Search The Dark Part 3

On the road west, he could see small groups of men in the distance, searching, covering again ground they'd already tramped over three and four times. Heads bent, sticks poking into undergrowth and among the thick boughs of trees, they moved steadily and carefully across the terrain a.s.signed to them. In the field where the body had been found the grain was alive with them, and there was a fuming, red-faced man sitting his horse at the edge of the corn. The farmer, most likely. Rutledge considered stopping to speak to him and then decided it could wait until the man's temper had subsided. This was his best crop of the season, trampled through no fault of his own. A policeman from London would be no different in his book than one from Singleton Magna.

At the signpost, Rutledge took the northwest road this time, toward Charlbury. He drove slowly, scouting for a likely outbuilding that might offer shelter. But the two dilapidated sheds he did investigate were empty of anything except pigeons, mice, and a swarm of insects rising into the stuffy air from the dust beneath his feet.

Tramping back to his car, he heard the sound of another automobile coming fast along the lane. He stopped to watch it, his coat over one shoulder, his s.h.i.+rtsleeves rolled up on his forearms, wis.h.i.+ng he'd thought to bring a Thermos of tea or water with him. His throat felt parched.

The motorcar slowed as it came nearer and then braked as it drew abreast of him. A woman was driving it, and he knew the instant he saw her face that she wasn't English. There was something about the way her dark hair was swept up into a bun, the blue dress she wore with a scarf around the throat. Style. His sister Frances would have recognized it instantly.

She was French- "Are you in trouble?" she asked, her English lightly and fascinatingly accented. He found himself suddenly at a loss for words.

It wasn't beauty. Not that she wasn't d.a.m.ned attractive. But it was more subtle. Good bones, his sister Frances could have told him. A sensuality that came from within, a curve of the lips, a lift to the eyebrows. The way her clothes set off her coloring, the shades of blue in the scarf like stained gla.s.s, vivid and rich, bringing light to the gray eyes that s.h.i.+fted as he watched from clear, still water to dark, unfathomable pools of speculation.

He spoke quickly, and in French. "No, I'm a policeman. Inspector Rutledge from London. I'm taking part in the search for the missing Mowbray children."

She smiled a little, hearing his French, unexpected in a deserted lane in the middle of Dorset, then she caught what he was saying. "Ah. The children. It is very sad, is it not? I hope they will be found alive. But one wonders, as the time goes by. I have no children-" She stopped, then went on wryly, "-it is something one feels, I think, about children, whether one is a parent or not."

The smile, even as brief as it was, had been like sunlight over the sea. What in G.o.d's name had brought such a creature as this to England? Rutledge glanced at her hands on the wheel and saw a wedding band. That explained it then. A man ...

"Yes." He moved slightly, away from her car.

She took that as a signal that the conversation was finished, although he'd meant it in another sense. "Then I shall leave you to your search. I wish you success with it-and living children at the end of it."

The motorcar moved off, and as he watched her drive on, he cursed himself for being a tongue-tied fool. He hadn't even asked her name, or where she lived. And what had brought her here, to this stretch of road connected with a murder investigation. If she knew of any place the police had not thought to search- "She's a stranger here hersel'," Hamish reminded him. "She'd no' be likely to ken what the police have na' thought of."

Which was true. He couldn't hear her engine in the distance now. She was gone.

Rutledge started his car again and got in.

"And a woman like yon is naught but trouble!" Hamish added for good measure. "Leave her out o' this business."

Rutledge laughed. But he could still see the softness of her skin, warm with the sunny day, and the dark tendril of hair that swept across her cheek like a caress. Why was it that French women had a knack for disturbing a man, whether they were beautiful or not? Whatever it was, most of them were born with it, and he didn't need to understand it to recognize it.

In a ramshackle barn, swaybacked with age and a roof half fallen in, he was startled by a small hawk he'd disturbed. She came sailing down toward him, defending her fledglings, and swooped near enough for him to hear the soft whish whish of her wing feathers on the still air. And then she was back in the beams again, well hidden. He could feel her eyes watching him. Nothing here, only prints of the heavy nailed boots of searchers. of her wing feathers on the still air. And then she was back in the beams again, well hidden. He could feel her eyes watching him. Nothing here, only prints of the heavy nailed boots of searchers.

He hadn't expected to find anything. The effort had been made in the name of thoroughness. A policeman needed patience. And hope?

At the outskirts of Charlbury, which straggled in Saxon style along the road like beads on a string, he paused long enough to get his bearings.

