The Atlas Murders (6 page)

At first they walked in
silence, very aware of one another's presence, stopping to admire the gilded
moon-river that was the serpentine. Only the gentle buzz of insects like
lisping ghosts, punctuated the quietness of the warm balmy night.

Vera was first to break the
silence.

"If I was seventeen
again, I'd go skinny dipping and you could chase me in the golden water until
I'd give up and let you catch me."

"You know I'd follow you
like an otter, and when I'd catch you I'd want to hear you squealing with mock
fear and delight."

"And then Henry, what
would you do when you had me captured and overpowered?"

"I'd kiss your lips and
all the little tiny droplets like pearls running down your precious nakedness,
like the poet Yeats, 'I'd pluck till times and times are done the silver apples
of the moon, the golden apples of the sun'."

"You are a romantic at
heart. I also love that poem of Yeats.”

Reaching the other side of
the park, she said, "This gate here, it’s called The Queen's gate, and
we're nearly home."

"This is a beautiful area;
I'd hate to think what property would cost here."

"I wouldn't know, this
house has been in our family for generations. When I was young we called it our
town house and would come to stay for weekend breaks and sometimes for
Christmas."

They walked through the
spacious hallway and into a large lounge room. Henry sat down on the
comfortable leather couch while Vera went to the drinks cabinet. "You must
have a glass of cognac it’s traditional after a meal and I didn't exercise my
duty as a generous hostess at dinner." She handed Henry a large glass of
Remy Martin and poured one for herself. Then, tipping glasses she said, "Here's
to our continued friendship and your success in your duty. I'm going to change
into something a little more comfortable, be back in two minutes."

Henry sipped his drink and
let his gaze wander freely over the room. He had never been in such a place so
seething with character and presence. The diamond fronted glass cabinet with
volumes of gilt and leather bound books, the heavily framed paintings of
sporting scenes and graceful equine specimens; a large carved inlaid table of
rosewood and six chairs to match, with silverware placed at random on an
elegant mahogany sideboard.

After a short time, Vera re-appeared,
moving silent and graceful on slippered feet, her hair loose and shoulder
length. The pertness of her body was obvious beneath the lemon colored silk
kimono she was now wearing. She sat on the large couch curling her legs in
under her, and tossing her hair back, she sipped slowly from the brandy glass.

 "When I left Percy, or
should I say when he left me, well, he married Centaine and within the shortest
possible time to retain respectability, they had a son. His name: Oswyn P Welland,
the deck apprentice on the S.S.Rangoon. He should be my son and he would not
have the hot French blood of his mother which can drive young men into the
willing flesh of troublesome country girls. A young female member of staff fell
to her death from the rampart of Thurrock Hall about eighteen months ago. Did
you not hear of it in your job?"

 "No! It must have come
to nothing or the papers would have run the story."

"Yes you're right it,
came to nothing and it was kept out of the papers. The true story is that young
Oswyn was having sex with this young girl named Alice Whittle, but she was also
giving her favors to one of the lads working on the farm. However, accidental
death was eventually recorded at her inquest."

Henry stood up and removed
his jacket.

 "How do you know Oswyn
was involved with this girl and who saw him on the roof?"

“Seemingly, only one person
saw them and what transpired up there. I heard it from a brother of the lad
that there was only one witness. The brother works on my family estate. I
didn't tell you I was noble born and reared - not extravagantly though. I grew
up on a four thousand acre estate in Surrey. It was the gardener who witnessed
the scene."

"Why didn't the lad
spill the beans; he surely must have felt for the young girl and her
family?"

"He was a loyal servant,
his family had worked at Thurrock Hall for four generations, and it's hard to
break that type of bond. Some of these people would die rather than cast disgrace
on their master or estate. But to make sure nothing came out he was given a
large sum of money and posted to Southern Rhodesia to one of the families
tobacco growing plantations."

"He could still be
subpoenaed if we had enough evidence to substantiate a case. Would you be
willing to give that evidence in court?"

"I thought you might ask
that and the answer is no. I am telling you this to help you catch the killer
of your niece, and if he's your man, well so be it. Let justice be done. There
is no chance either of those two brothers would ever give testimony if it would
cause problems for their future lord and master."

Henry finished his drink and
Vera took the glass and placed it on the coffee table alongside her own.
"Come here Henry." As she leaned across to him her kimono loosened
and her naked filigree beauty washed over him in a wave of lust. Her deft
fingers quickly had his shirt removed. She loosed his buttons and belt and her
nymph-perfect body straddled his as he lay back against the firm leather. Like
a hungry babe he sucked her firm breasts as she began to moan and sigh as he
entered her. She savored his hard manhood moving slowly and deliberately,
devouring the intensity of its largeness. Their naked bodies reached the highs
and lows as she controlled the pace of movement until she could no longer hold
back the flood as they both fell over the chasm, Henry giving her a hard smack
on the bottom as she screamed enough to arouse the neighbors. They lay
exhausted together for some minutes before she sat up straight. Still coupled
she smiled.

