Death of a Lady (The Inspector Felix Mysteries Book 1)

by R. A. Bentley

  'We'll put our seats forward. Try now.'

  'It'd be all right if I had no feet.'

  'It's only seven miles, you can put up with it for that long.'

  'Come on, hotch over,' said Nash impatiently. 'And some more.'

  'Here, steady on! I've never been this close to a man before.'

  'Ooh, ducky, giss a kiss.'

  'Geddoff! I'm not that sort of girl.'

  'Wait a minute, where are my plates?'

  'They're all right; I've put them under the seat.'

  'Couldn't you have gone back in the Daimler, sir?'

  'It wasn't offered and I wasn't about to ask. All ready? Tally-ho, then.'

  'Sir.'

  'Yes?'

  'I just ought to warn you about the brakes. They're not very good. You'll want to change down to slow her and use the handbrake as well.'

  Rattigan groaned and tipped his hat over his eyes. 'Tell me when we get there.'

  Chapter 5

  'What you have to understand, Miles,' wheezed Detective Superintendent Cobb, 'is that it was all very different then. It might as well have been fifty years ago as twelve. That lot are a spent force now and good riddance; they've gone down so fast that people haven't realised it yet. I doubt they've even realised themselves, some of them. But then – then – they just about ran the country, and we was nothing — dust under their feet. They could do what they liked, and they did. We didn't have no young chaps like yourself, university educated, that could meet them on their own terms, so to speak. It was "Yes, Your Grace; no, My Lady; three bags full Your Lordship." We even found ourselves deferring to the bloody butler! We didn't have no photographers and fingerprint experts running around after us, neither.'

  'We don't now, sir,' smiled Felix. 'It's only my scurvy crew and a few others.'

  'Yes, but it's coming, lad — scientific policing! Scientific politics too.' He tapped a heap of books beside him. 'Dialectical materialism! The dictatorship of the proletariat! Russia's got it and soon we'll have it. It's the march of history — unstoppable! Just wait till the strike, then you'll see. Hang on a minute —'

  Sitting beside the dishevelled bed, Felix studied the propaganda posters on the rose-patterned walls and waited patiently for the storm of coughing to subside. Which was worse, he wondered, to lose your mind in a mansion or hack your lungs up in a suburban villa? Not a pleasant prospect in either case. 'Glass of water, sir?'

  'Thanks. There's some behind you. A fag's what I need but she rations 'em.'

  Felix reached in his pocket, hesitated, then took out his cigarette case. One more could do little harm.

  'You're a gent,' said Cobb, brightening. 'Where was I? Oh yes — the search. We had twenty officers on it at one point. Twenty! Ten inside and ten out. Fetched 'em in from miles around. Took the place apart, room by room; you mustn't think we didn't. Walked the park, all five hundred acres of it, even dragged the bloody lake. But all right, we missed her. What can I say?' He paused to suck greedily on the cigarette. 'God, that's better! The general consensus was that she'd scarpered. There wasn't a scrap of evidence for it, but that's what the family seemed to want to believe, so in the end we went along with it.

  'The family wanted that?'

  'Oh yes, it came from them. Well, the Duchess mostly. She's terrifying, that woman. She wanted us out and she got us out. The Duke wasn't too happy about it and neither was the son – he's her twin, you know – but they went along with it.'

  'Yes, he told us they were twins. What about the Groom, Viscount Rempstock?'

  'As a suspect? Not for my money. I actually quite liked him. He took the contrary view for a while; reckoned it was murder. I doubt extremely that he knew anything. It probably just hit his pride to think she'd bolted. I got the impression, once the shock had worn off, that he was almost relieved. I can't imagine it was a love-match. She wasn't nothing special to look at, and lived for her horse. Didn't wait the seven years. He got an annulment on the ground of non-consummation and married a commoner – his mistress, or so they said – sold his estate as soon as he inherited and went to Canada; which isn't going to help you much.'

  'He's back. I'm planning to see him.'

