A Malevolent Manner (Patrick Pierce #1)

  *

  Everyone in the room remained silent for many minutes, lost in thought or unwilling to break the silence. Pierce continued to pace and Melrose had collected all of the empty glasses and decanter. Tiberius merely watched Pierce, studying his movements.

  “You seem pretty well informed, more than you let on at the beginning,” Pierce challenged Tiberius. “So what am I doing here? Why was I recruited early?”

  “I don’t know everything, I am in the dark as much as you in some respects,” he objected. “I don’t know why you’re here or why you were recruited early. I only know the how.”

  “The how?” repeated Pierce in confusion.

  “Before he disappeared, Lord Lodge instructed me to get you here and to keep you here at all costs,” explained Tiberius. “I had to promise to do everything in my power to keep you here and to keep you safe.”

  “As did I,” added Melrose.

  “As did we all, it appears,” concluded MacDuff to Tiberius’ astonishment.

  “I didn’t know…” said Tiberius quietly.

  “I imagine it was a precaution to tell us separately,” offered MacDuff to his friend. “Not an indication of his trust in you.”

  He nodded in appreciation but seemed momentarily lost in his account.

  “You said you know how I was recruited?”

  “Yes, I organized it after receiving instructions from Lord Lodge after his disappearance,” he resumed shaking the cobwebs from his head. “I was able to obtain your correct recruitment letter and had Jane, one of the housemaids, deliver it to the Hunt office out-box. These letters are always written by Cleaver and approved by Lodge. Drummond actioned it immediately and it was on your desk at work that day. You know the rest.”

  “So that’s why you were so insistent I join the Hunt when you and Drummond recruited me?” Tiberius’ nodding reply brought another question to his mind. “Then what was the reason for the home invasion the night before with your goons? Why’d you have to use a goddamned taser?” He rubbed the spot in recollection of that night.

  “Look at it from my perspective. My mentor tells me to recruit a potential member early, telling me how important it is that he joins and stays. I wanted to know what you were made of.”

  “Fair enough. But did you know Jane was in league with Cleaver?” asked Pierce changing the subject.

  “Jane?”

  “Well, she was Lord Lodge’s keeper when he was placed at the pub in Rooks Bay after being spirited away from the Manor,” Pierce began counting on his finger. “I overheard her and Cleaver discussing ways of disposing of me. And I informed her of my plan to return home on my first excursion. Only when I got there my house exploded…”

  Before he could continue, Tiberius had cleared his throat a couple times.

  “I was actually the one who bombed your house.”

  “You?!”

  “I overheard Cleaver and Drummond discussing your plan to return home. So I went through the portal first and made my way to your apartment before the rest of the Hunt emerged in Ottawa.”

  “So that’s why it was night time when we emerged from the portal when it should still have been the afternoon,” he reasoned, solving another question that had been nagging him. “I think I even saw you in the road from across the street.”

  “Possibly. I didn’t have much time to install the bomb safely and return to the portal before the rest of you.”

  “But why did you do it?” Pierce asked, his hands jutting out in emphasis.

  “I promised Lord Lodge to keep you here at all costs. I figured you would stay if you were homeless.”

  “But I wasn’t planning on leaving! It was a ruse!”

  A silence fell over them for a few seconds until Melrose’s quiet chuckling broke it.

  “To be fair sir,” said Melrose regaining his serious demeanour. “You planned to set your house on fire to reach the same goals.”

  “But not bomb it!”

  “Semantics,” retorted Tiberius.

  “I think we’re all missing the point,” interjected MacDuff gravely. “Lord Lodge is missing and we have no idea where he is, why he’s been taken, or why Patrick here is so important.”

  “Well we know Cleaver sent him, and probably Jane, away from the pub.”

  “How do you know that?” Tiberius asked Pierce eyeing him sceptically.

  Pierce and MacDuff then explained their mission to Rooks Bay the night of the bonfire party and the empty room that Lodge had previously occupied. Melrose then informed them of his inquiries with the staff as to Jane’s whereabouts. In the spirit of sharing, Tiberius told them his deal with the assistant butler.

  “What do you intend to find out with a report about food deliveries?” Pierce raised the question the others were all thinking.

  “Despite the situation we now find ourselves, Lord Lodge and I were somewhat prepared,” Tiberius conveyed with some renewed confidence. “We knew Cleaver was up to something and Victor believed he might be abducted. So we put together some plans in case that happened. One of them involved him requesting certain food that would be hard to regularly obtain. This would force them to have it sent out from the Manor…”

  “And a quick check of the shipping lists would tell you where they were sent and where he was being kept,” Pierce finished the explanation, smiling at the elegance of the plan.

  “Well if not the exact place, at least somewhere to start looking.”

  “So that’s it then?” asked Pierce looking at the others. “We just sit around waiting for the butler to tell Tiberius where the cucumbers were delivered?”

  “Not quite,” added Tiberius, looking very serious. “Before his disappearance, Lord Lodge was looking into something else. He believed that Colonel Bufford was up to something, but he never said what exactly. In truth I think he was waiting for you to show up and take over. Now he’s gone and I feel as though it’s still important. I’ve been so concerned with finding my master that I have not looked into this myself.”

  “Which is where we come in?”

  “Exactly. I don’t believe the Colonel had anything to do with Lord Lodge’s disappearance, however it can’t be discounted.”

  “I think we can discount it,” snorted Pierce. “The man’s a crazed idiot.”

  “That just makes him dangerous and unpredictable,” offered MacDuff sagely.

  “Fine, we’ll look into him while you wait for the delivery address of the groceries. I don’t suppose Lord Lodge had a more precise idea of the nature of the Colonel’s scheming?” asked Pierce sardonically.

  “Despite his reputation,” responded Tiberius, ignoring his tone, “he is not a mind reader.”