Love and Marriage at Harpers, page 27
‘I’m sorry.’ She leaned forward to kiss him. ‘What will you do if it folds, have you thought yet?’
‘I’ll find work, even if I have to go back to the ships – but I was learning such a lot and I thought it might be a good idea to invest in the hotel. I might have offered to inject some cash, but the debt to the bank is far beyond my savings.’
‘Oh, goodness,’ Beth said. ‘I know you’re disappointed, Jack, but it isn’t the end of the world. You’ll find a job. You could never just give up. Keep looking for a place for us – it might turn out to be a blessing in disguise.’
‘Beth, my darling,’ Jack said. ‘What did I do to deserve you? I was worried about letting you down – and our child. I promised you a home of your own and all I gave you was a bed in my father’s home.’
‘I’m happy enough,’ Beth replied. ‘Your father is one of the kindest men I know and he makes me welcome. Don’t despair, Jack. It will come right for us.’
‘Bless you, my love,’ he said and kissed her, or would have done had Beth not had to scramble out of bed and rush to the toilet, where she was violently sick.
She returned to the bedroom feeling a bit dizzy and looked at him apologetically. ‘Sorry, Jack. It’s the morning sickness. It will go in an hour or so, but I smelled Fred’s breakfast and that made me vomit.’
‘Poor you,’ he said sympathetically. ‘Why don’t you stay in bed longer this morning? You look as if you could do with a rest.’
‘I’ll be all right when that smell has gone,’ she said ruefully. ‘I love fried bacon but not at the moment. A piece of toast and honey is all I can manage in the morning.’
‘Shall I make you some?’
‘When I come down,’ Beth replied. ‘Don’t you have to go in and check things are all right this morning?’ He normally went for an hour or so even though it was his day off, but he shook his head.
‘If they can’t manage without me for a day they ought,’ he said. ‘I’ve given all the staff training and they don’t need me all the time. I just wanted to make the place a success.’ He smiled at her. ‘You should come for tea one day, Beth. I’d like you to see it – because I know with a bit of money invested it could be so much better.’
‘Yes, I’m sure,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry that your dream has gone wrong, Jack.’
‘I’ll just have to start looking again…’
After Jack had gone, Beth thought for a while, but there was nothing she could do to help Jack get his own place and it would be disappointing for them both if he had to return to the ships.
She sighed as she got up and went downstairs. If they’d found their own hotel and bought it, she would have been settled in modern surroundings and none of these inconveniences would have affected her. Of course, many women lived in homes like Fred’s, some much worse than his, which was dry and warm and didn’t have bugs crawling out of the walls every time you touched them. Other women brought up their children in slums and would gladly change places with Beth. They worked in factories and the laundry for less than she’d been paid when she started at Harper’s and often got knocked around by their husbands. Beth knew she was lucky to have both Jack and Fred. It was just that she’d known better and had hoped her own home would be more like Aunt Helen’s house had been.
Jack was tidying the kitchen when she got downstairs. He made her some toast and a fresh pot of tea and told her how much he loved her. Beth smiled. She was lucky to have such a loving family to take care of her and she would just have to make the best of things as they were.
34
Sally stretched and sighed with contentment, watching Ben as he stood in front of the bedroom window doing some stretching exercises. She’d known him long enough to be aware that he did the exercises each morning to keep himself fit. He was a strong, attractive man and her eyes moved over him lovingly and with a feeling of surging happiness. She’d never known she could be as happy as she was now.
Ben turned, saw her watching him, smiled and came towards her, bending to kiss her sweetly on the mouth.
‘Sleepyhead,’ he chided but with laughter in his eyes. ‘I’ve been up half an hour. I was just thinking of taking a run on the beach.’
