The Trouble at Wakeley Court (An Angela Marchmont Mystery Book 8) (12 page)

‘There,’ said Angela.

Miss Devlin shone the torch on the spot at which they thought Irina had disappeared, but they saw nothing. The hedgerow was pristine and undisturbed, and there was no trace of a struggle. For several minutes they scouted about, looking for any sign of the missing girl, but it was no use, and finally they had to give up. They stared at one another in dismay.

‘We had better go back and tell Miss Bell and Mr. Hesketh what has happened,’ said Angela grimly. ‘We are useless by ourselves. Perhaps they will suggest a search-party.’

The two of them returned, defeated, to the school, to find Miss Bell and Mr. Hesketh just returning from their own search. Miss Bell made an unhappy bleating noise when she heard what they had to say.

‘Oh dear,’ she said. ‘What am I going to tell Mr. Everich?’

Hesketh looked as though he were thinking the same thing about Henry Jameson.

‘Well, there is nothing you can do at present,’ he said. ‘I shall call the police now, and later I shall speak to my superiors in London, who will no doubt give me further instructions, but in the meantime I suggest you all go back to bed. It is very late, and two of you are hardly dressed for the cold.’

This last remark was addressed to Miss Bell and Miss Devlin. The two mistresses were with some difficulty persuaded to return indoors—although Miss Bell had no intention of returning to bed, and instead went straight along to her study, there to begin writing a list of things to be done urgently the next day, while Miss Devlin went to her room, rather confused about the events of the night and still wondering secretly why Mr. Hesketh and Mrs. Marchmont had been creeping about together in the dark.

‘Hadn’t you better go too?’ said Hesketh. He was rubbing at his jaw, Angela noticed with some sympathy.

‘Are you all right?’ she said.

‘I think so,’ he replied ruefully, ‘although of course my pride has taken a dent. I’d like to think that if she hadn’t caught me by surprise in the dark I’d have stayed on my feet, at least. Luckily, she doesn’t seem to have done too much damage.’

‘Good,’ said Angela, ‘because we need to go back to the village and look for the Princess.’

‘What, now?’ he said in surprise.

‘Yes,’ said Angela. ‘The man in the barn, don’t you remember? I’d forgotten about him in all the excitement tonight, but what if he was the man Miss Devlin and I saw just now? We know where he’s staying, and if it
was
he who did it, then he may well have taken Irina back to the barn with him.’

He looked at her for a second and then made up his mind.

‘Very well,’ he said. ‘Do you have your gun?’

‘Yes,’ she said, showing him.

‘Then we had better go. But you must do as I say and keep back if I tell you. To be perfectly frank, Mrs. Marchmont, I’d much prefer to take a man with me for something like this, but failing that, a woman with a gun will have to do.’

‘Thank you,’ said Angela dryly. ‘I shall do my best not to disappoint. But as a matter of fact, there
is
a man we can bring. He’s dying for an adventure and he can take us in the car, too, which will be much quicker.’

Little more than five minutes later, the Bentley was speeding back towards the village, with William at the wheel, while Mr. Hesketh sat in the back with Mrs. Marchmont, who had refused to remain behind on the grounds that she alone knew where the barn in question was. Since they did not want to draw attention to their approach, they left the car by the post-office and Angela indicated the lane in which the old barn was situated.

‘Now,’ said Hesketh quietly. ‘Don’t forget that the most important thing is to get the Princess back safely. We know that there are people who wish to do her harm, and can only hope that she is still alive. If she is, it is our job to make sure she is returned to the school safe and well. William,’ he went on, ‘you and I will creep into the barn and apprehend this man, if he is there. Once we have him, Mrs. Marchmont, you shall take care of the Princess.’

Angela and William nodded in understanding, and then they all set off quietly up the lane. Outside the barn they stopped to listen, and then Hesketh and William crept inside. All was silent, and it seemed most unlikely that a mysterious abductor would be able to hold a frightened schoolgirl captive in the building without attracting attention, at the very least. Of course, that was always assuming Irina was still alive, thought Hesketh grimly.

Suddenly, a noise came from the darkest corner of the barn, making the two men jump. It sounded like a foot scraping against the hard floor. Hesketh immediately switched on his torch and shone it towards the sound, hoping to blind whoever it was temporarily and catch him by surprise.

