An Old Betrayal: A Charles Lenox Mystery (Charles Lenox Mysteries) Read Online Free PDF

we know why he frequents train station restaurants.”
    “Hm. Do you know Chepstow and Ely?” asked Dallington.
    “No, but it shouldn’t be difficult to find out what it is.”
    “Nine to one Graham will know.”
    “No doubt about it.” Lenox looked down at the book he was holding and glanced over the entry again. “Well, what do you make of Godwin?”
    Dallington shrugged. “He seems quite ordinary, I suppose. I’ve yet to have the pleasure of meeting the beaglers of Clinkard Meon Valley, but I don’t question their general character. Their intelligence, perhaps, to go chasing about with dogs on cold mornings.”
    “It’s really too bad that Hampshire is on the opposite end of England from Kent, where we suspected your correspondent might be going by train. It would have been tidier if Raburn Lodge were near Canterbury.”
    “Quite.”
    “No London address, either,” said Lenox again, looking at the book still. “I have a school friend who lives not far from Farnborough, Peter Hughes. Huge medieval castle and not a penny to his name to pay for its upkeep—they live in three of the rooms and keep the rest dark. Perhaps I’ll write and ask him about Godwin.”
    “I would guess that he’s up in town briefly, and this girl felt some threat from him—that’s why she wanted to meet me.”
    “Mm.”
    “You say he didn’t give you a card?”
    “He didn’t. I thought it rather odd.”
    “I’ve been caught without mine often enough. It may be that this is merely, as you suggested to him, a quarrel between two estranged lovers.” Dallington took a sip of water, looking exhausted. Lenox realized he ought to leave. “It would explain why she felt she could not go to the police.”
    “Yes, true,” said Lenox. “But lie down, would you, John—I will look into White’s this afternoon. Make sure you drink a great deal of water. It makes me uneasy to see you so ill. I think I had better send around a doctor.”
    Dallington looked ready to object but then weakened. “You might as well, I suppose. Mrs. Lucas will fetch him if you tell her.”
    “I will.”
    A few minutes later, Lenox walked out into Half Moon Street and climbed into his carriage again. Dallington’s explanation was the most likely. A lovers’ tiff. Still, he wondered at the vagueness and fear of that initial letter, its strange tone, its enigmatic origin. Before getting into his carriage he paused on the pavement and smiled. What if Archie Godwin and the young woman who didn’t want to see him had nothing to do with the letter? The metropolis had offered forth stranger coincidences in its time, many of them.

CHAPTER SIX
    Graham knew, of course.
    “The Chepstow and Ely is a partnership that manufactures health tonics and scented soaps. They are based in the Ely River valley, sir, in Wales.”
    “Scented soaps. We are confronted with the classic criminal mastermind, then,” said Lenox.
    “Sir?”
    “Only a joke. Do they do well, Chepstow and Ely?”
    “Very well, sir. There are only one or two larger such manufacturers.”
    They were in Lenox’s office in Parliament. It was a substantial, airy room with a view of the Thames. As the two men contemplated the Chepstow and Ely, the pen of young Frabbs was audible, scratching in the anteroom. “If he is listed as a director, I take it he has no express participation in the day-to-day operations of the place?”
    “Oh, none, sir. Given Mr. Godwin’s youth I would suppose that he is no more than a city name, appended to their rolls to drum up interest in shares. Did you look up his father, sir?”
    “Dead.”
    “Some familial or personal connection, I would speculate. It is not uncommon for young men who possess position without wealth to exchange a quantity of the former for the promise of the latter.”
    “How delicately you put it, Graham. In essence you mean that Godwin provides the lineage and some drunken Chepstow or Ely son is permitted to lose money to him at