Murder At The Music Hall: (Auguste Didier Mystery 8) by Myers Amy

Author:Myers, Amy [Myers, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472213891
Publisher: Headline
Published: 2013-10-23T16:00:00+00:00

‘Well?’ Rose looked up eagerly as Twitch came in.

The latter shook his head dolefully. ‘Nothing. The men have crawled all over this place. Not a thing. And we covered their home again, too. Not a cross in sight. The only thing the men got excited about were some naughty postcards of Mrs Gomez. There was one in a bath –’ Stitch reddened, as he saw his Chief’s ironic look and decided not to elaborate further.

‘Too much to expect, I suppose,’ Rose grunted. ‘Gomez is hardly likely to have hidden it in his own home knowing we might search it.’

‘A risk,’ Twitch pointed out rather obviously, unconsciously taking in that the Chief was talking to him like a human being for once. ‘Of course, we don’t know they’re mixed up in it.’

‘Far too smug not to be, if you ask me. But what were they planning to do with it? My money’s on their sending the fake to the Portuguese royal family by the next ship, and selling the true cross to the highest bidder.’

‘Selling it, sir?’

Rose looked at him. ‘You’re right to pull me up, Stitch. Not much market, except, of course, to those Republicans.’

‘So it’s probably sold already,’ Twitch deduced pompously. ‘They were holding the fake until the ship arrived, didn’t want it at home because they guessed we’d be searching it, so. Mrs G sweet-talked Will Lamb into holding it for her.’

Rose thought this over. ‘Doesn’t explain why they bothered to have a fake at all. Why not just a straight theft?’

Twitch surpassed himself. ‘It would take the heat off them if the Portuguese royal family believed they’d got the real thing.’

‘But if Gomez is our man, and he pinched the loot from Windsor, why bother to go to all the trouble of hiring a casual in Limehouse and murdering him?’

To this Twitch had no reply.

‘Is Gomez in the theatre yet?’ Rose continued.

‘I’ll find out, sir.’ Twitch escaped thankfully. At least this was a task which would produce a firm yes or no.

‘Send him up if so. And Mr Didier, if you can find him.’

Twitch departed with a slightly less light heart, but brought back both with the air of one much tried. Auguste was only too thankful for a reason to escape Lizzie’s conspiratorial sympathetic eye.

‘Why you want to see me again?’ Miguel demanded passionately.

‘Not for the delightful company,’ Rose replied curtly. ‘A nice silver cross with garnets turned up in Will Lamb’s dressing-room, you see, and not long before we found it, someone tampered with his dagger and he died. Murdered. Remember now?’

Miguel shrugged. ‘Why me?’

‘You were hanging about in the wings while he was on stage, which you don’t do normally. That a good enough reason?’

‘Will was a great artiste,’ Miguel muttered.

‘And a bon ami of your wife,’ Auguste amplified.

‘Enemy?’ Miguel looked startled.

‘Ami. A good friend of your wife. Forgive me, I speak and think still in French, as you no doubt in Portuguese,’ Auguste continued meaningfully. ‘We remain what we were born.’

Miguel’s face darkened. ‘What does it matter where I was born? I am from Europe, from the world.

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