An Invisible Betrayal: A Myles Devereux Tudor Murder Mystery Set in London (Myles Devereux Murder Mysteries Book 1) by Sam Burnell

Author:Sam Burnell [Burnell, Sam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-08-28T22:00:00+00:00

An hour later, backed by his men, Myles stalked into the Angel, where he found the man he wanted to talk to.

“You do like to ruin my game?” Fitzwarren complained as he followed Myles into his private room.

“To hell with your game, Fitzwarren,” Myles grumbled, kicking the door closed with a slam.

“What’s happened?” Fitzwarren asked.

“It’s created more questions than answers?” Myles produced the sheet Richard Fitzwarren had given him a few days ago.

Richard’s eyes flicked down to the sheet, but he didn’t take it. “How so?”

Myles hitched himself onto the edge of the table. “The printer accepts that he used Galveston to produce bills for his clients and says he had a batch to collect, but Galveston was murdered before he did. Those bills weren’t in his office. We’d have seen them.”

“Burnt?” Fitzwarren asked.

“Possibly,” Myles conceded.

“A man had been murdered, and you didn’t check to see if anything had been disposed of in the fire?” Fitzwarren said, an incredulous note in his voice.

“No, I didn’t,” Myles said heatedly.

“What did you find out from the printer?” Fitzwarren asked.

“That the Printer is a liar. He clearly saw the name at the bottom of that sheet but professes that he didn’t know Galveston’s surname until after he was murdered. He identified a watermark which might allow me to trace the paper, and the spelling of the words are not commonly used amongst London printers,” Myles summarised.

Fitzwarren raised the sheet from the desk holding it over the candle, evidently searching for the watermark.

“It’s towards the top, in the middle,” Myles advised, pointing. “It’s a circle with a cross inside it.”

“That has to make it easier to trace,” Fitzwarren said, his eyes on the page.

“Hmmm, perhaps. Preston advised me to take it to the Stationers Guild. They control all the paper imports, so they might be able to trace this to a shipment from the watermark,” Myles said, looking up from the sheet and meeting Fitzwarren’s gaze.

“And .…” Myles hesitated.

Fitzwarren looked at him closely. “And what?”

“One of my debtors, one that Galveston was falsely accounting for, has been found dead,” Myles said bluntly.

“Killed or died, there is a significant difference,” Fitzwarren questioned, a slight smile on his face.

“Murdered. Hanged from a beam in her house. The fat shit, Justice Daytrew, brought me the news?”

“A short-sighted man would be looking towards you as the culprit,” Fitzwarren said thoughtfully, laying the sheet on a table.

“I know,” Myles said gloomily. “When he came to the White Hart, he had armed men with him. And there’s more. Her son, who has now disappeared, seems to have been the man who nailed that religious Heresy up around the city. Galveston worked for the printer, and I think he was stealing from me to have these printed. He’d know the murdered woman’s son was short of coin and would be easy to persuade to put them up for him.”

“It fits together, I agree. It doesn’t answer one question, though,” Fitzwarren said.

“What question?” Myles asked.

“Why was your book-keeper murdered,” Fitzwarren said.

“I don’t bloody care,” Myles shot back.

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