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The house was quiet. Henry and Tom were off in the midlands talking to materials suppliers. Count Cosimo di Lorenzi was already enroute and would reach London in approximately one week. The artist's renderings were done. Their first car, the B.T. Dragon, progressed nicely. Henry could already feel his hands 'round the dark, polished, walnut wheel.
Robert and Cora slept upstairs. The room was dark, but low voices discussing an international crisis escaped from a small wireless with one, big, pale yellow eye.... Almost everyone else slumbered too. All was snug... windows and doors locked up tight.
But whispery voices broke the silence in a small, main floor, morning room right off the kitchen. Lady Mary sat in a chintz covered chair, opposite John Bates. The space was dim, lit only by the glowing embers in a small, marble fronted fireplace. She hugged an accent pillow and said - He's a mean, vindictive, evil person. You know that. This won't stop him. My God, he knows every newspaperman in London and you know how they are. People hang themselves over tabloid scandals. We got off this time, but there has to be a way to shut him up for good. If not for us, than for the next generation. Family, staff, friends... and sometimes the second two overlap, Bates you know how it is? ... We're all fair game. At least to him we are. He must have been sick at all the opportunities he had to pass up. But he signed an agreement... Had to bide his time and wait... Set it up to look like someone else did it....
And he dredged up the oldest scandal of all. Probably had a connection in The War Office. That's what I think - said Bates.
Poor Lucas - said Lady Mary..... Bates sighed in agreement and added - At least he has a life now, a good life.... But how unfair that he has a family. He's found us after all these years, yet due to God awful 'rules' he can't be a part of it. - she said.
So what would you like to happen? - asked Bates..... I'd like Sir Richard Carlisle to go away. I'd like him to disappear. - said the newspaperman's one time fiancée. I'd like him never to bother us again. Agreements mean nothing. Others can do it. Others can bear the blame. We have no signed documents with them. He just has to pull the strings. He just has to whisper in all the right ears. Apparently he knows about your relationship with Papa. I'm sure he fed 'clues' to the police when Mister Green 'died.' I'm sure of that...
Bates clenched his jaw, remembering how Anna suffered. Then he cleared his throat and whispered - I want him 'gone' too.
What do we do about it? - said Mary.
I know some people in the city. Give me a little time - said Bates...... She nodded.
Now it was an open secret that their quarry dabbled in the occult. Sir Richard often attended lectures and seminars at a certain commodious residence on Houston Street... the 'mother house' of The Hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn. Those familiar with our never ending narrative might remember when our Philadelphia night-folk family visited that place... and, by the way, that place is real. Well, lately the immoral publisher (that's what they called him there) was studying hypnotism... the arts of von Mesmer... Maybe the techniques in question might be used against him? The power of suggestion is very hard to resist....
All you have to do is 'push.'
And Bates could do that with ease.
Perhaps the bastard would leap from a rooftop, or set himself ablaze?
Hypnotism can achieve that....
So can a well planned murder.....
<more next time>
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