Jasper stood and said, “Thank you for all coming here this morning. I hope you will agree that it’s most important to find out what happened when the old woman Eureka died on the beach and Mrs Ramsforth was found kneeling over her body.”
Teddy glanced briefly in the direction of the door leading into the lobby. He believed he had seen motion there, the flash of something dark. But nothing stirred now. He directed his attention back to Jasper.
The former inspector continued: “Mrs Ramsforth came to this island in the best of moods. She had married the man she loved and who loved her, or so she believed.”
Teddy raised a hand. “I do love her,” he said. He didn’t look at Robin to see how she took this declaration.
The former inspector ignored him. “Mrs Ramsforth was on her first trip abroad or so she believed, having previously led a rather inconspicuous life in London, working at an office, living in a small flat. She never went out, but one day she received an invitation in the mail to a play that was about to change her life. For there she met her husband to be. Teddy Ramsforth.”
Jasper looked around him. “Now, we all know stories from couples in our acquaintance who met in a rather remarkable way. A friend had tickets for the horse races, someone fell ill, so person in question was invited instead – didn’t like horse races at all, but went anyway to do said friend a favour – and yes, there he met the woman of his dreams and they lived happily ever after. Bumping into someone in the street even, and picking up fallen parcels, or a train running late and two people waiting for it starting a conversation. Meetings can be trivial, coincidental even, and still change our lives going from there. So is it possible that Mrs Ramsforth, who normally never went anywhere, now went to a play and that night met the man who was going to marry her? Of course it is possible. But is it what happened? I doubt it.”
“You doubt it?” Teddy scoffed. “You don’t even know it for sure? What tales are you going to tell us here? Fairy tales? Myths the Greeks are so fond of?”
One of the Greek men at the table beside him looked annoyed, as if he was upset his heritage was mentioned in such a derogatory way. But Teddy continued, “I thought the police dealt in facts.”
“Patience, Mr Ramsforth. I’m coming to the facts soon enough.”
Teddy sank back against his chair, his stomach giving a worried little squeeze.
Jasper said, “Mrs Ramsforth met her husband because she had received an invitation for that play in the mail. Remember that as we go forward. She met Teddy Ramsforth at this play, they fell in love and they married very soon after. They went on their honeymoon to Greece, ending up here on this island at the hotel which was a former private villa. Now, it’s important to note that on the honeymoon so far, everything had been smooth sailing. But from the moment the Ramsforths set foot on this island, things went awry. Mrs Ramsforth found beetles in her bedroom. Her husband wasn’t happy she met with an artist who showed her around.”
Jasper nodded at Dupin, who sat with an infuriatingly smug smile. Teddy would have liked to wipe it away.
Jasper said, “And an old woman even met Mr Ramsforth in the bar of the hotel to tell him his wife was unfaithful to him. So here we have two young people who are suddenly confronted with suspicion and fear and who quickly drift apart. Mr Ramsforth didn’t believe that his wife had seen the beetles.”
“I went into the room and they weren’t there!” Teddy cried.
“And Mrs Ramsforth herself wasn’t even sure she had seen them, as she asked me after the later skull incident whether I had also seen the skull in question. Several people told her that those particular beetles are portents of death and don’t normally come inside a house, which further served to unnerve her. And I can now say she had good reason to be worried, because someone had placed the beetles in her room on purpose and that person didn’t wish her well.”
Damaris seemed to exhale in relief.
Jasper said, “But there was more. A solicitor came to see Mrs Ramsforth to reveal to her that she had money coming to her now that she was married. He mentioned the sum which was substantial and urged her to tell her husband it was only ten thousand pounds. Mrs Ramsforth took this advice.”
“That old rat Fennick tried to drive a wedge between us,” Teddy cried.