‘I know you’re in here,’ he said. ‘Come out, and no funny business.’

‘What do you want?’ came a whining voice from the corner.

Hesketh and William approached warily and saw, sitting on a heap of blankets, a man. He was dirty and unshaven, and looked as though he had just woken up.

‘You know what we want,’ said Hesketh. ‘We’re looking for the Princess. What have you done with her?’

‘What are you talking about?’ said the man. ‘What princess? Is this a joke?’

‘It’s no joke,’ said Hesketh. ‘Where is she?’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ said the man again. He noticed the gun that Hesketh was pointing at him and shrank back into his corner. ‘Don’t shoot me!’ he cried. ‘I only came in here to sleep. I’m an honest man.’

‘Oh yes?’ said Hesketh. ‘If you’re an honest man, then where did you get these blankets? They don’t belong to you, do they?’

‘Someone gave them to me,’ said the man sulkily.

William, meanwhile, was searching the barn.

‘There’s nothing here,’ he said.

‘No, I didn’t think so,’ said Hesketh. ‘Still, we can’t let this fellow go just yet. I shouldn’t be surprised if he knows something.’

‘But I don’t, I tell you,’ said the man obstinately. ‘I came here to see someone. I’ve been down on my luck and this seemed like a handy place to sleep for a few nights, so that’s what I’ve been doing. I haven’t seen any princesses—or any queens or emperors, for that matter, so you might as well save your breath and stop asking me about them.’

Hesketh and William glanced at each other. He seemed sincere enough.

‘Get up,’ said Hesketh.

‘Where are you taking me?’ said the man fearfully.

‘Up to the school,’ said Hesketh. ‘I still have some questions to ask you. If you’re telling the truth then you’ll get a bed, a wash and a hot meal for your pains. If not—well, the Princess had better be safe and well, or it will be the worse for you.’

They bundled the man out of the barn. Angela was waiting for them outside.

‘Is this the man you saw?’ said Hesketh.

‘Yes,’ said Angela. ‘I take it Irina wasn’t there.’

Hesketh shook his head.

‘We’ll take this fellow back to the school anyway, just in case,’ he said.

‘You’re wasting your time,’ said the man.

‘What’s your name?’ said Hesketh.

‘Fazackerley, if you must know,’ said the man.

‘You’re related to Miss Fazackerley,’ said Angela. ‘I saw you together.’

‘She’s my sister,’ he agreed.

‘Has she been bringing you food?’

He nodded.

‘As I said, I’ve been down on my luck lately. Joyce disapproves of me but she isn’t a bad old stick and won’t let me starve.’

That seemed to explain the scene Angela had witnessed between the two the other day. It was looking increasingly as though this man had nothing to do with Irina’s disappearance. Still, they could not let him go yet.

They arrived back at the school, and Fazackerley made no protest as they escorted him up to Mr. Hesketh’s room and locked him in, perhaps enticed by the comfortable bed and the hot meal he had been promised.

‘What are you going to do now?’ said Angela to Mr. Hesketh. ‘You have nowhere to sleep.’

‘It’s half past four,’ said Hesketh. ‘Nearly morning—and I couldn’t sleep now even if I wanted to. No, I had better get to work. There will be plenty to do tomorrow—not least explaining to Jameson how I managed to lose the very person I was meant to be protecting. I am going to call the police now, as we will need them for the search.’

‘I should like to help if I can,’ said Angela. ‘I feel rather bad myself that I lost sight of Irina. I ought to have run after her instead of coming back to fetch you, but I had no idea that she was the person I’d been following. I thought it was an intruder.’

‘There are many things we might have done differently,’ said Hesketh, ‘but it’s no use worrying about it now. The important thing is to get her back, and we can’t do much about that until daylight.’

‘Then if you don’t mind I shall go to bed,’ said Angela. ‘William, you had better do the same. We may need you tomorrow.’

William went off back to the coach-house, while Hesketh went to look for Miss Bell and ask her to call the police. Angela retired to her room and got back into bed, expecting to lie wide awake until morning. Instead, she fell asleep within minutes.

