The Droitwich Deceivers by Kerry Tombs Page B

We mean you no harm,’ said Ravenscroft walking slowly towards the stone.
    ‘Old John is too quick for thee!’ taunted the man, pulling an ugly face as he moved swiftly across to another stone.
    ‘Stop where you are,’ commanded Crabb. ‘It’s the law.’
    ‘Don’t like peelers. Can’t catch me! Can’t catch Old John!’
    The man moved swiftly away from the approaching detectives , flinging his arms in the air and laughing as he did so.
    ‘We only want to ask you some questions about the girl who disappeared,’ called out Ravenscroft. ‘You are not in any trouble. There is nothing to fear.’
    ‘Can’t catch Old John!’
    ‘Did you see anything? Did you see who took her?’ asked Ravenscroft trying to keep up with the movements of the strange figure.
    ‘Can’t catch Old John!’ taunted the man.
    ‘For goodness sake stop still!’ commanded a frustrated Ravenscroft.
    Suddenly the man came to an abrupt halt before a large vault in the corner of the churchyard, before issuing a loud piercing scream. ‘No, you shan’t have Old John! You can’t have me as well!’ he cried.
    ‘Good God,’ called out Ravenscroft, taken aback by the man’s fear. ‘Whatever ails you man?’
    ‘You can’t have me! He’s come back for me! Come back for me!’ repeated the man pointing at the tomb.
    ‘See if you can get round the other side of him, Tom,’ instructed Ravenscroft as they moved nearer the figure.
    ‘He has come back for me! Master has come back for me. Yer not taking Old John!’ shouted the man briefly turning in the detectives’ direction, before laughing out loud once more, and darting quickly from the churchyard. ‘Can’t catch Old John!’
    ‘Shall I get after him sir?’ asked Crabb, as the figure disappeared from view.
    ‘I fear he will be too quick for us again, Tom. Let him go.’
    ‘Strange fellow. How old do you think he was, sir?’
    ‘Difficult to tell by his dirty bedraggled appearance. Certainly many years older than you or me.’
    ‘Fellow was half-soaked if you ask me.’
    ‘Did you notice how he stopped suddenly by that vault and let out that loud scream? You would have thought that he had seen a ghost of some sort. How odd!. We’ll make enquiries in the town tomorrow and see what people can tell us about him.’
    ‘Don’t expect he can help us anyway,’ added Crabb.
    ‘I’m inclined to agree with you. If the man did see the girl being abducted, I doubt whether he would have any sense at all to describe the event to us. Come Tom, the night is drawing in. We can’t do any more today; let us return home.’

CHAPTER SIX
Ledbury
    ‘W ell my dear it seems that we are both faced with mysteries that may prove difficult to solve.’
    Ravenscroft was sitting with his wife, later that evening, before a roaring fire in their small house in Church Lane.
    ‘But what am I to tell poor Miss Corbett?’ asked Lucy.
    ‘I think it was very bold of you to take yourself off to Cheltenham like that,’ replied Ravenscroft seeking to evade the question.
    ‘I could do little else. If you had seen how distressed she was, in this very room, you would also have felt compelled to do all within your power to reunite her with her poor infant child.’
    ‘I am sure there must be some logical explanation for all this,’ said Ravenscroft, placing another log on the fire whilst attempting to lighten his wife’s anxiety.
    ‘That is what I thought, but you have seen the letter. Twenty-two Suffolk Square, Montpelier, Cheltenham. Mrs Amelia Huddlestone. There is no other address it could be, and no one in the area has heard of the Huddlestones.’
    ‘Then I think we must conclude that the woman Huddlestone gave a false name and address.’
    ‘But why, Samuel? Why would she do that? I do not understand what she could gain by such deception.’
    ‘You say that, according to Miss Corbett, this woman Huddlestone had just lost her own child and that that was the reason for her anxiety, and for her