Part 6

Despite the body being face down, Eliza instantly recognised the dead man as Mr Hugo Goldberg, Arabella's husband. Her heart had just about returning to its normal rate, as she assessed the sudden change in the evening. This was not at all how she thought things would go. A crowd was quickly starting to gather in the hallway as the rest of the dinner guests came to find out what the screaming was about.

William had immediately stood up and taken control, keeping everyone out of the room, instilling calm, and sending them to drawing room where they had drinks earlier. While Eliza moved further into the room to try and calm the maid, who was still hysterical.

"I came in … and … he was just … just lying there…" the maid insisted through her tears. She was physically shaking as her eyes constantly darted between Eliza and the dead body.

From a brief look, Eliza could make out that Hugo appeared to have been hit on the back of the head with the candlestick that was lying on the ground next to his body.

"What your name?" Eliza asked softly, as she returned her attention to her and tried to comfort the young girl, who couldn't have been more then maybe a few years over 20.

"Mary," she stammered.

"Okay Mary, why don't we get you out of here and some warm milk, how about that?"

As William returned to the room, Eliza shared a glance with him, silently suggesting she take Mary away from the room. William nodded his head in agreement. Eliza placed an arm around Mary's shoulder and guided her out of the library.

Tilly and Rupert were waiting looking rather panicked in the corner of the hallway, and Eliza nodded her head motioning for Rupert to come over. He seemed relieved to be moving away from Tilly as he crossed the small hallway to Eliza.

One of Rupert's butlers that had served them drinks in the drawing room earlier had also lingered in the hall to check on his friend. He stepped forward and looked concerned towards Mary.

"Can we get Mary some warm milk please?" Eliza asked him. He nodded silently, and hesitated a moment, before heading to the stairs and going in the direction of the kitchen.

"Rupert, is there a quiet room we could use?"

"Of course, Eliza."

Eliza ignored the death stare from Tilly, and moved herself and the maid passed her, following Rupert up the stairs and into a small guest bedroom.

Rupert lit some oil lamps while Eliza settled Mary into a chair by the window. She took a blanket off the bed and handed it to Mary to wrap herself in to keep warm, given the fire in the room was unlit.

Eliza stayed with the Mary until she was finally able to start calming down, while Rupert nervously kept back, unsure what he should do. Eliza did a quick search of the room and found a piece of plain paper and a pencil in the draws by the bedside and wrote a quick message, before she folded it up, and held it tight in her hand.

Once she was sure Mary was okay to be left alone, Eliza asked Rupert to follow her outside the room.

"What on earth happened," Rupert asked quietly, his voice full of concern, as Eliza shut the bedroom door behind them. Outside the room, Eliza watched as he started pacing the hallway with anxiety, and rubbed his hands together, unable to stay still any longer.

"I don't know, but you need to stay calm Rupert."

"Stay calm! Eliza there is a dead body in my library room!" Rupert stammered, loudly and uneasily. Eliza was slightly taken back by Rupert's forcefulness.

"Yes, I am aware of that." Trust Rupert to point out the obvious, Eliza thought. Even in the dim light of the upstairs hallway Eliza could see how pale Rupert had become with the news of the dead body.

"What will people think?" Rupert worried. "What will mother think!" Rupert was in a panic, as many thoughts ran through his head, and he paced the floor.

"It will be fine, William and I will sort it." Eliza tried to reassure him, but it of was no good. Rupert continued to work himself up and he muttered to himself while he moved. She would have to think of a way to calm him.

"Do you think he was murdered?" Rupert could only imagine what his mother was going to say. The first proper dinner party he was hosting and someone dies, it was just his luck.

"Rupert, I don't know what to think right now… It's possible it was natural causes. You need to calm down." Eliza had barely had time to process the dead body, let alone what might have happened, though she doubted that Hugo had hit himself over the head with the candlestick.

"Maybe one of the people downstairs killed him!" Rupert was flustering and not listening to Eliza. She could hear the panic rising in his voice. She needed to calm him down, and swiftly.

