Chapter 5 – Information - Misinformation
"Reassure the woman sitting next to you. Pat her hand. Convince everyone it couldn't possibly be you," he thought while he was sitting through dinner in the servants' hall. "Looking at them all chewing over every morsel of information they are fed like a bunch of junior sleuths. A few suggestions to redirect the truth and pretty soon they think it's their idea and repeat it verbatim."
"The police think the culprit who tampered with Mr. Crawley's car is a man and that he works here in the house or on the estate," Jimmy was telling everyone for the third time. "They're narrowing the suspects but no one specific yet."
"My goodness it is unsettling," Mrs. Hughes said. "To think someone we know and trust could have set out to harm Mr. Matthew. It's incomprehensible."
"Not that unconceivable surely," Anna Bates said. "They had to be able to go in and out of the garage unnoticed. A stranger hanging around the outbuildings would have been spotted right away."
"I for one don't know the first thing about motor cars," Thomas Barrow said. "I can't even drive a horse and buggy. Never could."
"You didn't learn in the army, Mr. Barrow?" Mrs. Hughes asked.
"No, I was a medic not a driver. It wasn't my job," Thomas replied.
"I don't know anything about cars either," John Bates said. "With my leg I could never work the controls or get down to see to the tires. I never knew the chauffeurs at that time all that well either except the one we have now other than to say good-morning and good-afternoon." He nodded to the older man down the table.
"It seems the police will have a bit of a quandary," Jimmy said. "How would you know what to loosen or what to cut if you didn't know anything about motor cars? It must be someone from the outside staff."
"Anything is possible," Mrs. Hughes replied.
"Could you imagine Mr. Carson trying to get under a motor car to tamper with it," Anna said with a slight laugh. There was a chorus of chuckles around the table.
"I for one feel like we're living in a penny dreadful," Miss O'Brien commented sourly. "It couldn't have possibly been anyone here. We've known each other for years."
"You never know what a man has hidden," Alfred commented from down the table.
"We all know where you've been spending your free days even though you won't say," Miss O'Brien shot back. "Should I write and tell your mother about your new interest in farming?"
"I'm only saying anyone here could have a past and no one would be the wiser," Alfred said.
"Bright boy. Too bad no one ever takes you seriously. Chit, chat back and forth, tick tock goes the clock. Take all the time you want people. The more you conjecture and form opinions the more the truth is lost. Of course I know how a motorcar works. Any fool could figure it out. The chauffeur sees me almost everyday retrieving some left behind item or walking in the general area on my afternoon breaks. They were so used to my presence I could have been a lantern hanging on the wall or another coach light for all they cared."
-0-
"I just hope the police get it right this time around," Anna said to her husband as she slid into bed beside him that night.
"There's nothing to worry about," John reassured her. "Everything in our bank accounts can be traced. A valet and a maid as a pair of big time criminals," John chuckled. "Could you think of anything more ridiculous? What am I going to do, rig Lord Grantham's sock garters so they explode?"
"And me? What am I to do? Dust the loot out of the barns," Anna said with an answering grin.
"The crooks will be caught and it will all blow over," John said reassuringly.
"I do feel bad for Lady Mary. How will she take the news Mr. Matthew was murdered?" Anna said sobering. "It is just too awful."
"She has Mr. Napier with her now. It won't change what happened," John replied.
"No, but it will reopen old wounds and poor Master James. When he grows up he'll know his father's life was taken."
"He'll know Mr. Napier as his father," John said reassuringly. "He's a decent man. He'll have a good roll model."
"You're right of course," Anna said.
John stroked her hair and placed a kiss on her forehead. Anna snuggled close and put her head on his shoulder. She didn't know what she would do if John was ever taken away from her again. It had been so hard to keep the faith when he was in prison. Every lead had seemed like a dead end and John had given up. He had encouraged her to make a life for herself without him. She hadn't given up and somehow she had found an answer without even realizing it. If John hadn't found the loophole in Mrs. Barlett's story, he would still be sitting in prison. When Anna thought of Vera, John's first wife all she felt was anger. The woman had been so greedy and vindictive. Even in death she had managed to make their lives miserable. How the woman had gotten a hold of arsenic and why she had baked it into the crust of a pie was still a mystery but one Anna wasn't about to trouble herself to figure out.
That night Anna had a bad dream. She was lost in rows and rows of laundry that had been hung out to dry. Every corner she turned she ran into Vera, Mrs. Barlett or one of the policemen who had questioned her recently. The more she tried to run away the more lost she got in the sheets. The sheets were tangling around her whispering things she didn't want to hear but couldn't make sense of. She woke with a start to the dark room. She reached out to make sure John was still there before she lay back down. There was something odd in the dream that she couldn't remember. She tried to block it out by thinking of her last trip to London and the wonderful time she had when John took her out to the cinema. She'd had enough of bad dreams. What she wanted now were good memories. She drifted back to sleep thinking of the cinema and popcorn and the lights of the London night sky.
-0-
Two weeks went by and there was no word from the police. Chatter about the crimes had dropped to a dull roar around the house. The Crawley's announced they would be heading to London in mid-July. Tom Branson, Lady Rose and the children would be staying put as usual and Lady Mary was expected back a few days before the family was scheduled to leave.