"That was wonderful, for
me, how about you?"

 "Absolutely fantastic!
I hope you didn't mind me spanking you as you were climaxing?"

"Actually, it was the
first time anyone has ever done that to me and I always wanted to be smacked
hard. It increased my pleasure tenfold. It was the greatest sex I have ever had
in my life."

Switching off the lounge
lights, they moved to the large four poster bed, Henry drew her into himself
and nuzzled her, his hands moved along her back and he could feel her silky
flesh begin to quiver. Now their love-making was leisurely and more intense. After
they were both thoroughly sated, their bodies still entwined, they fell asleep,
intoxicated with the lust and rose scented linen.

Henry awoke from a deep,
dreamless sleep. The sun was peeping through the heavy royal blue curtains. He
was surprised to find himself alone. It was nearly eight o’clock.

He found a note from Vera’s left
on the kitchen table.

“Dearest Henry,

I apologize for not being
there to get your breakfast. Feel free to help yourself to whatever food you
fancy .When you are ready, please let yourself out and put the key through the
letterbox.

Love,

Vera”

Henry savored the unique
taste of the fragrant Java coffee beans and crunched buttered toast liberally
spread with delicious home-made marmalade. He thought about young Oswyn Welland
and scolded himself for not questioning Vera more thoroughly. He was sure she
would have had more information. But of course nature took over. He smiled as
the wonderful memories swam him around, buoyant in a warm sea of relative
contentment.

 He walked through the
beautiful Hyde Park back to his lodgings. He was in time to share a cup of tea
and some well-trodden gossip with the rotund landlady.

She skirted and skimmed
around his nocturnal absence but made quite clear the vacant room was
chargeable. He spent the morning in his room wandering the world, marking in
the voyage of the S.S.Rangoon in his atlas; he drew a line from one port to
another and noted the dates and how long her stay in each was. He was surprised
to see that she spent up to two weeks in some places, probably discharging and
then loading. Good grief, he thought, is it possible I could be in some of
those countries in the very near future - a working adventure. His thoughts
turned to young Oswyn Welland. Vera must feel very resentful, but would she
deliberately try to vent her anger and disappointment with the father and
mother on the son? He would talk to her again when he had more information from
Vincent about the case. The full truth would probably never emerge - these country
estates held more concealed secrets than the Vatican.

Chapter Nine

At one o’clock the next day,
unannounced, Henry popped into the shipping office and took Vera to lunch in a
nearby restaurant.

After they had eaten she
continued the story of Oswyn and Alice.

“Alice Whittle had just
turned nineteen when she met her untimely death. For four generations
her family had
worked at Thurrock Hall. They lived in a cottage on the estate for which they
paid very little rent. All in all, the estate families enjoyed a decent and
happy existence. Alice Whittle's mother gave birth out of wedlock. Whisper, rumor,
and innuendo were rife among the staff in the great house, but not a word was
spoken outside these confines. The father of the baby was Lord Percy himself.
It would appear that even the attentions of the French tart weren’t enough to
satisfy his lust!

Alice grew up a beautiful and
somewhat privileged young girl, spending much of her time at Thurrock Hall with
her mother. She took up full time employ at age seventeen as assistant
housekeeper to her mother. A friendship with young Oswyn developed into a
clandestine relationship and by the time her mother knew of this secret love
affair, her beautiful young daughter was pregnant. She explained to Alice her
relation to young Oswyn and how the baby's father would have to be kept secret
even from the members of the household. It was to protect young Oswyn that
Alice coaxed the young farmhand to her bed, so he would now be the source of
whispering by the staff.”

Vera continued. “Oswyn saw
them in bed. She may have arranged it so to help break their relationship. He
confronted her in the library next day. The library was on the top floor and a
stairs led out onto the flat roof above. It was here that they had spent many
an hour on hot summer evenings making love beneath a canopy of stars,
shamelessly naked in the moonlight. He followed her out onto the roof. The conversation
that followed was supposedly overheard by a staff member who remained nameless.
She told him all her mother had related to her. Upset, he held her by the shoulders
and shook her. ‘This must be a lie contrived to break up their relationship. I
don’t believe you.”

“But my mother wouldn’t lie
to me about something like that.”