"Rupert, please, focus!" She told him firmly. Rupert finally stopped pacing, as Eliza put her hand on his arm grabbing him to make him stand still and calm him.

"Let's not jump to conclusions. Now tell me what you know of your maid?"

He stared at Eliza in surprise, both that she was touching his arm and that she would be asking him about Mary.

"You don't think Mary did this? She's been my mothers maid for years Eliza, she's been with my family since she was 17, there is no way she could…"

"You trust her?" Eliza interrupted.

"Of course I do." He said it was such certainty that Eliza couldn't doubt his trust in her.

"Okay, well I need you to do something important." Eliza knew the best way to deal with Rupert's stressing was to give him a job to do.

"Can you ask a member of your staff to stay with your maid, keep her calm, William and I will need to speak with her once she's composed herself."

"Of course, yes." Rupert confirmed.

Rupert's butler that she'd spoken to in the hallway downstairs came up carrying the cup of warm milk for Mary.

"Thank you," Eliza told him, as she took the cup and saucers from him and passed it to Rupert, who took it but looked at her confused as to what she expected him to do with it. Eliza held out the note that she was still holding and gave it to the man.

"Please could you ask someone to get this message to Scotland Yard? Tell them to ask for it to go to Detective Phillips directly."

"Yes Miss." He looked over at Rupert, awaiting his confirmation that she should accept her orders, and Rupert instantly nodded agreeing for him to do as Eliza had asked.

"And perhaps ask downstairs for some tea and desert to go to the drawing room. The guests might like that." Eliza was sounding rather like the lady of the house, while Rupert was still stammering and worrying with shock. She turned to face Rupert and put her hand on his arm.

"Don't worry Rupert. It will be fine," she assured him. "Now where would I find a sheet?" she asked, presuming the dead man might require some dignity. Rupert just shrugged, he had no idea where sheets were kept. The butler gave a smile, and motioned he would get that as well.

"And what should I do with this?" Rupert asked, regarding the cup and saucer in his hand. Eliza just rolled her eyes.

William was kneeling down looking over the dead man's body searching the pockets on his jacket and waistcoat, when Eliza walked back into the library carrying a folded up white bed sheet.

"The guests are settled in the drawing room, I've asked for some tea and desert to be brought up to them. The maid, Mary, is calming down upstairs, Rupert is getting someone to sit with her, and I've sent a message to Detective Phillips, though I suspect he won't hurry as I assume he knows you're here," Eliza told William quickly.

"Thank you," William said nodding his head. He stared at her for a moment and was a little surprised how organized she was being. If only all his colleagues were as thoughtful and organized as she was.

"What do you think happened?" she asked, as she walked over to William's side.

"Well, Miss Scarlet, a death in library, with the candlestick," William joked motioning to the abandoned bloodied candlestick on the floor.

"Initial impressions make it look like someone hit him on the back of the head, or at least someone's made it seem that way. I've checked and I can't see any other injuries on him at the moment."

Eliza leaned in to look closer to look at the wound on the back of poor Hugo Goldberg's head. The candlestick itself was very small and looked relatively lightweight, there wasn't much blood around the wound and none on the floor, and the cut itself where he'd been hit seemed small.

"That candlestick and the blow look barely big enough to cause a headache, let alone kill a man."

"Agreed," William nodded, as they both stood up. It would seem most peculiar if a blow to the back of his head of that size was the cause of death. "Did the maid give any other information?"

"No she's too worked up at the moment. I'd let her calm down before we question her further."

Eliza shook out the sheet and handed one end to William, and they both opened it up fully, and carefully covered over the body to give him some dignity.

William thought carefully about his next move as he looked at Eliza. He knew he needed to speak with all the guests, and doing each guest by himself would take time, and who knew exactly when official help would arrive. It would of course be re-miss of him not to use the help that was right in front of him.

"So, perhaps you would like to interview the ladies, they might be more open to speaking with you, I'll speak with the gentlemen." William suggested. He kept his tone light, but equally he knew Eliza was likely to want to jump at the chance to help his investigation.

