Now Pünd turned to Samantha Collins.
‘When we met in the church, you told me that you had recently inherited a very large sum of money but that your brother had not.’
‘Yes.’ Samantha was clearly uncomfortable at finding herself the centre of attention.
‘You did not want your brother to know.’
‘Well . . .’
‘Dr Collins asked me not to mention that you were going to London on the day we visited you at Church Lodge,’ Pünd reminded her. He turned to the doctor. ‘I take it that the reason for your journey was connected with the bequest?’
‘Yes,’ Dr Collins admitted. ‘It was.’
‘Later, when the detective chief inspector arrested him, your brother-in-law said something that interested me. “I’m sure Leonard has got quite a few things to tell you.” It struck me at once that in reality he was not speaking to me. He was sending a warning to you.’
The doctor smiled weakly. ‘I’m not sure about that.’
‘And then, in the church, Mrs Collins told me that you had, inexplicably, changed your mind and that you were attempting to persuade her to share the bequest with him.’
‘Well, I was just playing devil’s advocate.’
‘And who is the devil in this instance?’ Pünd smiled briefly. ‘Was Algernon Marsh blackmailing you?’ Dr Collins said nothing, so he went on. ‘Let us imagine that it was not he who was having the affair with Melissa James, but you. He somehow discovered the truth – it is possible indeed that Miss James informed him. He knew what it would mean to your wife if she found out. This I have witnessed for myself. In the church, Mrs Collins spoke of the sin of adultery and said that she would never see her brother again. To discover that her husband, the father of her two children, was engaged in an immoral relationship with a married woman – one can see easily the consequences.’
‘It’s not true,’ Dr Collins insisted.
‘But it is true, Dr Collins. It is the reason why you murdered her. It is the only reason that makes any sense.’
‘You’re wrong, Mr Pünd!’ Samantha Collins was staring at Pünd with a mixture of horror and disbelief. She had let go of her husband’s hand. ‘Leonard only went to the house because she wanted his help.’
‘You did not hear what she said, Mrs Collins.’
‘I didn’t hear everything she said. No. But I did hear someone asking for help and I recognised her voice.’
‘And what is it that had upset her?’ Pünd had turned back to Dr Collins.
‘I told you—’
‘You lied to me!’ Pünd strode back to the chart on the wall. ‘And the ten moments of time. They also lied. Let us examine them again in the light of what we know.
‘At 5.40 p.m., Melissa James leaves the hotel. She is upset after her altercation with Simon Cox and she goes to the church of St Daniel’s because it is opposite the house of the man she loves. She wishes to see Dr Collins and to tell him that she will be alone that night. Francis Pendleton is at the opera. They can meet. But before she can speak to him, she must check that he is on his own. She looks at the house and sees Mrs Collins watching her from an upstairs window. What is she to do? She turns and enters the church as if that was the reason for her being there.
‘At 6.05 p.m. she returns home, where Francis Pendleton is waiting for her. He knows that she is being unfaithful to him. He loves her more than anything in the world and the thought of losing her drives him to insanity. The two of them argue. Mrs Chandler does not hear this. She is a little deaf and anyway, she and her son are one floor down, in the kitchen, which has been built with thick walls. We will never know what is said between the husband and the wife. Perhaps he accuses her and she admits the truth and tells him that their marriage is over. That is what she had threatened to do in the letter she wrote but never sent. And so, in a fit of rage, Francis takes hold of the telephone cord and strangles her. It is 6.18 p.m. and the little dog is outside the room. He does not bark because a stranger has arrived at the front door. He barks because he has the instincts of many animals and knows that great violence is being done to his mistress.
‘Francis Pendleton is in a rage. He is exactly as the detective chief inspector described. He has become Othello, strangling the one true love of his life. And then, when he sees what he has done, he turns and runs from the house. That is the sound of the door opening and closing which Mrs Chandler hears at 6.20 p.m. Of course, he does not go to the opera. He drives away. He sits and considers what he has done. He is full of remorse and fear and despair. When I saw him, even a week later, I knew that this was a man who had lost everything that mattered to him.’