Jasper said, “That evening Mr and Mrs Ramsforth dined with the Hawtrees” – he gestured at Gideon and Robin, who looked at him blankly as if they had no idea how they fit into his exposé – “and came back to the hotel, Mr Ramsforth being intoxicated. Or at least looking like he was. He dropped his hotel key in the garden and had to go and fetch the spare. But Mrs Ramsforth, who wasn’t intoxicated, collected the fallen key in a heartbeat and opened up the room, finding a skull on her pillow with a good-luck coin in its gaping mouth. Alerted by her scream, I came upon her and also saw it – a bit of bad luck for the culprit who had of course intended to make the skull vanish like the beetles had and portray Mrs Ramsforth as mentally unbalanced, imagining things that weren’t there. Now please note that in both instances where Mrs Ramsforth was making a gruesome find in her room, her husband was not with her. So he could not confirm or deny her story.”
Jasper looked at Teddy as if he expected him to comment on this but Teddy didn’t. He kept very still.
Jasper said, “So here we have a woman whose honeymoon is soon taking a nightmarish turn. She sees things other people don’t believe are real, she’s suddenly the recipient of money she can’t tell her husband about, and her husband is suddenly in need of money for a project he wants to start with Mr Hawtree.”
“That project was on the cards even before Mr Ramsforth met his wife,” Gideon said quietly.
Jasper looked at him. “Isn’t that interesting?”
There was a deep silence, as if everyone was trying to understand what he meant by that.
Jasper continued. “Mrs Ramsforth was upset by everything that had happened and felt sorry for her husband’s despair about his business project perhaps falling through because of a lack of funds and she offered to lend him money, also confessing to him that the money she had received wasn’t just ten thousand pounds. Mr Ramsforth immediately dragged her to the Hawtrees to celebrate that fact that the business plans were going through after all, and they had champagne. Mrs Hawtree told me Mrs Ramsforth drank a couple of glasses and this might explain why after the pair had left the Hawtrees she didn’t feel well and wanted to freshen up at a cafe. From here we don’t know what happened because Mrs Ramsforth can’t remember and Mr Ramsforth was not with her. Again, we may notice.” Jasper smiled at Teddy. “How convenient.”
“Damaris asked me to wait for her outside,” Teddy hissed between clenched teeth.
Jasper waved it off. “The next thing that happens is that whilst walking on the beach, I come upon Mrs Ramsforth leaning over the dead body of the old woman who had told her husband that Mrs Ramsforth wasn’t faithful to him. She was actually holding the handle of the knife stuck in the old woman’s chest. She couldn’t remember having arrived on the beach, meeting the old woman or in fact killing her, if we assume she did kill her.”
Jasper looked around past the expectant faces. “So what do we conclude? Has Mrs Ramsforth lost her mind? Can’t she remember what she does or does not do and does or does not see? Is she suffering from hallucinations and did she kill the old woman Eureka, thinking she was a danger to her? The knife was taken from the cafe. Did she think she was in danger and in need of protection? It doesn’t seem to fit, does it? And how about the fact that Eureka had been accusing her of infidelity, an affair, making her look bad with her new husband? A motive for murder? But if Mrs Ramsforth took the knife from the cafe, how could she know she’d meet Eureka on the beach? Does it make sense? No, not completely.”
Jasper began to pace around the tables. “And then there is a further complication. For we discover that not only did Eureka accuse Mrs Ramsforth – no, she is also intimately connected to Mrs Ramsforth’s past. Something Mrs Ramsforth didn’
t know or pretended not to know.”
Teddy sat up. “Pretended?” he echoed.
Jasper ignored him. “We discover that Eureka visited a grave in which a young man was buried. A corpse washed up from the depths of the sea after he had fallen to his death from some rocks – no accident, but a fall or a push under pressure from an angry mob who pursued him as he was found standing over a dead woman. How coincidental. But it gets even more compelling – because the little girl who cried out and alerted the mob to the murder and the presumed murderer is the very same woman now found standing over Eureka’s dead body. She whose testimony put a young man in an early grave is herself accused of murder. Too coincidental to have just happened, don’t you agree?”