Their hotel was not one of the big ones that Hastings-on-Sea boasted but a smaller, country home with comfortable rooms, deep seats on a cosy veranda that overlooked the coast and wonderful soft beds that hugged you in comfort. In pale colours of faded pinks, greens, blues, and a splash of bright orange, the rooms welcomed visitors as much as the charming hosts. Mr and Mrs Stevens ran what they termed a family hotel and half their staff had been with them for years, the others were sons and daughters. The food was prepared by Mrs Stevens with help from her eldest daughter and was always delicious, though simple, local fare with fish included on the menu every day.
Sally and Ben walked each day on the high cliffs overlooking the resort. Many of the beaches consisted of large pebbles and there were long breakers that went out into the sea and caused it to spend itself in white foam that rose high in the air. It was a restless sea and the winds that often swept the coast sometimes made it treacherous so that reckless swimmers could find themselves in trouble at high tide on a windy day.
However, the hotel had a path that led down to a small sheltered and sandy cove where the swimming was safer and there was a patch of golden sand; it was there that Ben had been patiently teaching Sally to swim her first few strokes. She wasn’t very good yet but had no fear of the water with him there to hold her and he was confident she would be able to swim in the warmth of the Mediterranean Sea by the time they were able to take holidays abroad.
‘If you wait, I’ll come with you,’ Sally said and jumped out of bed, not caring that she was naked. Any shyness she’d had concerning her body had long gone and she walked about their room without clothes, knowing that he watched and enjoyed what he saw. They were lovers in the true sense of the word, their bodies fitted together as if it had always been meant to be and Sally had discovered pleasure beyond any dreams she’d ever had. Ben was considerate, strong and passionate and she adored him. She knew that no other man could ever have made her feel quite this way and wondered why she was so lucky.
Dressing quickly, Sally took Ben’s hand and they went downstairs, sneaking out the back way so as not to be seen by their kind hosts. A swift run would make them both hungry for the massive breakfast they knew would be served in about an hour. Time enough to run on the sandy beach, return to the hotel, have a wash in the warm bathroom, and change into fresh clothes, before going down to the dining room. They’d had breakfast in bed two mornings running, but this time they would be eating downstairs for a change.
Sally felt the cool breeze in the air as they left the cosy warmth of the hotel. It had been warm when they first arrived, but it was nearly the end of September now and you could feel the change, as if autumn was preparing you for the cold of winter with a little taste of what Mother Nature could do.
They ran swiftly down to the beach, laughing like children as Sally tried to keep up with Ben’s long legs and failed. She knew he would always beat her and he reached the sea before her, standing to look out at the horizon and breathe in the bracing air. It was more sheltered here in the cove than on the main beaches, but it felt too cold for swimming that day, though Ben had kicked off his sandals and was paddling at the edge, his trousers getting soaked in the process. He beckoned to her to join him, but she shook her head and just watched. He was braver than she was because she knew the water would be very cold today.
‘Coward,’ he challenged her, but she just laughed and he ran to join her, sweeping her up in his arms and carrying her into the foaming grey water, swinging her back and forth and threatening to drop her. Sally screamed and hung on to him, and then laughed as he took her back to the beach. ‘Time for breakfast,’ he said and they linked hands and walked back. ‘It’s wonderful to be alive,’ Ben said and his eyes dwelled on her, because she was what made it wonderful and he was telling her so with every breath he took. ‘I hope Jenni is as happy when she marries her General…’
‘Do you think she will be?’ Sally asked and looked at him thoughtfully. ‘I know she loves him and she wants to be his wife and little Tom’s mother – but is she doing it just because his wife went down with the Titanic?’
‘She loves Henry,’ Ben said. ‘I’m sure she thinks it is what she wants – but I’m not sure she will be happy. He is a man dedicated to his job and he travels all the time. Sometimes, she will be able to go with him, but at others she will have to stay at home. I’m not sure it will be enough for her. She has worked since she was sixteen. I think she may miss the cut and thrust of business.’
‘Yes, I wondered about that,’ Sally said. ‘Do you think he loves her – or does he just want a mother for his son?’
