☆ ᴡᴀᴛᴛʏꜱ 2024 SHORTLISTER!! ☆
A tragic misunderstanding. A murder. A secret. An unlikely partnership. A spirited countess and an enterprising racketeer.
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Manchester, England. May 1925.
The Roarin' 20s. An era of glamor, decadent parties, jazz mus...
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“So, your first day on the job, and you already got Gallagher's heir takin' ya out for drinks,” William summarized. He let out a low whistle. “Lad has a loose tongue, does he?”
Rose expelled a humorless laugh. “He does. A loose tongue and a volatile disposition.”
William ran a hand across his jaw, his eyes focused on the far wall. “And he doesn't seem thrilled with his father.”
“Not at all,” Rose affirmed. “Jimmy didn't have a single polite or respectful thing to say about Mr. Gallagher at any point during our outing. I actually met him because they were having a quarrel in the office. And according to multiple factory employees, that's something of a daily occurrence.”
“Is that right?” William's voice carried the distant quality Rose had come to recognize signified that he was deep in thought. He nodded slowly. “What do they row about?”
“Hmmm, well, where to begin..?” Rose mused. “Everything? So I've gathered? Gallagher's businesses, his expectations of Jimmy, his ‘legacy,’ Jimmy's nonexistent sense of responsibility, Jimmy's lack of interest, appearing prestigious to the masses, money... Yes, money most of all.”
“No surprise there,” William said with another nod. “Good. Specifics?”
Rose thought back to Jimmy's alcohol-fueled verbal outpouring. There was a great deal of rubbish to sift through among the golden trinkets of valuable information.
“He doesn't like how stingy his father is with money. Says it's a ‘waste’,” she reported. “I get the impression that he simply wants a bigger allowance. He also told me that his father owns multiple properties under false names — for tax evasion purposes, I'm sure.”
“I'm sure, too,” William agreed.
“Quite. Let's see…” Rose said, her brow furrowed in remembrance. “Ah. Jimmy went on and on about his father's paranoia of organized institution. Apparently, Mr. Gallagher doesn't trust banks or notaries, therefore he keeps the deeds and documentation to all his businesses and holdings in his own personal safe. Where the safe is, I don't know, but I'm sure the location won't be difficult to suss out. Jimmy bragged at great length that he can get in the safe any time he likes, and told me repeatedly that in ten or twenty years, he'll be ‘the richest man in Manchester’.”
She paused and studied William's face. He sniffed and leaned back in his chair.
“We'll see about that,” he murmured. “What else?”
“Well, according to Jimmy, before they settled in Manchester, Mr. Gallagher's family relocated to Beauvais, France,” Rose continued. “Thanks to damage from the war, Mr. Gallagher was able to buy up properties and businesses in Beauvais exactly as he's doing in Manchester now. And based on some tidbits Jimmy was too dense to realize he was dropping, I deduced that there were other cities before Beauvais. I think Mr. Gallagher has been doing this ‘relocate and seize’ operation for years. Possibly decades. Hence his wealth.”