Jasper stopped and fixed his gaze on Teddy. “Mr Ramsforth?”
Teddy stared at him. “I have no idea what you are talking about. I didn’t know Damaris grew up here or that her mother was murdered. She told me she had never left England and that her parents had died in a train accident.”
“Yes, that is what she told you. But did you know more? After all, you also knew she had money coming upon her marriage.”
“I did not.”
“Oh, yes, you did. You confessed to me that you knew about her money. You wooed her for her money. You married her for her money.”
“No!” Damaris rose to her feet. “That’s not true. Please say that it isn’t true.”
“You see?” Teddy rushed to say. “She doesn’t believe it. She doesn’t believe you. You’re just trying to drive us apart.”
“Mr Ramsforth…” Jasper shook his head slowly. “There is no point in denying this. In fact, by denying it you’re only making it worse. For we don’t just have a marriage concluded out of greed. We also have a murder.’
“I didn’t kill anyone!” Teddy yelled.
“Then tell us the truth.” Jasper held his gaze.
“No. If you think you know, you tell me the truth.”
Jasper laughed softly. “I will. You loved another woman. You loved her with a passion that destroyed you, because she could never be yours. You didn’t want to marry another, not even to remove suspicions that you were hopelessly in love with someone you could never have. But there was one thing you cared about beside the woman that was out of reach. You wanted to achieve something in life. Be active, be proud of yourself. And you had a friend, Mr Hawtree, who was an inventor and who could become a big name. You could be part of his success if you could help him fund it. So you thought up a plan. You would marry, not because of love but to give Hawtree the money he needed. You knew Mrs Ramsforth had money coming to her upon her marriage, and plenty of it. So you arranged for a meeting and you swept her off her feet and you married her after a whirlwind courtship. And you took her away from England so that when Mr Fennick appeared, she would have no one to turn to. She would be in your power and you could take the money away from her before anyone could tell her she had to do something sensible with it.”
Jasper held Teddy’s gaze. “Or suggest to her you might have married her for her money.”
“She offered out of her free will. It will be a business arrangement and I will pay it back!”
Jasper shook his head. “We’re talking about the start of it, Mr Ramsforth. Your marriage to Mrs Ramsforth just for her money. Do you still deny it?”
“I will keep on denying it.”
“That is too bad, for then I will have to go on and tell you that as you knew about the money, you might also have known about her mother’s murder. You brought her here, of all places, to drive her insane and thus get control of the money. No business arrangement, no loan. No, everything, without restrictions. How perfect.”
“I had no idea her mother was murdered here.” Teddy felt sweat forming in his palms. “And I didn’t plant the beetles or the skull. I swear it.”
Jasper waited. The entire room seemed to wait. People were looking at Teddy with suspicion on their features. Even disgust.
Teddy swallowed hard. “I can’t prove I didn’t do it, can I?” His voice croaked.
Jasper said softly, “But I can.”
Chapter Twenty
Gideon raised his head in surprise. It had seemed the former inspector was circling his prey, closing in for the kill. Now all of a sudden he said he could prove Teddy’s innocence?
Jasper said to Teddy: “You married Mrs Ramsforth for money and you brought her here knowing Mr Fennick would follow and you could manipulate her into giving you a large sum for the business project you wanted to engage in. But I admit that you didn’t know about the murder and didn’t know about the scenario that would be put into motion as soon as you got here. I even dare say that if you had known about it you might not have been willing to cooperate. Because although you’re selfish and shallow and greedy, you’re not a daring man. Had you known what was really at stake here, and how you might get implicated in murder, you would never have agreed to be a part of it.”
Gideon clenched his hands together, his nails cutting into his palms. Teddy was the weak link. What if he said something now?
Jasper continued: “You brought your wife here because it seemed the perfect place, remote and idyllic. You could play on her feelings here and get her fortune for yourself. But you didn’t realise that you had been lured here, to this particular place on purpose. So the killer could strike.’
