Andrew Taylor - The American Boy

He scrambled out of the cellar and we walked slowly back towards the shed.

"They may have come here on foot," Grout said. "But more likely they rode or drove. Someone will have seen them on the way."

"Ruined men can be driven to desperate measures, and it is not impossible that one of those whom Mr Frant injured has had his mind overturned by his troubles, and has sought revenge."

Grout gave me a long look. "Or this might be the work of a jealous lover. Or a madman."

There was nothing more for me to do at Wellington-terrace. As Mr Grout drove me back to school, I sat in silence beside him, my mind too full for conversation. We passed the flask to and fro between us. It was empty by the time we drew up outside the Manor House School.

I said, "May I tell Mr Bransby what has passed?"

Grout shrugged. "He either knows or surmises everything you or I could tell him. So will the whole neighbourhood in an hour or two."

"There is the matter of the boy. Mr Frant's son."

"Indeed. Mr Bransby must do what he thinks fit on that head." He bobbed his nose towards me. "I do not know how the magistrates will proceed, and if I did know, it would not be proper for me to tell you. However, there will be an inquest, and you may be required to attend. In the meantime, though-" he spread his arms wide "-there will be talk. That much I do know."

In the evening of that terrible day, I smoked a pipe with Dansey in the garden after the boys were in bed. We walked up and down, huddled in our greatcoats. Soon after my return, Mr Bransby had summoned Charlie Frant. The boy had not been seen since. A message had been sent for Edgar Allan to take his friend's possessions to Mr Bransby's side of the house.

"It is said a man has been arrested already," Dansey said softly.

"Who?"

"I do not know."

I bowed my head. "But why did the murderer mutilate the body?"

"A man in search of revenge is a man out of his senses. If it was revenge."

"Yes, but the hands?"

"In Arabia, they cut off the thief's hands. We used to do it here, I believe, or something similar. Crushing the hands in the manner you described might be another form of the practice. Perhaps Mr Frant's killer believed his victim was a thief."

Our pipes hissed and bubbled. At the foot of the garden, we turned, and stood for a moment under the shelter of the trees looking back at the house.

Dansey sighed. "Come what may, this affair will make a considerable noise in the world. Pray do not think me impertinent if I speak for a moment in the character of a friend, but I would advise you to keep your own counsel."

"I am obliged to you. But why do you make such a point of this?"

"I hardly know. The Frants are great folk. When great folk fall, they bring down smaller folk in their train." He sucked on his pipe. "It is a thousand pities you were called upon to identify the body. You should not have had to appear in this matter at all."

I shrugged, trying unsuccessfully to push from my mind the memory of that bloodied carcass I had seen in the morning. "Shall we go in? It grows cold."

"As you wish."

It seemed to me that there was a note of regret in Dansey's voice. We walked slowly back to the house – slowly, because his footsteps lagged. The moon was very bright, and our feet crunched on the silver lawn. The house reared up in front of us, the moon full on its garden front.

Dansey laid a hand on my arm. "Tom? I may call you that, may I not? Pray call me Ned. I do not wish-"

"Hush," I said. "Look – someone is watching us. Do you see? The third attic from the left."

The window belonged to the chamber Morley and Quird had shared with Charlie Frant. We quickened our pace, and a moment later passed into the house.

"Moonlight plays strange tricks," Dansey said.

I shook my head. "I saw a face. Just for a moment."

That night I slept dreamlessly, though I had feared my nightmares of carnage would return after the sight I had seen in Jacob Orton's shed.

In my waking hours, the school itself was better than any medicine. For the next few days, our lives continued their placid course, seemingly unchanged. Nevertheless, news continued to reach us from the outside world. The man who had been taken into custody was the brother of the builder, Mr Owens, who had committed suicide. The brother was said to be subject to fits of ungovernable rage; reputable witnesses had heard him utter threats against Henry Frant, whom he held responsible for his brother's suicide; he was a violent man, and had nearly killed a neighbour whom he suspected of making sheep's eyes at his wife. But the following day, the magistrates ordered his release. It transpired that he had spent the evening of the night in question drinking at his uncle's house, and had shared a bed with his cousin; and so his family would give him an alibi.

The inquest came and went. I was not called to give evidence, much to my relief and to Mr Bransby's. Mr Frant's confidential clerk, a man named Arndale who had known him for the better part of twenty years, had no hesitation in identifying the body as his master's. The jury brought in a verdict of murder against person or persons unknown.

Despite the horrific manner of his death, there were few expressions of grief for Mr Frant or of sympathy for his widow. As information emerged about the collapse of Wavenhoe's Bank and the reasons for it, the public prints hastened to condemn him.

The extent of Frant's depredations was never known for certain, but I heard sums ranging from £200,000 to upwards of half a million. Many of the bank's customers, secure in the good name of Wavenhoe's, had appointed Mr Wavenhoe and Mr Frant as their trustees. As such, Frant had purchased hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of stock in the three per cent Consols. In the last three years, he had forged powers of attorney enabling him to sell this stock. Mr Wavenhoe had signed the documents put before him, though doubtless he was unaware of their significance. The name of a third partner, another of the trustees, had been forged on all occasions, as had several of the subscribing witnesses. Mr Frant had converted the proceeds from these sales to his own use, retaining sufficient funds to allow him to pay dividends to the bank's customers, thereby preventing their suspicions from being aroused.

Arndale, Frant's clerk, claimed to have known nothing of this. (Dansey thought the man had avoided prosecution by co-operating with the authorities.) Arndale confirmed that the house had been badly hit by the withdrawal of Mr Carswall's capital. He also testified that the bank had made many advances to speculative builders, which had rendered necessary a system of discounting, and that Mr Frant had subsequently been obliged to make further advances to these persons, in order to secure the sums in which they already stood indebted. In addition, rumours continued to circulate to the effect that Mr Frant had been addicted to play, and that he had lost large sums of money at cards and at dice in private houses.

"Whoever killed him did the hangman a favour," Dansey said. "If Frant weren't already dead, they'd have tried him for forgery and sent him to the gallows for uttering."

At the time there was much speculation as to whether Mrs Frant had been privy to her husband's schemes. Some found her doubly guilty by association, for was she not the wife of one partner and the niece of another? Not everyone agreed.

"A man does not discuss his business dealings with his wife," Dansey argued. "No, she is guilty merely by association. The public prefers a living scapegoat, if at all possible."

What made matters worse was that Mrs Frant had no one to speak in her defence. Mr Carswall had given her the shelter of his roof but he remained silent on this head and on all others. She was said to be suffering from a fever, her spirits quite overthrown by the double tragedy of her husband's murder and the revelation of his crimes.