tenements and artisans' villas abounded. Having stopped to admire the soaring church tower of St Mary's, Colbeck read some of the inscriptions on the gravestones surrounding it, sobered by the thought that Nathan Hawkshaw had been deprived of his right to a last resting place there.
Continuing his walk, he went in a loop around the town so that he could see every aspect of it, his striking appearance causing much interest among the townspeople and more than a few comments. When he finally returned to the high street, he elected to call once more on Emily Hawkshaw but, before he could turn into Middle Row, he saw what at first he took to be some kind of mirage. Walking towards him with purposeful strides was an attractive young woman in a dress that he had seen once before. Colbeck rubbed his eyes to make sure that they were not deceiving him. At that moment, the woman saw him and quickened her step at once. Colbeck was astonished and excited to see her.
It was Madeleine Andrews.
CHAPTER TEN
Robert Colbeck escorted her into the Saracen's Head and indicated some chairs. When they sat opposite each other near the window, he beamed at her, still unable to believe that she had come all the way from London to see him. For her part, Madeleine Andrews was delighted to have found him so quickly and to have been made so welcome. She was amused by the look of complete surprise on his face.
'What's the matter, Robert?'
'Did you really take the train by yourself?' he asked.
'My father's an engine driver,' she reminded him. 'I'm well used to the railway, you know.'
'Young ladies like you don't often travel alone. Except, of course,' he added, gallantly, 'that there's nobody quite like you, Madeleine.' She smiled at the compliment. 'You create your own rules.'
'Do you disapprove?'
'Not in the least. But how did you know where to find me?'
'Your name was on the front page of the newspaper. The report said that you were conducting an investigation in Ashford.'
'Ah, well,' he said with a sigh, 'I suppose it was too much to ask to keep my whereabouts secret for long. We'll have a batch of reporters down here in due course, assailing me with questions I refuse to answer and generally getting in my way. I'd hoped to avoid that.' He feasted his eyes on her. 'I'm so pleased to see you, Madeleine.'
'Thank you.'
'Where were you going when I saw you in the high street?'
'To the Saracen's Head.'
'You knew that I was staying here?'
'No,' she replied, 'but I guessed that you'd choose the best place in the town. When I asked at the station where that would be, they directed me here.'
He laughed. 'You're a detective in your own right.'
'That's what brought me to Ashford.'
Mary interrupted them to see if they required anything. Colbeck ordered a pot of tea and some cakes before sending the girl on her way. He switched his attention back to Madeleine again.
'I'm a detective by accident,' she explained. 'I don't know why but, when I saw that Jacob Guttridge's funeral was being held today, I took it into my head to go to it.'
He was stunned. 'You went to Hoxton alone?'
'I do most things on my own, Robert, and I felt perfectly safe inside a church. Unfortunately, there was hardly anyone there for the service. It was very sad.'
'What about Michael Guttridge?'
'No sign of him – or of his wife. That upset his mother.'
'You spoke to her?'
'Yes,' said Madeleine. 'I didn't mean to. I kept out of the way during the ceremony and didn't think that she even knew I was there. But Mrs Guttridge did notice me somehow. She said how grateful she was to see me then invited me back to the house.'
'What sort of state was she in?'
'Very calm, in view of the fact that she'd just buried her husband. Mrs Guttridge must have a lot of willpower. After my mother's funeral, I was unable to speak, let alone hold a conversation like that.'
'I put it down to her religion.'
'She told me that her priest, Father Cleary, had been a rock.'
'Why did she invite you back to the house?'
'Because she wanted to talk to someone and she said that it was easier for her to speak to a stranger like me.'
'So you were a mother-confessor.'
'Mrs Guttridge seemed to trust me,' said Madeleine. 'She didn't admit this but I had the feeling that she was using me to get information back to you. She's not an educated woman, Robert, but she's quite shrewd in her own way. She knew that you only took me to the house because she was more likely to confide in a woman.'
'I'm glad that I did take you, Madeleine,' he said with an admiring glance. 'Extremely glad.'
'So am I.'
'Much as I like Victor, you're far more appealing to the eye.'
'Oh, I see,' she said with mock annoyance, 'I was only there as decoration, was I?'
'Of course not,' he replied. 'I took you along for the pleasure of your company and because I thought that Mrs Guttridge would find you less threatening than a Detective Inspector from Scotland Yard.'
'She did, Robert.'
'What did you learn this time?'
'Quite a lot,' said Madeleine. 'After we left the house that day, she prayed for the courage to go into the room that her husband had always kept locked. It was a revelation to her.'
'I took away the most distressing items in his bizarre collection but I had to leave some of his souvenirs behind – and his bottles of brandy.'
'It was the alcohol that really upset her. She only agreed to marry Jacob Guttridge because he promised to stop drinking. She firmly believed that he had. But what disturbed her about that room,' she went on, 'was how dirty and untidy it was. She called it an animal's lair. You saw how house-proud she was. She was disgusted that her husband spent so much time, behind a locked door, in that squalor.'
'Gloating over his mementos and drinking brandy.'
'It helped Mrs Guttridge to accept his death more easily. She said that God had punished him for going astray. When she saw what was in that room, she realised that her husband's life away from her was much more important to him than their marriage. I tried to comfort her,' said Madeleine. 'I told her that very few men could meet the high moral standards that she set.'
'Jacob Guttridge went to the other extreme. He executed people on the gallows then gloried in their deaths.' Colbeck chose not to mention the hangman's passion for retaining the clothing of his female victims. 'It gave him a weird satisfaction of some sort. But I'm holding you up,' he said, penitently. 'Do please go on.'
'It was what she told me next that made me come here, Robert. On the day when he hanged Nathan Hawkshaw, his wife expected him home that night. But he never turned up.'
'He was probably too afraid to leave the prison in case the mob got their hands on him. What explanation did he give her?'
'That he was delayed on business.'
'Had that sort of thing happened before?'
'Once or twice,' she said. 'Mrs Guttridge was vexed that, as soon as he got home on the following day, he went straight out again to see some friends in Bethnal Green.'
'He must have been going to the Seven Stars.'