‘So he did kill her!’ Miss Cain exclaimed.
‘He did not kill her,’ Pünd replied. ‘This is where we made the mistake. What happens in the play of Othello? Othello wrongly believes that Desdemona is having an affair and strangles her. Iago’s wife, Emilia, enters the room and Othello confesses what he has done. “She’s dead,” he says. “Still as the grave . . . I have no wife.”
‘But he is wrong! A few moments later, Emilia hears something and calls out: “What cry is that? . . . that was my lady’s voice.” It turns out that Desdemona has not yet been killed but is only unconscious. She recovers long enough to claim that Othello is innocent of the crime. And then she dies.
‘This is what occurred with Melissa James. Strangulation can kill in many ways. Preventing blood flow and oxygen from reaching the brain is the most common. It can cause a heart attack. An artery may be torn. But what is perhaps less well known is that with strangulation, although unconsciousness will occur in seconds, death may take several minutes.
‘So let us imagine what Francis Pendleton perceives. He strangles his wife. He believes she is dead. She falls and knocks her head against the bedside table. There is blood. She is not moving. Thinking that he has killed her, he runs out of the house. From this moment on, he believes himself guilty of murder.
‘But a few minutes later, Melissa James recovers. She is alone in the house for the Chandlers have now left. She finds herself in the bedroom and she is distraught, with tears pouring down her cheeks. She has almost been killed! She uses not one but two paper tissues, dropping them to the floor. What will she do? She must call the man she loves and who, she believes, is in love with her. But she cannot call him from the bedroom as the telephone has been torn from the wall. So she must go downstairs to the living room to call him from there. Taking another tissue, she makes her way down.
‘She calls Dr Collins at 6.28 and tells him that Francis Pendleton has tried to kill her. Dr Collins immediately leaves his home and arrives at Clarence Keep at 6.45 p.m. The time is in fact immaterial. When he gets there, Melissa is lying on her bed. She can barely speak.
‘And what happens next?
‘Dr Collins has been having an affair with Melissa James. One can understand the attraction. She is a glamorous Hollywood star. She owns a beautiful house, a hotel. She is about to appear in a new film. He has been thinking, perhaps, of leaving his ordinary wife and his boring life in a small seaside village. But everything has changed with the death of a relative who has left Samantha Collins an enormous amount of money. And Melissa has debts. Her business is failing. Suddenly, life with her seems less attractive.
‘But at the same time, Melissa is demanding that they reveal their affair. What is it that she wrote in her letter? ‘We have to be brave and tell the world our destiny.’ If Melissa speaks out as she threatens, he will lose not just his wife but her inheritance. For him it is an impossible situation.
‘And suddenly he sees his opportunity. Everything has been prepared for him. Melissa James has been attacked. He was at home with his wife when she called him. The call will have been registered. Quickly, he takes hold of the telephone cord and continues the work that Francis Pendleton began, only, being a doctor, he knows how long he must apply pressure and he can also recognise the moment when life has been extinguished. The only evidence? There are two
sets of ligature marks. These, Detective Chief Inspector Hare notices, but he assumes, not unreasonably, that they were made during the struggle.
‘Dr Collins kills Melissa James and calls the police. His story will be that he came to the house and found her dead. He does not tell them that she had named her husband as the attacker. It might have been tempting to do this, to say that Melissa had identified him – but he cannot be sure at what time Francis left the house and whether Melissa was seen still living after he had gone. Anyway, it does not matter to him. He knows that Francis Pendleton will be the most obvious suspect whatever he says. He makes, however, a second mistake which is of greater importance. He has handled the telephone and wipes it clean to remove his fingerprints. As I remarked to you, Detective Chief Inspector, this is something that Francis would not have needed to do.’
There was a stunned silence in the room. Everyone was staring at Leonard Collins. His wife was physically recoiling from him in shock. Algernon was half smiling, amazed that his brother-in-law should have been capable of such a thing – and yet the smile faded as he realised that any chance of his getting a share of the inheritance had just evaporated. Phyllis Chandler was horrified. Madeline Cain looked shocked.
