Malice at the Palace Read online

  “Where on earth are we going?” he asked as I stepped out into darkness.

  “I have to show you something.”

  Now that there was no Daimler with headlights shining, it was pitch-black outside.

  “Is this some sort of prank?” he asked.

  “No prank, I assure you, Major. This way, please.”

  I felt my way over the cobbles until I could just make out the archway beneath the clock tower. Strangely it had been light enough for me to spot the body instantly before but this time I almost stumbled upon it before I picked out a vague hint of whiteness.

  “What on earth is that?” Major B-C demanded, his voice now taut.

  “It’s a body,” I replied and my voice bounced back, alarmingly loud as it echoed from the cobbles and vaulted arch above. “A young woman. She’s dead. I’m afraid she might have been murdered.”

  “Good God,” he said, bending forward to peer more closely at the body. “Is it one of the maids?”

  “No, she’s dressed in a white silk evening gown. I’ve no idea who she is.”

  “Are we sure that she’s dead? She might have been drinking too much at a party and lost her way in the dark and collapsed here.” He bent down even farther to examine her.

  “Oh, I’m sure she’s dead. Look at her face.” I shuddered.

  He was kneeling on the damp cobbles beside her, felt for a pulse, then got hurriedly to his feet. “I’ll go and find a torch,” he said. “You come back into the house. You shouldn’t be out here alone.”

  I followed him as he walked briskly back into the building. I waited in the foyer, hugging my fur stole around me, as I was suddenly extremely cold. He seemed to take forever. At last he returned carrying a large silvery flashlight.

  “It wasn’t easy explaining why I wanted this without raising curiosity,” he said. “It required some quick thinking.”

  I followed him back to the archway. He shone the torch onto the dead girl.

  “My God.” I heard his sharp intake of breath. He looked around. “We should move her out of sight as soon as possible.”

  “You can’t do that,” I said. “This is a crime scene. We must stay with her until the police get here.”

  “My dear girl,” he said, forgetting to use my correct title, “we can’t just call the police. I don’t think you realize the delicate nature of this situation.” He moved closer to me, even though we were alone in a dark courtyard. “You say you didn’t recognize her. I rather fear most people would. This is, or rather, was, Bobo Carrington. Surely you’ve heard of her? Her photographs are splashed all over the picture papers.”

  “I may have seen them,” I said tentatively.

  “She’s a well-known socialite and partygoer and also at one stage her name was linked with Prince George.”

  “Oh crikey,” I said, too shocked to worry about schoolgirl expressions and the need to sound sophisticated.

  “So now you see,” he said. “We can’t just call the police. If any word gets out, any hint to the press, it would ruin everything. The scandal would be horrendous. The marriage could never take place.”

  I nodded. I did see, all too clearly.

  “But we shouldn’t move her,” I said. “There are bound to be clues, pieces of evidence.”

  “I have a dark gray blanket on my bed,” he said. “We could cover her with that until morning. But something will have to be done before the first grounds staff pass this way.” He looked up at the building, frowning. “Luckily there aren’t many windows that look onto this courtyard. One up in Princess Louise’s apartment, but she usually goes to bed early and I believe it’s a bedroom that is not used. And the one on the second floor of your apartment with the light still on is surely your own room.”

  “Yes, it must be,” I said.

  “Might your maid have looked out of the window?”

  “It’s possible. But she’s quite susceptible and already finds the place rather spooky. If she mentions anything I’ll tell her about Princess Sophia’s ghost.”

  “Good girl.” He smiled at me.

  “So I’ll go and get the blanket to cover her and I suggest you go inside and have someone bring you a brandy. You’ll need it for shock and it’s devilish cold out here. You don’t want to come down with a chill.”

  I was going to tell him that I’d been involved in murder cases before and I was strong enough to help him, but I realized I did feel quite shivery.

  “If you’re sure there is nothing more I can do?”