‘It’s my main fear,’ Ben admitted. ‘I would hate for her to be unhappy, Sally. She was always loving towards me – the one member of my family I felt was truly on my side.’
‘And yet you didn’t tell her about Maribel being in the hospital.’
‘She would have wanted to help me pay the expenses,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t ask her, Sally – and I didn’t want her to worry.’
‘Yes, I understand,’ Sally replied. She squeezed his hand. ‘We can’t tell Jenni what to do with her life, Ben, but we can be there for her when she needs us.’
‘Yes, just as she would be for us,’ Ben said. ‘I do worry for her a little, though I know she would tell me not to – but Jenni is strong. She will survive whatever happens.’
Sally felt a chill go over her at that moment and shivered. She looked up at the sky. It had clouded over and the clouds were gathering. There was a sudden change in the weather and she thought there was bound to be rain before long and perhaps a storm. Even as she thought it, thunder rolled and a streak of lightning forked across the sky and over the sea.
‘No wonder the surf was rough,’ Ben said. ‘It looks as if our lovely weather has gone, Sally. We’d better run for it before we get soaked.’
35
Harold called at Fred’s cottage that Sunday afternoon.
‘Sorry to pop in unannounced,’ he said, though he accepted an invitation to stay to tea. ‘I had a bit of news for you and so I thought I’d come right over and tell you.’
‘Have you discovered Gerald was here in London the day Aunt Helen died?’ Beth asked, but he shook his head.
‘No, he will have covered his tracks there,’ he said. ‘Sorry to disappoint you, Beth, but I don’t think we’ll get him for your aunt’s murder – but we might get him for another woman’s unlawful death…’
‘Good work, Harold,’ Fred congratulated him.
‘How did you manage that?’ Jack asked, looking surprised.
Beth stared at Harold. She wanted Gerald punished for making her aunt unhappy in the last weeks of her life, but she didn’t much mind how. ‘What do you mean?’
‘He has been married three times,’ Harold said and looked pleased with himself as she stared in astonishment. ‘And his name hasn’t always been Greene. He was born Gerald Makepeace and he married a woman called Elizabeth Jenkins ten years ago in Margate. She owned a small bed and breakfast and had a few hundred pounds in the bank that her first husband had left her. She died of what the doctors thought was a heart attack eighteen months after she was married and six months later her husband sold the property and left town.’ He paused, looking at them expectantly. ‘If she died of a heart attack, how could Gerald be blamed?’ Beth asked.
‘He couldn’t, of course,’ Harold said. ‘However, her brother returned from a trip to South Africa a few weeks after Gerald had scarpered and smelled a rat. He persuaded the police to dig his sister’s body up and, though they couldn’t prove poisoning, the examining doctor thought it unlikely she’d died of natural causes. He said her heart was perfect and the inquest returned a verdict of unnatural death…’
‘That didn’t prove murder,’ Fred said, seeing the doubt in Beth’s eyes.
‘No, but Gerald’s second wife died after a mysterious illness only twenty-three months ago,’ Harold said, ‘and I managed to convince her eldest son that her death may not have been natural. He was suspicious and didn’t like the way Gerald sold the house immediately and then left the area. He demanded the police dig up her body – and this time arsenic was found, enough to point to murder. So Gerald Makepeace is now wanted for murder by the police in Bournemouth.’
‘But how do you know about those other crimes?’ Beth asked.
‘I used my police contacts and traced women of about your aunt’s age who had recently died, and discovered at least two that were thought unnatural, and there may be others we yet know nothing of.’
Beth took a gasping breath and felt the blood drain from her face. ‘Are you sure that he is the same man?’ she asked, her pulses racing wildly. She felt a little sick and short of breath. ‘Can we prove it?’
‘That is the thing,’ Harold said. ‘I was fairly certain that the two men were the same, but I couldn’t prove it – even though I knew it in my guts, but now I can…’
‘How?’
