Foxe and the Path into Darkness by William Savage

Author:William Savage [Savage, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ridge & Bourne
Published: 2021-04-14T04:00:00+00:00

14

True to his word, in the late afternoon Foxe walked the short distance to the Chapel Fields Pleasure Gardens and looked around for one of the gardeners. Once he’d located one, he questioned the man to find out if he had ever seen the missing mayor in the gardens.

‘Many times, y’r ‘onour,’ the gardener replied. ‘Often used to come ‘ere did Mr Belton, specially in the weeks afore ‘e disappeared like.’

‘What did he do?’ Foxe asked.

‘Jest walked about like. Nothing special. The only odd thing was as ‘ow ‘e kept a-talkin’ to ‘isself as ‘e walked. That an’ talkin’ to some o’ the trees as well. ‘Ad ‘is favourites, ‘e did. See that girt great elm over there? That was one o’ them. ‘E’d talk to that there elm for ages, wavin’ ‘is arms and gettin’ all excited like. Still, we gets all sorts in ‘ere, we does. ‘E didn’t do no ‘arm, so we left ‘im alone.’

Foxe knew this was probably nothing more than the signs of a lonely man feeling the need to express his anger and frustrations to something, even a tree. Still, it could very easily have been represented as a sign of insanity.

Going back to his home, he thought once again about the wretched life the mayor seemed to have led. A wife who despised him and was probably plotting to have him incarcerated as a lunatic, colleagues amongst the aldermen who branded him a fool and blocked everything he wanted to do and a business he disliked, but which was his only source of income. Not even any friends to confide in and help him face what looked to be an even more miserable future.

Perhaps the mayor had committed suicide after all?

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