Christina James [DI Yates 03] Sausage Hall (v5.0) (epub)

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.There was some suggestion that he was a misogynist, a trait that he would have shared with Frederick Jacobs if they’d met.The article even contained veiled hints that Rhodes had been homosexual.It didn’t state this directly, though, just as the journal wasn’t explicit about Frederick’s sexuality.There was still nothing to link the two men, though.Katrin flipped through several paragraphs about African colonial politics.She could barely understand them – the article was too brief to provide a proper context – but, although whoever had written it continued to describe Rhodes’ activities with adulation, she found the great white man’s outlook on life and the long list of his ‘achievements’ distasteful.Even allowing for the massive changes in attitude to colonialism and the subjugation of non-Europeans that had taken place in the eleven decades since his death, Rhodes’ ambition and his cruel treatment – not to mention trickery – of African ‘natives’ was indefensible.The hubris of his eventual success in naming Rhodesia after himself could not be disguised by hagiography.Skimming the details of Rhodes’ frequent conflicts with black Africans, Katrin started to read more thoroughly when the account turned to his relations with British politicians and Queen Victoria.By dint of the most shamelessly crass flattery, he’d had the old Queen eating out of his hand (no surprise there!), but Joseph Chamberlain, the British colonial secretary, appeared to have seen through him.Katrin was just struggling through the detail of why Chamberlain thought that Rhodes was in breach of the law when a couple of dates caught her attention.Rhodes was in England in 1892 and again in 1896.She’d have to wait until she got the journal back again before she could verify it, but she thought that at least the latter of these dates coincided with one of Frederick Jacobs’ periodic run-ins with his mother about ‘Mr Rhodes’.She was certain that Frederick had been frequently absent from home in the mid-1890s.Was it possible that he’d spent some of that time in Africa?She scrolled back to the top of the article again.Cecil Rhodes seemed to be close to his many brothers and sisters, but there was no record of their having lived in Lincolnshire.The sisters looked as if they might yield more promising clues than the brothers, who seemed to have dispersed themselves to all corners of the Empire as soon as they were able; reading further, she saw that one of the sisters had spent time with Rhodes in Africa, too.“Rhodes left nothing to his sister.” the article said.She carried out a further search for the sister and found nothing more of interest.She moved to the next page of the search engine, then on to the third.Halfway down the page she read: “Mrs Rhodes’ sister, Sophia Peacock, lived at Sleaford Manor.” Excited, she clicked on the link.It took her some minutes to find the extract that she was looking for; infuriatingly, the link led first to the title page of a digitised text entitled Makers of the Nineteenth Century.Impatiently, Katrin ploughed through it until she reached the quoted passage:Mrs Rhodes’ sister, Sophia Peacock, lived at Sleaford Manor in the Belvoir country, where she often had one or more of the vicar’s children to stay, her special favourite being Frank, whom she practically adopted.Cecil was often there for the holidays, and found himself in a circle of relations and acquaintances.His aunt Sophy was always a good friend to him, and she was one of the few to whom in those early days he confided his plans and aspirations.Some Willson cousins lived two miles away at Rauceby; the Finch Hattons at Haverholm close by, and the family of Mr.Yerburgh, rector of Sleaford, were close friends, and Frank had Eton companions to stay there.There’s the link! Katrin was exultant.Rhodes had had an aunt in Sleaford and spent a chunk of his childhood there.How far was it from Sleaford to Sutterton? Eighteen miles, or 26 minutes by car, Google informed her.It was close enough for Rhodes and Frederick Jacobs to have had friends or acquaintances in common and therefore opportunities to meet socially.There was something else about the paragraph that tugged at Katrin’s memory as she was reading it.She worked through it again, more slowly.Rauceby! The hospital was familiar to her as a now defunct former refuge for the mentally ill.Although it was now no longer in use, she’d visited it on one occasion, when it had been opened to the public, and in common with others had shuddered at the padded cell, the facilities for electric shock treatment and other barbarisms that had seemed more fitting props for the Middle Ages than the twentieth century.She half-remembered that, before it became a ‘mental hospital’, in the late nineteenth century it had been a sanatorium – an isolation hospital for sufferers from tuberculosis.She knew from the Wikipedia article that Rhodes had been a delicate child.Had he been diagnosed with tuberculosis? Frederick Jacobs was also frequently ill – or at any rate as an adult used indisposition as an excuse for not fulfilling his farming duties.Had he also been sent to the Rauceby sanatorium when he was young?Eton was another possible line of enquiry.She knew that Cecil himself had not been sent to the school like his brother, ostensibly because of his poor health, but possibly also because his father’s finances could not stand the strain of paying two sets of fees.But his elder brother Frank, the Etonian, was Aunt Sophy’s favourite and he and Cecil, who were close, both stayed with her.Perhaps Frederick was originally one of Frank’s school friends?Katrin accessed several more promising articles, but could find nothing to link the two men directly.Still, she felt exhilarated.She’d discovered enough coincidences and common interests for it to be probable that they were acquaintances, colleagues, or even friends.She’d need to dig deeper by consulting more scholarly material about Rhodes: an authentic biography that mapped his life in detail.She might even be able to find more about Frederick Jacobs; in old Lincolnshire directories, for example.She’d need to visit the county archives and a big library.Katrin cut and pasted the snippet about Aunt Sophy, added it to the Wikipedia article about Rhodes, saved it and printed the whole lot out for Juliet.She scribbled a few sentences to Juliet, addressed an envelope and consigned all the documents to the post tray.Juliet would receive it the following day and would no doubt agree with Katrin’s deductions.But neither of them could get further until she unearthed more information.Finding the opportunity for this would be the next challenge.Katrin sighed as she forced herself back to the de Vries accounts.She knew that, however diligently she worked on these for Superintendent Thornton, he wouldn’t allow her to pursue her Rhodes leads in work hours.As Juliet was still in hospital, she’d probably have to sacrifice a day’s holiday to the cause.Forty-ThreeThe whole nightmarish episode with Archie was even worse than I expected it to be.I asked the little twat of a housemaster how best to break it to him and with sickening coyness he offered to break it to Archie himself.I told him in no uncertain terms where to get off, which meant that I was probably not in the best frame of mind when Archie was eventually brought to me.I blurted out that Joanna was dead very clumsily.But to be honest, there was no good way of doing it, no chance ever of softening the blow [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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