Dr Collins got to his feet. He stood there like a man facing an execution squad. ‘I really did think I would get away with it,’ he said.
‘Leonard . . .’ Samantha began.
‘I’m sorry, Sam. But he’s right. Everything he said. A boring life, a boring wife . . . I dreamed of bigger things. Say goodbye to the children for me.’ He walked to the door and jerked it open. There was a uniformed policeman waiting on the other side. ‘You’ll forgive me if I don’t listen to the rest of it,’ he said. ‘I think I’d prefer to be on my own.’
He went through the door, closing it behind him. There was a long silence. Samantha buried her face in her hands. Miss Cain wrote something in her pad and underlined it.
‘So he killed her!’ Hare couldn’t believe what he had just heard. ‘It all makes complete sense, Mr Pünd. It’s extraordinary. But there’s one thing you haven’t explained. Why did he kill Francis Pendleton?’
‘He did not kill Francis Pendleton,’ Pünd replied. ‘I’m afraid to say, Detective Chief Inspector, that I know, perfectly well, the person responsible for the death of Mr Pendleton.’
‘And who was that?’
‘It was me.’
Eighteen
Situation Vacant
‘I have a confession to make,’ Pünd continued. ‘I was at Clarence Keep when Francis Pendleton was killed and I see now that I was in some ways responsible for his death.’
‘You killed him?’ Algernon asked, incredulously.
‘No, Mr Marsh. I was not the one who stabbed him with the knife, but if I had been more observant or if I had proceeded more rapidly with my deductions, it is a death that might have been avoided.’
‘Nobody could have done more than you, Mr Pünd,’ Miss Cain muttered. She was looking at him disapprovingly.
‘It is kind of you to say so, Miss Cain. But I have learned a lesson in Tawleigh-on-the-Water and it is one that I will discuss one day in my book.’
‘I think you’d better make a clean breast of it, Mr Pünd,’ the detective chief inspector suggested.
Pünd nodded.
‘It is strange,’ he said, ‘but standing on the balcony of my room on the night that you and I had dinner together, I had a strange presentiment that I should not have taken this case and events have proved me right. With your assistance I have solved the murder of Melissa James, but Francis Pendleton is another matter altogether.
‘Once again I must ask, why was he killed? Who in this room would have had a motive to silence him? I have suggested already that Nancy Mitchell had the greatest animosity towards him and with good reason. The Gardners, perhaps, had reason to fear him. Mrs Chandler and her son, without doubt, felt threatened by him.’
‘I never touched him!’ Eric wailed.
‘Oh stop snivelling, you big baby,’ Phyllis hissed under her breath.
‘Algernon Marsh is a ruthless operator who would do anything to protect his business enterprise. And we have yet to consider Samantha Collins.’
Samantha had been sitting as if in a trance from the moment her husband had confessed to the first murder. One of the policemen had brought in a cup of strong tea but she hadn’t touched it. She was clearly in shock. Now she roused herself and looked up. ‘What do you mean?’
‘In the church you told me of your dislike of Melissa James. I wondered briefly if it might have driven you to kill her. You strike me, if I may say, as the sort of woman who would do anything to protect her good reputation, her family, her children. What if Francis Pendleton knew of the relationship between his wife and your husband? What might you do to prevent him from making it public?’
‘That’s ridiculous!’
‘It was a thought only.’ Pünd dismissed it. ‘All these ideas came into my head, but I have dismissed each and every one of them. The Gardners may be petty criminals but they are not killers. Mr Marsh could have killed a man behind the wheel of his car, but he does not have the courage to do such an act deliberately. You, Miss Mitchell, are a good person and I wish you only happiness in your later life. Mrs Chandler, you could be more forgiving of your son, who needs, I would have said, your help rather than your anger. He, too, could not have committed this act of violence, and if he had, he would not have had the ability to disappear with the speed that was required.’
‘So who was it?’
He looked around him.
