Death of a Milliner: Riley Rochester Investigates Book 9 (Riley ~Rochester Investigates) by Wendy Soliman

Author:Wendy Soliman [Soliman, Wendy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-12-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Riley spent the next hour catching up with his paperwork and then re-read all the statements that had thus far been taken with regard to Mrs Faulkner’s murder. He was no nearer to deciding which direction the investigation should take next when Salter put his head round the door.

‘Soames and Carter are back. So too is Peterson.’

‘Wheel them in, Jack. It’s time for a recap.’

‘Afternoon, sir,’ Carter said cheerfully.

‘You look as though you’ve found something out that I’m going to want to hear,’ Riley replied. ‘I would welcome anything that might point us in the right direction.’

‘We found quite a few members of the Butler family in and around Clapham, sir. They haven’t moved away. One sister is married to a docker. She has six kids ranging from fourteen to three and looks worn down by the responsibility. She was the only person willing to talk about Meg. She didn’t have a good word to say about her either. She reckons she’s turned her back on her family and doesn’t want to help any of them, despite her success.’

‘Very willing to dish the dirt, was Mrs Pamela Horton,’ Soames added. ‘Says Meg always had ambition, but then we already knew that. Said she was determined to become a milliner, which also didn’t come as any great surprise. She reckons Meg was the prettiest of the sisters and calculating with it. If Pamela’s being truthful and not just venting her spleen, she’d have us believe that Meg flaunted herself in front of any man with brass in his pockets from the age of twelve onwards.’

‘She sold herself?’ Riley raised a brow.

‘Her sister didn’t go so far as to say that,’ Carter replied. ‘She told us Meg got noticed and was propositioned. She was vague when pressed in that regard. She said she ignored those propositions, but jumped at the chance of an apprenticeship with Mrs Faulkner. But—and here’s the interesting bit—before being apprenticed she did get over-friendly with Pamela’s employer, a Mr Wakefield. Next thing Pamela knew, Meg disappeared off the face of the earth for a couple of months…’

‘She had his child,’ Riley surmised aloud.

‘That’s what Pamela reckons, but Meg refused to talk about her absence, let alone account for it. She was barely fourteen when all this went on. Anyway, she returned like nothing had happened and got in with Mrs Faulkner. Pamela reckoned she’d learned her lesson good and proper and didn’t take up with any of the other men sniffing around her petticoats. The moment she’d served out her indentures she started up on her own account in Whitechapel.’ Soames shrugged. ‘Where did she get the capital? That’s what we’re wondering.’

‘She sold off some of her own designs when she was still an apprentice, but that wouldn’t have been enough. Is Wakefield still alive and living in Clapham?’ Riley asked. ‘Perhaps he paid for her silence if he did impregnate her.’

‘He is, sir. He’s a justice of the peace, considered to be the epitome of respectability and is known to dish out harsh sentences when serving as a magistrate.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.