Fallen Hero (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 3)

“Exactly. What we have is low-level, insignificant attempts to bully. Cold-bloodied killers and kidnappers must be considered more important to get off the streets than some local oaf who is nothing more than stupidly sending sick notes to people,” Sir Hugo reasoned. “When Thomas told me that he was going to take matters into his own hands, I had no idea he was planning something like this or I would have stopped him. I would certainly have put more importance on his situation. The letter you received about his death was just as much of a shock for me as it was for you, Aaron. As soon as you had left, I immediately set about trying to find Voss and Frederick. I have frozen their bank accounts and have also spoken to the bank about Thomas. He did take the money out, but interestingly, there was someone else in the bank on the day Thomas withdrew his fortune. Voss.”

Everyone cursed.

“That’s what Voss’s nephew told me,” Aaron muttered.

When everyone looked askance at him, Aaron told them all what had happened when he had arrived at home.

“Is there nothing they won’t do?” Elspeth cried in horror.

“Voss thinks the money is in this house?” Jasper frowned.

“When you think this through, if they looked through the window and saw wood stocks low they would consider that Elspeth was physically incapable of gathering wood, they wouldn’t put any importance on the fact that she might not have any money to purchase supplies.”

“Unless they got into the house to rummage through the cupboards, they would have no idea she was barely surviving,” Aaron said.

“But if Thomas intended to stage his death, why didn’t he make sure Elspeth had enough to live off?” Oliver demanded.

Aaron shook his head in confusion. “Maybe he wanted Elspeth to write a note asking for my help? If she did that she would get me here just as fast as I could reach her.”

Elspeth’s heart flipped as she studied him. Aaron betrayed so much in that brief statement that it brought tears to her eyes. For the first time in a long time, Elspeth started to wonder just what everyone else seemed to know that she didn’t.

Aaron dug around in his pocket and withdrew the note he had received informing him of Thomas’s death. He read it again before he handed it to Elspeth.

“What is it?” she whispered. She read and sighed in dismay at the thought that Aaron had received it only for it to be a lie. “Why would he do something so horrid to us?”

“He felt desperate,” Aaron replied. “It has been staring me in the face all along.”

“What has?”

Aaron tapped the note. “It says here that Thomas died in a carriage accident.”

“Yes, that’s what I heard,” Elspeth whispered.

“So how come when we questioned Frederick, he said that Thomas had ridden out of here – on a horse? Did he use a carriage or a horse?” Aaron snorted.

Elspeth looked at him blankly for a moment.

“A horse,” she whispered. “Our carriage is still in the shed out the back.”

“He might have used somebody else’s,” Niall suggested.

“Whose?” Aaron asked sharply.

Nobody knew.

“If he left on horseback, why was he in a carriage when he supposedly had this accident? Where did the damned thing come from? Whose was it?” Aaron asked.

“Nobody’s,” Sir Hugo grunted. “Thomas is still alive.”

“Who did I bury then?” Elspeth cried.

“From the sound of it, nobody,” Aaron replied.

“What about the body? Was a body found?” Jasper asked Sir Hugo.

“This all stinks of a set-up. I wonder if Thomas has a friend who is prepared to lie for him, with the right monetary reward, of course.” Sir Hugo ran a weary hand through his hair. “Who knows? Without Thomas here to ask, we have to work on supposition.”

“What about Callum?”