Well Kept Secrets (The Adventures of Xavier & Vic Book 4) Read online

  He threw himself into Vic’s arms and she held him tight against her chest. Normally, she didn’t go around hugging her staff members, lest they notice the stiff muslin undergarment that hid her breasts and widened her waist so no one would realize she was a woman dressed as a young man. But right now, that was the least of her concerns.

  Pete’s mother had been murdered, and given the woman’s lowly status, the police would make no effort to find her killer.

  “I’ll make us all a soothing tea,” Davy, their normally cranky old driver, said and returned upstairs.

  Xavier’s hand fell on the boy’s head. “Why don’t we continue this in my office, so we can interview our client?”

  Vic was about to call him an insensitive ass, but noticed how Pete straightened and seemed stronger after his suggestion. The boy evidently needed them to give him the same attention they gave all their clients. That they would was never a question. She would tear apart every building in the docks to find this murderer.

  She stood and led their smallest employee into their private office. Her heart swelled with love and pride as he climbed onto a client chair and wiggled about.

  “This chair isn’t very comfortable,” he complained.

  “I know. Xavier doesn’t like clients getting too cozy, makes them stay too long. Would you rather I pull in Ben’s chair?

  The boy breathed in. “No, I can do this.” The slight tremble of his bottom lip said otherwise.

  She glanced at the door, wondering where Xavier had gone. If he didn’t come soon, she feared brave little Pete was going to lose all his strength and burst into tears. And while she didn’t think that was an unreasonable action on his part, it could delay getting the information they needed to begin an investigation.

  “Let’s start the interview and get the basic information out of the way. Name?”

  The boy’s forehead wrinkled in confusion. “You know my name. I work for you!”

  She tilted her head. “Do you wish to be interviewed like a client or not?”

  He rolled his cute brown eyes and said, “My name is Pete Dully. I live at room 431, 2984 South Dock Road.” He paused and chewed his bottom lip. “Or I did. I’m guessing the minute the landlady hears me mum is dead she’ll rent the room to someone else.”

  Vic wished she could assure him otherwise, but such harsh realities occurred all the time among the poor. Death was an everyday event at the docks and the living had to go on with the difficult task of survival. However, she could promise Pete he wouldn’t be homeless.

  “We’ll get you new clothes and you can stay at my house. There you will have your own room and excellent food.”

  “I’d rather stay here.” His eyes became glassy and his lips puckered. “I don’t care about a room to myself and fancy food. I just want to help find out who did this.”

  Vic was tempted to abandon her seat and hug the precious boy; only Xavier took that moment to burst through the door.

  “Damn it Vic, you’ve started without me.” He pushed by her and slammed into his seat. “Sorry Pete, but this is too important to risk missing a single clue. You’ll have to start over from the top.”

  Pete rolled his eyes and declared his name and address again.

  “For God’s sake, I know who you are and where you live.”

  Before Xavier could say more, Vic slapped him on his arm. “We’ll move on to more important information now. Pete, tell us what happened?”

  “Mum didn’t come home last night.”

  “What time does she normally return?” Vic asked.

  “Since she got her new job, she’s been coming home later and later.” He gnawed at his not-too-clean thumb.

  “Was there something about her new job that bothered you?”

  “Well, she was happy when she first got it, though it didn’t pay too well, but this last week she hasn’t been happy at all.” He looked up, his brow furrowed. Fear shone in his eyes. “I think I may have got her killed.”

  Vic wanted to assure the child he had done no such thing, but she needed facts more than he needed comfort if they were ever to find his mother’s murderer.

  “What did you do?” she asked softly.

  “I was telling Ma about a case…” He grimaced and faced Xavier. “I know I’m not supposed to, but it was about the man who told you he’d found a hundred pounds and wished to return it to its proper owner, only he’d really found a thousand pounds and hoped to keep the rest.”

  Xavier crossed his arms and frowned. “Later, after we’ve solved this case, you can expect a firm lecture about not discussing our cases with anyone, but right now I’m more interested in how you think that particular information could have gotten your mother killed.”

