Captive Surrender (18 page)

“
I think that
I may have been too much of a thorn in Levant’s side where Cragdale
Manor is concerned.”

“
The ladies
need protection.”

“
I know, and
I need Levant behind bars where he should be. I don’t mind
admitting to you, Stephen, that the man knows how to hide his
activities well.”

“
What do you
know about him?” Stephen braced his elbows on his knees and
listened while Rufus recounted that, so far, in only a few short
weeks, Levant had bulled, lied, schemed and threatened his way into
being able to purchase four straight miles of coastline that
stretched from Dinnington Hall, a mile out to the east, two miles
north and a mile south. The only patch of land that he hadn’t
bought yet was Cragdale Manor.

So far, some of the land
owners had complained to Rufus that they had been bullied by the
man before they had quietly sold their properties to him at
ridiculously low prices. Some had mentioned that a series of
misfortunes had suddenly started to befall them that threatened
their livelihood. Eventually, they had been left with little choice
but to move out and sell up, at which point they had disappeared,
never to be heard from again.

“
What do you
have in the way of proof that Levant was behind the
threats?”

“
I have
statements the landowners made about the circumstances in which
Levant started to visit prior to their decisions to sell. To begin
with, the man appeared to be friendly, but quickly became
threatening and downright hostile, and eventually purchased the
properties for insulting amounts of money that was far below their
actual worth.” Rufus sighed. “I have managed to track a couple of
people down since they sold, but they are just too frightened to
speak of their experiences and won’t give evidence because they are
scared of repercussions, or are embarrassed to confess to how much
they actually did sell their properties for.”

“
What about
Mr Simpson?”

“
He owned the
land at the back of Dinnington Hall with his brother. Simpson
signed his half over to Levant, but I cannot find out how much for.
The brother refused to sign for some reason and, as such, the
property sale couldn’t go through.”

“
Because they
both owned the land, they both needed to agree to the
sale.”

Rufus nodded. “I think
now that Simpson is dead, the brother gets his half and so now owns
the entire property outright.”

“
The brother
lives at the farm?”

“
No. The
brother lives in London.”

This made Stephen’s brows
lift and then drop into a thoughtful frown. “So, I guess that
Levant, if not his man of business, Taylor, will look at making a
trip to London soon.”

Rufus nodded.

“
I need to
send a note to my colleagues in London. Do you have an address for
the brother?”

Rufus went to his desk
and wrote the address down on a piece of parchment. “I don’t mind
admitting that it is good to be able to have someone to work with
on this. Although I have done a fair bit of investigation myself,
there is just so much to do, in addition to my usual job,” he
sighed and handed Stephen the information he needed.

“
Do you have
a map of the area?” Stephen asked as he studied the
address.

Rufus drew a rough sketch
of the village and outlying farms and properties. It was clear that
Cragdale Manor, and the Simpson farmstead, were the only properties
that prevented Levant from owning nearly a third of the county,
which included a fairly sizeable portion of coastline.

“
God, it is a
massive piece of land, isn’t it?”

“
I know. More
importantly though, I think that you need to ask yourself where he
is getting the money from to pay for all of this,” Stephen muttered
quietly, and quickly outlined what he knew about the man who had
changed his name to Ludwig Levant. He was aware that Rufus flicked
a startled look at him, but couldn’t drag his eyes away from the
small plot of land Rufus had marked on the map as Cragdale
Manor.

It made Stephen realise
just how important Cragdale was to Levant, and just how desperate
he must be to get his hands on the grounds. Given what he knew of
the French spies’ operation, he was also fairly certain that it
wasn’t the house Levant wanted, or Prudence. It was the
beach.

“
I think that
you had better be very careful around Levant from now on,” Stephen
growled as he pushed away from the table. He motioned to the chairs
and waited until Rufus took a seat before he told the magistrate
exactly why he was in the area. He left no stone unturned as he
quickly outlined his work with the Star Elite, and detailed their
mission to unearth the missing French spies. By the time Stephen
allowed silence to settle over the room, Rufus looked more than a
little stunned.

“
So your
colleagues are from the War Office?”

Stephen nodded. “I am
from the War Office. I don’t know yet just how deeply Levant is
involved with the French spy smugglers, but I cannot discount that
he is up to his ears in something to do with the entire fiasco. As
such, that makes him a very dangerous man indeed.”

He didn’t want to unnerve
the man but, magistrate or not, there now had to be clear lines of
authority drawn, and Rufus needed to abide by them. He had to
understand that in matters of the Star Elite, he had absolutely no
authority as a magistrate.

“
I think that
you need to ensure that Humphrey remains behind bars and simply
disappears for now. If you can, delay his trial until my friends
get here. I think that Sir Hugo will want to question him as well
so he needs to be kept where he is for the time being, or moved to
Bodmin jail under the cover of darkness. Before you do move him
though, I would also like to ask him a few pertinent
questions.”

“
He can
remain in the cellars for a few days. It won’t hurt him,” Rufus
replied dispassionately and made a mental note to tell Mrs Bridges
to stay out of the lowest rooms for the time being. It wasn’t
unusual for him to lock local drunks and petty criminals in there
for a short time, so it wouldn’t come as any surprise to his
housekeeper.

“
I think that
you need to stay away from Dinnington Hall,” Stephen added with a
frown. “Don’t go there under any circumstance for the time being,
especially alone. All of his staff are paid poorly and their duties
are less than salubrious, shall we say? I don’t think they are
there because of the pay; they are there mainly because they are
able to be paid thugs.” Stephen gave Rufus a pointed look that had
the man nodding in understanding.

