Murder Lies Waiting

by Alanna Knight

  Four, Edgar and Beatrice having lunch in the hotel restaurant while fugitive man from Vantry drive, later identified as Mr QVE, paced anxiously back and forward beside the pony and trap. Strong suspicion in light of later revelations that they had taken him back with them. Counters for Edgar and Beatrice, no Lady Adeline, who did not normally accompany them on their shopping visits to Rothesay.

  Five, my lone visit to Vantry by bicycle. Ignored by so-called fierce guard dog. Ready with authoress research excuse. Gave Lady Adeline time to answer door if, as became apparent, the Worths were elsewhere. Unanswered, went to back door, found it ajar, had that empty-house feeling. Decided wickedly to take chance of exploring. Unkempt kitchens, quick look round ground floor, lacked nerve to go up that staircase, although quite certain no one at home. In limited explorations, intrigued to find former gunroom now a museum. Caught leaving it by Edgar and Beatrice coming in from garden. While making my excuses to Edgar, Beatrice disappears, servants’ bell rings. Beatrice returns, says Lady Adeline needing tea, has suggested I return tomorrow and meet her. I had been sure the house was empty. but I did hear that bell and voices. Counters for Edgar and Beatrice, Lady Adeline heard but unseen.

  Six, next day visit to Vantry. Met by Angus, who directed me to park bicycle at back door. Invited to cup of tea by Edgar while Beatrice went upstairs to prepare Lady Adeline for my visit. Warned not one of her good days and must not overtire her. Beatrice calls Edgar from upstairs. I hear voices, and follow Edgar up to her ladyship’s room overlooking the garden. She is seated in a deep armchair, swathed in shapeless garments and veils, and wearing antique ruby ring, identical to that worn by Beatrice. Briefest interview ever, feeling like a prospective servant, asked a few questions and dismissed, told might borrow book in library for research. Departed on bicycle in fury, and narrowly missed what could have been a fatal accident on steep hill when brakes failed. Later discovered they had been tampered with, i.e. while I was at Vantry. Placed counters. Edgar, Beatrice and Lady Adeline.

  There was one important addition and I turned the pages to my detailed meeting with Ellen Boyd, including the significance of her sister Mavis’s dying words. Something about it not being Lady Adeline.

  I sat back and considered my findings. One interesting fact emerged: I had never seen all three of them, Edgar, Beatrice and Adeline, together, and if I were to make enquiries I could hazard a guess that neither had anyone in Rothesay, not since Lady Adeline’s accident when the Worths had appeared on the scene to take over and take care of her.

  There was one more counter needed. Dr Tom Richards. Now for the first time he raised his head and played a prominent part in my theory. I had let myself be influenced, based on earlier information from Peter, and I wondered how Inspector Rudd regarded his cousin’s visit, and whether any of the other Bute policemen were aware of his dubious past. The suspicion returned. Had he come to the island with the sole mission of looking up cousin Inspector Rudd or had his real objective been to find an explanation for the curious fact that Lady Vantry was not remembered as a patient at the Glasgow hospital. Had he suspected that was worth investigation? I had missed the obvious path by focusing on blackmail, which, if that was his intention, was now of minor importance. Of real significance was why had Beatrice turned him away, refusing to let him over the threshold, and why had he never been allowed to meet Lady Adeline?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  I was interrupted by the arrival of Sadie, very excited about her new position as housekeeper and how she was going to enjoy being on the staff. She was flourishing the antique ring, regarding it proudly, although it was too big for her slim hands.

  ‘If Harry doesn’t intend to replace this soon, I shall need him to have it altered to fit. He expects to see me wearing it all the time, but I am afraid I might lose it in my daily duties and that would be dreadful.’ As she spoke, she again held out her hand admiringly. ‘After all, I only regarded it as temporary, and I’m hoping when I tell him, that will remind him that I should have it replaced by another kind of ring’ – she gave me one of her intense looks – ‘a proper engagement one and in due course, a wedding ring.’

