept through her. She didn’t care about his colleagues downstairs; or even the fact that there was a killer in the house. Nothing was as important as the man who meant so much to her. She could deny him nothing.

“Charlie,” she whispered. “Is it over yet?”

“Not yet, sweetheart,” he murmured. “Soon. I promise.”

He didn’t want to tell her what was going to happen next. This was by far the most dangerous part of the investigation because what happened depended on Meldrew’s reaction; and the number of men he had around him at any given moment.

All of it paled into insignificance now though. He had to have a few moments alone with her, if only to reassure himself that she really was alright. She had been disconcertingly quiet downstairs while they had been questioning Snetterton. He was concerned that she was worrying about what was happening, but not talking to him about her concerns, and needed to find a way to get her to confide in him.

“Are you really alright?” he murmured gently. He leaned back so he could look deep into her eyes, but all he could see was slumberous desire that made him groan.

“I am glad that things are progressing. I wished they hadn’t happened at all,” she admitted ruefully. “But it finally feels as though Meldrew’s arrest is now just a matter of time.”

“We will get him, Hetty. He won’t get away with what he has done,” Charlie assured her.

“Just stay safe,” Hetty whispered in a voice that trembled with need.

Before he could speak, she captured his head and drew him down for a very thorough kiss.

He was initially shocked at his wife’s boldness, but the strength of the desire that swirled around them rendered all thought impossible.

Hands clawed at material in a desperate search for fevered flesh beneath.

Desperate to draw him nearer, she clutched his shirt, and relished his mastery with a moan when he answered her silent plea and settled over her. She moaned when he drew the covers down, and quickly removed the rest of his clothing before he lay back down beside her.

Words weren’t spoken, but then they weren’t needed as they surrendered to the temptation that carried them both away on a tide of desire that confirmed to both of them that their futures did indeed lie together.

“Where are you going?” Hetty murmured an hour later, when Charlie placed a gentle kiss on her shoulder and moved to sit on the side of the bed.

A dark frown settled over her brow as she watched him gather his clothing.

Deep inside, she knew.

“Charlie?” She prompted when he didn’t immediately answer her. “What is it?”

Charlie dropped his boot back onto the floor and took a deep breath before he turned to face her.

She looked so thoroughly ravaged, tousled, and downright beautiful that he cursed Meldrew, and his presence in their lives. Charlie wanted nothing more than to climb back into bed and surrender to the passion once more, but the need to remove Meldrew from both of their lives was just too great to ignore.

The quiet snicker of horses outside was enough of a prompt to remind him that his colleagues were waiting to leave.

First though, he had to break the news to Hetty. He knew that she wasn’t going to like what he was about to tell her.

“I am going after Meldrew,” he declared quietly, and mentally winced when she stared at him in horror.

“Wally and Simon?”

“They have to stay here.” He reached out, and picked up several strands of her beautiful, tell-tale red hair thoughtfully. “They have to. This beautiful hair is too much of a giveaway.”

“You don’t have to go,” she challenged. “He tried to kill you too. You should stay here with me.”

“I am going to be fine. I-”

“How can you say that?” She argued. “He nearly had your head in a noose the last time you crossed paths with him.”

Her temper surged, in spite of her delicious sensations he had left her with. She wished she was in a position to demand that he stay, but she couldn’t.

She knew that it was inevitable that at some point there would be a confrontation between him and Meldrew. She was also painfully aware that, for the sake of the men sitting awaiting death in Derby jail right now, Meldrew’s arrest couldn’t be postponed any longer than it ought to be.

“I have to do this, Hetty,” Charlie growled. “I need to look that bastard in the eye when he is arrested. I need to be the one to put him behind bars. It is my job.”

Hetty stared at him, momentarily lost for words. She knew that Charlie’s job was a very large part of who he was. If she hated his job, she hated him, and that wasn’t possible.

It couldn’t ever happen, because he held such a very large part of her heart; he
was
her heart.

“Just stay inside, and stay safe, darling. I need to do this. I will be back as soon as I can,” Charlie murmured.

He used his body to nudge her backward until she lay back down, and leaned over her. He kissed the doubts from her lips and, when she went limp beneath him once more, he leaned back to look down at her.

“I will be back as quickly as I can. Just get some sleep. When you wake up in the morning, I am going to be here, and all of this will be over.”

