Chapter 6 #3
Once seated in the cabin, we discussed in low voices what we’d learned from the interrogation of the Iversons.
When a woman sat beside Harry, we stopped talking altogether and traveled the rest of the way in silence.
As the omnibus drove down Regent Street, however, Harry and I turned to one another as we passed number fifty-nine.
We both had the same idea, but didn’t discuss it until we alighted outside the hotel.
“I’ll wait at the rendezvous point tonight at nine and see if someone comes,” Harry said.
“We will wait there together,” I countered. Before he could protest, I pointed out that nine wasn’t too late. Respectable people were out and about, coming and going from the theater or parties.
“That’s the problem,” he said. “We shouldn’t be seen together.”
“I’ll wear a cloak and keep the hood up at all times.” I spied Frank watching us as he opened the door for two guests to enter. “Collect me from across the road here at eight-thirty. That will give us plenty of time in case the letter writer is early.”
We greeted Frank amiably and received a grudging, “Good afternoon,” in response.
It was a positively friendly greeting for Harry, considering Frank had sided with my uncle when Harry was dismissed from the assistant manager position.
Frank tended to side with my uncle on most things.
He was a loyal employee, a quality I admired, even though it was sometimes misguided.
Although October was a quiet month for the hotel, the foyer was quite busy.
Late afternoons tended to be one of the busiest times of the day, with ladies coming and going from the main sitting room for the Mayfair’s famous afternoon teas.
Mr. Hobart and Peter, the assistant manager, were chatting to different parties, while the front desk clerk was on the telephone.
The lift door opened and Floyd emerged. He struck a direct course toward Harry and me, but before he arrived, two elderly ladies who recognized Harry from when he was assistant manager drew him away.
Although Floyd regarded Harry with a flinty glare, it was me he wanted to see. “Have you seen Harmony? I need to speak to her.”
“I’ve just come in. Is something wrong?”
“You mean aside from you being here with Armitage?”
“He needs to talk to Uncle Ronald, as it happens.”
Floyd’s eyebrows rose. “He’s not coming back to work for us, is he?”
“Lord, no. As part of his investigation, he stumbled across something that affects the hotel. A man may be intending to sabotage Mr. Lombardi’s event.”
Floyd’s gaze sharpened. “Is this an investigation that you are conducting with him?”
“Is that the first question you wish to ask? I thought you’d be more concerned about the potential sabotage.”
He tugged on his cuffs. “I am. Although I’m conflicted. I would rejoice to see Lombardi fail, and not just because of his tonic. Harmony and I had a long meeting with him today. He treated her poorly.”
“Oh dear. Because of the color of her skin?”
“It could be that, or it could be because she’s female and in a subordinate position to him.
He was a little too tactile to be considered a gentleman.
” He put up his hands and wiggled his fingers.
“After she slapped his hand away when he went to touch her, I had to tell him not to do it again or he’d be looking for a new venue for his presentation. ”
“Well done, Floyd. Is Harmony all right?”
“She’s more all right than I am, or seems to be. I’m worried Lombardi will complain to Father who’ll take out his irritation on his favorite whipping boy.” He poked himself in the chest.
“He won’t do that. He’ll be on your side, once he knows the details.”
“I don’t trust Lombardi to give him the correct details, but you are probably right.
Knowing what we know about the Nerve Elixir, Father is unlikely to think favorably of Lombardi.
” He smiled at a regular guest who passed by.
Once the gentleman was out of earshot, the smile vanished.
“So you haven’t seen Harmony? Lombardi has changed one of his requests for the event and I need to inform her. ”
“Have you checked the staff parlor? She often enjoys a cup of tea in the afternoons with the others.”
He pulled a face. “It’s not my place to enter their domain during their time off. You shouldn’t go in either.”
“They don’t see me the same way as they see you. I’m a Fox, not a Bainbridge.”
“Ha!”
I ignored his reaction and changed the subject. “Is Flossy with your mother? How is she?”
“Mother is resting in her room. Flossy is having afternoon tea with friends.” He nodded in the direction of the sitting room.
“How lovely. I am pleased to see your parents giving her more freedom.” Usually if Flossy wanted to go out socially, she had to be chaperoned.
With her mother often ill, and me out investigating, her social engagements had been limited.
Lately, however, she’d been allowed to meet her friends for afternoon tea as long as they stayed within the hotel.
When Harry finished chatting to the two ladies, Floyd made sure to catch him before anyone else waylaid him.
He said he wanted to know more about the potential threat to Mr. Lombardi’s event, but I suspected he also wanted to warn him to stay away from me.
That was a discussion Harry could handle without me.
I left them and headed to the staff parlor, where Harmony was indeed enjoying a cup of tea and game of cribbage with Goliath and Victor. She invited me to join them, but I declined.
“I can’t stay long. I ought to go and look in on my aunt. Harmony, Floyd wants to talk to you.”
She rose to leave, but I asked her to stay a moment longer.
“He told me about Mr. Lombardi’s advances,” I went on.
Victor had been shuffling the deck of cards, but his quick hands suddenly stilled. “Advances?”
Harmony flipped her hand, dismissing our concern. “It was nothing. I’ve experienced far worse from other guests.”
“You have?” I asked, dismayed.
Again, she dismissed my concern with a gesture. “Housemaids are used to it. We learn how to deflect unwanted interest in a way that doesn’t cause offence.”
