Grave Mistake

by Ngaio Marsh

  Dr Schramm thumbed up the ends of his moustache. ‘It’s just that it does occur to me that he might have expectations. I’ve no knowledge of any such thing. None.’

  ‘You know, do you, that Carter was on the premises that afternoon?’

  ‘I do not!’ he said sharply. ‘Where did you get that from?’

  ‘From Miss Verity Preston,’ said Alleyn.

  Again the shadow of a smile, not quite a sneer, not entirely complacent.

  ‘Verity Preston?’ he said. ‘Oh yes? She and Syb were old friends.’

  ‘He arrived in the same bus as Bruce Gardener. I gather he was ordered off seeing Mrs Foster.’

  ‘I should bloody well hope so,’ said Dr Schramm. ‘Who by?’

  ‘By Prunella Foster.’

  ‘Good for her.’

  ‘Tell me,’ said Alleyn, ‘speaking as a medical man, and supposing, however preposterously, that there was foul play, how would you think it could be accomplished?’

  ‘There you are again! Nothing to indicate it! Everything points to the suicide I can’t believe in. Everything. Unless,’ he said sharply, ‘something else has been found.’

  ‘Nothing as I understand it.’

  ‘Well then – !’ He made a dismissive, rather ineloquent gesture.

  ‘Dr Schramm, there’s one aspect of her death I wanted to ask you about. Knowing, now, the special relationship between you I am very sorry to have to put this to you – it can’t be anything but distressing to go over the circumstances again.’

  ‘Christ Almighty!’ he burst out. ‘Do you suppose I don’t “go over” them day in, day out? What d’you think I’m made of?’ He raised his hand. ‘I’m sorry!’ he said. ‘You’re doing your job. What is it you want to ask?’

  ‘It’s about the partly dissolved tablets found in the throat and on the tongue. Do you find any inconsistency there? I gather the tablets take some twenty minutes to dissolve in water but are readily soluble in alcohol. It was supposed, wasn’t it, that the reason they were not swallowed was because she became unconscious after putting them in her mouth? But – I suspect this is muddled thinking – would the tablets she had already taken have had time to induce insensibility? And anyway she couldn’t have been insensible when she put these last ones in her mouth. I don’t seem able to sort it out.’

  Dr Schramm put his hand to his forehead, frowned and moved his head slowly from side to side.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘Touch of migraine. Yes. The tablets. She took them with whisky, you know. As you say, they dissolve readily in alcohol.’

  ‘Then wouldn’t you think these would have dissolved in her mouth?’

  ‘I would think that she didn’t take any more whisky with them. Obviously, or she would have swallowed them.’

  ‘You mean that she was conscious enough to put these four in her mouth but not conscious enough to drink or to swallow them? Yes,’ said Alleyn. ‘I see.’

  ‘Well,’ Dr Schramm said loudly, ‘what else? What do you suppose?’

  ‘I? I don’t go in for supposing – we’re not allowed to. Oh, by the way, do you know if Mrs Foster had made a Will – recently, I mean?’

  ‘Of that,’ said Dr Schramm, ‘I have no idea.’ And after a brief pause, ‘Is there anything else?’

  ‘Do you know if there are members of the staff here called G. M. Johnson and Marleena Biggs?’

  ‘I have not the faintest idea. I have nothing to do with the management of the hotel.’

  ‘Of course you haven’t. Stupid of me. I’ll ask elsewhere. If it’s convenient, could we look at the room?’

  ‘I’ll take you up.’ He pressed a buzzer on his desk.

  ‘Please don’t bother. Tell me the number and we’ll find our way.’

  ‘No, no. Wouldn’t dream of it.’

  These protestations were interrupted by the entrance of the nurse. She stood inside the door, her important bosom, garnished with its professional badge, well to the fore. A handsome, slightly florid lady, specifically plentiful.

  ‘Oh, Sister,’ said Dr Schramm, ‘would you be very kind and hold the fort? I’m just going to show our visitors upstairs. I’m expecting that call from New York.’

  ‘Certainly,’ she said woodenly.