By half past eight on Sunday morning Miss Bell, Mr. Hesketh, Mr. Everich and Mrs. Marchmont were all gathered together in Miss Bell's study to discuss how best to proceed following the shocking disappearance of Princess Irina. They were joined by Miss Finch, wary and suspicious, whose bedroom was in another part of the building, which had caused her to miss all the excitement of the previous night. Miss Finch was most put out at not having been informed earlier of Mr. Hesketh's real identity, and her very expression said that she had no intention of believing a word she was told this morning without receiving some proof of it. She was particularly suspicious of Angela, the purpose of whose presence at the meeting was unclear to her, and she darted frequent sideways glances at her.

‘Then Miss Devlin was quite happy to do chapel duty this morning?’ said Miss Bell, addressing Miss Finch.

‘Yes,’ said Miss Finch, ‘although I’m not quite sure what’s got into her. She was muttering something about praying for forgiveness and went quite pink when I asked her what she was talking about.’

Angela here resisted the urge to look across at Mr. Hesketh, whose jaw sported the beginnings of a bruise.

‘Good,’ said Miss Bell. ‘After church I will speak to the rest of the teachers. This is a most terrible situation, and is likely to do untold damage to the school if we cannot resolve it quickly. I am confident that when the teachers are informed of what has occurred, they will do everything in their power to assist. Mr. Everich,’ she went on, turning to that gentleman, ‘please do not suppose that my only concern is the reputation of Wakeley Court school. Of course, the most vital thing at present is to find Her Highness at once and bring her back safely. I shall not waste time in useless apologies, but please be assured that we are doing our utmost to recover her. Mr. Hesketh has reported her disappearance to the police, who have already begun a search of the area, and today I intend to speak personally to Irina’s closest friends, in order to find out whether they can shed any light on the question of why she should have decided to run away.’

‘Do the police know who she is?’ inquired Everich.

‘No,’ said Miss Bell. ‘We judged it expedient to tell them only that a girl has gone missing and that we are afraid she may have been taken away by an unknown person or persons.’

‘Good,’ said Everich. ‘I think that is best. As you say, this is a very serious matter, and I cannot deny that I am very dismayed that it should have happened. Also, it is most mysterious. Why did she leave the school? Can we be certain that she did it of her own accord?’

‘Oh, yes,’ said Miss Bell. ‘There is no doubt of it. We discovered her disappearance very quickly, and Miss Devlin and Mrs. Marchmont even chased after her, but she was quite determined not to be caught.’

Everich acknowledged Angela’s efforts with a bow in her direction.

‘If you have no objection, Madam,’ he said to Miss Bell, ‘I should also like to speak to Her Highness’s friends today and find out what they have to say.’

‘Why, certainly,’ said Miss Bell. ‘There is a small group of girls with whom she is friendly: Barbara Wells, Violet Smedley, Florrie Evans, and one or two others. You shall speak to them all if you like.’

‘Barbara Wells, Violet Smedley, Florrie Evans,’ repeated Everich, and for some reason he seemed almost relieved at the prospect. ‘Ah, yes. I should be very grateful if you could arrange it.’

Angela looked at him curiously. The smooth demeanour of yesterday had quite vanished, and he wore a nervous air—not surprising given the disappearance of his important charge. If Mr. Hesketh was worried about the carpeting he would receive from Henry Jameson when he returned to London, how much worse must it be for Everich? Angela had no idea how they did things in Morania, but she suspected that Everich might lose more than his job if it should turn out that the Princess had come to harm. He was perspiring slightly and rubbing his hands together restlessly. Angela noticed that one of them was bandaged, but could not remember whether it had been like that when she had met him the day before.

Just then, there was a soft knock at the door. Angela, who was nearest, opened it and saw William standing there.

‘What is it, William?’ she said.

‘Pardon the interruption, ma’am,’ he said quietly, ‘but I thought you ought to know that Edwards the gardener has gone missing.’

Angela stared at him for a second.

‘You’d better come in,’ she said.

William entered.

‘This is my chauffeur, William,’ said Angela to the others. ‘He knows about the Princess and helped us in our search last night. When we came to Wakeley Court I gave him the task of keeping an eye on one of the gardeners, who it seems has now disappeared.’

‘Do you mean Edwards?’ said Hesketh.

‘Yes, sir,’ said William. ‘I heard the servants talking about it. They went to look for him this morning but found that his bed hadn’t been slept in and that he’d taken all his things.’

Miss Bell looked surprised.

‘Why, you don’t think he had anything to do with Irina’s disappearance, do you?’ she said.