Blue Moon (47 page)

Ruby turned to face Winnie at the other end of the corridor. At the same moment her wedding florist turned
round and they both inclined their heads. The lift arrived and Ruby heard the sound of opening doors.

Behind her the colonel leaned forwards and said confidentially, ‘Look after them, Charles.’

Scotty saluted smartly. ‘I will, sir. Thank you, sir.’

‘Good man. Good man.’

Ruby stepped into the lift and turned to face Winifred Moore, who was absent-mindedly stuffing another flower into an already overfilled vase. They both started as Mrs Fosdyke came out of one of the bedrooms. Ruby glanced up at the men beside her, but the colonel and Percy were busy pumping each other’s hands. As she turned back to look at the two women, Ruby saw Winnie’s mouth tighten. She patted her hair as she picked up her florist’s bucket to go down the back stairs. In front of her and with her back to Winnie, Mrs Fosdyke watched Ruby with a dark expression.

Deeply disturbed by what she had just seen, Ruby fixed her eyes on the floor. She felt shaken and upset, and there was something about that woman that she couldn’t quite put her finger on … But by the time they reached the ground floor, she knew what it was.

CHAPTER 42

‘And I’m telling you, it’s her.’

‘You can’t possibly mean it?’

Ruby could tell by the tone of his voice that Jim found it almost impossible to believe.

‘You didn’t see the look on her face,’ Ruby insisted. ‘I’d bet everything in my Post Office book it was her.’

‘What – all of it?’ Jim grinned. ‘All two pounds three and sixpence?’

Ruby gave him a playful swipe on his arm. ‘It’s all I have in the world.’

‘She doesn’t look like a murderer,’ Percy observed.

‘They don’t come with “Murderer” tattooed on their foreheads, you know,’ said Ruby.

‘Weren’t you afraid that Winnie might attack the colonel with her florist’s wire, while he was on his way back to his room?’ said Jim with a grin.

‘You have pooh-poohed this at every turn, Jim Searle,’ Ruby said indignantly. ‘When are you going to take me seriously? I’m telling you, she is the killer.’

Jim reached for her, but Ruby pulled away. ‘I had hoped you would support me in this.’

Immediately he looked contrite. ‘You’re right,’ he said, ‘and I’m sorry, darling.’

‘Maybe you
are
right,’ said Percy. ‘It just seems so unbelievable that a woman who looks like everybody’s grandma could—’

‘She certainly doesn’t look like any grandma I’d ever want!’ cried Ruby. She suddenly looked thoughtful and grabbed Percy’s arm. ‘What was she doing there?’

‘Sorry,’ said Percy, ‘you’ve lost me.’

‘When we went in to see Colonel Blatchington, she was hovering about in the corridor,’ said Ruby. ‘We were with him for at least three-quarters of an hour, and yet she was still there when we came out.’

‘You mean she must have been listening through the door?’ said Jim.

‘Exactly,’ replied Ruby. ‘Do you think we should go back and tell him?’

Jim shook his head. ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea.’

Ruby tut-tutted.

‘No, listen, darling,’ he protested. ‘We’ve already told him everything we know, without having any actual physical proof. He listened out of respect for Percy, but if you voice yet another unsubstantiated accusation, the colonel might think you’re a bit of a crank.’

‘But we can’t just leave it there!’ cried Ruby. ‘If something happened to him, I’d never forgive myself.’

‘Let’s go to the meeting and keep an eye on him,’ said Percy. ‘He’ll be safe enough in the hotel. She’s only a middle-aged woman; the colonel’s a fighting man and quite able to look after himself.’

‘If what I think is correct,’ Ruby observed, ‘she’s already dispatched three other men.’

‘But with them she had the element of surprise,’ said Jim.

Ruby nodded dully. ‘I suppose you’re right,’ she said.

The next day there was a real buzz in the air. All day motor vehicles were touring the streets with men carrying loudhailers encouraging people to come to the pavilion for the meeting: ‘Your chance to meet the man who will bring back the “Great” in Great Britain.’ ‘Come and hear the country’s next prime minister.’ ‘Meet Mosley in person – the people’s choice.’ Towards the end of the day the coaches arrived, lining up nose-to-tail all along Marine Parade, and an impromptu carnival atmosphere began. It was wonderful for Jim. The late-autumn sunshine drew people to the beach and he took a lot of Magic Memories snaps.