‘When your aunt married Gerald Greene, a photograph was taken,’ Harold said. ‘He’d told your aunt he didn’t want a photographer and he took a lot of pictures of her and their guests himself with a small box camera – but I found a picture of them both taken by a local paper. You arranged for the wedding to be reported and the enterprising young reporter took a picture of the happy couple. Your uncle obviously didn’t see it in the paper.’
‘But I did,’ Beth said. ‘It wasn’t very clear of him, because he turned his face away.’
‘But the newspaper had two others at their office,’ Harold said and now he was triumphant. ‘Both caught him full face and they let me have copies – and the son of his second wife, Anne Morton, knew him at once. He took the evidence to his local police and they are liaising with the police here in London to find him. Gerald Makepeace will have a lot of explaining to do when they catch up with him.’
‘Oh, that’s wonderful!’ Beth looked at him in awe. ‘So he will be arrested for one murder, even though he has probably killed three women.’
‘They are the ones we know about,’ Harold said grimly. ‘I always found when I was in the force that these men killed again and again; it’s as if they think they’re invincible. Once they get away with it, they do it over and over, only this time he made a mistake. He married a woman who had a suspicious niece and so he won’t get away with it.’
‘Thanks to you,’ Beth said and smiled at him. ‘I’m so grateful. I can’t believe you’ve done all this. I wasn’t even sure my suspicions were right.’
‘I only did it because you asked,’ Harold told her with a smile. ‘I’ve spoken to some colleagues of mine and they will be looking out for him here in London.’
‘I think he is still here, I’m almost sure he followed me the other evening when I walked from my friends’ apartment, but why? Surely, he would’ve been better just going away and changing his identity once more.’
‘I wondered too, but Mrs Morton’s son said he insured her life for five thousand pounds…’
‘Aunt Helen said something about an insurance policy once,’ Beth gasped and Fred glowered. ‘She told me she had made sure he wouldn’t get anything more from her – or something to that effect. I didn’t take much notice. I was more worried about her than insurance money.’
Fred spluttered with anger, ‘That’s what the bugger is after, the insurance money. He has to stay around to get his hands on that…’
‘But that doesn’t explain why someone tried to push Beth in front of traffic,’ Jack said, frowning. ‘He must have known there was a chance his past would catch up with him.’
‘As it happens, I know the answer to that one too,’ Harold said. ‘Because Mrs Morton’s son was suspicious and asked questions after her death, Gerald got clever this time. He got your aunt to take out her own insurance policy on both of them. She insured him for five thousand pounds and herself for the same amount, even though he’d told her he had his own policy.’
‘So he thought that would deflect suspicion,’ Beth said and frowned.
‘Yes, but he was too clever,’ Harold said. ‘Your aunt made a will and in that will she left the insurance money to you and also any money she had of her own.’
Beth looked at him in disbelief. ‘Surely, if my aunt left money to me I would have heard from her solicitor?’
‘Yes – and the solicitor says that he wrote to you immediately before your wedding – but, either it got lost in the post, or, somehow Gerald must have intercepted it…’
‘It could have been taken from the post at the apartment,’ Beth nodded. ‘The letters are put in racks downstairs. One of us takes them up at night when we get home – but if someone got into the reception area, they could have taken it, I suppose.’
‘It may simply have gone astray,’ Harold said. ‘It comes down to the same in the end – if you were dead, Gerald would get everything, unless you married, which you did, of course. That is, if he gets away with her murder. If there is no proof that it was anything but an accident, the insurance will pay out and the will says it comes to you – but by law it would probably revert to him if you’d died.’
‘Surely not?’ Fred frowned. ‘If Beth lived long enough to inherit the money, it would surely come to her husband by law.’
‘Yes, true enough,’ Harold agreed. ‘That was the bit that puzzled me. Maybe it was just spite then or anger because he felt you’d cheated him of what should have been his.’
‘He did that himself by being too clever,’ Jack said. ‘Anyway, it hardly matters because we know Helen’s death was suspicious and the insurance would surely have refused to pay out.’