“I shan’t sleep,” Hetty assured him. “I won’t until you get back.”

Their eyes met and held.

“When I get back, we are going to have to talk,” he whispered meaningfully.

Hetty nodded but was too busy trying to allay her fears to get words past the lump in her throat.

Having to sit and watch him dress was more than her nerves could stand and, when he dragged his shirt over his head, she quietly slipped out of bed and began to tug her clothes on.

She had no intention of waving him off. Her worries and doubts wouldn’t allow her to be that brave, but she was damned if she was going to be naked and vulnerable between the sheets while he went off to fight his foe.

“Charlie,” she murmured when he reached the door.

He paused with his hand on the latch and turned to look back at her. She hated to see the shadows in his eyes, but knew from the vague and distant look on his face that the man she had just shared her body with had been set to one side, and been replaced with a soldier who was battle-hardened and ready to face the enemy.

Still, she couldn’t prevent one last kiss. Before she could talk herself out of it, she stalked up to him, clenched his shirt in her fists, and yanked him forward.

Before he could say anything, she slammed her lips onto his in a move that was so bold, so possessive, that it stunned them both.

The kiss was swift and hard, and over quickly, but said more than words ever could.

He rested his forehead against hers for a moment before he set her firmly away from him and slammed out of the room.

Hetty stared at the wood panelling and let her tears trickle slowly down her face.

She could only hope that the Star Elite were as strong, and infallible, as they claimed they were because they were going to challenge the county’s most notorious criminal of them all, and there was every chance that none of them would get away with their lives.

Charlie stared at the wooden panelling of the door. The house around him was silent and now completely empty of everyone apart from his colleagues.

Several of Meldrew’s men had just been subdued and carried to the outbuildings, where they would be kept under guard until they could be moved to jail, leaving only the corrupt magistrate to contend with.

The last hour had been hard work for everyone in the Star Elite because the house that Meldrew called home had been heavily fortified with more men that any seemingly innocuous magistrate could want, or need. It gave Hugo and Charlie the confirmation they both needed that Meldrew had things he wanted he keep hidden, or was afraid of repercussions for something he had done to offend someone.

“I will go first,” Hugo whispered. “He doesn’t know me. It will give us the element of surprise. I will assess the danger he poses to us. You follow.”

Charlie nodded. He slowly withdrew his gun and watched Hugo kick the door with such force that the panelling around the lock and catch shattered, and showered them both in splinters.

“Meldrew. As I live and breathe,” Hugo drawled casually as he stalked arrogantly through the door

“Who the hell are you?” Meldrew demanded as he spat out a mouthful of pie. His round, bulging eyes stared at Hugo disdainfully.

“I am here to arrest you,” Hugo challenged.

“Arrest me?” Meldrew snorted as he eyed Hugo with false humour. “I am the magistrate around here. Nobody arrests me.”

“I am afraid that Sir Hugo can do whatever he chooses,” Charlie drawled as soon as he saw Hugo nod imperceptibly. He wandered into the room in a casual way that was at odds with the tension thrumming through him.

Meldrew glared hatefully at Charlie. “Well, well, you have returned my convict I see. Thank you for that. It saves my men from having to search anymore. I want the other one as well though.”

With that he promptly picked up a small brass bell, and shook it firmly.

Nobody moved while they waited.

Only Meldrew looked toward the door when Barnaby appeared. His gaze flew back to Hugo and, although he didn’t speak, the questions hovered in his eyes.

“Your men were good,” Hugo sighed as he studied the former magistrate calculatingly. “But my men are better.”

“Who are you?” Meldrew demanded belligerently. He tried to stand only to be waved back down by Hugo.

“We are here to arrest you,” Hugo drawled. “For murder, extortion, and abusing your position of authority.”

“I have done no such things,” Meldrew challenged before he turned his avaricious attention to the remainder of the pie on the desk before him. He appeared to have lost his appetite though because he glared at it for a moment, and then pushed it away from him.

“I have statements from people who have been on the receiving end of your avaricious reign. People who had paid you for ‘protection’ services they shouldn’t need if you had done your job properly. A job you were paid handsomely for, by the way. People have been threatened by the men you have in your employ. I can only assume that they acted under your direction. People in this county have faced your peculiar brand of justice; or injustice, as the case may be. I am afraid that your fake courts, where people aren’t given the opportunity for a fair trial before they are tried, convicted and sentenced to death, have nothing to do with what constitutes for the law in this country. Your failure to report deaths to the proper authorities, are also a dereliction of your duties.” Hugo took a breath, and placed his palms on the desk so that he could lean forward and stare Meldrew in the eyes.

