Page 43 of The Tart's Final Noel
Mr.Cratchit, one of Paul’s carpenters, was straightening a poorly attached wall shelf.Arthur had told them that Mr.Jasper might be good at selling hardware, but not at using it.
“No, ma’am, it’s just me and my uncle, and he’s back in town.He heard there was business to be had here and came down and bought this place.Said I needed to stand on my own feet.”The skinny young man ran a broad hand through his disheveled brown hair and glanced around.“I know how to sell but I don’t know nothing of setting up, so it’s taking a bit of time.”
That much was obvious when he carried the shiny new gardening tools to a dark corner where they’d never be seen again.
“It must be difficult not having family with you.Have you met anyone here yet?Your uncle should have introduced you about.”Brydie thought the gangly clerk to be an unlikely killer, so now she had to wonder about the uncle.
“Oh, he gave me a letter of introduction to Captain Huntley and I’ve met a few of the manor gentry, right enough.”He studied the empty shelves Cratchit was straightening.“And I met some nice fellows at Monk’s.”
Well, a tavern was the place to meet his customers.He did know a little something.
Minerva carried over a baking pan.“Will you list prices when you’re open or will we need to inquire?”
“I’ll post a list of popular items,” the young man said, eager to be distracted from shelving.“Maybe make a list for window displays like that one.I’m hoping that window will bring in the ladies.”
Brydie hid a snort.Ladiesdid not bake.The poor wives of the village made do with what they had.Besides, women had no money.Perhaps some day, there would be a surge of newly married couples building their households...If all these murders didn’t scare everyone away.
“I don’t suppose your uncle gave you an introduction to Mrs.Willoughby, the baker who just died?”Minerva examined the heavy baking pan as if planning on buying it.
Brydie took the pan away and returned it to the window.Every kitchen hereabouts had more than one baking pan.The curate’s wife shouldn’t have to waste coins on what she didn’t use.
The clerk seemed a little twitchy at the question.“He mentioned her, ma’am.”
Ah, helpful uncle, that.Brydie eyed him carefully as he picked nervously around the subject.
“He didn’t introduce me.He said I’m to make myself known to the right people who will buy our goods.”Mr.Jasper brightened, finding another tack.“But I’m that sorry about the baker.I’ll be setting up housekeeping above, and I like a bit of toast of a morning.”He turned his attention to Arthur opening a crate of hammers.
Remembering her odd exchange with Willa’s neighbor, Brydie asked, “Did he mention the king’s shilling to you?”
Mr.Jasper turned a bright red and stuttered, “May have, in passing.”He bent quickly to take an armload of hammers and looked around to find a place to shelve them.
Mr.Cratchit began to whistle loudly and beat a nail with his hammer.Ah, so he knew of Willa too.And the king’s shilling was some kind of...code?
Fine.One must assume they both knewofWilla, but she had no means of knowing if theyvisitedher.Interrogation wasn’t easy when one had to be discreet.Brydie wondered what Mr.Jasper had been up to back in town that his uncle thought it necessary to tell him of the village prostitute, then send him off on his own.
But opium?How did one question if he knew of its existence?And stabbing a baker...The notion was ludicrous.Mr.Jasper could barely wield a hammer.He might have killed Willa by accident had they been playing with knives—an unlikely situation.
Minerva evidently came to the same conclusion.She offered invitations to church to Mr.Jasper and Mr.Cratchit, then praised Arthur for his hard work before they took their leave.
“Should we have questioned Mr.Cratchit as well?”Brydie asked, unsatisfied with their visit.
“Paul has done that.Willa entertained a number of single men, including the former soldiers working at the manor.Cratchit is one.None of them have coin to spare, so visits were rare.They have no jealous wives, so she couldn’t extort them.Fletch was her only regular, it appears.I don’t believe the good major is capable of faking his grief.So let us learn more about chicken-stealing Mr.Parsons and the vanishing Mr.Elton.”Minerva marched toward the inn.
“I wish to talk more to Mr.Cooper.”Brydie slowed her stride to match her petite companion’s.“He seems to do as little as possible but has lost interest in leaving.I appreciate that he’s waiting for letters from his family, except a man who spends his life gambling and drinking but does not appear to starve is very suspicious.”
“Or owner of a significant annuity,” Minerva said dryly.“London is quite full of wastrels like that.If we are to believe him, he is only a second cousin to the orphans’ mother, so I cannot see how he would inherit her husband’s estate, or even the bakery, for all that matters.He has shown as little interest in that as the children.Besides, he didn’t knock himself over the head.”
“Parsons is equally unlikely as a killer,” Brydie had to admit.“He does not stand to inherit the Bartletts’ cottage since he isn’t related to them.I just don’t like that he attacked me, and violence is quite likely the only way he knows to survive.Do you think Willa might have known something about him that he didn’t wish known?Perhaps she threatened him?”
Now that she’d said it, that possibility seemed far more likely than most.
“Parsons is a convict andlookslike a killer, so he’s easy to suspect.You may be right and he had an argument with Willa, then hit Cooper when he walked in.It’s just hard to believe the nanny’s death isn’t related.How might we connect Parsons to ananny?”Minerva halted outside the inn gate to see who was about.
“The nanny...do we call her Mrs.Elton now?”Brydie shoved her gloved hands under her arms while they lingered in the wind.“I think I just want this to be simple and believe the nanny is linked to Willa’s death.If she’d beenleavingGravesyde, the connection might even make sense.But the children and the position of the carriage rather prove they hadn’t arrived yet.So anyone giving her those pills had to have been in Stratford, not here.We may have to accept that we are wrong about coincidences.How could the killer be in two places at once?Who else is on our list?”
Two killers.It barely bore consideration.Brydie shivered.
“There is the mysteriously vanishing Elton, who probably was just in it for what he could steal?I haven’t seen him, so I cannot be prejudiced by his looks or lack thereof, as we are with Parsons.”Minerva scanned the yard again before opening the gate.“Elton has proven himself a thief and a liar.That does seem to make him the most likely suspect to have provided the candies—if he thought the children had something worth stealing.”
