“Hetty. It’s a pleasure to meet you at last,” he drawled softly. He took her hand in his and held it as he looked into her eyes. “I cannot express my thanks enough for everything you, and your family, have done for us. Not only by saving this reprobate’s life, but also by alerting me to the difficulties he faced. I know that you put yourself in considerable danger. You are to be highly commended.”
Hetty’s cheeks flushed, and she looked at him.
Hugo flashed Charlie a wry look. “I am just glad that we found out what had happened to him, and Simon, before Meldrew got to carry out the sentence.”
“Quite. I am glad that you managed to get into the jail to see him so that he could ask you to help.”
“We were glad to do it, sir,” Wally assured him.
“Please, call me Hugo. All of you. We don’t use formalities. I am only Sir Hugo when I am at work in the pomp and circumstance in London,” Hugo assured them.
“Let’s go and sit in the study. We will bring you up-to-date on what has happened so far. Then we can decide what to do next,” Charlie suggested before he ushered Hetty to the door.
Once everyone was seated, brandy was handed out, and silence settled over the group. Hetty wrinkled her nose up at the sweetness of her sherry, and surreptitiously placed it on the table beside her elbow before she turned her attention to the room at large.
Sir Hugo placed a case of papers on the table beside him but, other than open it, he made no attempt to remove any. Hetty knew from the look of the seals that they were official, and suspected that they were needed to bring Meldrew to trial.
“Right. I think I have a fair understanding, from Hetty’s letter, about what has been going on around these parts,” Sir Hugo sighed.
He looked at Hetty, Wally, and Simon. “Tell me what you know about Meldrew.”
Wally looked at his brother before he began to describe Meldrew’s reign of terror around the county, and the innocent people he had targeted, including Charlie and Simon.
“Has he targeted just businessmen, or has he demanded money from the wealthy too?”
Hetty frowned. “I don’t know many people who are wealthy in the county. They certainly wouldn’t go the taverns and discuss it, if they were subjected to Meldrew’s bullying, so I don’t know. I haven’t heard any rumours.”
Wally and Simon shook their heads.
Charlie explained about his friend Arthur’s letter, and handed it to Hugo to read.
“Do you mind if I keep this for the time being?” Hugo asked as he looked over the top of the paper at Charlie. “We need to gather evidence.”
Hetty shared a look with Charlie.
“We know,” they said in unison, and smiled at each other.
“Keep it for as long as you need to,” Charlie replied.
“Here is what we need to do,” Hugo said as he clasped his hands and placed them on the desk before him. “I have to gather evidence; statements and the like, to be able to bring Meldrew to justice. Statements from you, Charlie and Simon, about what really did happen on the night of Blagmire’s death are fine. We need more though. We need to find out if Meldrew has killed anyone with his bare hands, or has ordered his men to carry out someone’s murder.”
“You mean, other than through the gallows?” Hetty asked with a frown.
Hugo nodded.
Charlie leaned forward in his seat. “Do you think the verger is involved with Meldrew in any way?”
“We need to find out if he has connections with Meldrew, or is guilty of nothing more than paying the man out of church funds. If he has taken church funds to pay Meldrew’s protection money, he can be arrested for theft. For now, we need to take a look at the bookwork at the rectory, and find out if the verger has taken any.”
“We think that someone in the tavern may have warned Meldrew that I was investigating the vicar’s death.”
“It won’t be the verger. He doesn’t drink,” Wally assured him.
“I have been drinking in the tavern for years, and I have never seen him anywhere near the place,” Simon added. “It can’t be him.”
Charlie’s lips quirked wryly. “Someone else in the tavern must have overheard me telling you that I am looking into the vicar’s death, and reported it to Meldrew.”
Silence settled over Wally and Simon as they considered the possible culprits. “There were all sorts of people in the tavern. Any one of them could be working for Meldrew. I certainly haven’t noticed anything odd about anyone’s behaviour of late,” Wally sighed.