It was no more than a village, houses facing each other across the high road and, at the far end, a stone church. There was a long narrow green, with its pond and white geese sailing above their reflections like frigates in the sun, an inn, some half-dozen shops, and on a slope behind an outlying farm, a round building with a thatched roof, gleaming whitely. It looked as if it had been stranded there, with no connection to Charlbury except perhaps fate.

Most of the houses were small, but between the common and the church they were larger and better kept. He thought it likely that the well-to-do farmers lived there. The grandest of the lot, with a slate roof and a sizable wing on its westerly side, was set well back from the street and boasted a fine garden behind a low, gated stone wall. There was little activity in Charlbury, as if people were working in their back gardens or on the farms that spread out around the outskirts. One shopkeeper was was.h.i.+ng his windows, and farther along a small boy squatted by a bench, teasing a cat with a string. It played with the end desultorily as if preferring to doze peacefully in the sun. The boy gave up as Rutledge watched, and turned to run toward the pond. As he did, he cannoned into a man coming out of the small bakery, who bent double from the force of impact and swore feelingly at the child. The words carried in the warm air.

They didn't appear to have much effect. The boy was soon throwing sticks at the geese on the pond. A woman coming out of another shop, a basket over her arm, called to him, and he came reluctantly to walk beside her, his shrill voice bouncing off the water as he wanted to know why why. The town brat, Rutledge thought, amused.

Then he noticed that the man the boy had run into was still leaning against the baker's wall, as if in pain. Finally the man straightened gingerly and moved on. From the blacksmith's shop came a sudden gust of black smoke as the bellows were worked. Somewhere Rutledge could hear cattle lowing.

His first stop was at the small, thatched stone house, marked by a sign, where the Charlbury constable lived. But there was no answer to his knock. Rutledge took out his watch and looked at the time. The man must be making rounds, then.

He drove back to the inn and got out, leaving the motorcar in the yard beside it. The inn was old, stone built, with a tidy thatched roof that overhung the dormers like a thick rug. It was comfortably situated where the street began a gentle curve to the common, and there was a small garden in front, in the middle of which rose a wooden post, covered for half its length by a profusely flowering vine. Hanging above that, incongruously, the sign portrayed a distinguished, graying man in frock coat and Edwardian whiskers, one arm raised as if giving a speech, THE WYATT ARMS THE WYATT ARMS was scrolled in gold above his head. was scrolled in gold above his head.

Wyatt? The name was familiar, but Rutledge couldn't place it immediately.

Two farmers were coming out of the bar and held the door for him, nodding in countryman's fas.h.i.+on as he pa.s.sed. Inside the room was dark paneled oak, and Rutledge nearly stumbled over a chair before his eyes adjusted to the stygian atmosphere. Then he saw another doorway and went down a narrow pa.s.sage into a room that looked out over a neatly kept garden with several tables set up beneath a striped awning. They were presently filled with women listening to a thin, elderly speaker reading from a sheet of paper.

He stopped.

"The ladies find it more to their liking than the parlor, on fair days," a voice said out of the dimness, and a strong man in a white ap.r.o.n came in after him, gesturing to the garden. "That's the Women's Inst.i.tute meeting. The ladies take their tea out there often, on a fine afternoon. What can I do for you, sir?"

A graceful but heavyset woman with dark hair and an unusual white streak that ran from her temple to the bun at the nape of her neck interrupted the speaker with a question. The speaker deferred to her, then went on.

Rutledge said, turning away from the windows, "Time for a pint, I think. Will you join me?"

The bar and the snug were empty, and the landlord said affably, "Don't mind if I do. Thank you, sir."

Rutledge sat at the heavy wooden bar-as black as the walls and the beams that supported them-on a stool worn s.h.i.+ny by generations of trousers sliding across the wood. The landlord lighted a lamp to one side of the mirror, and it gave a sense of reclamation to the room. The bra.s.s appointments gleamed like gold.

"Pa.s.sing through?" the innkeeper asked as he pulled a pint and set it on the bar in front of Rutledge.

"I'm staying at Singleton Magna," Rutledge said, sidestepping the question. "Yesterday and this morning I've been taking in the countryside."

"Any word on the murders over there?" As if Singleton Magna were across the Channel, somewhere in the neighborhood of Paris, and news was hard to come by. "Sorry business," he added, echoing the words of the woman at the Swan. He pulled a second pint and drank deeply, appreciatively, as if he enjoyed his own wares.

"They've got the man in custody. You probably know that. But no signs of the children still. They-that family, I mean-never came as far as Charlbury?"

"No, we don't run to many visitors here. Not like in the old days. Not since the war, at any rate. I see strangers once or twice a month at best."

"What brought visitors before the war?"

