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“Oh? Where is she then?”
“Malverdille Sanatorium.”
Mark’s brows shot up. “Sanatorium?” It was tantamount to Bedlam. As far as he had been aware, the old woman had been apt to gossip and had been spiteful, but mad?
“She wasn’t mad, Detective Bosville. She was distraught to the point that we considered her a threat to her own safety. She went to the sanatorium to recover from her distress, but has since taken ill. I think the stress of being driven to the point of destitution has twisted her mind. Go and check on her yourself. You will see what those charlatans have done to her.”
Mark shared a glance with Isaac. “What charlatans?” He knew before she said the words that she meant Hepplethwaite and Humphries, aka Hegedus and Fotheringill.
“Hegedus and Fotheringill preyed on my aunt’s vulnerabilities like a couple of vultures, Detective. She is elderly and lives here all by herself. She was lonely, and wanted to believe that there was something better for her in the afterlife. What I have managed to get out of her is that she started to see the ridiculous psychic demonstrations a few months back, not long after Hegedus and Fotheringill arrived in Great Tipton. What they did, or how they did it, I am not altogether sure, but they seem to have convinced her that her long departed father has remained in the house with her. She was seeing shadows when there was nobody here, and hearing noises when she is all alone. She had started to ramble that nothing was ever where she left it and was often losing things. Items have been going missing from the house for a long time.” She glanced around the room and sighed.
“What makes you think that Humph -, Hegedus and Fotheringill, are responsible though? What proof do you have?”
“Although my aunt lived modestly, she was relatively well off. I came to visit her several months ago. She seemed well in herself; just as spiteful as always, although she said she had started to see a wonderful clairvoyant.” Jane glanced ruefully at both gentlemen. “I have to tell you that I don’t believe for a second that people can talk to spirits. I think they are frauds and read the newspaper as much as everyone else. I asked her questions about the kind of things they told her but she was vague about a lot of details. I began to ask about how much she was being charged. Gentlemen, if I ever find myself facing financial difficulties, I think I will call myself a clairvoyant and ramble on about dead people because they were charging her a fortune.”
“I wouldn’t if I were you. It is obtaining money by deception and will land you in jail.”
“I know. I am not going to try it, don’t worry. I began to grow alarmed at the number of times my aunt was going to see them. It was every other day and they were charging her various amounts each time. On the times she didn’t have a private reading, she was going to their demonstrations and ‘donating’ a lot of money each time. I began to ask around in Great Tipton, and found out that they had moved into the town a few weeks earlier, but nobody knew much about them. The disappearance of those two fraudulent mediums in Charing Cross was all over the papers at the time. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out. Anyway, when I left here, I went to visit friends in London, and made a few enquiries about what had been going on around Charing Cross. The more questions I asked, the more I became convinced that the psychic mediums in Great Tipton were the same ones who were wanted by Scotland Yard.”
“So you came back here to warn your aunt?” Mark scowled at her. He was intrigued to know why she hadn’t come to the police with her suspicions and had instead gone to such lengths to persuade the village she was her aunt instead.
“I did, but it was clear that there was something odd going on with her mind. I could not be sure that she hadn’t pawned anything of value to be able to continue to pay the psychics. Her bank account was empty, although a large account that provides her with a monthly trust payment remains untouched.”
“You think they were encouraging her to make sizeable donations and keeping her hooked through fake readings from her father?”
“I know that is what they were doing. I think some of the readings took place here, and they stolen the missing items at the same time.”
“Why didn’t you come to the police with your suspicions?”
“It was important that I get my aunt away from them. She kept rambling on and on about putting things down only for them to vanish. I have been through this house and there are several, quite expensive, items missing but like I say, I could not be sure she hadn’t pawned them.”
“Are you positive that she hasn’t pawned them?”
“I have been to all the pawn shops in the area. Nobody recognised me, but a few of the missing items were there. The description of the person who sold the items matches the description of the woman who pretends to be Hepplethwaite.”
Mark shared a look with Isaac. They were both thinking about Hugo Montague’s vase and Harriett’s brooch.
“So why didn’t you come to the police? Why take this upon yourself? Investigating fraudsters is one thing, but adopting the disguise of your aunt and living as a seventy year old woman in the middle of nowhere is a lot of trouble and effort to go to.”
“Until I could prove that Hepplethwaite and Humphries had defrauded her of money, I had nothing other than a few items missing in the house. I needed to find the items and see if it was my aunt who had pawned them. Once I had the description of Hepplethwaite, I needed to see what they were doing at their demonstrations and readings with my own eyes. I needed to be able to be sure that what they were doing is fraudulent, so by pretending to be my aunt, I was able to witness first-hand what they were up to.”
“Was it theft?” Mark knew it was and had his knowledge confirmed by the confidence in the woman’s eyes.
“Oh, yes. They have attempted to convince me that I should hand over large amounts of cash but I refused and said that I didn’t have any money on me. I placed one particular item on the mantle up there.” She pointed to a spot beside the large, marble clock. “I went to make everyone tea, unsurprisingly, when I got back into the room, my beloved piece had vanished.”
“As blatant as that?” Mark frowned.
“I played my part, Detective. I mumbled and fumbled just like my aunt does at the sanatorium. Like a couple of vultures, they couldn’t help themselves. They were convinced that I was a doddering old woman who was struggling with the bats in the belfry, if you know what I mean.” Jane eased back in her chair. “I adopted her disguise essentially to trap them but, to begin with, I had hoped that once away from those two, my aunt would begin to recover. However, she hasn’t and has instead started to get steadily worse. I fear that recovery is beyond her now.” She studied each man in turn. “All of the medical information on her condition can be obtained from the doctors at the sanatorium.”
“Why carry on with the charade though, if you know your aunt cannot come back to live here?”
“Because the fraudsters have to be put behind bars, that’s why. They must be stopped from playing the same tricks on other unsuspecting people. In this day and age, money is hard enough to come
by. Nobody who has lived with the hardships life shoves at them deserves to have their money stolen by a couple of parasites who cannot be bothered to work.” Her voice rang with conviction. “By adopting my disguise, I had also hoped to keep the gossips off my aunt so she didn’t have to live with the scandal of having resided, even temporarily, in a sanatorium.”
“So what is the black carriage all about?” Mark eyed Jane carefully. Now that she had straightened her shoulders and back, her description matched that given by Mr Brewster, the coal merchant. His anger bubbled at the memory of just how close the woman had come to hurting Harriett.
“I didn’t mean to get so close to Harriett,” Jane sighed as though she had read his thoughts. “I truly am sorry for that. I just wanted her to take the threats against her seriously. These women are thieves and fraudsters. After the vague threat at the first table followed by Minerva’s death, I couldn’t be sure that they weren’t killers as well. But when Mr Montague died, and the direct threat to Harriett was made at the second table, I couldn’t be sure that it wasn’t Hepplethwaite and Humphries, and they were trying to extort money from her next.”