Because Bea was already living with her new husband in Hastings, Ruby had responsibility for manning the booth. She packed up at noon and went back home to develop as many pictures as possible, before returning later on, to get as many sales as she could. The light was fading by three-thirty or four o’clock, so Jim was on hand to help. It was a very busy day and they finally closed the booth at five forty-five. There was barely time to get back home with the equipment and be back before the start of the meeting in the pavilion. Ruby mashed some cooked potatoes with some leftover cabbage and fried it up to make bubble-and-squeak.
With a couple of rashers of bacon and an egg, that had to suffice for their tea. There was no time for anything else.

She wore a warm coat as they left the house, and took an old shawl to put round her shoulders, if necessary. It could get cold down by the sea in the evenings. Ruby’s heart sank when she saw the crowds waiting outside. People were already standing four or five deep near the steps, and more were coming. They weren’t all Mosley supporters. Some had come with home-made placards of a very different nature:
Mosley out; Say no to Hitler’s lapdog
; and
No to Fascism
. Others were singing a parody, ‘Poor Old Mosley’s Got the Wind Up’, to the tune of ‘John Brown’s Body’. How on earth were they going to spot the murderer amongst this lot? The people with tickets to hear Mosley speak poured into the pavilion endlessly.

The meeting was billed for seven-thirty. Ruby managed to get to the top of the steps on one side, while Jim waited at the bottom on the other side. At seven-fifteen a cheer went up. A group of thickset Blackshirts walked up the steps and positioned themselves alongside it, and before long a tall man made his way to the doors. Ruby had never seen Mosley close up before; she’d only ever seen his poster. He wore a neatly trimmed moustache and had small, piercing brown eyes. At the top of the steps he turned and waved to the crowd. Colonel Blatchington hurried up the steps behind him and they all went inside.

The crowd jostled and re-formed itself. Some chanted
slogans and others left, presumably for the public houses. Barnes cafe opposite was doing a roaring trade, as was the fish-and-chip shop further along the road.

Percy turned up, and Ruby came down the steps to meet him. ‘Seen her yet?’ he asked.

Ruby shook her head. ‘Jim’s waiting down there – maybe he has.’

‘He says not,’ said Percy. ‘I’m beginning to think this is a wild goose chase, Ruby. Perhaps we’ve all got carried along with the spirit of adventure. I can’t afford to keep taking time off work. I’ve worked too hard to get where I am to risk losing it.’

Ruby nodded. ‘I think you might be right. If we hadn’t found that bullet in our bed, none of this would be happening.’

‘Shall we give up then?’

Ruby looked thoughtful. With all these big bodyguards about, nobody seemed to be in any danger anyway. Perhaps they should give up. Maybe she’d let her imagination run away with her. She was seeing Albert again tomorrow. Maybe he’d found Charlie Downs.

‘Don’t be too hard on yourself, Sis,’ said Percy. ‘You were only trying to help.’

Fuelled by meat pies and beer, the counter-demonstrators were drifting back. Before long Ruby, Jim and Percy would be wedged in and unable to get home.

‘Home?’ said Percy again.

‘All right,’ she said. ‘I’m dog-tired anyway.’

She had left her shawl at the top of the railings and
turned back to fetch it. All at once the doors opened and two of the Blackshirts came out and stood on either side. The sound of a fanfare came from inside the building, and she heard the roar of the faithful. Their leader was leaving. The crowd, taken completely by surprise, surged forward in a dangerous wave. An egg landed on the steps near Ruby’s feet, and the angry shouts grew louder. More Blackshirts came out and formed a guard on the steps, as other leading lights of the movement came down them. These included William Joyce and Worthing’s only Fascist member of the Borough Council, Councillor Charles Bentinck Budd. As yet there was no sign of Mosley or Colonel Blatchington. Ruby blinked as she saw Mrs Fosdyke standing on the steps opposite. Ruby grabbed her shawl, but now she was wedged between the railings and the frenzied mob, and the press of people made it difficult to breathe. She shouted for them to stop pushing, but her voice was lost in the volume of noise all around her.

Somebody must have hit one of the bodyguards in the back, because he suddenly turned round and threw a punch into the crowd. The woman next to Ruby was hit full in the face. Ruby heard something crack – probably her nose being broken – as the woman fell against her arm with a scream. It seemed for a minute that there was blood everywhere. As she fumbled in her bag for a handkerchief, Ruby remonstrated with the Blackshirt, but he had already turned his back on the crowd and had linked arms with his colleagues on either side of him.

