Work Text:
He could hear the laughter from the next room. She always had such a lovely laugh. He wondered to himself, not for the first time, why he didn’t respond more thoroughly to her charms. Then he reminded himself, also not for the first time, that she was unlikely to find herself tied down to one gent.
Phryne walked in from the direction of the kitchen, with a fella on each arm, her laughter peeling through the halls of her home as she entertained her various guests.
Right. Not a one-man lady. He smiled ruefully, having just had a phone call that would take him away from even the shared charms of Miss Fisher’s celebrations.
“Phryne, I’m afraid I’ve been called to finish up that case we were working on earlier this week. I’ll have to take my leave. I shouldn’t be long, one or two hours at most.”
“Oh, Jack! Let me come with you. No one should have to be alone on Christmas Eve!”
Jack protested, “But your party is just getting, eh, busy. You’ll want to entertain your guests.”
“Oh, pishaw!” She turned to the two gentlemen who had escorted her in the drawing room, “You two will be just fine till we get back, right?” As she said this, she steered them in the direction of a couple of young ladies who had just arrived at the party. “Of course you will! Jack, just let me get my wrap and I’ll come with you!”
As Phryne sailed into the front hall to find her wrap, Jack heard her saying, “Dot, I’ll be back in a couple of hours, you and Butler will make sure our guests have what they need till I get back?”
“Of course, Miss Fisher. We’ll take care of it!”
“Jack? Didn’t you say you were in a bit of a hurry?”
He couldn’t help but grin to himself at all of this. It was so like Phryne. “On my way, Phryne!”
The two of them exited the mansion and jumped in Jack’s car, headed to only he knew where.
As they wended their way through Melbourne streets on a slightly damp evening, Phryne had to smile to herself. Jack was such a dear. If only he’d loosen up just a little, they could have a wonderful time of it. Ah well, perhaps sometime in the New Year!
“Jack, what’s the wrap up?”
“Apparently, Mrs. Tolmie wants to speak to me before she’s willing to sign off on the case. With her position in society, the super thought it would be appropriate that I go over to her home for whatever she has in mind.”
“Oh dear, well I’m quite glad I chose to come along then! One must never receive “final words” alone,” she grinned that impish grin Jack knew so well. The one that never bode anything simple for anyone involved. He sighed, if good naturedly.
As they arrived at the Tolmie estate, they were met by one of her staff who took the car and handed them off to another member of her staff to take them inside. Phryne took note of the fact that while the invitation was for Jack, they didn’t even blink at the fact that she escorted him.
Mrs. Tolmie was a formidable presence, even by Phryne’s standards. She stood in her receiving room, framed by two very ornate topiaries, her hair pulled tight in a decorative bun, while she held what might just be the longest cigarette holder Phryne had ever seen. Not one of her favorite habits, but certainly not so unusual that she could be polite company in the face of it. She did have to restrain her impulse to curtsey to the woman, however.
Jack had given his hat and coat to the butler as they’d entered, but he also seemed to be restraining an impulse to pull on his forelock.
“What may we do for you, Mrs. Tolmie?”
“Detective Robinson, thank you so much for coming. I know this case has largely been closed, but after finding out who had taken my Johnny from me, I was inspired to look more closely at the architecture of this grand old mansion. One of the oldest in Melbourne, I was sure that she held further treasures than we knew.”
Jack nodded, Phryne smiled. Mrs. Tolmie continued, “You know the Tolmie family had donated several of the rarest tomes to the library at the Melbourne Athanaeum, but what I had also heard rumors of was that Johnny’s grandfather had been involved with the liquor trade. Now it didn’t become illegal till that silliness 17 years ago, but it wasn’t necessarily the most posh of careers, especially for a man that was donating to museums and libraries,” she smiled just a bit at that. It seemed, Jack thought, that this woman did have a human side to her after all. As a result, he had a number of invisible hallways between our walls installed, a few stairways and some underground tunnels,” she paused as she took a long drag on her cigarette holder.
Phryne and Jack looked at each other as if to say “why are we here again?”
“I suspect you are wondering why any of this should matter to you? Hmm, well you should. In one of those tunnels leading away from the mansion, there’s a room. I would guess it was used as an office over the years given its furnishings, but what was more interesting was what we found in that room.” She reached over and rang a small bell, sitting on small marble table, which as far as Jack could see was barely large enough for the bell and a hand to lean upon it.
One of the Tolmie staff brought in a small case, large enough to hold several glasses and a bottle, thought Jack. Mrs. Tolmie waved to a slightly larger table as if to say “put it there, dear.” The gentleman did, indeed put it on the table and then he opened it.
Inside was a bottle of gin, clearly very old, along side a bottle of rum, apparently as old. Mrs. Tomie was smiling from ear to ear, as if showing off the Queen’s jewels. “This was the best of what we found in that office and storage room. We found more of Grandfather’s books and donated a few more of them to the Athanaem, but we wanted you have these as payment for doing such a bang up job on Johnny’s demise.”
Jack smiled, “Why thank you, Mrs. Tolmie.” He accepted the re-closed box as her man offered it to him. Phryne leaned back and looked more closely at Mrs. Tolmie, “I wonder what else you found down there?” She cocked an eyebrow, hoping to get her to share what she wasn’t telling them about.
“Why nothing more than old bookkeeping journals, some very interesting liquor and a few more of grandfather’s books. What else should we have found down there?” She smiled and Phryne was all but sure she even almost winked.
“I see. Well, we’re having a small Christmas soiree tonight, so this will be saved for those who we most appreciate. Thank you so much, Mrs. Tolmie.”
“You two have a lovely Christmas, I’m off to my affair now. Thank you for coming by so I could give you this.”
Clearly dismissed, Jack and Phrynee took their leave with their gift. Upon reaching the car, they looked at each other and burst into giggles.
“What do you find so funny, Miss Fisher?” he could barely keep a straight face.
“I was about to ask you the same thing, Detective Robinson!” and they both burst into giggles again.
Neither of them had the heart to tell Mrs. Tolmie that whatever Grandfather had been up to, these bottles didn’t prove any of it. They weren’t over 17 years old, as they had the prohibition stamp on the bottom of the glass on each bottle. Whether Johnny had continued her grandfather’s business, if somewhat more illegally, or whether someone else was using the tunnels during prohibition, these were clearly from much more recently than her grandfather. And if Phryne was any judge of character, she guessed Mrs. Tolmie was quite aware of it, hence that almost-wink.
“I don’t think Mrs. Tolmie is anywhere near as naïve as she presents, but as of last month, prohibition no longer applies, so she’s not guilty of breaking any current laws anyway!”
Jack grinned, leave it to Phryne to cut to the heart of the matter, “Of course, that means neither are we” he winked at Phryne as they headed back to the Christmas party.
Phryne marked the grin and the wink as well as the joke about prohibition. There was hope for him yet.