  ‘So you would like to marry him?’

  Her eyes widened and she laughed. ‘Rose, what a question. Of course I would! I think it’s just a matter of time, and when he asks me I’ll say yes like a shot.’

  I looked at her. ‘Do you think that moving in with him until he makes up his mind – or the idea occurs to him – is going the right way about it?’

  Her eyebrows shot up. ‘Once he realises I am indispensable. He doesn’t care about the difference in our ages, he just knows we love each other and that will only get better and better, when we get married.’

  ‘What about children, Sadie?’

  ‘Oh, he loves children, Rose. And I’m sure we will have them. I’m not all that old and lots of women have babies when they are forty.’

  A dangerous age for first babies, I thought, and many die in childbirth, regardless of whether the child was the firstborn or – as, tragically, had been the case for Emily and me, losing our beloved mother with a stillborn baby brother when she was forty.

  I was curious to know the reactions of one important person in Harry’s life.

  ‘How does Gerald feel about all this?’

  She stared at me coldly. ‘He just wants us both to be happy. Why shouldn’t he?’

  When she left, her joy over that ring triggered off another of the fragments tormenting me.

  That visit to Vantry when I was to see Lady Adeline. Beatrice had left me with Edgar to have a cup of tea, saying it took a little time to prepare her on her frail days. I had refused the tea and he seemed disappointed, I couldn’t think why – then. Her elegant hands so like Beatrice’s. Despite many afflictions, they had not aged at all, yet according to Gran’s bible on the subject, hands could not be disguised and were the one give-away of age.

  And Adeline liked jewellery. I remembered on that first visit to Vantry when the tour met her veiled in the gardens, the beringed, elegant hand raised to restore her bonnet, and on my second visit, seeing again the huge ruby she was wearing when I helped her seize the bell rope. Beatrice also wearing a large antique ruby – similar to Adeline’s.

  No. Not similar. Identical. As were those elegant hands.

  And suddenly it all fell into place. The reason why Tom Richards had not been allowed to see her, and the faint echo of Mavis Boyd’s dying words to Ellen that ‘it wasn’t Lady Adeline’ took on a new meaning.

  I looked over my notes again and the counters. Although I thought I had heard her voice, I still had never actually seen them together—

  Because on the occasions when her presence was necessary, it was Beatrice Worth.

  There was no Lady Vantry.

  I sat back in my chair. So where was she? And even as I thought, I knew the very obvious answer.

  Lady Adeline was dead. But when? I decided probably soon after her accident when the Worths gave up their so-called grand estate in England and came to the Isle of Bute to take care of her. Now the question arose, had that riding accident in Glasgow been an invention, for Beatrice’s disguise?

  And that raised other questions. Had they murdered her, or had she died naturally? Either way the reason for the imposture was now obvious: in order to continue her ladyship’s considerable quarterly income, to be collected and signed for, Beatrice had to appear in Rothesay, fragile-seeming, heavily veiled and also able to forge an excusably shaky signature because of age and frailty.

  Presuming Adeline was dead and they were guilty of fraud rather than murder, what had happened to the body? Where had they buried her? The ruins of the old castle? But that would have been tricky – old bones have a nasty habit of reappearing, especially murdered ones. A family vault would have been the perfect solution, but it no longer existed, buried in the remains of the original castle.

  Her body must have been buried somewhere. I had to have help. And Peter now had
a good reason for giving the help he had promised, a good reason and some clues provided for solving his first murder mystery.

  He came readily enough and I invited him to my room; I did not want to meet him in the main part of the hotel, not with the information I had to impart. No one must overhear.

  He listened and said not a word. As I produced my evidence with the counters for Edgar, Beatrice and Lady Adeline, after a careful study he laid it aside and exhaled heavily: ‘I believe you, Rose. As you know, I wasn’t happy with only speculations but I’m certain you are right and what you have written here is what happened.’ He shrugged. ‘Having said that, although I am certain that the Worths are guilty, the tricky point remains of how we bring them to justice. Can we ever prove that they murdered Adeline as well as Quintin?’