“While I’m glad you’re not upset, it isn’t all right for men to treat you like that, whether they’re important guests or not.
I’m glad Floyd was a witness. He and my uncle need to be aware of these things so they can do something about it.
You should inform Mrs. Short when it happens while on maid duty. ”
“Nothing will change.”
“Then inform me,” Victor growled. “I’ll see that it doesn’t happen again.”
I eyed his knife belt on the table where he’d laid it beside the cribbage scoring board so that he could sit more comfortably.
Like all the cooks, he brought his own tools of the trade to work.
Dressed in crisp, clean chef whites, he must be employed on the dinner shift, due to start shortly.
While I didn’t think Victor would actually cut anyone who made an inappropriate advance toward his girl, I worried that he’d use a blade to threaten them.
That was a dismissible offence, not to mention an arrestable one.
Harmony changed the subject. “How is the investigation coming along?”
“Slowly but surely,” I said. “We have a number of suspects, including a woman who acted suspiciously at the clinic on the day one of the keys went missing. We’re not sure how she is connected to the victim, but she gave a false name and address.”
“I read about the murder,” Goliath said as he stretched out his long legs and crossed them at the ankles. “Apparently the doctor was arrested. Am I right in saying he is Lady Bainbridge’s doctor?”
“Goliath,” Harmony snapped. “That’s none of our business.”
Goliath shrank a little from her harsh tone. “Sorry,” he mumbled.
“It’s all right,” I said. “Dr. Iverson was her doctor, but she is seeing someone else now. The doctor wasn’t arrested, merely taken in for questioning. He was released this morning. Harry and I have already interviewed him.”
“Do you think he murdered his patient?”
Before I could respond, Victor made a scoffing sound. “In his own consulting rooms? He’d be an idiot to kill someone there.”
“That’s the theory Harry and I are working on, too,” I said. “It’s most likely someone else tampered with the machine with the plan of besmirching the doctor’s reputation.”
Goliath pointed a finger at me. “Or that’s what he wants you to believe because it’s a bluff.” He frowned. “Or is it a double bluff?”
Victor clapped a hand on the big porter’s shoulder as he stood. “Don’t think too hard, something might explode.”
“You sound like Frank.”
As if he’d been summoned, Frank entered the parlor. He stopped short upon hearing his name. “If this is about Mrs. Crighton’s pet dog, I’d like to point out that it’s just a small dog and the hotel doesn’t have a written policy against guests bringing their animals.”
We all stared at him.
“No?” he squeaked. “Forget I spoke.”
Goliath wasn’t prepared to do so, however. “It’s not against any policy, but that’s probably because Sir Ronald never thought of it before. How could you just let her waltz in with it? What if it does its business in the room? Think of the poor maids who’d have to clean it up.”
“She takes it out three times a day for it to do its business in the park. Anyway, who am I to stop a guest from doing something a little naughty?”
“It is your job,” Victor pointed out. “She paid you, didn’t she?”
Frank sniffed. “Mrs. Crighton slips me a few coins to look the other way when she smuggles it into the hotel inside her bag.”
Goliath sat forward and lowered his voice. “Next time she has it with her, give me a sign. I can keep quiet for a fee, too.”
Harmony signaled for me to leave the parlor with her.
“One moment,” I said. “Before I go, I have a question to ask the men. If I were to buy you a gift, what would you like?”
Goliath smiled shyly. “That’s kind of you, Miss Fox, but you don’t have to.”
“It’s not for you. I simply need ideas. I thought polling a few men might help.”
“A watch,” Frank said. “Mine’s broken.”
“New knives,” Victor added, collecting his knife belt.
Goliath tugged on his lower lip in thought. “Two tickets to the theater, one for me and the other so I can win back my girl. She likes theater shows, particularly something with jaunty tunes.”
“Perhaps you should think about the recipient and what he would like,” Harmony said.
“Is it for your uncle?” Victor asked. “Cousin?”
“It’s not their birthdays,” Frank said, frowning.
Before they remembered the date of Harry’s birthday, I grabbed Harmony’s hand and together we left the staff parlor.
As we re-entered the foyer, she asked if I thought the afternoon tea would go on for much longer.
“I need to speak to Mr. Chapman about Mr. Lombardi’s dinner arrangements this evening.
He has asked me to inform Mr. Chapman there’ll be one less at his table. ”
“Why are you liaising for Lombardi? His dinner plans for this evening are not part of his Saturday presentation.”
“It is, in a way. The dinner is for Mr. Lombardi’s most valued clients, who will also come to the presentation. A sort of pre-event gathering to discuss business.”
At least his prior engagement meant my family was saved from having to invite him to join us at our table. Given I needed to meet Harry at an early hour, I was relieved. I would order my meal through the speaking tube in my room and dine there. Hopefully no one wanted to join me.
At eight-thirty, dressed all in black, I flipped up the hood of my cloak as I left the stairwell on the ground floor.
The daytime staff had gone home and there weren’t many guests in the foyer.
Most would be in their rooms or at dinner or the theater.
I was quite sure that with my head down, no part of my face was visible, so I was surprised when my name was called.
No, not called. Barked out, as if I were a prisoner fleeing from jail.
“Cleo! Halt! Where are you going at this hour?”