JACK OF DIAMONDS

Part 4...Chapter 13

Welcome to the PAYWALL...

This is a recap of my serial Novel JACK OF DIAMONDS.

Artemus Spencer is a cad, a liar, and a cheat; he’s a womanizer and a thief.

He’s gotten himself mixed up in a whole lot of trouble with a London gangster named Charlie, who heads a gang of thugs known as The Hammerboys. For some unknown reason, Charlie wants our man Artie to steal a Stradivarius violin from one of the Manor Houses in Chumley Grove in the Devonshire countryside. Charlie says they have a friend in common in Artie’s old war buddy, Reggie O’Dowd, who owns a farm in Devon…near the village of Chumley.

Reggie’s a changed man now that he lives peacefully in the countryside. He even has a woman in his life, who happens to be the cook at one of the Manor Houses in Chumley Grove. Mandalay. The night Artie arrives at the train station, it is raining. It has been raining for untold days, and so much so, the Chumley River has overflowed its banks, flooding Reggie’s fields and ruining his crops. He packs up what little he manages to save and brings it out to Mandalay. When they get there, Claire, Reggie’s special girl and the main cook at Mandalay, gets into an argument with Carhill, the Head Butler.

Claire quits her job in anger.

Two weeks later, there’s a break-in at one of the Houses: Mandalay.

Artie, our intrepid thief, has waited for both the family and the servants to leave the Manor House and attend the Chumley Fair, a yearly event held in the village. With the house empty, Artie knows he can be in and out within an hour. Except…

Jennifer Ashcroft. Jenny. She has stayed behind with her baby, waiting, but giving up on her husband ever coming home. She’s convinced he’s having an affair. She sees Artie as he runs across the yard and scales the outside of the Manor House, gaining access to one of the upper floor balconies. She runs to intercept him.

She is caught out by him, however and is soon trussed up on the floor of the Grand Salon. She offers to make him a deal. He says she’s in no position to make deals. When she says that she’ll do anything, he undoes the buttons to his fly and tells her to prove it.

She does.

It isn’t long before her husband Roger comes home and threatens to punish her and take his reward as her husband. He rips the bedclothes back and pulls her nightgown apart as he intends to ravage her. Artie, hiding outside on the balcony, rushes in and beats her husband severely. Artie tells her to phone the local constabulary, and reminds her that she’s still his partner. She says she refuses to honour the deal, and he tells her he’ll be back in the morning when he returns the horse he’s taking.

Nigel Bannister is one of the Constables at Chumley.

He has dreams of becoming a world famous artist, and sits in the station minding the phone while the Fair is underway. He is drawing a pencil sketch. Charlie, a second Constable, enters and makes his way up the stairs, and the phone rings. It is Jenny Ashcroft, who claims there was a thief who broke into the house to rob it, and beat up her husband when he surprised the man stealing her brother’s violin. She tells him to bring the doctor.

Nigel rides his motorcycle out to the Manor House. He means to start the investigation, hoping to impress the Detective Inspector when he arrives in the morning.

And now, we meet Prince Igor…