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“Your men were good,” Hugo sighed as he studied the former magistrate calculatingly. “But my men are better.”
“Who are you?” Meldrew demanded belligerently. He tried to stand only to be waved back down by Hugo.
“We are here to arrest you,” Hugo drawled. “For murder, extortion, and abusing your position of authority.”
“I have done no such things,” Meldrew challenged before he turned his avaricious attention to the remainder of the pie on the desk before him. He appeared to have lost his appetite though because he glared at it for a moment, and then pushed it away from him.
“I have statements from people who have been on the receiving end of your avaricious reign. People who had paid you for ‘protection’ services they shouldn’t need if you had done your job properly. A job you were paid handsomely for, by the way. People have been threatened by the men you have in your employ. I can only assume that they acted under your direction. People in this county have faced your peculiar brand of justice; or injustice, as the case may be. I am afraid that your fake courts, where people aren’t given the opportunity for a fair trial before they are tried, convicted and sentenced to death, have nothing to do with what constitutes for the law in this country. Your failure to report deaths to the proper authorities, are also a dereliction of your duties.” Hugo took a breath, and placed his palms on the desk so that he could lean forward and stare Meldrew in the eyes.
The man looked blankly at him, as though he had no idea what he was talking about.
“You know I am talking about Reverend Potts, from Hemsley,” Hugo drawled quietly.
Meldrew swallowed.
“We have it on good authority that his family weren’t notified of his death in the churchyard. Unfortunately for you, Reverend Potts is – was - the third son of Lord Upton.” He smirked coldly when Meldrew sucked in a deep breath.
“Who are you?” Meldrew demanded. He sat back in his seat and dropped his hands onto his lap, but Hugo wasn’t fooled.
“Put your hands back onto the table where I can see them, Meldrew,” Hugo drawled, and nodded toward the gun Charlie had pointed toward him. “Or my colleague here will shoot you.”
“It is cold blooded murder if he does,” Meldrew challenged. “He should have been hung for killing Blagmire as it is. I will make sure that a proper job is done next time.”
“The only person who is likely to be hung around here is you, Meldrew. As a representative of the Lord Chief Justice, I hereby remove you from office with immediate effect. I am also arresting you for murder, extortion, profiteering, dereliction of your duties, and abusing your powers of authority.” Hugo nodded toward Charlie. “Unfortunately for you, my estimable coll
eague here was sent to the area to investigate Reverend Potts’ murder. Potts alerted us as to the protection racket you and your men have bullied people into in this area. I sent my colleague here to make enquiries, but it seemed that he probed just a little too much, didn’t he Meldrew?”
“I don’t –”
“I wasn’t asking,” Hugo interrupted, in a voice that was laden with deadly menace. “I know the owner of the tavern in Hemsley tipped you off about what people were discussing in his establishment. A lot of your sordid little meetings have taken place in the back room there. Unfortunately for you, when you arrested my colleague here and framed him for the murder of Blagmire, you alerted us to just how far you would go to remove anyone from being too much of a threat to your crimes. My good friend here had the right contacts already in place. They tipped us off about your intentions to hang him. It was us who rescued him from a travesty of justice. We know that he was completely innocent of the crimes you laid upon him. We all know that they were crimes that you, Cedric Meldrew, committed yourself.”
“It was you,” Meldrew accused in a vile whisper.
“We weren’t breaking condemned men free. We were rescuing innocent men who were working for the War Office. There is a difference,” Hugo drawled.
Charlie stepped forward. “I know you actually killed Blagmire yourself, Meldrew. You see, we have witnesses who have confirmed that you were the last person he was seen alive with. Not your men – you. You were the one who shot him. You then had your men take his body to the woods you knew I would have to walk past with Simon Jones. You needed Simon out of the way because he wouldn’t pay your protection money, but was well liked amongst the village, and was someone you could use as an example to the people who refused to adhere to your demands.”
“You fool. You bloody fool,” Meldrew snarled “You know nothing.”
“I know that you have been arresting innocent people for crimes they did not commit. I have no doubt that if we look through the cases you have presided over, many of the people you condemned to death will be found to be completely innocent of their crimes,” Charlie snapped. “Just like I was.”
In that moment, Charlie had never hated anybody as much as he hated the rotund little man before him. He reminded him of a bullfrog, with huge bulging eyes and grotesque jowls that wobbled when he talked. His high-pitched, almost piping voice was the most irritating thing Charlie had ever heard, and it was deeply satisfying to be able to knock the man very firmly off his perch.
“We will go through everything you have been involved with Meldrew,” Hugo assured him.
Charlie nodded. “If you are found to have sentenced any other innocent men to death without a fair and proper hearing then you will be tried for their murders too. It shouldn’t take too long. Now that your tyranny is over, people will undoubtedly sing like nightingales, just to ensure that you face the full force of the justice you so eagerly inflicted upon others.”
He took a deep breath, and inwardly froze at the callous mirth hidden in the depths of the dark soulless voids that were the man’s eyes.
Something was wrong, Charlie just knew it. He shifted his feet and looked at Hugo, who seemed to also realise that Meldrew had another ace up his sleeve.
Charlie worries immediately turned toward Hetty, but he immediately dismissed the possibility that she was in any danger. She was perfectly safe, under guard, and well protected. Nothing could happen to her.
Unfortunately, the instincts that had kept him alive throughout his operations with the Star Elite, refused to be ignored. Something was seriously wrong, and Charlie knew that he wasn’t going to like the way the next few moments unfolded.
“You work for the War Office, you say?” Meldrew challenged. He leaned back casually in his chair, and folded his podgy arms behind his head. “Prove it.”
“Really?” Hugo drawled.