  Li’l Pete gasped some air and then released it. His large brown eyes held such devastation. “It got me a lecture on honesty and how being a little good didn’t cut it. That being good was all or nothing.” His eyes squeezed shut. “Then me mum jumps up from the table and starts cleaning even though she hadn’t finished eating yet. She seemed angry…but not at me. I asked her what was wrong, but she said everything was fine or would be once she practiced what she preached.”

  Vic wrote furiously. “Pete, when did you have this conversation?”

  “Two nights ago. She made me breakfast and kissed me goodbye the next morning and…” Tears welled in his eyes. “The next time I saw her was this morning in the alley. She was so pale, and her eyes so dull that it didn’t even look like her.” Pete gasped some air as if having trouble breathing. “And her pretty mouth was gone ‘cause someone cut out her tongue.”

  Vic dearly wanted to forget the interview and take the boy in her arms, but she knew the best way to resolve this anguish was to find Maggie’s killer. “Is the alley on your way to work?” Vic asked, hoping to distract him from the horror of what he had seen.

  “No,” he mewed in pain.

  “Then why did you go into it?”

  His right arm pushed out and he blotted away his tears with his sleeve, then he repeated the action using his left arm.

  Xavier tossed him a handkerchief that landed on his head. Pete stared up at the square piece of linen dangling down from his forehead.

  “That’s to dry your eyes. It works better than your sleeves,” Xavier explained.

  Pete pulled it off his head and blotted his eyes, then nodded. “It does. How much does one of these costs?”

  Vic spoke up with a quick glare at Xavier. “You can have that one for free if you’ll return to the interview.”

  He gripped the linen in his hands and nodded for her to proceed.

  She repeated her question. “Why did you go into the alley?”

  “Because I saw Teddy looking for trouble. He carries a knife now. The alley cuts through to the next street, which is a bit safer than ours.”

  “Does your mother also take this alley?”

  He nodded. “It’s how she goes to work.”

  “Where exactly did your mother work?”

  Pete shrugged. “Don’t know its name or street address. But I can take you there, only we’ll have to go the same way my mother did, cause that’s the only way I know how to find it.”

  Vic stared at Xavier. He stood. “Let’s do this now, so we can bring this murderer to justice.”

  ***

  As the three rode off in the carriage, Vic noticed Xavier frowning at her notes.

  “Pete, do you know your mother’s first name?” he asked.

  “I just call her mum.”

  “But what do other people call her?”

  “Oh…they call her Maggie. And some call her Mrs. Dully.”

  “Maggie Dully,” he stated with emphasis and raised an eyebrow at Vic, no doubt, for failing to get such basic information.

  She hated when he found fault with her interviews, and this one had been a mangle from the start.

  “Do you have any relatives?” Xavier asked.

  “Not that I know of. Mum always said it was m
e and her against the world.” A tiny gasp escaped his misery. “Now it’s just me.”

  That earned him a thwap with the notepad Xavier held. “Nonsense. My employees are my family. You are not alone.”

  While Vic was horrified that Xavier would hit a grieving child, she forgave him when he declared them all family. Those kind words rallied Pete back from the brink of tears.

  However, his recovered bravery faltered when they arrived at the crime scene.

  Chapter 3

  Leaving a sobbing Pete in the carriage, Vic and Xavier headed to the alley. Their seven-foot employee, Tubs, was squeezed in the narrow alley purveying the crime scene. A constable hopped about thwacking the giant with his night stick, all the while declaring him under arrest. Fortunately, if Tubs didn’t wish to be arrested, there wasn’t much a single policeman could do about it.

  As Tubs crouched and sifted through the trash, the policeman continued to wail his club without any apparent effect. Only when he smacked Tubs twice on the head, did the giant gently swat the bizzy away, landing the fellow butt-first in a brown mass that looked and smelled like human waste.