  'Is he now? That ought to put him in the clear, I suppose. Help to anyway. I reckon he'd have stayed out there if he'd done it. I can't see a motive anyway. He wouldn't have got fed up with her that quick, and it's not as if there was any money in it. She had a nice little entail coming to her, but that died with her, of course. No, I reckon you've got a job on there, frankly, if only because of the numbers. Most of the guests had alibis, but you've still got the servants — all forty-two of 'em. Although a good number are no longer around, I daresay.'

  'You're right; there aren't many left. What about her maid, Ginny Brown?'

  The companion, as she called herself? We did wonder if they might have bunked off together — ladies of Llangollen. There was this other one put us up to that. Now what was her name? Sour-looking woman with a great, jutting shelf.'

  Felix smiled. 'Hannah Yates?'

  'Rings a bell. She all but tied herself in knots rather than come out and say it, but that was her drift. Jealousy, probably, although they do seem to have been close, going out riding together and so on. We tried to trace her, but where do you start with someone named Brown? The local carrier reckoned he dropped her outside the Railway Hotel but didn't actually see her go in. They didn't know anything about her there or anywhere else, and no woman of her description took the train. She must have been picked up by someone, I reckon, but none of the usual loungers saw anything.'

  'What time did she leave the house?'

  'Probably about three-thirty. The carrier set off at about four and dropped her at about five-something. Too early for her to be involved – not directly anyway – unless she came back. It occurred to me that she might have settled down to wait for her mistress and they somehow slipped away together. But now, who knows? You know about the bride-bothering, presumably? Decadent nonsense — just what you'd expect from a load of toffs. Whoever done it, I reckon it must've been then.'

  'Or afterwards.'

  'Yes, could've been afterwards. We questioned the chief bridesmaid, or tried to. Lady double-barrelled something or other. Proper little madam and thick as two planks. They're inbred, I reckon, a lot of 'em. She actually called me "my man." I could've slapped her.'

  'Persephone Creech-Barrington?'

  'That's it! How could I have forgotten? She reckoned they saw Her Ladyship a couple of times, up to about ten-thirty, and that was the last. He gazed cynically at his visitor. 'I'm not being much help am I?'

  'I wouldn't say that; it's always good to talk about it. Yes, one thing. She wasn't wearing her wedding or engagement rings when we found her. Any ideas?'

  Cobb nodded thoughtfully. 'Seems unlikely, doesn't it, that she'd take them off? You'd want to follow that up. I know she took her other jewellery off because we found it in her bedroom. It was heirloom stuff, just worn for weddings. Worth a packet, apparently — diamonds and such. The Duchess confirmed it was all there.'

  'Definitely no ring?'

  'No, I'd have noticed that. It was all together, in a fancy box.'

  'Might they have killed her before they realised she wasn't wearing the jewellery? It would have been dark in those corridors by then.'

  'Yes, they might, with the rings as a consolation prize. But remember, Miles: we didn't know she was dead. No body, no murder. See it from our point of view. There's no evidence of an assault or a struggle, no suspicious behaviour reported — she's just disappeared. Where do you start? We couldn't even check if there were clothes and things missing, which might've told us she'd cleared off, because the only person who would have known about that was her maid, and she'd gone too. We thought of kidnap, obviously, but there never was a ransom demand. Even when they kill them they'll usually try it on. Not that I need to tell you that. We kept it quiet, of course, to avoid all the cranks, although we still got a few.' He looked
around, holding his cigarette end. 'Now where did I put—?'

  'Ashtray? It's here. You'd best tell her it was mine. Do you realise you probably met the next Duchess, the lovely Róisín?'

  'The little Irish girl? Get away! What did she want to get involved with that lot for? There'll be no place for parasites like them, come the revolution.'

  Felix smiled and stood up. 'Well on that note, I'd best let you get some rest, or I'll be in trouble with the management.'

  'Humph, I'll have plenty of that soon enough. Let me know how you get on.' He burst into another fit of coughing, painful to watch. 'I don't suppose, before you go —'

  Felix gave him a cigarette.

  Rattigan allowed the tiny car to coast downhill, bump-starting it. 'What did you think of him?' he asked.

  'Cobb? Odd sort of chap. Quite astute in some ways, but a rabid communist — hates the aristocracy, which might explain his rather slapdash investigation.'