  “You’ve been very brave, Lady Georgiana. But I suggest you go to bed,” he said. “There’s nothing else you can do now.”

  A great gust of wind swirled up, stirring the dead girl’s clothing. The sequins on her dress sparkled suddenly in the beam from the flashlight. I wanted nothing more than to get away from that spot.

  “Very well,” I said. “But we must do something. A girl has been murdered. We can’t let it be hushed up just so that a wedding can go forward.”

  “Of course,” he said. “But this is a royal palace and it will need to go through the correct channels. I will pass this information on to His Majesty’s private secretary and see how I am instructed to proceed. And in the meantime please behave as if nothing is amiss. The word will have gone around that you summoned me late at night. You might want to think up a plausible explanation for that.”

  “All right, I’ll try,” I said. “Although my brain isn’t working very well at the moment.”

  “I’ll escort you back to your front door.” He took my arm and steered me along the narrow pavement while I wracked my brains thinking of something plausible to say.

  “Oh, there you are, your ladyship.” The same maid came to meet me in the foyer. “Is everything all right? Major Beauchamp-Chough looked quite upset and he wanted a flashlight.”

  “Yes, my fault, I suppose,” I said. “I was wearing a very valuable diamond brooch lent to me by Her Majesty for the occasion and the pin must have come loose. I realized it must have fallen off when I got out of the car and I knew how upset Her Majesty would be if something happened to it, so I’m ashamed to say I panicked.”

  “You could have asked us to help you find it, my lady,” she said. “There’s enough servants still awake.”

  “Actually I didn’t want word to get back to Her Majesty,” I said. “So please don’t mention it, all right?”

  “But did the major find it for you?”

  “Yes, he did, thank goodness.” I gave her what I hoped was a convincing smile. “And he’s taken it away for safekeeping, ready to be returned to Buckingham Palace in the morning. Now that I know the clasp is loose I won’t risk wearing it again.”

  “Well, that’s good then, isn’t it, my lady?” She gave me an encouraging smile. “Everything’s all right and we can all go to bed.”

  “Yes. Everything’s all right. But I would appreciate a glass of brandy to warm me up. I’m really cold now.”

  “Of course, my lady. Would you like the brandy in hot milk?”

  “That’s a lovely idea.” I smiled at her again.

  “I’ll bring it up to your room,” she said.

  “Oh, that’s not necessary.”

  “No trouble, my lady. You go up and I’ll bring the hot milk.”

  Why couldn’t Queenie be more like that, I thought as I trudged up the two flights of stairs. Cheerful, willing, thinking of my needs. I sighed. Queenie would probably be snoring on my bed when I got to my room.

  I opened my door and jumped as Queenie stepped forward to greet me. “Oh, there you are, miss. I’ve been that worried about you. I heard the princess come upstairs a while ago and then you didn’t show up and something funny was going on down in the courtyard below.”

  “Nothing to worry about, Queenie,” I said. “We were just looking for a piece of jewelry that must hav
e fallen off when the princess got out of the car.”

  “Oh, that was you down there, was it? Thank God for that. I thought it was one of them ruddy ghosts. They say this palace is bloody well haunted. Down in the kitchen they said there’s ever so many ghosts drifting around. In fact I think I saw one, earlier this evening. Something in white, wafting across the courtyard. Horrible it was.”

  “Yes, I’m afraid that must have been one of the ghosts,” I said rapidly. “Princess Sophia, the daughter of George the Third, but don’t worry. She’s quite harmless. She drifts around looking for her lost child.”

  “She might be harmless but I don’t want to bump into her. Gives me the willies just thinking about it. I sat here all evening wondering if ghosts could come up the stairs and through walls.”

  “I think you’re quite safe, Queenie,” I said. “And anyway, I’m back now. As soon as I’m undressed you can go to bed and you know very well that no princess would haunt the servants’ quarters.”

  “Yes, that’s right, ain’t it?” She perked up then. “Come on then. Turn round and I’ll take your necklace off.”

