Page 24 of Nature of the Crime
“Oh, look, snails.” Cassie crouched at the edge of a deep tidal pool, tinged green from algae. Audrey, however, kept her attention on the crowd. Heads were shaking, a woman had clapped her hands over her mouth, as if in shock.
They were all peering down at something on the sand. An odd lump of what looked like clothing. Her brow puckered. “What is that?”
Cassie straightened her legs, and the movement drew the attention of a few people within the crowd. A man raised a hand and waved. His voice carried, this time the words clear. “Fetch help!”
Audrey’s eyes watered from the buffeting wind, but when she blinked away the tears, the odd shape the people were standing around came together to make sense. It was aperson.
She turned and waved to the soldiers behind them. “Hurry! There is a man over here! He appears hurt.”
Then, without waiting for the guards, she hurried off the rocks and toward the commotion. Cassie trailed her, and as the men and women drew apart, Audrey pulled up short. Cassiegripped Audrey’s arm and let out a sharp cry just as the two guards overtook them.
“Stand back,” one commanded, holding out his arm.
Audrey went still, her chest heaving from the sight of the prone figure on the sand. It was the baron, Lord Burton. And he was, without a doubt, dead.
Chapter
Ten
When the baron did not rejoin the jury, Hugh assumed his absence to be deliberate. Now, however, as a small gathering stood within the entrance chancel to Dover Castle’s keep, the true reason for Burton’s absence lay bare for all to see.
“It appears to have been a fall from a great height,” the coroner, Dr. Heard, said as he leaned over the baron’s dead body.
Burton had been collected from the beach and brought to the keep, at which point the remainder of the inquest for Bertrand Vaillancourt had been postponed. Doctor Heard would not be returning to his home in Deal anytime soon, not with a second suspicious death inquest to oversee.
“Are you saying he slipped from the edge of the cliffs?” the duke asked, sounding doubtful. Hugh agreed. This had not been a simple accidental fall.
“What about the wound to the back of his head?” Audrey asked.
She had insisted on coming with them to the keep, rather than return to the inn. Considering she and Cassie had been among those who had first come upon the baron on the beach, Lieutenant Edmunds, who had taken charge of the situation, had not disagreed. He’d yet to ask his questions, but he was sure to have them.
“As I said, he fell a great distance,” Dr. Heard replied. “It is possible he struck the back of his skull on his tumble down.”
“Or he was struck from behind before he fell,” Hugh suggested. The suggestion of a murder made every back stiffen.
Lieutenant Edmunds signaled two of the several soldiers standing nearby. “Go to the clifftop where the baron most likely fell. Comb it over and see if you can find anything of import.”
The soldiers left, and Hugh eyed Edmunds. He’d reported that the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, Lord Hawkesbury, was in Derbyshire, where he usually remained until spring. With the baron deceased, Edmunds would now be the ranking official. He’d already sent word to the Lord Warden about Vaillancourt and the dowager duchess’s potential involvement; now, he would have to report about Burton. Until a reply from Hawkesbury came, Edmunds would be overseeing the two cases.
“What would he have been doing on the cliffs overlooking the beach?” Fournier asked, then pointed out, “He was supposed to be in his offices here, fetching that passenger manifest.”
Edmunds, with his tricorn tucked underneath his arm, frowned at the baron’s figure. “His home is in that direction. He may have been walking there.”
“Or returning,” Hugh put in. “Have his pockets been turned out? The manifest could have been at his home instead.”
Edmunds and Dr. Heard exchanged a cautious look. It put Hugh on guard.
The coroner removed something from the pocket of his own coat. “This was found, speared through the cuff of Lord Burton’s shirtsleeve.”
He held the item aloft. A lady’s hair comb, decorated with a cluster of onyx jewels. Audrey stepped forward, her eyes fixed in wonder on the comb. Too late, Hugh reached for her hand, to silence her.
“But that is mine. It’s one of a matching pair.” She reached for it, but the doctor swiftly pocketed it again.
“My apologies, Your Grace. I’m sure you understand this is now evidence,” Dr. Heard said.
With a heavy drop of his stomach, Hugh knew exactly what was happening.
“Wait.” Cassie disentangled herself from her brother’s arm, which had been bracing her while viewing Lord Burton’s body. “You cannot suspect that Audrey had anything to do with the baron’s death?”