He felt his pride draining
from him, this wonderful world of love and lust was suddenly taken from his
life. He pulled her close to him.

“No.” she shouted and as she pushed
him away, she stumbled backwards, her lower limbs catching the wall of the
parapet and she went toppling over. His mind took on a hazy blankness for how
long he didn’t know. Until the commotion below, the anguish of crying and
screams of shock brought him to his senses. He left the house and went
wandering through the woods.

 After Vera had finished her
account they left the restaurant and Henry walked her back to the shipping
office and then headed for Scotland Yard.

 He was hoping Vincent might
have the file on the Oswyn Welland case. He thought there might be a lot more
that Vera hadn’t told him. He climbed two flights of stairs to Vincent's
office. It was a small room tucked away at the back of the building with an
unremarkable view of a drab office block. He knocked and walked in. Vincent was
reclining in a leather armchair alongside the open window dozing fitfully.
Henry coughed loudly, waking him with a start.

“You could give a man a heart
attack doing things like that!”

“Sorry to disturb your
siesta.”

“You’re forgiven, but you
must realize,” he said jocularly, “us old retired chaps need our little
afternoon nap.”

 “I thought I’d drop by and
say hello. I know it’s a bit soon to expect any developments from Tom, but
would you think there is any chance of seeing the file on the Oswyn Welland
case?”

Vincent tapped a red folder
lying on the desk. “Here it is. I’ve been going through it since early morning
and cannot see anything that could connect it to your Shirley’s murder. Now I’d
like you to study it and see can you come up with anything I might have
missed.” He handed the file to Henry and stood up stretching himself. “I’m
going out for a little constitutional stroll, will be about an hour; would you
like me to send you up a cup of coffee or tea?”

“No thanks, I’ve only just
had lunch.”

It wasn’t a large file and it
took Henry less than half an hour to read through it thoroughly. There was
nothing he could find even if it were proved Oswyn had pushed her, to connect
this to Shirley's murder. Alice Whittle had been in the early stages of pregnancy
according to the autopsy report. She had fallen onto railings and suffered
terrible injuries, but nothing to suggest they were anything similar to the
injuries on Shirley’s body. The verdict was accidental death through
misadventure. This is amazing how it could have suggested she might have been
climbing around the roof parapet and fallen off. My goodness he thought as he
closed the file, some of these coroner’s conclusions would test the most
fertile imagination. He looked at the small clock on Vincent’s desk. He had
been here about an hour. Then the door opened.

“Well, have we finished?”

“Yes Vincent and like you I
couldn’t find anything to connect the two.”

He hadn’t shown Vincent the
file on Shirley or told him about the way she had been defiled; all he knew was
she had been strangled. He knew he must give him the file soon even though it
was so upsetting to let other people witness the horrors of her death.

“I expect to have some information
on two of the suspects tomorrow. The Irish lad may take a bit more time. While
I was out I called into Tom and he has sent inquiries to five of the large port
cities, so we can expect to have news from some of them in a few days. There is
still a bit of colonial influence in Togo West Africa, Pakistan, Mauritius and
Egypt. These, off the top of my head, are some of the countries of her ports of
call.”

Henry stood up to let Vincent
sit back on his chair. “I’ll be into the shipping office tomorrow and get as
much information on the whereabouts of the ship at present. While there, I’ll
ask what will be the procedure if I was to train as a crew member and ship out
to replace one of her present crew. It could take a complicated bit of maneuvering
to get a particular crew member home to make way for me.”

Vincent lifted the window
open a little more and wiped some drops of perspiration off his forehead with a
large handkerchief. “There’s no air circulating around here.” He walked over
and put his hand on Henry’s shoulder. “I don’t know much about ships or
shipping, but I’m sure we have some personnel who will help us out when the
time comes, should it come to that. We still have a very active network of
British agents across the civilized world and the top brass here can call up
special favors if and when we might need them.”

 “Good. Knowing that kind of
backup was available would be a huge confidence booster for me.”

“Yes Henry, as your
communications back to us here will be very limited and infrequent and if its
airmail post, very slow, so you’ll need direct access through our diplomatic
channels.”

Henry shook his head and
looked down at the floor.

“If I do have to sail on that
ship, knowing yourself and Tom are my backup will give me all the confidence
I’ll need.”

“Yes Henry, a few days now
will tell a tale.”

Henry glanced at his watch
and said with a little anxious surprise in his voice. “I’ll have time to go to
the shipping office. They don’t close for another hour and a half, I’ll see you
tomorrow Vincent.