  Alleyn said, ‘You must be Sister Jackson, mustn’t you ? I’m very glad to see you. Would you be very kind and give us a moment or two?’

  She looked fixedly at Dr Schramm, who said grudgingly, ‘Chief Superintendent Alleyn.’

  ‘And Inspector Fox,’ said Alleyn. ‘Perhaps, as Dr Schramm expects his long-distance call, it won’t be troubling you too much to ask you to show us the way to Mrs Foster’s room?’

  She still looked at Dr Schramm who began, ‘No, that’s all right, I’ll –’ when the telephone rang. Sister Jackson made a half move as if to answer it but he picked up the receiver.

  ‘Yes. Yes. Speaking. Yes, I accept the call.’

  Alleyn said, ‘Shall we?’ to Sister Jackson and opened the door.

  Schramm nodded to her and with the suggestion of a bridle she led the way back to the hall.

  ‘Do we take the lift?’ Alleyn asked. ‘I’d be very much obliged if you would come. There are one or two points about the room that I don’t quite get from the reports. We’ve been asked by the local Force to take a look at the general picture. A formality, really, but the powers-that-be are always rather fussy in these sorts of cases.’

  ‘Oh yes?’ said Sister Jackson.

  In the lift it became apparent that she used scent.

  For all her handsome looks, she was a pretty tough lady, Alleyn thought. Black, sharp eyes and a small hard mouth, set at the corners. It wouldn’t be long before she settled into the battleaxe form.

  The room, No. 20, was on the second floor at the end of a passage and at a corner of the building. The Quintern police had put a regulation seal on the door and had handed the key over to Alleyn. They had also taken the precaution of slipping an inconspicuous morsel of wool between door and jamb. Sister Jackson looked on in silence while Mr Fox, who wore gloves, dealt with these obstructions.

  The room was dark, the closed window curtains admitting only a sliver or two of daylight. It smelt thickly of material, carpet, stale scent, dust and of something indefinable and extremely unpleasant. Sister Jackson gave out a short hiss of distaste. Fox switched on the light. He and Alleyn moved into the centre of the room. Sister Jackson remained by the door.

  The room had an air of suspended animation. The bed was unmade. Its occupant might have just left it to go into the bathroom. One of the pillows and the lower sheet were stained as if something had been spilt on them. Another pillow lay, face down, at the foot of the bed. The whisky bottle, glass and tablets were all missing and were no doubt still in the custody of the local police, but an unwrapped parcel, obviously a book, together with a vanity box and the half-empty box of marzipan confections lay on the table alongside a lamp. Alleyn peered down the top of a rose-coloured shade and saw the glass slipper in place over the bulb. He took it off and examined it. There was no oil left but it retained a faint reek of sweet almonds. He put it aside.

  The dressing-table carried, together with an array of bottles and pots, three framed photographs all of which he had seen that morning on and in Sybil Foster’s desk at Quintern: her pretty daughter, her second husband and the regimental group with her handsome young first husband prominent among the officers. This was a less faded print and Alleyn looked closely at it, marvelling that such an Adonis could have sired the undelicious Claude. He peered at an enormous corporal in the back row who squinted amicably back at him. Alleyn managed to make out the man’s badge – antlers enclosed by something – what? – a heather wreath? Wasn’t there some nickname? ‘The Spikes’? That was it. ‘The Duke of Montrose’s’ nicknamed ‘The Spikes’. Alleyn wondered how soon after this photograph was taken Maurice Carter had died. Claude would have been a child of three or four, he supposed, and remembered Verity Preston’s story of the lost Blac
k Alexander stamp. What the hell is it, he thought, still contemplating the large corporal, that’s nagging on the edge of my memory?

  He went into the bathroom. A large bunch of dead lilies lay in the hand-basin. A dirty greenish stain showed where water had drained away. A new and offensive smell rose from the basin. ‘ “Lilies that fester,” ’ he reminded himself, ‘ “smell far worse than weeds.” ’

  He returned to the bedroom and found Fox, placid in attendance, and Sister Jackson looking resentful.