"Some came because of the Wyatts. Old Mr. Wyatt was MP for nearly forty years, and that drew the curious. He cut quite a das.h.i.+ng figure in his youth and was as popular in London as he was here. Mr. Simon was cut from the same cloth. Mr. Wyatt served this const.i.tuency his life long, and we all looked up to him in Charlbury, aye, and so did most of Dorset."

The memory clicked. The sign-and the family that had made a name for itself in Parliament for three generations. Like the Churchills and the Pitts, a long tradition of public service and golden oratory.

"He's dead, I think?"

"Aye, in the last year of the war, that was. He wanted to see his son take his seat, and he lived three years longer than anybody thought he might. But to no purpose." A veil came down over the man's eyes, as if the subject was ended.

Rutledge paid it no heed. "His son died in the war?" It was no more than an attempt to keep the innkeeper talking, but something flared behind the veil.

"No, Simon Wyatt came through it with hardly a scratch. But somewhere along the way he lost his taste for politics."

It was a warning not to ignore the message a second time. Rutledge changed the subject. "And once the Westminster connection was gone, Charlbury settled back into tranquility again?"

The innkeeper made a wry face. "Not so's you'd notice," he said reluctantly. He put down his beer and looked out at the garden. "People are queer, you know that? Simon Wyatt's grandfather, now, the one on his mother's side of the family, he he lost his wife early on. Nothing seemed to count with him after that, he couldn't settle to farming or anything else. Then one fine day he went off to see the world. Sent home boxes of whatever struck his fancy-dead birds and strange-looking statues and other knick-knacks he picked up along the way. He was set on making a museum, though who'd come to look at such oddities, I ask you?" lost his wife early on. Nothing seemed to count with him after that, he couldn't settle to farming or anything else. Then one fine day he went off to see the world. Sent home boxes of whatever struck his fancy-dead birds and strange-looking statues and other knick-knacks he picked up along the way. He was set on making a museum, though who'd come to look at such oddities, I ask you?"

"Not every man's taste," Rutledge agreed. "In London? That might make a difference."

"No, here in Charlbury," the innkeeper said. In the back toward the kitchen a man's voice called, "Mr. Denton?"

He answered over his shoulder. "Aye, I'm coming, man!"

"Shall I carry down the next keg, then?"

"Put it with the others, Sam. I'll sort it out later." He smiled ruefully at Rutledge. "Anything else, sir? The dray brought my beer this morning. If I don't watch, Sam'll be drunk as a lord on whatever he can find that's open. Old fool! But help's hard to find. If there's no work on the farms, the younger ones are off for London or wherever they can find a job. If he wasn't so good with the horses, I'd have been shut of him years ago."

Rutledge drained his gla.s.s and thanked Denton, then made his way out into the sunlight again. Sitting on a bench outside the door was the man he'd seen earlier. He was pale, his face beaded with sweat.

"Are you all right?" Rutledge asked. "I saw what happened."

"b.l.o.o.d.y brat! His mother can't do anything with him. Needs a man's firm hand. Preferably applied to the seat of his pants!" He cleared his throat and said, "I'm all right. As right as I'll ever be."

Something in the timbre of his voice made Rutledge turn to look at him. "Canadian, by any chance?"

"I lived there for a time. Alberta. d.a.m.ned beautiful part of the country! Ever been there?"

"Never had the chance," Rutledge answered. "I met a number of Canadians in the war."

The man held out his hand and Rutledge took it. "My name's Shaw. You aren't a Dorset man."

"Rutledge. I'm from London."

"I hate the b.l.o.o.d.y place. Too crowded, too dirty, too old. A man can't breathe there."

"No," Rutledge said, knowing what Shaw meant. "Do you have family here?" It was the opening he'd waited for, to bring up the subject of the Mowbrays.

"I'm Denton's nephew. He's kept an eye on me since I left hospital. The doctors won't let me go back to Alberta, and I've not made up my mind what to do with myself." Shaw grimaced. He wasn't used to telling strangers his life story. It was a bad habit to get into.... "Sorry! I'm not usually this garrulous. It's the fault of that b.l.o.o.d.y child!"

"I don't mind, if it helps. Anything is better than what they give out in hospital for the pain."

"G.o.d, yes!" Shaw got to his feet and took a deep breath. "It never lasts long," he said, although the tension around his eyes hadn't gone away. "Thanks for not making a fuss."

As Rutledge nodded, Shaw opened the door and went inside. As if afraid that staying would lead him into other confessions he didn't want to make.

5.

Rutledge turned toward his parked car and then changed his mind, walking back up the street instead. He knocked several times at the constable's door, without an answer.

A woman busily sweeping her walk shaded her eyes and said, "If you're needing Constable Truit, he's out."

"Know where I might find him?"