 There was a man seated in
the office when Henry arrived. Vera wasn’t anywhere to be seen. This man with
dark brilliantine hair was in his early forties. A healthy suntan slotted him
into a role as surely one of the company's seaman. Henry immediately realized
he had blundered into something that could jeopardize his investigation.

“Are you for the Kowloon,
she’s signing on tomorrow?”

Henry felt a knot in his
stomach as apprehension began to build into panic, as the harmless questions
this man would surely ask could blow his planned cover as a seaman to pieces.

“I’m applying for a job but I
don’t suppose I’ll get on the Kowloon. They’ve probably got her crew already.”

“Yeah you’re right I’ve just
come in to know what dock she’s in and what time she’s signing on. Won’t be
sorry to ship out. I have had a good spell with the old lady. She’s getting a
bit fed up with me now and the cash is getting scarce too. I’ll have to put the
hard word on Miss Twist for a few quid advance. She’s a good old scout and
wouldn’t see a fellow stuck. Have you ever met her?"

Before Henry could answer,
Vera appeared from Captain Leavy-Hobbs’ room. She gave Henry a surprised and
severe look.

Despite her demeanor, he felt
relieved to see her. Now his friendly inquisitor would be cut short.

The sailor jumped to his
feet.

“Good afternoon Miss Twist,” he
said in the jolliest of voices.

This seemed to smooth the
situation and restore Henry’s blood pressure to something approaching normal!

“Good day Mr. Leach.”

“I came in to know what time
the Kowloon is signing on tomorrow.”

“She’s in the Royal Albert
dock and signing on at eleven hundred hours.”

“Thank you Miss.” He leaned
in over the counter and spoke in a little above a whisper. “Could you arrange
for an advance for me? You know yourself how the cash gets scarce when you’re
on the beach for a couple of months.”

“Of course I do Mr. Leach.”

She went to her desk and took
out a small book, and came back to the counter. “Would five pounds be alright?”

“Could you make it seven; you
know, five for the missus and a couple for meself.”

“Seven it is Mr. Leach.” She
handed him the chit. “Take this down to the accounts department, and Mr. Leach,
have a good voyage.”

“Thank you Miss I will.

See you again sometime.” he
said to Henry as he breezed out the door and gave the little piece of paper a
kiss.

Vera was standing at the
counter and as she spoke to Henry she kept looking at the door. “Henry, as
pleased as I am to see you, I can’t imagine why you decided to come here without
ringing me first. You see that man just gone out? I could have ten or twenty
more like him in today. It’s always like this on the day before one of our
ships signs articles. Captain Leavy-Hobbs is away on board the Kowloon so you
better come into his office.” She opened the big teak grained door and led
Henry through.

“I never realized the
seriousness of meeting crewmen from the company’s ships and how inquisitive
their friendly questions could be.”

“Yes Henry, it would be all
so innocent but you could be caught in a tricky situation concerning your non-existent
seafaring career.”

He sat in the captain’s large
desk chair. He was joined by Vera who sat on his lap, two arms around his neck
and her mouth on his. He wanted her there and then as they both sought hungrily
for each other. Suddenly Vera pulled away and stood up. She was flushed and
trembling as she pulled her skirt down to cover her exposed thighs.

“Wipe that lipstick off your
mouth. I so want you Henry, but it will have to wait”

He pulled a handkerchief from
his pocket and wiped the evidence of lust off his lips. She moved around the
large desk and sat on its outer side. “I’ll stay this side to avoid temptation.
Now, what’s so urgent to bring you here, Henry?”

“I’ve just left the Yard and
they are getting on with their inquiries to the ports of call of the Rangoon
for her previous twelve months voyage. If we turn up any crimes that fall into
the same category as Shirley’s murder, then I will have to consider seriously
about sailing as a crew member.”

Vera crossed her shapely legs
to make herself more comfortable on the large desktop.

 “Yes, I agree with you that
it’s the only way to catch this murderer, if in fact your theory is correct. How
long will it take for you to know for sure?”

 “We should have some information
in two or three days. The larger ports authorities will understand how urgent
it is and if they find anything, they should contact our embassies without
delay.”

“Have you thought about what
department of a ship’s crew you could best fit into?

“I have done some time in
H.M. navy reserve fleet, so I have some ship’s experience.”

“That’s going to save a lot
of time, so it will be a case of getting you the proper papers and discharge
book.

“I realize that, and that’s
why I’m here now with you to get your advice and help, without you this whole
exercise would be impossible.”

“Now, a ship’s crew is
divided into three categories. I am of the firm belief that you cannot fit into
either the deck section or the engine room. I believe the catering department
would be the most suitable.”

“How long do you think it
would take before I could join the Rangoon?”