  ‘And this,’ Alleyn said, ‘is how it was when you were called in?’

  ‘The things on the table have been removed. And there’s no body,’ she pointed out sourly.

  ‘No more there is.’

  ‘It’s disgusting,’ said Sister Jackson. ‘Being left like this.’

  ‘Horrid, isn’t it? Could you just give us a picture of how things were when you arrived on the scene?’

  She did so, eyeing him closely and with a certain air of appraisal. It emerged that she had been in her room and thinking of retiring when Dr Schramm telephoned her asking her to come at once to No. 20. There she found him stooping over the bed on which lay Mrs Foster, dead and cooling. Dr Schramm had drawn her attention to the table and its contents and told her to go to the surgery and fetch the equipment needed to empty the stomach. She was to do this without saying anything to anyone she met.

  ‘We knew it was far too late to be of any use,’ she said, ‘but we did it. Dr Schramm said the contents should be kept and they were. In a sealed jar. We had to move the table away from the bed but nothing else was disturbed. Dr Schramm was very particular about that. Very.’

  ‘And then?’

  ‘We informed Mr Delaware, the manager. He was upset, of course. They don’t like that sort of thing. Then we got Dr Field-Innis to come over from Upper Quintern and he said the police should be informed. We couldn’t see why but he said he thought they ought to be. So they were.’

  Alleyn noticed the increased usage of the first person plural in this narrative and wondered if he only imagined that it sounded possessive.

  He thanked Sister Jackson warmly and handed her a glossy photograph of Mr Fox’s Aunt Elsie which was kept for this purpose. Auntie Elsie had become a kind of code-person between Alleyn and Fox and was sometimes used as a warning signal when one of them wished to alert the other without being seen to do so. Sister Jackson failed to identify Aunt Elsie and was predictably intrigued. He returned the photograph to its envelope and said they needn’t trouble her any longer. Having dropped his handkerchief over his hand, he opened the door to her.

  ‘Pay no attention,’ he said. ‘We do these things hoping they give us the right image. Goodbye, Sister.’

  In passing between him and Fox her hand brushed his. She rustled off down the passage, one hundred and fifty pounds of active femininity if she was an ounce.

  ‘Cripes,’ said Fox thoughtfully.

  ‘Did she establish contact?’

  ‘En passant,’ he confessed in his careful French. ‘What about you, Mr Alleyn?’

  ‘En passant, moi aussi.’

  ‘Do you reckon,’ Mr Fox mused, ‘she knew about the engagement?’

  ‘Do you?’

  ‘If she did, I’d say she didn’t much fancy it,’ said Fox.

  ‘We’d better push on. You might pack up that glass slipper, Fox. We’ll get Sir James to look at it.’

  ‘In case somebody put prussic acid in it?’

  ‘Something like that. After all, there was and is a strong smell of almonds. Only “Oasis”, you’ll tell me and I’m afraid you’ll be right.’

  On their way out the receptionist said she had made enquiries as to the electrical repairs man. Nobody knew anything about him except the girl who had given him Mrs Foster’s flowers. He told her he had been sent to repair a lamp in No. 20 and the lady had asked him to collect her flowers when he went down to his car to get a new bulb for the bedside lamp. She couldn’t really describe him except that he was slight, short and well-spoken and didn’t wear overalls but did wear spectacles.

  ‘What d’you make of that?’ said Alleyn when they got outside.

  ‘Funny,’ said Fox. ‘Sussy. Whatever way you look at it, not convincing.’

  ‘There wasn’t a new bulb in the bedside lamp. Old bulb, murky on top. Ready to conk out.’

  ‘Lilies in the basin, though.’

  ‘True.’

  ‘What now, then?’

  Alleyn looked at his watch. ‘I’ve got a date with the Coroner,’ he said. ‘In one hour. At Upper Quintern. In the meantime, Bailey and Thompson had better give these premises the full treatment. Every inch of them.’

  ‘Looking for what?’