Someone gasped.
Jasper said, “Please tell me, Mr Ramsforth, who suggested to you to spend your honeymoon on this particular island.”
Teddy said nothing.
Jasper sighed. “Then I will say it.” His gaze swept the room to land on Gideon. “Mr Hawtree. He had told you that Mrs Ramsforth had money coming, he had encouraged you to woo her. He had suggested you could take her here. And like a good little boy you did what he said. So, Mr Hawtree, why was this? Why did you want Mrs Ramsforth to come here? Just for the money Teddy could then entice away from her and give to you? No, I think not.”
Jasper began to walk around the tables again. “You had an ulterior reason, one you never shared with Mr Ramsforth. You only told him that you knew the woman had money coming to her upon her marriage. But you didn’t add you also knew why – that it was money from her father who had abandoned her after her mother’s murder, on this very island you were asking Mr Ramsforth to take her to.”
Jasper held his gaze. “You see, Mr Hawtree, it wasn’t enough for you to have her hand over a little. You wanted it all. And you could only achieve that by having her declared insane. You knew about her past and her mother’s murder. You thought you could bring it all back to life by involving her in another murder. And so, after Mrs Ramsforth left your house that morning, you followed. You had drugged the champagne you had given her so that she started to feel unwell. You found her in the cafe, out of her senses. You brought her out to the beach. You killed Eureka and put Mrs Ramsforth’s hand on the knife. You wanted her to be found and her mental health to be questioned.”
“You have to be mad yourself.” Gideon tried to laugh but his throat was dry. “This is so far-fetched.”
“Is it? I’m sorry I have to bring this up, Mr Hawtree, but it is necessary to prove to my audience here that I am on the right track. Years ago, your brother Hector died.’
Gideon’s every muscle tightened. No, he thought, no, not that.
“He died while you were present and you were put in the care of a psychiatrist who had to make sure you weren’t traumatised.”
Gideon clenched his jaw. The psychiatrist had to have established his guilt in the death of his brother. His own parents, or rather those who had once wanted to become his parents when they had adopted him, had wanted to know if he was guilty. They had suspected him.
Jasper continued, “Now, this same psychiatrist had treated Mrs Ramsforth as a child, seven years earlier. You got to know her story. And you used it shamelessly to get what you wanted. Money for the invention.”
Jasper looked at him. “You know how to get what you want,
don’t you, Mr Hawtree? Your brother Hector was your parents’ real son. You were only adopted. You were never quite on his level.’
“Stop it,” Gideon said. He leaned on the table. “Accuse me of the old woman’s murder if you must, but leave the past out of it.”
Jasper shook his head. “I won’t. I can’t. Because the past has everything to do with this case.”
He continued, “Mrs Ramsforth’s mother was murdered, stabbed in the garden of this very hotel, which was back then the private villa she lived in. It was assumed that the man seen standing over her dead body, his hands covered in blood, was the murderer. His name was Arthur Reynolds. He was killed right after the murder when he fell from rocks into the sea, and was buried here on the island in an unmarked grave. Eureka, who was murdered recently, worked at the villa and didn’t believe he had been guilty. She engaged a doctor to look at her mistress’s dead body but he never got to do anything with his findings as the police weren’t interested in pursuing the case with the killer already dead.”
Jasper looked at the two Greek men at the table. “Right, Mr Kyrioudis?”
* * *
Stephanos Kyrioudis gave the former Scotland Yard inspector a cold look. “Have you ever wasted money on a case that was already solved? I think not. I had no reason to assume that the killer wasn’t whom everyone thought it was.”
“Eureka had her doubts.”
“I can’t listen to old women.’
“No, not back then. But perhaps lately you started to listen? You realised she was a problem? You see, back then you came to the villa. And your brother Achilles too. You both knew the victim. Could it be that… either of you was the killer?”
Honeymoon with Death Page 21