"Business or trouble?"

Rutledge laughed. "I wanted to ask him how to grow fine marrows."

She grinned, not a bit affronted. "Well, he's not likely to be back before the day's out. There's no Mrs. Truit, you see, and he's got courting on his mind."

Rutledge said with interest, "Makes a habit of not being at home, does he?"

"Makes a habit of being wherever Mrs. Darley's daughter is. In my view, she's leading him a merry dance before choosing Danny Marker. Danny works over to Leigh Minster and comes to Charlbury only at the week's end."

A born gossip ...

"I wanted to ask Truit about the day that man in Singleton Magna killed his wife. I'd like to know if there were any strangers in Charlbury at that time."

She c.o.c.ked her head and looked him over. "You aren't from the London papers?"

Rutledge said apologetically, "No."

She sighed. "I thought not. You must be the London policeman, then, the one they was expecting over to Singleton Magna." She waited, pointedly, until he gave her his name. "There was a guest at the Wyatts', that came by car. But no one on foot, no woman with small children, if that's what you're asking. It's a long walk, anyway, for little 'uns. D'ye know what I think?" She didn't give him a chance to answer. He'd have her opinion, wanting it or not. "They're buried in a churchyard. What's a better grave than a fresh one, to hide bodies in!"

"Anyone dead of late in Charlbury?" he asked, amused by the ghoulish relish with which she offered her suggestion.

"No." There was disappointment in the admission. "We've got a maid missing, but no one's likely to want to kill her. She was uppity, and good riddance, Mrs. Bagley says."

"How long has she been missing?"

"Getting on for five, six months," the constable's neighbor admitted reluctantly. "I've got a sheet with the picture of that family on it. Constable Truit, he was handing 'em out. Betty's hair was darker, nothing like the woman they was looking for. Besides, she weren't married, nor had any children. At least, not that we knew of! But pretty enough to want more from life than scrubbing another woman's floors. Gone to London, more than likely. Looking for trouble."

Rutledge thanked her and turned to go.

"If you'd come in another month, you'd've seen the museum open," she said to his back, eager to keep his attention. "There's to be a party then. They're hoping for grand guests down from London, but they won't come. Not now that Mr. Wyatt is dead. What's the point? Unless it's curiosity brings them. But who's likely to want to see pagan statues and dead birds? I ask you!"

He glanced toward the churchyard farther along the road. Someone was standing there, watching, from the shadows of the tall trees. "You never know."

She laughed, a hoa.r.s.e croak. "No. Not with people, you never do."

And with a final whisk of her broom she walked back inside her door. Having had the last word? And garnered enough information from him to regale her neighbor on the other side?

Constable Truit would hear about Rutledge's visit before he turned the k.n.o.b of his front door.

Hamish said out of a long silence, "If yon constable has his mind on courting, he'll no' see all that happens."

"But that woman will, be sure of it." Rutledge walked slowly along the street, getting a feeling for Charlbury. As in most villages, people went about their own business and left others to mind theirs. Dorset had not held a very large place in English affairs, over most of the country's history, and seemed content to leave it that way.

Beside the church was the tidy rectory, the gardens by its front windows heavy with August bloom, and the path to the door was neatly raked. He stopped, as if admiring the effect.

Yes, the figure he'd seen in the trees was still there. He continued on his way. The church was strikingly Norman, with a truncated tower just roof high that seemed to be wanting the rest of itself, as though the builders had stopped working one day and never returned to finish the job. The apse was firmly rounded and the walls appeared to be thick, for the windows were deeply set. They caught the sunlight with darkness rather than light, as if they hadn't been intended to shed a glory of color across the nave. There was no grace or symmetry here, only a statement of power and might. He thought the builders might have antic.i.p.ated using it as a fortress one day, for want of a castle nearby.

Peripherally he could observe the man in among the heavy, low-branched trees. Reasonably tall, straight-young. A shadow across his face. And something in his cupped hands- Rutledge froze. The man held a bird in his fingers.

Turning to him, Rutledge called, "What's the date of the church, do you know?"

"Yes," he replied, coming toward Rutledge and into the light. "Early Norman with some later additions. It was never worth anyone's time to rebuild it in a later style. So it hasn't changed much in six hundred years." The words sounded as they'd been spoken by rote-or the man was so accustomed to the question he needn't give the answer any thought. Then he held up the bird. It was just beginning to struggle in the light clasp. "Flew into one of the church windows and knocked himself silly. Cat would have had him if I hadn't found him first!" He opened his fingers very carefully, and after a moment, the freed bird shook itself and took off toward the nearest tree. He grinned at Rutledge. The very blue eyes were wide and guileless.