  I had almost forgotten Quintin in my exciting discovery. ‘Well, he certainly did not die naturally, that we do know, but again it has been accepted that he met with an accident at Kames Bay.’

  ‘Edgar has arranged his funeral. We have no witnesses, nothing to prove that he was murdered.’

  ‘But we can make a shrewd guess as to why he was killed. He did succeed in meeting Beatrice in her Adeline disguise and, of course, he knew immediately that he had been tricked. This was not his wife and they had to get rid of him. They used poison, I imagine, the least spectacular way.’

  Peter said: ‘Did they have the poison on hand, lock him in somewhere until the means could be found?’

  ‘Poison,’ I repeated, ‘in a cup of tea while he waited. Edgar was very upset on my last visit when I refused tea. Then I had the accident,’ I added grimly. ‘I might have died because they suspected I was on to them, knew too much.’

  I thought for a moment. ‘Angus probably provided one of the poisons from the exotic garden, he knew all about them. He certainly was the one who tampered with my brakes.’

  Peter nodded grimly. ‘So, has he been involved as an accessory to getting rid of Quintin? He could have even driven the carriage and helped dispose of his body at Kames Bay. Edgar would have needed some assistance with that.’ He sighed. ‘But all we know, without any witnesses or sufficient evidence that would go down in a court of law, is that we believe Quintin died under suspicious circumstances.’

  ‘And to state the case realistically, all that Beatrice Worth can be accused of and arrested for is fraud – withdrawing and securing a substantial quarterly income by using a false identity.’

  ‘But they still have to explain what has happened to Adeline.’

  I thought about that. ‘Without producing her body, that is going to be difficult, even for them.’

  Peter frowned. ‘They might try some lies, such as that she died naturally – or from an overdose of sleeping powders – and confess that it was the necessity of keeping Vantry that drove them to the imposture.’

  He paused. ‘And if she did die naturally, they would not even inherit Vantry. According to the will and the fact that she still had feelings for Quintin, as the sole surviving member of the family, everything – including Vantry – would go to him. The Worths would be left penniless.’

  And I was remembering Edgar’s nervousness, his bitten nails. No wonder.

  First of all, Beatrice’s imposture had to be exposed. We thought long and hard about how that could be achieved.

  We decided that Lady Adeline had to make an appearance before witnesses, where she could be stripped of her ladyship disguise and revealed as Beatrice Worth.

  Peter came back later and said: ‘I hope you approve, Rose, but I thought this was going beyond us. I talked to Inspector Rudd and he was very interested. Tom had insisted on seeing him because when he went out to Vantry, the Worths wouldn’t allow him to see his old friend Lady Adeline, told him a pack of lies, and that left him with the feeling they were up to something.

  ‘Rudd said Tom was the family black sheep but her ladyship always had a soft spot for him. He wasn’t just hurt, he couldn’t believe that she would refuse to see him. He made a great fuss as only Tom can, and refusing to take no for an answer he returned to Vantry. He had a feeling that his return caused the Worths to suddenly panic. Beatrice said her aunt was resting just now, but Edgar would give him a drink and show him round the gardens.

  ‘Tom was furious. He didn’t want a drink – he’s been teetotal since his reformed days – but he wandered round the gardens and waited until Edgar called him and said Aunty, as he called her, was ready to see him now. Tom went upstairs and he knew the moment he walked into her room that, even taking into account the accident and all her shawls and veil, this wasn’t Adeline.

  ‘He made some polite remarks about making a mistake and left in a hurry, but on the way back he called in to see Rudd and said he had got this crazy idea that she was being impersonated by Beatrice Worth.’

  Peter paused and went on. ‘Rudd said that had set him thinking about the Worths collecting her quarterly pension and so forth, so he has been making some enquiries. He thinks there’s something crooked going on and that they may have done her in. The only way to prove anything is to go out and demand to see her.’

