Murder in a Mill Town (Nell Sweeney Mysteries, Book 2) by P.B. Ryan

Author:P.B. Ryan
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: mystery, americana, romantic suspense, boston, historical novel, amateur sleuth, love story, beach read, boston irish, women sleuths, historical fiction, governess, gilded age, historical mystery, nell sweeney, mystery series, boston history

Chapter 13

Will opened the letter with the earliest postmark first. Nell read it over his shoulder.

May 15th 1868, Charlstn Chicken Coop

Virge, you lazy dam bummer,

Its about time you wrote me, I was starting to think maybee you had 2nd thouts but you’re smarter than that aint you. Im glad to see you came threw, youl be happy when I tell you wear to find them dimund braslits I bet.

“Diamond bracelets?” Will said.

“Remember me telling you that Duncan was in prison for beating and knifing a man during an armed robbery?”

“And mutilating him, as I recall.”

“It was a jewelry shop he robbed, at gunpoint—Ripley’s, in Newport. He locked the staff in the back room, and then he ordered old Mr. Ripley to unlock all the cases, but he refused.” Nell took a deep, shaky breath. “So he, he tied him up and gagged him, and...he took out his knife, and...”

Will rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“Ripley was smart, though. He realized Duncan was fixing to basically torture him to death, so he started screaming about a pain in his chest, and slumped over. Duncan thought he really was dead, so he took off the mask he’d been wearing, and smashed the cases and snatched the best stuff. But the old man was still very much alive—cut up pretty badly, but alive—and he sent for the constables the second Duncan left. They didn’t catch up with him till the next day, and by that time he’d hidden the stolen jewelry all over the upper Cape—a few pieces here, a few pieces there...”

“Did he tell you where he’d hidden them?” Will asked.

“God, no, he wouldn’t have told me. He knew I’d be outraged when I found out what he’d done—which I was, of course. I told him I’d had enough. I tried to leave him. That’s when he...”

Will nodded tightly; she’d told him last winter, in vague terms, about Duncan’s having “hurt” her. Before he could say anything about that, because she couldn’t take his pity right now, on top of everything else, she said, “After Duncan was arrested, he refused to tell them where he’d hidden the jewels. Because of that, and what he’d done to Mr. Ripley, he got the maximum sentence—not that he’ll end up serving it. I told you what he said about getting out on ‘hocus pocus.’”

“Surely there’s something you can do to forestall that.”

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