  That resulted in the constable escaping the alley and his whistle coming out, shrilly calling for assistance.

  Xavier and Vic stepped carefully into the alley. “Find anything?” Xavier asked.

  Tubs sighed and stood up. “Not much. Body’s frozen stiff, so I’m guessing she’s been dead all night, but not sure. I ain’t never seen it this cold before.” He pointed to her mouth. “The tongue was cut out after she died.”

  Xavier studied the ugly hole in her face. “How can you be sure it was after?”

  “It’s a clean slice. You get a more jagged cut if they’re alive. They all resist having their tongues removed.”

  Vic realized Tubs was talking from unpleasant experience. Thank God she’d taken him away from the horrible jobs of his past.

  He knelt and studied Maggie’s bare hands. “I’m thinking she didn’t know she was in danger. No slices on her hands like she’d have if she’d tried to protect herself. No skin beneath her nails.

  “This person has killed before. They cut from behind so they could pull the head back and make their slice without getting themselves bloodied. I doubt she even made a cry before dying. Killer’s probably an inch shorter than her, five foot six or so.”

  “Man or woman?” Xavier asked.

  “Hard to say. If it’s a man he can’t be very strong, maybe the size and strength of that annoying bizzy who was pestering me. Could be a woman, I suppose.”

  Vic moved closer to the dead body, both curious and appalled at the horror before her. “Why do you say he wasn’t very strong?”

  “The depth of the cut.” Tubs pointed to the neck wound. The slice went almost half inch deep. “By the clean slice, the knife was sharp. If I’d done this, the neck would be cut through, which I explained to the annoying constable.” He stood and stared out at the street. “I’m guessing he’s run off to get help in arresting me.”

  His comment pulled Xavier from his thoughts. He stormed to the end of the alley. “Davy, take Pete and retrieve Inspector Stone. Tell him there’s been a murder, only don’t tell him where.”

  Vic snorted. Stone was going to be furious when he discovered he’d been called to investigate the death of a nobody. As the highest ranking officer of Scotland Yard, he would naturally think this task completely beneath him.

  “Did the murder occur here?” Xavier asked Tubs, upon his return to the alley.

  “Yeah, before the constable mucked up the evidence, there was a clear shower of blood. My guess is that she was standing about here, facing the street when the person grabbed her from behind and sliced her neck.”

  Xavier rubbed his chin as he studied the narrow alley. “Odd, she’d let anyone get so close. Given all the garbage, she would have surely heard someone approaching from behind.”

  Vic’s head popped up as the clues began to align in her mind. “This constable who was attacking you. Did you get his name?”

  Tubs chuckled. “Well, he didn’t give it, if that’s what you’re asking, but I know him well enough. His name is Conrad. He used to work the docks. Not sure when he took over here. Bad piece, he is.” He glanced at Xavier. “Mind if I disappear now. I haven’t had breakfast and I hate being jailed when I’m hungry. Makes the time crawl by.”

  “Go on,” Xavier stated and knelt down, sorting through the garbage, looking for clues.

  Vic checked the street to see if it was safe for Tubs to leave. Ten hard hats were running towards her. She glanced at Tubs. “Better head down the alley. The cavalry’s coming.”

  By the time they arrived, Tubs was gone.

  “Get away from the body, sir!” Conrad yelled at Xavier.

  Vic spoke up since her partner was ignoring the man. “That is Xavier Thorn. We are investigating this murder.”

  The policeman’s eyes rounded in shock and anger. “For God sakes why? It was just an old woman.”

  “Maggie Dully was only in her late twenties and was a wonderful mother to her nine-year-old son.”

  Before he or his helpers could respond, Davy returned bearing the one and only Inspector Stone.

  Vic had expected the head of Scotland Yard to be furious when he stepped out of the carriage. Instead, he focused on the policemen, who clearly knew who he was, because they all stood up straight, like school children before their teacher. “Who’s in charge here?”

  To her surprise, not one of the policemen raised their hand.