‘I will tell you why I should not be here,’ he went on. ‘I was approached by an American agent, a man named Edgar Schultz, who described himself as a senior partner at the agency of William Morris in New York. It was the first time I had been employed by a client I had never met and this made me uneasy from the start. I did make a brief investigation and can tell you that there is indeed such a man and he did represent Melissa James.
‘In my dealings with Mr Schultz, however, I noticed at once certain peculiarities. The letter that he sent me, for example, was addressed to “Mr Pünd”, but it is the practice in America to add a full stop after “Mr”. The full stop in this case was absent. And then there was the subsequent telephone call in which the sound quality was remarkably good. During the brief conversation, the man to whom I was speaking mentioned “some bright spark in the office” who had suggested contacting me. This struck me as a particularly English turn of phrase and it seemed strange coming out of the mouth of an American. As I say, I noticed these two anomalies but I set them aside. The letter could have been typed in haste. Mr Schultz could have English ancestry.
‘Last night, which was much too late, I telephoned Mr Schultz myself and knew at once that it was not the same man I had spoken to in my apartment in London. He confirmed that he had never written to me and did not know of my involvement. I have no right to be here in Tawleigh-on-the-Water. I was never, in truth, employed.’
‘That’s impossible!’ Miss Cain exclaimed. ‘I called William Morris myself. The assistant put me through to Mr Schultz’s office.’
‘It is a mystery, is it not, how this trick was performed, Miss Cain. Is it possible that you could have asked the operator for the wrong number?’
‘I hardly think so.’
‘You were, I recall, very keen that I should involve myself in this matter.’
‘I thought you’d find it interesting. There wasn’t very much else on your desk.’
‘That was the only reason?’
‘What other reason could there possibly be?’
‘Let us consider your behaviour since you arrived in Tawleigh-on-the-Water. When we first drove to Clarence Keep, you were, I would have said, quite awestruck by the sight of the house. You described it as “lovely” and then “gorgeous”. I did not know you well but it struck me as out of character as you did not often venture an opinion. I also observed that you had considerable
knowledge of the work of Miss James. At the house, you were puzzled that there should be a poster of The Wizard of Oz as she had not appeared in that film. Later, when we were speaking with Mrs Collins, you recognised an allusion to another of her films, Pastures Green.’
‘Of course I knew her work, Mr Pünd. Doesn’t everyone?’
‘You would describe yourself as a fan?’
‘Well . . .’
‘It is an interesting word, that. There are some who believe it is a shortened version of “fanatic”.’
‘I really don’t know what you’re getting at.’
‘Then I will enlighten you. I will begin first with a letter from one of Melissa James’s most devoted fans.’ Pünd produced a letter written on lilac paper in large, neat handwriting. Lance Gardner recognised it. The letter had been sent to the hotel. He had given it to Melissa himself. ‘“The screen is diminished without you,”’ Pünd read. ‘“A light has gone out of our lives.”’ He lowered the page. ‘Do you recognise those words?’
Miss Cain took a deep breath. ‘I wrote them,’ she admitted.
‘You did not wish me to know that,’ Pünd continued. ‘Which is why you seemed to faint when we were in Miss James’s bedroom. You knocked a pile of letters to the floor. You had seen your own letter on the top and knew that I would recognise your handwriting. Then, when you handed the pile back to me, you turned it upside down. It was a clever trick, that . . .’
‘Well, it was a personal matter,’ Miss Cain protested.
‘As personal as the theft of an intimate item of clothing from Miss James’s bedroom drawer?’ Pünd looked at her angrily. ‘For reasons we do not need to discuss at this present time, his mother was convinced that Eric had taken it.’
‘I didn’t!’ Eric was quick to defend himself.
‘I believe you. A man who has been found guilty of breaking into a bank will not deny stealing the money! You had already admitted to one misdemeanour. You had no reason to deny a second. But if it was not you, who was it?’ He turned back to his assistant. ‘You were left alone in the house, Miss Cain. This was after you had pretended to become faint. You had ample opportunity to enter the bedroom.’
Moonflower Murders Page 39