“And why I was taken from my home to the police station and questioned in the middle of the night by two bobbies,” he said.
Neither Felix nor Val attempted to correct his use of the term bobbies as they all knew he was doing it to get their goat.
“We need to have a little chat, that’s all,” Val said smoothly.
“I know what this is about. This is about Caroline. You’re jealous that I asked her to marry me and she might have said yes,” Charles said childishly.
Val closed the file in front of Charles and placed his hand upon it. “Let’s get one thing clear before we begin. You’re being here as nothing to do with Miss Derry. And this will go better for you if you don’t mention her name again. Do we understand each other?”
Charles looked at Felix lounging near the door who cocked an eyebrow at him and bit back a smile.
“Yes,” Charles replied sullenly to Val.
“Excellent. Now that we understand each other,” Val said as he pulled the file to him once more and opened it.
Carefully, he placed the five black and white pictures before him. Effie Whitson, Bessie Turner, Aida Harris, Irene Derry and Prudence Finch.
The photographs were the ones that had been taken when the body was found. Though it was a common occurrence for people to take pictures with their loved ones who were dead, Val found the five photographs disconcerting.
There was no life in their eyes and they had been posed in a way to suggest they were sleeping and he found it disturbing. On top of that, the primrose seemed to mock the women.
“Well?” Val asked looking down at the five photographs.
“Well what?” Charles asked.
“Are any of the women in the photographs known to you?”
“Known to m
e?” Charles looked them over quickly and shook his head. “No. These women are not known to me.”
Val noticed that Charles barely looked at the pictures before he answered. He picked up the photograph of Effie Whitson and showed it to Charles.
“This is Effie Whitson. Her father owns a small bank. You can’t tell from the photograph but Effie had yellow hair the color of straw,” Val said placing the picture once more before Charles but he barely glanced at it.
“I’ve never seen that woman before,” he said averting his eyes.
The rain dropped against the glass window and Val watched Charles carefully.
“This is Bessie Turner. I was told by her friends that she was very sweet but a little too trusting. That probably was the death of her. Her father owns several grocery stores. Does she look familiar Charles?” Val pressed him.
“No.” He said meeting Val’s eyes.
“Then there’s Aida Harris. She had dark hair,” Val looked at the picture and remembered kissing her the last time he had seen her.
“I don’t know her either. I’ve never seen her,” Charles said wrapped his hand around the tea mug. “I’ve never seen any of them.”
“Perhaps this next woman you might know.”
He placed the picture of Irene before him and watched his face closely.
“There- there is something familiar about her,” Charles admitted but then shook his head. “I mean, I could have seen her on the street or out and about.”
“This is Irene Derry,” Val said softly. “She was strangled and left in Hyde Park.”
“Irene Derry.” Charles repeated the name.
“Yes.”