  Finally, Conrad stepped forth. “I was on my way home from night duty when I noticed Sonny Tubs leaning over a body.”

  “Tubs?” Stone’s brow furrowed.

  “I tried to apprehend him, but the man assaulted me and ran off.”

  Stone raised an eyebrow at that comment and pulled out his small notepad from his vest pocket. “Name?”

  “Officer…” The policeman glanced at the other constables behind him before finishing. “Conrad, sir. This isn’t my street, I was just walking home. But I’m quite certain it was Tubs who killed her.”

  “What?” Vic yelled.

  Stone cut her off. “Officer Conrad, head on to Scotland Yard, ask for Meyers, and give him your statement. I will take over from here.”

  The Inspector then glared at the other men. “I can only imagine the crimes being committed on your streets as you stand here. Now get back to work.”

  Once the police hurried away, Vic spoke, “Tubs did not do this. That body is frozen stiff, so it had to happen sometime last night. Davy can attest that Tubs was asleep in his bed, and I can attest he snores like thunder.”

  A faint tug of his lips assured her the Inspector hadn’t believed it was Tubs who had murdered Maggie. Watching his step so not to mar his shiny leather boots, he approached Xavier and the dead body.

  Xavier didn’t stop burrowing. “If you need further evidence it wasn’t Tubs, I will point out the cut is only a half inch deep and made by a man of five-foot-six.”

  Stone examined the neck. “The cut is angled slightly down. How tall was Pete’s mom?”

  “Five-seven or so. It’s hard to get an accurate measure in her current tangle, but I’m sure you can get a better measure when she’s thawed.”

  The mention of her frozen state seemed to remind Stone of the bitter cold and that his coat was more fashionable than practical. He rubbed his arms.

  “You seem to have matters under control. May I ask why you called me?”

  “I was not impressed with the caliber of policemen this neighborhood possesses. I feared they wished to hang this murder on Tubs and move on.”

  “A reasonable fear. I’ve no doubt that’s what Officer Conrad’s report will say. It does make me wonder how many of those hundred deaths attributed to Tubs were actually his.”

  Xavier glanced up. “He’s on our side now. Does it really matter?”

  “I suppose not. Was he here studying the crime scene?”

  “O
n my instructions. He’s quite good at assessing murders.”

  Stone’s eyebrows rose as if to let Xavier know there was probably a very good reason for that.

  “He believes Maggie knew the murderer, or she wouldn’t have turned her back on the person in this alley. Nor did she anticipate she was in any danger.”

  Stone reached down and examined her frozen hands. “I agree.”

  Xavier stood. “According to Pete she took this alley regularly to and from work. Someone she knew must have entered. She passed them, thinking herself perfectly safe and then the murderer or murderess struck from behind.”

  “You think it’s a woman?” Stone asked.

  “Given the small size and lack of strength, it’s a possibility.” Then Xavier shook his head. “It’s hard to believe that women could murder in this way. The cutting of the tongue—”

  “Is a very telling clue,” Vic stated as she stepped closer and studied the dead woman. “Maggie had learned something, or participated in something that wasn’t quite right. After talking with Pete about honesty the night before, she left yesterday morning determined to do the right thing and died for it.” Vic meet Stone’s hard stare.

  Xavier added. “Vic’s right. There is a secret that someone wants silenced.”

  Stone snorted softly. “Well, killing her would have sufficed.”

  Vic nodded in agreement. “Exactly, but she was dead when the murderer removed her tongue, so this wasn’t done to punish Maggie. This is a message for other people to hold their tongue or lose it. Our murderer is almost certainly a man and one of power.”

  Xavier stared at her. “I appreciate your brave leaps of intuition as much as Stone, but this time, I think you’ve gone too far.”

  His chiding burned, but mostly because he was right. She had no proof, but still in her gut she knew she was right.

  ***

  Once the body was taken away to the mortuary with orders to measure its length once thawed, Pete was let out of the carriage and walked them the long and unpleasant trail to his mother’s place of business.