Family Ties (The Mark Pemberton Cases Book 1) by Nicholas Rhea

Author:Nicholas Rhea [Rhea, Nicholas]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Agora Books
Published: 2019-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

‘Aye,’ George acknowledged. ‘That song was being sung when I was a lad at school. I sang it myself.’

‘Did it mean anything to you?’

‘Not really, not when I was five or six.’

‘Was it used by the other kids to tease you with?’

‘No, not really, I don’t think they knew what the words meant. It was like those nursery rhymes, they sang the words and danced around never really knowing what it was all about.’

‘Did you ever think it might be your great uncle they were singing about?’

‘Well, I did wonder if it was summat to do with the ghost they sometimes talked about. And Great Uncle James being shot by a spy — as a growing lad, I did wonder if he’d been a spy himself, even. Working for the Germans or summat nasty — tainted, you see. But I never gave it much thought — really, it meant nowt to me. Mind, once I sang it at home and Dad told me to shut up, but he never said why, never explained.’

‘I think it does refer to James,’ said Mark. ‘And I wonder if the brother referred to was in fact Luke — it said he’s gone as well. It said Jimmy had gone to hell.’

‘Some said going to fight in the Somme was like going to hell,’ commented George.

‘James never got there,’ Mark reminded him. ‘But if James was a wrong ’un for any reason, it would explain why the word “tainted” appears in the verse, and why they said he’d gone to hell when he died. That’s if we can rule out the spy business.’

‘Sorry, Mr Pemberton, you’ve baffled me now. So far as I know from family gossip, Great Uncle James was a lovely lad. He was an altar server at church, good with kids and helpful to his parents. A real decent young fellow, by all accounts.’

‘The police file also says he was a decent man,’ Mark agreed. ‘Then, as now, the police always delve into the character of the victim and they found nothing against James. He had no criminal record and they found nothing to suggest he had made enemies. And that makes his death more of a mystery.’

‘And it still is?’ said George.

‘Yes, and it still is,’ agreed Pemberton.

‘So what are you going to do now, Mr Pemberton?’ asked George Hartley.

‘I want to find out just what happened all those years ago,’ said Mark.

‘I’ll help in any way I can’ said George. ‘I want to get this thing sorted out.’

‘If we can find a motive for his death, we’ll be more than half-way to solving the puzzle as to who killed him. Now, are there any family heirlooms or anything that might provide a clue? Did James leave anything behind? Great Grandad Caleb? Did he leave anything?’

‘There’s a trunk of Great Uncle James’s belongings, things his mother kept after he died. We’ve still got that, it’s somewhere in the farmhouse. I’ll have a look for it, Mr Pemberton. You’ll be interested in it?’

‘Certainly — it might contain something of interest.

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