  'A communist copper! I wonder what the windbag makes of that?'

  'Probably unaware of it. I doubt he'll work again anyway. He thinks he's got cancer and I shouldn't be surprised if he's right. He's as thin as a rail and coughing blood. His wife didn't want to talk about it. She looks dreadful herself.'

  'I hate that. It's all wrong, not knowing. I'd want to be told.'

  'I agree. My father always "gives it to 'em straight." Men, anyway.'

  'What about the report? Have we got it all?'

  'Reckons we have. I could hardly sit there and dispute it. The wedding jewellery was found in her room, by the way, and the Duchess pronounced it all present and correct. I suspect that since there was nothing missing he didn't see any reason to mention it, which I suppose is one way of going about things. Saves a lot of paper. He didn't find any rings but agrees it'd be queer of her to take them off. I didn't have the heart to pump him too hard, and in fairness they didn't have a body, a point that he made rather forcefully. To them, she was just a missing person.'

  'Easy for us to judge, I suppose; though he could surely have interviewed the rest of the botherers, and at least the male servants.'

  'Maybe he did and didn't trouble to record that either. The trouble is, one of them could so easily be our man, or woman. Not much we can do about it now, though.'

  'Coming back to the jewellery, it must mean she returned to her room at some point, as it was found there.'

  'Yes, that's true. It's valuable stuff, by all accounts, so she would have wanted to take it off for the bothering. Probably went straight there during the count of a hundred, which gives us her starting point. Not sure if that gets us anywhere though. Fancy a drive up to Salisbury?'

  'What's there?'

  'A rather fine cathedral, and the Marquess of Hoddersham. He's taken a house in the town.'

  They were entertained in the first-floor drawing room of an elegant townhouse, overlooking the Cathedral. It was clearly a temporary arrangement, there being none of those little additions and knick-knacks that make a home. The muted sound of passing motors came up from below.

  Lord Hoddersham proved to be a slight, quietly-spoken man with slender, sensitive hands and unfashionably long, reddish hair. Felix was not surprised to see a Scriabin sonata on the piano, guessing, correctly, that it was he who played, and not his wife. He must, he thought, have made a strange contrast with the athletic Lady Genny.

  'There was, you see, this tremendous pressure to marry-in,' explained His Lordship. 'They all want heiresses now, of course – grab the money and blow the bloodline – but then it had to be "one of our own." Anyway, we found we got on well enough and weren't utterly repelled by one another – physically, I mean – so we decided to go ahead. We'd give 'em their heir, then quietly live our own lives. She'd have her horses and I'd have Anneliese. It all seemed frightfully sensible and grown-up at the time.'

  'Are you shocked. Inspector?' asked Lady Hoddersham. Older than her husband, she retained, in plump middle-age, the slightest of central-European accents.

  Felix smiled. 'Policemen aren't easily shocked, My Lady. May I ask, did Lady Genevieve know about you?'

  'Oh yes. That is, she knew we were in love. But I was married to someone else then, and likely to remain so. I wasn't his mistress or anything like that. He was always terribly proper, weren't you darling?'

  'Yes I was. Not to say I wasn't sorely tempted. I often think that if I'd been a bit less pompous and upright, none of this might have happened.'

  'Because you wouldn't have married Lady Genny?'

  'Yes. If we hadn't married, there would have been no bride-bothering. It was then that she died, wasn't it? I suppose it must have been. Anyway, yes, she knew all about us. I wanted to be sure there was nothing with which she could reproach me afterwards. When she disappeared, I came to believe she'd got cold feet and run away. Most people did, of course; although I don't know how we thought she'd managed it without being seen by anyone. I was upset and angry that she'd let me down, and also felt insulted. It was as though she couldn't bear me at any price. This dreadful business has turned it all upside down, of course. Am I a suspect, Inspector?'

  'We have no suspects at present, My Lord. Are you able to show where you were that night?'

  'If you mean from the commencement of that confounded game — yes, I can. I was scarcely allowed to be on my own for a moment lest I attempt to rendezvous with my wife. I found the whole thing puerile and annoying and she felt the same.'