  Queenie finished undressing me and I climbed into bed. The fire had burned down to embers and it was cold in the room. I couldn’t resist going over to the window and pulling back the curtain to take a peek at the courtyard below. Someone was moving around down there. I could see a torch dancing but the person holding it was invisible beneath the archway. Fortunately so was the body. And I realized that the holder of the torch must be the major, covering the body with his blanket. There was nothing else to do but go up to my room and get undressed. My hot milk was delivered. I drank it but it didn’t seem to warm me. I curled up into a ball and tried to sleep, but sleep wouldn’t come.

  Bobo Carrington. Now that I thought about it I had heard the name before. One of the glamorous young women who was always photographed at nightclubs or at the races. But what on earth was she doing here, trying to get into Kensington Palace?

  Chapter 11

  MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5

  KENSINGTON PALACE

  I was in a deep sleep when I began to be shaken violently. I started and sat up with a gasp to see a strange young woman, dressed in servant’s garb, standing over me. It was still dark outside.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. “What time is it?”

  “Five thirty, my lady, and I didn’t mean to startle you,” she whispered, “and sorry to wake you so early, but the major is downstairs and he wants to talk to you right away. I’ve no idea what it’s about but he said it was urgent and I should go and wake you.”

  I swung my legs over the side of the bed and my feet sought my slippers. It was horribly cold. The maid took down my dressing gown from the back of the door. “Should I go and wake your maid, my lady?”

  “No. Let her sleep,” I said, thinking that by the time Queenie could be roused and ready it would be broad daylight. “I’ll go down to the major in my robe and slippers.”

  I tied the dressing gown firmly at my waist and then made my way down the stairs. The major was waiting in the foyer, already dressed and looking military and ready for action.

  “Lady Georgiana,” he said. “I’m so sorry to get you up at this ungodly hour, but I wonder if you’d be good enough to come with me.”

  “Uh—yes. Of course,” I said, conscious of the maid still standing behind me.

  He looked at my attire. “I think you might need proper shoes and an overcoat. I’m afraid we need to go outside for a moment.”

  “Oh, right. Very well.”

  The major turned to the maid. “Perhaps you would make sure there is hot tea for Lady Georgiana when she returns in a few minutes.”

  “Very good, sir.” The maid bobbed a little curtsy and fled. I went back upstairs and put on shoes and an overcoat. The major was waiting by the front door and I followed him. When we reached the archway under the clock tower I saw that the body had already been taken away and there was no sign she had ever been there.

  “Did you get permission to move the body?” I whispered even though we were alone and my whisper hissed back at me from the vaulted roof of the arch above our heads.

  “Yes. The Home Office had some chappies here within the hour last night. They took photographs and examined the area well before the poor young woman was carted off to the mortuary. There wasn’t actually anything to see. In fact one of the chaps suggested that the girl had been killed somewhere else and the body dumped here.”

  “Why would anyone do that?” I asked. “If you wanted to dispose of a body surely you’d drive out to a wooded park or throw it into the Thames.”

  “Unless you wanted it to be found,” he said, turning back to look at me. He opened a door at the far end of the courtyard and we stepped into an austere, white-painted hallway. There was no form of adornment on the walls, but the carpet underfoot was rich and thick and the place was delightfully warm.

  “Through this way, if you don’t mind.” Major B-C opened a door and stood aside for me to enter first. I stepped into a small sitting room, definitely a man’s room with leather armchairs and the lingering smell of pipe tobacco. Two men had been sitting in the chairs facing the fire. Both rose to their feet as I came in. I hadn’t been expecting to face strangers and was horribly conscious that I was in my nightclothes under the overcoat, with my hair still tousled. This put me at an awful disadvantage.

  “Lady Georgiana, I’m so sorry to have to disturb you at this hour,” one of the men said. He was dressed impeccably in a dark gray pin-striped suit and had silver gray hair smoothed back to perfection. What’s more, I recognized him at the same moment that he said, “We have met before. Jeremy Danville of the Home Office. We are forever grateful for the way you helped us with a difficult situation in Scotland a couple of years ago.”