  I decided my share in the proceedings was over; however, not long after having left, Peter again returned. He wasn’t alone and introduced me to Inspector Rudd who said: ‘Clovis tells me that you are a lady detective and that you have carried out most of this investigation very successfully on your own.’ He gave me a searching look and continued: ‘Perhaps you would like to accompany us.’

  As we walked out to the car, Rudd said he had gathered that my father was famous and that perhaps crime solving was an inherited family trait. He hadn’t met a female one before and his look suggested he was rather surprised by this new species. I was also making my own calculations about Inspector Rudd. Based on my observations and calculations, I decided he had the look of a military man and had probably served in HM forces before coming to Bute.

  At last we drove into Vantry. Edgar came to the door, with the fierce guard dog locked out of sight but barking fiercely. He seemed more than a little taken aback at this visit by the police inspector with Sergeant Clovis and myself.

  Rudd said: ‘We are here on official business with her ladyship.’ And nodding in my direction: ‘It also concerns this lady, Mrs Macmerry. She had an accident leaving here.’

  Hearing voices, Beatrice appeared. The situation was repeated to her, she gave me a dagger-like look and I knew they were clearly scared as well as mystified. Beatrice said: ‘Her ladyship is not at all well, you will need to come back later.’

  It was the usual excuse, but Rudd was insistent.

  ‘Very well, take us up to her room, if you please. We will disturb her as little as possible.’

  Glances were exchanged, Beatrice continued protesting about her ladyship’s condition, but she had reckoned without her brother, who lacked her staying power in an emergency.

  Edgar panicked, stretched out a hand to her. ‘It’s no use, Bea.’ And to the three of us, he shook his head: ‘She isn’t here, Inspector.’

  ‘Very well, Mr Worth. Perhaps you would tell us where she is.’

  Again, miserably, Edgar shook his head. ‘We don’t know.’

  Beatrice, recovered, said: ‘She just walked out one day and never returned. Perhaps she went back to Glasgow,’ she added desperately.

  I said: ‘A frail old woman, walking with a stick? She wouldn’t get very far.’

  A look of hate from Beatrice. ‘She was quite strong, really. Very well, we invented that bit. You see, we waited – most anxiously – and when she didn’t come back and we didn’t hear from her—’

  Edgar interrupted: ‘That was when we decided that we would collect this considerable pension until she did.’

  ‘With your sister playing the part of Lady Adeline,’ said Rudd grimly.

  ‘That was the only way, but it wasn’t fraud, really. We were going to give it back to her of course, when she returned.’

  ‘How long ago was this, Mr Worth?’


  ‘About … about four years. But the pension people never heard from her,’ he continued quickly and added despairingly: ‘What could we do? We had no money, no estate in England, we were virtually penniless, except for Vantry, depending on her.’

  If he thought this appeal would win the inspector’s forgiving heart he was sadly mistaken. There was Quintin Vantry’s murder, and the sinister possibility that they served poisoned drinks to unwanted guests like Tom Richards, who fortunately for him was teetotal.

  Rudd said sternly: ‘We have every reason to believe that Lady Vantry was dead before you took on this role to deceive the authorities and it will be best for you, if she died naturally, to show us where she is buried.’

  But they were sticking to their story: she had walked out, they had never heard from her. True, they had helped themselves to her pension, but with every intention of explaining their actions, which she would fully understand and appreciate when she returned.

  The inspector looked at them both and knew he was beaten. He couldn’t make an arrest for murder without a body, only on suspicion and for fraud.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  I went back to the hotel. I was leaving tomorrow and whatever would be the outcome of this case, I would only hear about it from Peter or read about it in the Scottish newspapers.

  I had just finished packing when Peter looked in to say goodbye and promised to keep me informed of the case’s progress. He said Beatrice would go to prison and if Edgar was caught and there was proof that a murder was committed, then he would hang.