Mrs Pargeter's Principle: A cozy mystery featuring the return of Mrs Pargeter

by Simon Brett

Overview

A cozy featuring the return of Mrs Pargeter

For Mrs Pargeter, it is a matter of principle that she should complete any of her late husband’s unfinished business. Amongst the many bequests he made to her, perhaps the most valuable is his little black book, in which he listed all the people who ever worked for him, with details of their particular skill sets. This means that whenever Mrs P has a crime to solve she can readily contact someone with the relevant expertise to help in her enquiries.

Attending the funeral of the rich and respected Sir Normington Winthrop, because his is one of the names in the little black book, Mrs Pargeter sets out to discover the connection between Sir Normington and her late husband. Her investigations will draw her into a shady world of gun-runners, shifty politicians – and a kidnapped vicar.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780106533
Publisher:	Severn House Publishers
Publication date:	08/01/2015
Series:	Mrs. Pargeter Series , #7
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	79,879
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Simon Brett worked as a producer in radio and television before taking up writing full-time. He is the author of the much-loved Fethering mysteries, Charles Paris series and the Mrs Pargeter novels. In 2014 he was awarded the Crime Writers' Association's prestigious Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence and contribution to crime writing. He lives in an Agatha Christie-style village in the South Downs.

Read an Excerpt

Mrs Pargeter's Principle

A Mrs Pargeter Mystery

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By Simon Brett

Severn House Publishers Limited

Copyright © 2015 Simon Brett
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-78010-653-3

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CHAPTER 1

Given the fact that they were all at a funeral, it was a surprisingly jolly occasion. But then Sir Normington Winthrop had led a very happy and full life – considerably fuller, in fact, than many of the mourners in the Abbey knew.

Certainly fuller than his widow knew. It had been a second marriage for Normington, and Helena, the new Lady Winthrop, fearful of feeling jealous of his deceased first wife and for other reasons best known to herself, had enquired very little about her husband's past.

Which, in the view of a few people attending his funeral, was probably all to the good.

The congregation that April morning represented quite a wide spectrum of society. Cabinet ministers and City magnates filled the front few pews. Then there were representatives of the many charities to which Sir Normington had devoted so much of his money and time, as well as members of his livery companies. Business associates, many in the white robes of their Middle Eastern origins, occupied more pews. And any spaces left were filled with more of the Great and the Good.

But one row contained three people who looked different from the rest. Not out of place exactly, but different. The focus of the group, to whom the two men seemed to defer, was a comfortingly plump woman wearing a black dress with a design of bright-red poppies on it, which contrived to look both striking and respectful of the occasion. A black straw hat and some fairly elaborate jewellery added to the ensemble. And black high heels showed off surprisingly well-shaped legs.

On her right sat a good-looking young man in a dark chauffeur's uniform. To the other side of her was a tall, lugubrious man with the mournful expression of a bloodhound for whom the Botox hadn't worked. He was slightly scruffily dressed, but did have a black tie anchored round his crumpled shirt collar. The expression on the face of each man, when looking at the woman, demonstrated a devotion little short of adoration.

The woman's name was Mrs Pargeter.

The chauffeur beside her was called Gary. He ran a very busy car-hire company, but he always saw to it that he was personally available when Mrs Pargeter required transport.

The tall man was a private detective called Truffler Mason. The one thing the two men had in common was that they had both worked for Mrs Pargeter's late husband. And she had found them entered into the most valuable bequest that her husband had left her – a little black book containing the names of all his associates with descriptions of their specialist abilities. It was amazing what services she could access through that little black book, where names and contacts were stored under such headings as 'Lock Specialists', 'Missing Persons Investigators' or 'Armourers'.