  “Sir Jeremy, of course.” I shook his hand. When I had last encountered him it had been on a case involving royal security and I suspected that his job was not that of the usual civil servant.

  “I’m sorry we meet again under such difficult circumstances,” Sir Jeremy said. “A tricky situation indeed.”

  I nodded as my gaze went to the other man. At first glance he seemed more nondescript and unassuming but he was examining me with a keen gaze and my brain said policeman at the same time that Sir Jeremy said, “And this is Detective Chief Inspector Pelham from the Special Branch, Scotland Yard. He has plenty of experience handling difficult situations like this.” I caught a flicker of annoyance and realized of course that if Sir Jeremy was really in some kind of secret service the last person he’d want to work with would be someone from Special Branch. It was rumored that both departments thought the other was superfluous.

  “How do you do, Lady Georgiana.” Chief Inspector Pelham nodded to me but didn’t shake hands. His voice betrayed a trace of a northern accent and I noticed he didn’t smile. Special Branch, I thought. Usually handles matters of national security. The royal family was certainly taking every precaution to make sure this news did not leak out.

  “Please do take a seat, Lady Georgiana.” Sir Jeremy indicated the armchair by the fire where he had been sitting, then drew up a wooden chair from the desk in the corner for himself. “So you were the one who actually found the body, I understand?”

  “That’s right,” I said.

  “What time was this?” the chief inspector asked.

  “I would say about ten thirty last night. We left Buckingham Palace a little after ten, that much I know.”

  “And how did you happen to come upon this body, Lady Georgiana?” the chief inspector continued. “Since the place where she was lying was nowhere near the door to the apartment where you are staying?”

  “Well, there was a puddle outside the front door,” I said, “so the chauffeur had to stop the car quite a way farther along, so we didn’t get our feet wet. Princess Marina got out of the motor first and walk
ed straight to the door. I was about to follow but as I got out of the car I thought I saw something under the archway and went to look closer.” I had been going to say that I saw a strange sort of glow and I wanted to see if it was the ghostly light, but that would have sounded silly.

  “But surely the body wasn’t visible from where the car stopped?” the inspector asked sharply. “And I don’t know how you could spot a body in that kind of darkness.”

  “I’m not quite sure what made me go and look,” I said. “I thought I saw some kind of light first and it was only when I came close to the archway that I saw something lying there.”

  “Some kind of light? Like a torch shining, you mean?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “More like a gentle glow.”

  “I suppose a light could have been shining out from a window,” the major said. He was still standing beside my chair, ramrod straight, a military man to the core. “There are a couple of windows that look onto that courtyard. Lady Georgiana’s room, for example. And my own bathroom.”

  “And you didn’t hear or see anything, Major?” Detective Chief Inspector Pelham asked.

  “I’m afraid I’d been out all evening—our usual monthly regimental dinner in mess. Can’t miss that, you know, even for a visiting princess.” He gave an apologetic smile. “I had literally just come in when I was given a note from Lady Georgiana. And frankly even if I’d been here, one hears plenty of strange noises in an old building like this.”

  “If there were windows without the curtains drawn then someone might have seen something,” Sir Jeremy suggested, looking up at the major.

  “Hardly likely. The suite next to mine is unoccupied. I believe the rooms at the back of Princess Louise’s suite are not in normal use, and the only room with a window facing the courtyard that is currently occupied is Lady Georgiana’s own.”

  “Did you ask your maid if she saw anything?” the major asked me.

  “She did,” I replied. There was an intake of breath. “She said she saw something going on under the archway, but I think it must have been Major Beauchamp-Chough with his torch when I brought him to see the body.” I looked up at them. “I can ask her again exactly what she saw, if you like, but she is rather an impressionable girl and has heard the stories about ghosts in the palace.”