The man looked blankly at him, as though he had no idea what he was talking about.

“You know I am talking about Reverend Potts, from Hemsley,” Hugo drawled quietly.

Meldrew swallowed.

“We have it on good authority that his family weren’t notified of his death in the churchyard. Unfortunately for you, Reverend Potts is – was - the third son of Lord Upton.” He smirked coldly when Meldrew sucked in a deep breath.

“Who are you?” Meldrew demanded. He sat back in his seat and dropped his hands onto his lap, but Hugo wasn’t fooled.

“Put your hands back onto the table where I can see them, Meldrew,” Hugo drawled, and nodded toward the gun Charlie had pointed toward him. “Or my colleague here will shoot you.”

“It is cold blooded murder if he does,” Meldrew challenged. “He should have been hung for killing Blagmire as it is. I will make sure that a proper job is done next time.”

“The only person who is likely to be hung around here is you, Meldrew. As a representative of the Lord Chief Justice, I hereby remove you from office with immediate effect. I am also arresting you for murder, extortion, profiteering, dereliction of your duties, and abusing your powers of authority.” Hugo nodded toward Charlie. “Unfortunately for you, my estimable colleague here was sent to the area to investigate Reverend Potts’ murder. Potts alerted us as to the protection racket you and your men have bullied people into in this area. I sent my colleague here to make enquiries, but it seemed that he probed just a little too much, didn’t he Meldrew?”

“I don’t –”

“I wasn’t asking,” Hugo interrupted, in a voice that was laden with deadly menace. “I know the owner of the tavern in Hemsley tipped you off about what people were discussing in his establishment. A lot of your sordid little meetings have taken place in the back room there. Unfortunately for you, when you arrested my colleague here and framed him for the murder of Blagmire, you alerted us to just how far you would go to remove anyone from being too much of a threat to your crimes. My good friend here had the right contacts already in place. They tipped us off about your intentions to hang him. It was us who rescued him from a travesty of justice. We know that he was completely innocent of the crimes you laid upon him. We all know that they were crimes that
you
, Cedric Meldrew, committed yourself.”

“It was you,” Meldrew accused in a vile whisper.

“We weren’t breaking condemned men free. We were rescuing innocent men who were working for the War Office. There is a difference,” Hugo drawled.

Charlie stepped forward. “I know you actually killed Blagmire yourself, Meldrew. You see, we have witnesses who have confirmed that you were the last person he was seen alive with. Not your men – you. You were the one who shot him. You then had your men take his body to the woods you knew I would have to walk past with Simon Jones. You needed Simon out of the way because he wouldn’t pay your protection money, but was well liked amongst the village, and was someone you could use as an example to the people who refused to adhere to your demands.”

“You fool. You bloody fool,” Meldrew snarled “You know nothing.”

“I know that you have been arresting innocent people for crimes they did not commit. I have no doubt that if we look through the cases you have presided over, many of the people you condemned to death will be found to be completely innocent of their crimes,” Charlie snapped. “Just like I was.”

In that moment, Charlie had never hated anybody as much as he hated the rotund little man before him. He reminded him of a bullfrog, with huge bulging eyes and grotesque jowls that wobbled when he talked. His high-pitched, almost piping voice was the most irritating thing Charlie had ever heard, and it was deeply satisfying to be able to knock the man very firmly off his perch.

“We will go through everything you have been involved with Meldrew,” Hugo assured him.

Charlie nodded. “If you are found to have sentenced any other innocent men to death without a fair and proper hearing then you will be tried for their murders too. It shouldn’t take too long. Now that your tyranny is over, people will undoubtedly sing like nightingales, just to ensure that you face the full force of the justice you so eagerly inflicted upon others.”

He took a deep breath, and inwardly froze at the callous mirth hidden in the depths of the dark soulless voids that were the man’s eyes.

Something was wrong, Charlie just knew it. He shifted his feet and looked at Hugo, who seemed to also realise that Meldrew had another ace up his sleeve.

Charlie worries immediately turned toward Hetty, but he immediately dismissed the possibility that she was in any danger. She was perfectly safe, under guard, and well protected. Nothing could happen to her.

