The Redemption Murders by J. C. Briggs

Author:J. C. Briggs [Briggs, J. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781913518721
Publisher: Sapere Books
Published: 2020-07-05T16:00:00+00:00

24: AT BEDFORD SQUARE

Sir Napier Moss was a most obliging man with a good-natured face, browned from the St. Lucia sun, a man who lived well and had the means to do it. Superintendent Jones had noted the elegance of the white-pillared house, the spacious hall and the luxurious furnishings of the library into which Sir Napier had ushered him, offering brandy and cigars, explaining all the while that Lady Napier was at a reception with their daughter, that he was alone, that he would help in any way he could, that he knew Judge Tallis and his charming wife, had known her in St Lucia where he had property. Jones, breathless, accepted the brandy and sat down.

Sir Napier rattled on. ‘Sugar — it’s all sugar there, Superintendent. Fortunes made, including mine. Not but what I was glad to see the end of slavery. Always felt guilty somehow — my father didn’t. Called me a fool when I voted for Wilberforce’s bill. Didn’t expect I’d give up my fortune to ease my conscience. He was right, of course. Dead now. I’m wanting to sell. I thought old Adam Valentine —’ He took a sip of his brandy.

Jones took advantage of the pause. It would be brief, he saw, as Sir Napier kept his glass at his lips. ‘You know him?’

‘I do. You want to know about him in connection with Louis Valentine’s murder?’

‘Yes. And the murder of his agent, Peter Best.’

‘Yes, bad business all round. Tallis told me. But Adam Valentine — a formidable man, Superintendent. Hard as nails, respected, feared at times, but never much liked. Something of the gutter about him. He had a look —’ Sir Napier closed his eyes as if to conjure the man — ‘the look of a man who knew what you were — that you were soft and he could buy and sell you if he chose. Successful. Runs his plantation with an iron hand. Not a whip, you understand. His workers are well fed, decently housed and looked after, and, unlike some, he’s no slaver. Shrewd enough to adapt to the times. He made enemies of some of the older families when he took over the Valentine plantation. Plenty in debt to him.

‘But he’s dying, rumour has it — heart, they say. And his son will get the estate. That’s another thing. Valentine has no time for his son, Marcus. The mother, Adam Valentine’s first wife, was mad, they say. By all accounts, Louis was his favourite, but when the second wife died, Louis and his sister came to England for good. There was talk — St. Lucia’s a small place — that there must have been some double-dealing, that Louis and his sister were cheated. But it could just be that with their mother gone, there was nothing to keep them there. Painful memories, perhaps.’

‘The father killed himself?’ Jones wanted to know how.

‘Yes. Shot himself. He left all the business matters to Adam Valentine and lived like a gentleman. Drink, cards and mistresses.

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