"Do you fancy a week at the shore this year or would you rather stay at the cottage?" John asked his wife on their free day.
"I don't know," Anna said. "I've been having so many nightmares since the police were snooping around, it might be good for me to get away for a few days and blow the cobwebs out. Can we afford a trip to the shore?"
John shrugged noncommittally. "We have the funds from the rental," he said. "We can afford it."
"But we are saving those for the day we can leave service," Anna said.
"Just a little. All that time I was away from you made me realize we need to make memories today, not wait for someday."
"Alright," Anna said. "The sea shore it is. We can talk to Mr. Barrow and Mrs. Hughes about tomorrow."
"I think I'll bake a meat pie for out tea," John said. "Maybe an almond tart for desert."
"That sounds lovely," Anna replied.
-0-
"I was wondering if you mind stopping by and checking on the cottage while we're over to Dublin week after this?" Kieran asked Tom after the church. It was early July and the weather was clear and not raining this year.
"I'm ever so looking forward to meeting your mother," Kieran's wife Ivy said.
"She'll be happy to meet you as well, Ivy. I'll stop by your cottage when I'm in the village," Tom replied. "I'm through almost everyday. Are you taking the boys?" He glanced over to where Shaun and Timothy were talking to their mother.
"Kathy hasn't made up her mind yet. They might go out to the farm for the summer," Kieran replied. "We were going to drive up to Liverpool, go over to Dublin for a few days and take the train back. The business with the AC changed all that."
"Make out a bill for your time and I'll write you a check from the estate accounts," Tom said.
"I'll do that. Any word from the coppers?"
"Nothing I can discuss in public," Tom replied. "I'm not looking forward to when Lord Grantham tells his eldest her husband's death was the result of foul play."
"Poor Lady Mary," Ivy said. "She's finally got her life back together and now this."
Rose came to join them with Sybil by the hand. The intrigue at the estate was off limits when the younger children were about.
"You're looking recovered these days," Kieran said to Rose once they had exchanged greetings. "Where are the two little ones?"
"Home with their Nanny," Rose replied. "They are still too little for church."
"We best be getting back home as well," Tom said. "I'll stop by the garage before you go and catch you up."
"I'll see you then," Kieran replied.
Two days later Tom stopped by mid-afternoon. Kieran was alone at the garage.
"It's a hell of a note, Kieran," Tom said with a sigh. "They've got the suspect list down to three men. All long-term employees of the estate but nothing can be proved."
Kieran let out a long whistle. "Grantham will be chasing his tail over that. So they didn't suspect you?"
"No. I'm the one that had you look at the car and I'm an experienced mechanic. I wouldn't have been so sloppy. Besides, the thefts started before I arrived. I may have gained the most by Matthew's death, but I had no idea I would. Murray can testify to that so I'm off the list."
"That's a good thing," Kieran replied. "Not like I'd ever think you would be involved in something along those lines."
"The police have three suspects but in my mind I have it down to two. Lord Grantham doesn't want to hear anything about it. If it turns out to be someone he really trusted it might break his heart."
"You think he actually has one?"
"Under all that pomp and bluster, he is a good man," Tom replied.
"So what are you going to do?" Kieran asked.
"Watch the pair of them like a hawk," Tom said. "He made one mistake, he's bound to have made more."
"What if it turns out to be someone completely different?"
"I'll breath the first sigh of relief," Tom replied. "Don't mention a word of this?"
"You know I can keep my mouth shut," Kieran said.
-0-
The dream had been plaguing Anna for a week now. Almost every night she had the same dream of being lost in the sheets hanging on the clothesline. Vera and her friend Mrs. Bartlett were there. The sheets grabbed at her arms and legs. There was a voice whispering over and over the same thing, but Anna couldn't make it out.
She was working as assistant housekeeper now in anticipation of the day Mrs. Hughes retired although she was officially Lady Rose's ladies maid. A ladies maid to a woman who got herself up, dressed and came down to breakfast, went out to work until luncheon and then worked on the accounts or went out on the estate with her husband most afternoons gave Anna little work in that department. When Lady Rose wasn't busy with her work she was usually with the children. Other than seeing to the Branson's laundry and making sure their room was done up the rest of Anna's time was spent learning the ordering and stores and overseeing the other maids.
This afternoon John had volunteered to walk into the village with the mail. It was a nice day and he said he wanted to get some fresh air. Anna was busy laying the cups on a tray for the ladies afternoon tea. Having everything set up made it much easier to just add the water to the pot and be ready to carry up the tray.
"Do you know where Mr. Bates is?" Miss O'Brien asked. "I wanted to ask him which uniform Lord Grantham will be wearing to the dinner Friday night, so I can check her ladyships jewels are the correct ones."
"He'll be coming back for his tea," Anna replied. She dropped the cup and saucer she was holding on to the tray almost breaking it. She steadied it with shaking hands. She knew what the sheets had been saying only it wasn't the sheets it was Mrs. Bartlett's voice.
"Are you alright, Anna?" Miss O'Brien asked. "You look as if someone just walked across your grave."
"Oh, yes, I'll be fine. I haven't been sleeping well. I suppose that's it," Anna replied nervously. She knew. She knew without a doubt. Now what was she going to do?