Unfortunately, the instincts that had kept him alive throughout his operations with the Star Elite, refused to be ignored. Something was seriously wrong, and Charlie knew that he wasn’t going to like the way the next few moments unfolded.

“You work for the War Office, you say?” Meldrew challenged. He leaned back casually in his chair, and folded his podgy arms behind his head. “Prove it.”

“Really?” Hugo drawled.

He smirked in satisfaction as he withdrew a highly decorated roll of parchment from his pocket. He broke the War Office seal, and turned the unrolled parchment around for Meldrew to read the arrest warrant that had been penned, and signed, by the Lord Chief Justice himself.

Meldrew’s face fell. A dark frown settled over his brow. He glanced at Hugo, then back at the parchment.

Charlie wondered if Meldrew was going to just shoot himself and be done with it. The reality of his future seemed to land on him with the full force of hammer blows. He didn’t move, speak or even blink. He just continued to sit and stare blankly at the parchment, as though he wasn’t sure where it had come from.

“The War Office, you say?” Meldrew repeated dully.

Hugo nodded. “We are the Star Elite.”

Meldrew sucked in a quick breath. His gaze flew to Charlie, who nodded slowly and stared dispassionately back at his nemesis.

“I see that you have heard of us,” Hugo sighed.

Meldrew nodded slowly. His mind was clearly racing; trying desperately to ignore the facts as they had been presented to him.

“You had better come clean, Meldrew, and do it quickly, because you are going to jail. We have work to do, and are not going to spend all night talking to you,” Charlie warned.

Meldrew merely looked at him before he reached forward and dipped a quill into the pot of ink at his elbow. He picked up a piece of parchment from beside him and began to write.

“If you sign this statement declaring that I won’t face death by hanging, I will tell you where she is,” Meldrew sighed as he pushed the parchment across the desk toward Charlie and Hugo.

Hugo and Charlie shared a look before Hugo picked up the parchment and read it.

“Who?” Hugo challenged. He handed the parchment to Charlie to read without taking his eyes off Meldrew.

“The woman.”

Charlie froze. His gaze lifted slowly and met Meldrew’s. In spite of his situation, the former magistrate had the audacity to smirk at Charlie, then lean back in his chair while he waited for Hugo and Charlie to sign his pardon.

“If my wife dies, I promise you that I will make sure that your death at the hangman’s noose is as painful as possible. There shall be no mercy.” Charlie’s words dripped lethal menace.

Meldrew looked blandly at him before he turned his attention to Hugo, who slowly tore up the pardon.

“We know where she is,” Hugo growled with a smirk. He stood back, and nodded to Barnaby. “Take him to Derby jail, but arrest Gembleby while you are there. Send word to the War Office. We need reinforcements to look after the jail while a new, more trustworthy magistrate can be found. Actually, go to Tattington and get General McArthur to send some red coats to take over the running of the jail. They will suffice until we can get this mess sorted out.”

As he spoke, Meldrew slowly sat forward in his chair. Disbelief clouded his eyes as he looked from Hugo to Charlie. He turned, somewhat panic stricken, to Barnaby, who unceremoniously hauled him to his feet and began to drag him toward the door.

“You are coming with us.”

“She is safe and well,” Hugo assured Meldrew as he was dragged past. “My men are with her now.”

In the doorway, Meldrew looked back. “She can’t be. She is dead, I tell you. We know she helped them escape, and has paid for it.”

“If you have -” Charlie stepped forward only to be held back by Hugo.

Barnaby hurried the man through the door before anyone could say anything else to antagonise an already dire situation, and left Hugo to console Charlie.

“Do you think he really has her?” Charlie demanded.

He didn’t wait for Hugo to answer though, and barged past his colleagues as he raced through the darkness toward his horse.

“It may be bluster,” Hugo warned as he followed. “Don’t get angry until we know for definite that he isn’t just tormenting you.”

“We should interrogate him until he gives us answers,” Charlie snapped, and quickly mounted his horse. He glanced back at Meldrew, who was protesting vociferously about being made to ride on horseback.

“Anyone as arrogant as he is will only play with us. He will enjoy being in a position of knowing something we don’t. I am not going to spend the night bartering with the bastard. We have to look for Hetty. The first place we are going to look is Afferley,” Hugo ground out. “If she is there, we will come back and deal with Meldrew.”