The little black book, indeed, provided the sole reason why Mrs Pargeter was attending the funeral. The name of Normington Winthrop appeared in its pages, and she thought the possibility unlikely that there were many Normington Winthrops around, so when she read the obituary and funeral notice in the Daily Mail Mrs Pargeter decided she had to attend. It was a matter of principle for her to show proper respect to anyone who had worked for her late husband. Besides, it was the kind of occasion where she might well meet other of the late Mr Pargeter's associates. And if she found any of them suffering any kind of hardship, Mrs Pargeter regarded it as another matter of principle to provide help for them. She was really just carrying on her husband's unfinished business.

And if either of the men sitting in the row with her had been asked what the late Mr Pargeter's business actually was, each one of them would unhesitatingly have replied that he was a philanthropist.

A fleet of limousines took the mourners from the Abbey to an exclusive hotel near Victoria Station (rumoured to be patronized by minor royals for saucy frolics), where in a private room the post-funeral drinks would be consumed.

Helena Winthrop, in designer black, did not look prostrated by grief, but then she had been brought up in the upper-class British tradition that any display of emotion was unseemly and embarrassing. Also, her face no longer had the capacity for much change of emotion. Feeling the approach of age, she'd had some work done, which had left her with an expression of permanent surprise at how old she was.

She had acted as hostess at many public events for her husband and appeared to bring the same professionalism to this one as she had to all the others. The absence of Sir Normington on this occasion was not something to which she thought attention should be drawn ... though her guests did seem to want to keep talking about him.

Mrs Pargeter, experienced in widowhood, wondered whether Helena Winthrop would fall apart into a weeping mess the minute she got back to her empty Mayfair home, but rather doubted it. Unshakeable stoicism was ingrained into women of Helena's class. She had spent so long suppressing her emotions, Mrs Pargeter reckoned, that she wouldn't recognize a genuine one if it bit her on the bum.

The men who had shared the row in the Abbey with Mrs Pargeter did not recognize anyone else at the reception, which she thought was a little odd. If Normington Winthrop had really worked with the late Mr Pargeter, she would have expected more of his former associates to come to the funeral. Mutual support had been one of the guiding principles of her late husband's business. She had an uncharacteristic moment of doubt. Maybe the world did contain more than one Normington Winthrop.

Though Mrs Pargeter was quite capable of introducing herself easily to strangers on such occasions, this time she was content to stay within her own group. She saw a lot of Gary when he chauffeured her around, but it was a while since she'd had a good chat with Truffler Mason. Anyway, the champagne and the nibbles were of a very high quality. And the waiting staff were very efficient at keeping everyone's glasses topped up. So it was not an unpleasant way of passing a Thursday morning.

Truffler was a close colleague who had worked on most of the late Mr Pargeter's projects. After his patron's death, like many of the great man's former employees, he had adapted his skills into a more traditionally legitimate area of endeavour. In Truffler's case this had meant setting himself up as a private investigator in the Mason De Vere Detective Agency. (There was, incidentally, no 'De Vere' involved in the business. Truffler just thought the extra name made his set-up sound classier. And it avoided time-wasting phone calls from men with funny handshakes who kept talking about lodges.)

'So, how's business?' asked Mrs Pargeter, in a voice that still retained a hint of her Essex origins.

'Can't complain,' said Truffler, in a voice that sounded as though it was permanently complaining. If he had been announcing that he'd won the jackpot on the National Lottery, he would still have sounded as though he'd just lost a close relative. It was just the way he talked.

'A bit of missing persons stuff,' he went on, 'but it's still mostly matrimonial. Wives checking on husbands, husbands checking on wives. You keep reading about "open marriages", people not getting upset about their partner having the odd fling ... Well, you wouldn't believe it from the kind of work that comes my way. Betrayal still seems to hurt as much as it ever did. I'd say people are more vindictive now than they ever have been. Lot of them still insist that if there's evidence of an affair, then that's the end of the marriage.'

Mrs Pargeter smiled sympathetically. Fortunately, that was something she and her late husband had never had to worry about. They had both been so wrapped up in each other that the thought of sneaking off with someone else would never have occurred to either of them. She had, she knew, been very lucky. And though in her years of widowhood other men had come on to her – she was still a very attractive woman – she had never been even mildly tempted. She knew that none of them could ever match up to the late Mr Pargeter.