Eliza tried her best to hide her smile that he seemed to be giving her a task without her pressing him to let her help. This was very strange. Ordinarily William was less then happy to have Eliza helping him, at least not without her putting a case forward to let her help.

"Of course, I'll ask Rupert for a room we can use," she told him casually.

"How is Mr Parker?" William asked, genuinely concerned.

"Well, he's Rupert, and there is a dead body in his house, so he's worrying about what his mother is going to say."

"Why?" William had never met Mrs Parker, so had no idea how truly terrifying a woman she was. Eliza had crossed her temper on a few occasions and could only imagine what she was going to say when she found out what had happened.

"Mrs Parker never wanted Rupert to move out of her house. I'm sure this would be just the ticket she would use to make him to move back in with her."

William looked at her confused but decided to leave it, there was more important things to do, then query Rupert's relationship with his mother.

"I'll suggest to Rupert to take the men to their brandies and cigars," Eliza offered. "Perhaps he could stay with them, maybe overhear what's being said." William nodded, from his experience, men like these tended to stick together and say nothing. He wasn't exactly sure how forthcoming any of them would be giving information to him.

"I think Rupert might stay calmer if he's got a job to do that will help us," Eliza told him.

"I best go and speak with Mrs Goldberg." William offered. "Somehow I think the news of her husband's death might be better coming from me." Eliza couldn't agree more.

While William headed to the drawing room to speak with Arabella, Eliza saw Rupert and Tilly in the hallway, having another heated looking discussion. At least, Tilly looked annoyed as ever as she spoke, while Rupert was stepped back in a hunched frightened form listening.

"I'm sorry to interrupt. Inspector Wellington and I will need to speak with each of the guests individually, and we will need somewhere to speak to them. We were also thinking Rupert, you might like to take the gentlemen off to their brandies and cigars."

"Of course Eliza, you can use my study room, upstairs." Rupert seemed to stand a little straighter, relieved to be escaping, while Tilly folded her arms across her chest defiantly.

"How do I know you didn't do this?" Tilly asked angrily. She stepped forward towards Eliza accusingly. Of course, she was certain that Eliza would find a way to ruin her first dinner party.

"I can assure you Fraulein, I'm capable of many things, but murder is not one of them," Eliza confirmed calmly, ignoring Tilly's anger. Tilly shook her head and narrowed her eyes, she wasn't sure what Eliza was capable of, but she wouldn't put anything past her.

"Now while William and I are speaking with each guest individually, we need you both to keep an eye on the rest of the guests. Stay with them and listen to what they are saying to each other. No matter how insignificant it might seem. It's highly possible you'll overhear something that they wouldn't disclose to us."

A smile appeared on Rupert's face for the first time since the news of Hugo's body being discovered. He was seemingly excited at being given such a task to help with her and the Inspector with their enquires. Tilly, on the other hand, seemed to get even angrier at the suggestion, if that was even possible.

"I'm not spying on my guests," she raged loudly, outraged at the suggestion.

"Please, keep you're voice down," Eliza asked coolly. It was hard for Eliza to keep calm when Tilly was so angry, but she knew she had to. "There is a dead body in that room and someone here knows what happened. I can assure you, this is necessary."

"Please Fraulein," Rupert offered sincerely. Tilly looked at Rupert. His eyes resembling that of a begging puppy, hoping she would agree.

Tilly took more time then was necessary to reply. She didn't really want to be any help to Eliza, but perhaps she might earn Rupert's respect if she agreed to help. It didn't mean she would share whatever she might hear.

"Fine," she finally offered sternly.

"Thank you," Eliza offered, releasing a breath.

Tilly instantly turned on her heal and walked off with an anger in her step towards the drawing room. Eliza and Rupert shared a look as both were relieved to finally be out of her firing line.

Eliza took a deep breath. It was time to get to work….

To Be continued.

A/N: So Cluedo, or perhaps Clue depending on where you're from wasn't created until 1949, but I couldn't resist William give little homage for Miss Scarlet. Once again, thank you so much for all your lovely reviews! You are all so kind.