More people came out of the building and the crowd surged forward again. Mosley descended the steps, flanked by the two bodyguards, who lost no time at all in pushing and shoving people out of the way. Ruby saw women and children being as roughly handled as the men. She still had her arm around the injured woman, who had pressed her handkerchief against her nose. By now the poor thing was sobbing with pain. Ruby felt something strange moving by her leg and looked down. To her horror, she saw Winifred Moore on all fours. At first she thought she must have fallen over, but then she realized that Winnie was holding an umbrella, which she had surreptitiously poked between the legs of two of the bodyguards. At the same time Ruby heard a sinister, disembodied voice saying, ‘That’s right, Freddie, my love. He’s coming down the steps. Do it now!’

Ruby’s mind was struggling to understand what was unfolding. The colonel suddenly staggered, a sudden pain making him fall – Winnie had jabbed the umbrella into his right leg with considerable force. He tumbled against the men in front of him, veering sideways as he tried to grab the rail, and taking several others down with him. Mosley was way ahead and had escaped injury, but when the momentum finally stopped, there was what seemed like a pile of bodies at the bottom of the steps. Everybody was screaming and shouting, and the guards rushed down the steps after the colonel while, on the other side of the steps, Mrs Fosdyke simply watched.

While Ruby had been helping the injured woman beside her, a man had pushed his way towards them.
‘Lizzie, what happened?’ Ruby explained briefly. The couple thanked her, and the man led the way through the crowd to get her to a first-aid post. Once they’d gone, Ruby scanned the crowd for another sight of Winifred Moore. She eventually saw her further down the steps, holding onto the rail and looking rather shaken. Once again Ruby heard the same disembodied voice: ‘You’ve done it all, my darling. Well done. It’s over. Come to me, Freddie. I’m waiting.’

Freddie?
That was the name Victor had called out, the moment before he died. Everyone had thought it was his brother, but now at last it dawned on Ruby: it must have been Winifred’s name, and ‘Freddie’ was a nickname.

Ruby spun round, searching for whoever was speaking. Where was Mrs Fosdyke? The strange voice must be hers. The crowd, more subdued now, was moving away from the steps, and the cafe across the road had become the centre of attention. Some local boys were throwing tomatoes at the windows, and then Ruby heard the sound of breaking glass. In the distance she saw Mrs Fosdyke crossing the road, probably aiming for the bus stop. Ruby frowned. So that strange voice didn’t come from her. Winifred Moore stumbled away in the opposite direction. Ruby heard Percy call her own name, but she was still scanning the crowd for that voice. All at once it was as if the rest of the people fell away, and she saw him. As their eyes met, she whispered out loud, ‘My God, Albert Longman!’

Then it all came flooding back. That day when they’d
been at High Salvington, when he’d done such a brilliant job of amusing the children. Everybody had said how clever Albert was at throwing his voice. Hadn’t he made the children really believe that the furry mouse was in the wood-pile? And not only the children, but the adults too. She wondered what his connection with the firing squad could be, but there was no time for that now. Winnie was moving down the steps with a great sense of purpose, but where was she going? As she reached the bottom, she turned and Ruby felt the panic rising in her chest. She was heading for the pier. ‘Come to me, Freddie …’ the voice had said. Oh God … he wanted Winnie to kill herself, didn’t he? But why? Why? Calling her name, Ruby ran after her. By the time she’d turned the corner, Winifred was climbing over the locked gate leading to the half repaired pier with an agility that Ruby had never seen in a woman of her age.

‘Winnie – no! Come back.’

Ruby heard more footsteps, this time behind her. A cold fear enveloped her. Albert must have followed them. The pier was hardly the place to be wandering about in the dark. The decking had been replaced, and work was under way at the sea end on a new Southern Pavilion to mirror the one on Marine Parade, but the area was loosely fenced and a large quantity of building materials was stacked there, waiting for the work to begin.

A night-watchman had been sitting huddled in his hut on the concrete surround near the gate. Obviously, hearing the sound of running, he’d come out with a
mug of tea in his hands and now spotted three people heading for the building site.

‘Oi,’ he shouted. ‘You can’t go down there.’

Ruby turned for a second to shout, ‘Get help. She’s going to jump.’

It was pitch-black at the end of the pier, but Ruby could still make out Winifred’s shape. She was leaning over the railings, looking at the sea crashing below. The pier wasn’t shaking or rocking, so Ruby knew the structure itself was sound, but there was several feet of surging water underneath and, if Winnie jumped, there was little anyone could do to save her. Ruby stopped a few yards behind her.