'But, of course,' said Truffler, 'you know that if ever you have need of my services, you have only to say the word, and I'll drop everything to help you out. You know that, don't you?'

'I do indeed. And it's a very comforting thing to know.' Mrs Pargeter smiled a warm broad smile. She was very appreciative of the nurturing backup she received from her late husband's associates. 'And anything on the Old Boy front?'

It was part of a code between them. The 'Old Boys' referred to the wider circle of people (mostly men) who had been involved in the late Mr Pargeter's business enterprises. Truffler Mason kept in touch with them, quick to detect if any were experiencing troubles in their lives. He acted as a kind of benign pension consultant (if that expression is not an oxymoron), reporting cases of hardship to Mrs Pargeter. And she would frequently provide financial aid to the needy from the very considerable fortune that her late husband had amassed during his hard-working life.

'Heard of a couple for whom things aren't so fine and dandy,' Truffler replied. 'Do you remember old "Gizmo" Gilbert?'

'I might have heard the name, but I never met him.' Mr Pargeter had, quite shrewdly, only introduced his wife to a very close circle of his associates. One of his mantras had always been 'what you don't know about you can't tell anyone else about'.

'Gizmo was one of the greats,' said Truffler Mason.

'I'll say,' Gary the chauffeur endorsed gleefully.

'Electronic whizz, old Gizmo,' Truffler went on. 'Way ahead of the game, he was. Now we take for granted remote controls on everything: change channel on your telly, turn your lights on, close your curtains. Gizmo Gilbert was doing that kind of technology way before it was available commercially.'

'Yes.' Gary chuckled. 'Remember that thing he done that could open the main doors of the Shoreditch branch of NatWest Bank from the other side of the road? And open the vaults and all?'

'I'll say!' For a moment Truffler Mason almost sounded enthusiastic. 'One invention of his that stays with me is the thing that jammed the firing mechanisms on all the guns Dobbyboy Pelton's lot was going to use in the Southampton bullion job.'

'And then there was that little zapper he invented what put an electric current through the handcuffs the cops were carrying ...' Gary's words trickled away as he saw the expression of bemused puzzlement on Mrs Pargeter's face.

'I'm sorry,' she said with naive innocence, 'but I'm afraid I haven't understood a word of what you've just been saying.'

'Ah, well, it wasn't really that important,' mumbled Gary.

'No.' Truffler Mason also recovered himself. 'What is important, though, is that Gizmo Gilbert's fallen on hard times. He's still trying to produce his inventions ...' He caught a look in Mrs Pargeter's eye which made him say, 'Different stuff now. More domestic applications than, er, professional. But nobody seems to want what he's offering any more. Modern technology's, like, caught up with him. Besides, he's nearly eighty, and the arthritis is getting to the old fingers. He's not, like, as dexterous as he used to be in his workshop.'

'So he needs help?' asked Mrs Pargeter.

'Certainly. But it's got to be done subtle, like.'

'How d'ya mean?' Gary asked.

'Well, a geezer like Gizmo Gilbert's got his pride. He won't take a handout from no one – even refuses to take his state pension. Says he didn't contribute enough in the right way to justify him having it. So the approach has got to be, like I say, subtle.'

'"Subtle" is my middle name,' said Mrs Pargeter.

'Really?' said Gary. 'That's unusual. Why did your parents choose that?'

She looked into his honest, confused face and decided it wasn't worth explaining. Instead, she said to Truffler, 'Give me Gizmo Gilbert's contacts and I'll pay him a visit. Anyone else in trouble?'

'Well, there's "Passport" Pinkerton. Know the name?'

Again, Mrs Pargeter replied vaguely that she might have heard it mentioned. 'Why, what's wrong with him?'

'I'm afraid he's snuffed it,' said Truffler Mason, at last finding a topic appropriate to his lugubrious delivery.