“
They are in
significant danger, aren’t they?” Rufus asked quietly after several
moments of companionable silence.

“
I am glad
that they don’t realise.” It was the truth. Prudence had enough
worries on her shoulders without having to live under the constant
realisation that a very determined, and very ruthless killer wanted
the house they lived in.

“
Do you think
that Levant is French?”

“
I think
Levant is about as French as I am, and my family have English
heritage that goes back centuries. He is connected to the French in
some way though. Looking at this –” he tapped the map before them,
“- it is just a matter of time before we find out how. If Levant
cannot purchase the beach, I have no doubt that he will just help
himself.”

“
You mean he
is likely to ignore the fact that the ladies are there, and if they
challenge him -”

Stephen had no doubt that
anyone who approached any of Levant’s men on the beach, wouldn’t
make it home. “I have to stay at the house for the time being, and
the less people that know I am there, the better. Unfortunately, it
limits what I can do to investigate Levant’s purchases.”

“
I can do the
leg work, if you tell me what you need. Nobody thinks anything of
me going around the county asking people lots of questions. It is
my job; it is what I do,” Rufus retorted crisply. “Tell me what you
want, and I will see that you get it.”

Half an hour later,
Stephen left Rufus with a list of things he needed. On the top of
the list was a large variety of vegetable plants the family needed
to replace the damaged ones that had been in the front gardens. The
ladies had only lost a couple of days and, if they got the plants
into the soil quickly, they should be able to ensure that they
would be established before winter and be able to provide
vegetables next year. If it didn’t work, then he would ensure that
they had more than enough funds to go out and purchase what they
wanted, when they wanted it.

He slowly made his way
back through the darkened houses, to the outskirts of town. It was
a good couple of hours yet before dawn, but he didn’t feel tired.
All of his senses were alert and on edge. It wasn’t until now that
he had realised just how much he lived on the fringes of life;
always in the darkness; always in the shadows. He felt as though he
had spent most of the last several years working throughout the
night, while spending his days asleep. Being with Prudence and her
family made him realise just how much he had missed out on actually
living and enjoying life. He could understand Pie and Jamie’s
decision to leave the Star Elite, and stay at home to try their
hands at being gentlemen farmers. If he had a wife and home of his
own, he would be apt to shun his life of secrets and lies and
return to the light where he could spend his mornings beside the
fire, his afternoons tending his garden, and the rest of his life
watching his children grow.

He was so lost in thought
over his future plans that he almost made an amateurish mistake and
stumbled out into the open. A scurrying movement up ahead drew him
to a halt and he instinctively melted back into the shadows to
watch the darkened shadow of a man hurry toward the back door at
Cragdale. He carried something that he dumped on the doorstep
before he hurried off toward the copse of trees that lay at the far
end of the Dinnington estate. Stephen followed him and, although
couldn’t see much of the face beneath the large brimmed hat, was
fairly certain that the man had been Will. What had he left them? A
scowl darkened his handsome features as he hurried back to the
house. He skirted the property once to make sure that nobody else
lurked in the shadows and, once he was assured he was alone, he
hurried to the doorstep to see what Will had left.

“
Jesus,” he
whispered moments later as he peeled back the soiled sack to reveal
the rotted corpse of a fox. From the stench that came from the
body, the animal had been dead for a couple of days. He wrinkled
his nose in disgust as he folded the cloth back over the carcass
and studied the land around him. He couldn’t bury the wretched
thing because the gardens were mostly dug for vegetables. The land
that wasn’t dug lay rampant with weeds and would be impossible to
even poke a hole through. He could take the wretched thing back to
Dinnington, and leave it in the woods, but he couldn’t be sure that
Will wasn’t still outside somewhere. He studied the cliff top at
the far end of the garden. If he threw it, hopefully the morning
tide would drag the body back out to the sea and it would vanish.
He had no idea which way the tides actually went but didn’t really
care, as long as neither Prudence, nor her family, got up in the
morning and found anything so hideous on their doorstep.

He was half way toward
the cliff when he paused and considered the bag in his hand. Even
with the top tied, the stench was unbearable. He had no doubt that
Levant wanted the ladies to be frightened when he called to visit
later with another ‘offer’.

What he
wouldn’t be expecting was what he was going to
get
, Stephen thought sourly. With a
disparaging snort, Stephen turned around and headed toward
Dinnington.

An hour later, he crept
out of the downstairs window with a smirk of satisfaction on his
face. At some point before dawn the smell would be enough to wake
Levant up from his laborious snoring. He would realise then that
his latest victims had very neatly turned his torment back on him,
but he would have no idea exactly who was so adept at thwarting his
bullying tactics. Stephen wondered if he would ever get the smell
out of his sheets but didn’t really care.

If the man wanted to
scare a house full of innocent and vulnerable ladies, and a young
boy, then it was down to Stephen and Rufus to teach the man a
lesson or two. He had no doubt that Levant wouldn’t bother leaving
another carcass on the doorstep for the ladies to find for fear of
having a return visit. Instead, he would be forced to try a more
direct route, but would find that any face-to-face confrontation
would bring about more trouble than he was really prepared
for.

By the time he let
himself back into Cragdale Manor, dawn had just started to creep
over the horizon. He was tired, but reassured that he had done
everything he could to begin to draw Levant’s activities to a halt
and bring about justice as quickly as possible. A perusal of the
house assured him that everyone was safe and sound, and he stayed
downstairs long enough to light the fires before he headed to the
sitting room to collapse on the chaise. Within seconds he was fast
asleep.