  'Is that what she told you?'

  'Oh yes. She had to explain it to me, of course, and that we'd just have to put up with it because it was traditional. Naturally I agreed.'

  'So where were you, during the bothering? And afterwards, come to that.'

  'In the smoking room. The Duke and young Andrew were with me for much of it, but other fellows wandered in and out from time to time. I think Andrew was trying to get me drunk but I wasn't having that. God, what a family! Well, George and Róisín are all right – we're vaguely in touch – but they're about the only ones. The Duchess is terrifying, Andrew keeps his brains in his breeches and the Duke cares for nothing but hunting, or did when he was still compos mentis. I should say I also had my best man, Sidney Lomas, with me for most of the time, but he had a bit of a soft spot for Genny – I think he'd have married her himself, given the chance – and he went off for a while to "see fair play" as he called it. He died at the Somme, poor chap. Then, yes, I was alone for a few minutes until just after eleven. I'd arranged to meet her there, but when she didn't turn up, it seemed reasonable to suppose that she'd gone straight to the ballroom, so I did the same, meeting Sidney coming the other way. He in his turn thought Genny must be with me.'

  'Did Mr Lomas say if he'd seen her, during the game?'

  'Yes, he spotted her immediately. She crossed the second-floor landing in front of him as he was going up. There was a gaggle of girls after her so he stepped out and got in their way and she disappeared. Later we went back and searched every room in the vicinity. They were searched again and again later, of course. The girls said they never really came near her and only saw her fleetingly two or three times, with that being the last. It was as if she'd disappeared off the face of the earth.'

  'Can you tell me when that might have been, My Lord? It's rather important, for obvious reasons.'

  'We agreed at the time it was about ten-thirty. We both told Cobb that.'

  Felix nodded. 'Yes, I have my copy of the nineteen-fourteen report. 'You'll understand that I have to ask the same questions again, just to be sure. Am I right in assuming that you didn't see Mr Lomas again until you set off for the ballroom at eleven or so?'

  'Yes, that's correct.'

  'Half an hour, then. Did he say where he'd been, apart from bothering the botherers?'

  'Well no, I didn't ask. I assume he was chatting to someone, or dancing. It wasn't long, after all.'

  'All right. And talking of dancing, I assume Lady Genny danced with other men that night?'

  'Yes, various friends
and relatives, you know.'

  'Anyone likely to excite your suspicions?'

  His Lordship smiled. 'Again, I remember Cobb asking that. But no, no-one. I can't say I knew them all terribly well, but apart from close family we would usually have chatted to them for a while before they whirled her away, so if my suspicions were going to be aroused, it would have been then. She never complained about any of them or stayed away for more than one dance, and there were not all that many of them anyway. We danced with each other a fair bit, and talked to some of the older people, and then she was off to the confounded bothering. Nor, I think, was she long out of my sight until then.'

  'Did you stay very long at Godwinstowe, afterwards?'

  'I think five days. After the police gave up their search I felt a bit awkward being there, so I went home. It was a very peculiar situation.'

  'I can imagine. My Lord, this might seem a strange question, but just how well did you know Lady Genny? Had you been friends for long, before you agreed to marry?'

  His Lordship amiably shook his head. 'Not strange at all, Inspector. We knew each other from childhood, but only as friendly acquaintances, never more than that. Then one day – at another wedding, as it happens – we fell to discussing the pressure we were coming under to marry, and began to wonder if we should help each other out. Annie was quite encouraging, weren't you darling? So we met up a few times, talked it over with the family and announced our engagement. Terribly cold-blooded, I'm afraid.'

  'So your respective parents harboured no illusions regarding the nature of the match?'

  'No, none at all. They didn't know about Annie of course.'

  'Do you know if Lady Genny also had a lover?'

  The Marquis's looked surprised. 'Genny! Good heavens, no! It would never have occurred to me. Do you think she had?'

  'There's no evidence for it. It's just the sort of thing one asks. Were you aware that she fainted in the church porch, before the ceremony?'

  'No, I wasn't. Why was that?'

  'We don't know.'