'I am sorry to hear that. Natural death, was it?'

'Yes. Pancreatic cancer.'

'Oh dear.'

'The thing is, though, I only found out recently, but since your husband died, Passport Pinkerton never had two pennies to rub together.'

Instant concern came into Mrs Pargeter's violet-blue eyes. 'We should have helped him.'

'He didn't make it easy for us to do that. Moved to the Costa Brava and lived undercover there, different name and all.'

'But what went wrong with his career? My husband was always very good at helping people out with vocational retraining and what-have-you.'

'Yes, he was. Very generous man.' Truffler allowed a moment of silent respect. 'Passport's problem was – like Gizmo Gilbert's, though in a different way – the new technology. I mean, he was an artist, old Passport. Learnt his skills when he was a prisoner of war in Colditz. He could reproduce any document you wanted – all done with his ink-pens and paint brushes. And he still made a good living from that after the war.

'But then all this fancy new printing and photocopying technology come in. No need for the gifted artist then; just someone who could feed data into a computer. And another fine traditional craft had been superseded.' Truffler Mason shook his head at the inexorable – and not always beneficial – advance of science.

'Why did Passport Pinkerton change his name when he went out to Spain?' asked Mrs Pargeter.

'Well ...' Truffler phrased his words carefully. 'I think he may have done some things that put him on the wrong side of the law.'

Mrs Pargeter tutted. 'And my husband was always so insistent that his associates should stay on the right side of the law.'

'I know. In Passport's case, though, I think it was incompetence rather than criminality that let him down.'

'Yes.' Gary grimaced. 'Putting his contact details in the Yellow Pages under "Forgery" didn't help.'

Truffler Mason nodded morose agreement.

'Hm.' Mrs Pargeter nodded too. 'So, what's needed? Money to pay the funeral expenses?'

'I think that might be handy – unless it's already happened. But more importantly, Passport's got this daughter called Samantha, and I gather she's feeling the pinch.'

'Introduce me to her,' said Mrs Pargeter.

A man whose shoulders were so broad that he'd have looked better in a T-shirt than in the dark suit he was wearing approached their little group. Without preamble he addressed the one female member. His public school-educated voice was at odds with his bruiser-like appearance. 'I'm told you're the widow of the late Mr Pargeter.'

She didn't deny it.

'I just want to say I don't want you talking to Lady Winthrop.'

'I think whether I do that or not,' said Mrs Pargeter evenly, 'is rather up to me.'

'But there's nothing for you to say to her.'

'I believe it is appropriate at such occasions to offer condolences to the bereaved.' As well as formality, there was a new iciness in her tone.

'Not in this case,' the man almost snarled. 'Keep away from her.'

There was a restlessness in the two men either side of Mrs Pargeter, both of whom reckoned the correct response to the man's manner was a firm fist to the chin. Gary the chauffeur was already clenching his hand in preparation. But Mrs Pargeter calmed them with a gesture.

'Anyway,' the man went on, 'it is not appropriate for you to speak to Lady Winthrop. You haven't been introduced to her.'

'If you're a stickler for that convention,' said Mrs Pargeter, 'then why haven't you introduced yourself to me?'

He was a little thrown by that and conceded his name. 'I'm Edmund Grainger.'

'Well, Edmund Grainger, I don't really see why I should do what you tell me.'

'Because if you don't –' his voice hissed with menace – 'it'll be the worse for you.'

At that threat, Truffler Mason also clenched his fists. But again she defused the tension with a gesture.

'We're leaving now,' she said with considerable dignity. 'I have never liked to stay in a place where I am not wanted.'

And she was still dignified as she led Gary and Truffler out of the room.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Mrs Pargeter's Principle by Simon Brett. Copyright © 2015 Simon Brett. Excerpted by permission of Severn House Publishers Limited.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Editorial Reviews

Great fun, a delightfully madcap romp

Booklist Starred Review