  ‘All the usual stuff. Latent prints, including Sister J’s on Aunt Elsie, of course. Schramm’s will be on the book wrapping and Prunella Foster’s and her mother’s on the vanity box. We’ve got to remember the room was done over in the morning by the housemaids, so anything that crops up will have been established during the day. We haven’t finished with that sickening little room, Br’er Fox. Not by a long bloody chalk.’

  CHAPTER 5

  Greengages (II) Room 20

  ‘– In view of which circumstances, members of the jury,’ said the Coroner, ‘you may consider that the appropriate decision would be again to adjourn these proceedings sine die.’

  Not surprisingly, the jury embraced this suggestion and out into the age-old quietude of Upper Quintern village walked the people who, in one way or another, were involved, or had been obliged to concern themselves in the death of Sybil Foster: her daughter, her solicitor, her oldest friend, her gardener, the doctor she had disregarded and the doctor who had become her fiancé. And her stepson who by her death inherited the life interest left by her first husband. Her last and preposterous Will and Testament could not upset this entailment nor, according to Mr Rattisbon, could this Will itself be upset. G. M. Johnson and Marleena Biggs, chambermaids on the second floor of the hotel, confessed with uneasy giggles that they had witnessed Mrs Foster’s signature a week before she died.

  This Will provided the only sensation of the inquest. Nobody seemed to be overwhelmingly surprised at Bruce Gardener’s legacy of £25,000 but the Swingletree clause and the sumptuous inheritance of Dr Schramm caused a sort of stupefaction in court. Three reporters from the provincial press were seen to be stimulated. Verity Preston, who was there because her god-daughter seemed to expect it, had a horrid foreboding of growing publicity.

  The inquest had again been held in the parish hall. The spire of St Crispin-in-Quintern cast its shadow over an open space at the foot of steps that led up to the church. The local people referred to this area as the ‘green’ but it was little more than a rough lateral bulge in the lane. Upper Quintern was really a village only by virtue of its church and was the smallest of its kind; hamlet would have seemed a more appropriate title.

  Sunlight, diffused by autumnal haze, the absence of wind and, until car engines started up, of other than countrified sounds, all seemed to set at a remove any process other than the rooted habit of the Kentish soil. Somehow or another, Verity thought, whatever the encroachments, continuity survives. And then she thought that it had taken this particular encroachment to put the idea into her head.

  She wondered if Young Mr Rattisbon would expect a repetition of their former conviviality and decided to wait until he emerged. People came together in desultory groups and broke up again. They had the air of having been involved in some social contretemps.

  Prunella came out between the two Markos men. Clearly she was shaken, Gideon held her hand and his father, with his elegant head inclined, stooped over her. Again, Verity had the feeling that they absorbed Prunella.

  Prunella saw her godmother, said something to the men and came to Verity.

  ‘Godma V,’ she said. ‘Did you know? I meant to let you know. It’s the day after the day after tomorrow – Thursday – they’re going to – they say we can –’
/>   ‘Well, darling,’ said Verity, ‘that’s a good thing, isn’t it? What time?’

  ‘Three o’clock. Here. I’m telling hardly anyone – just very old friends like you. And bunches of flowers out of our garden, don’t you think?’

  ‘I do indeed. Would you like me to bring you? Or – are you –?’

  Prunella seemed to hesitate and then said, ‘That’s sweet of you, Godma V. Gideon and Papa M are – coming with me but – could we sit together, please?’

  ‘Of course, we could,’ Verity said and kissed her.

  The jury had come out. Some straggled away to the bus stop, some to a car. The landlord of the Passcoigne Arms was accompanied into the pub by three of his fellow jurors. The Coroner appeared with Mr Rattisbon. They stood together in the porch, looking at their feet and conversing. They were joined by two others.

  Prunella, who still held Verity’s hand, said, ‘Who’s that, I wonder? Do you know? The tall one?’

  ‘It’s the one who called on me. Superintendent Alleyn.’

  ‘I can see what you mean about him,’ said Prunella.

  The three representatives of the provincial press slid up to Alleyn and began to speak to him. Alleyn looked over their heads towards Verity and Prunella and as if he had signalled to her Verity moved to hide Prunella from the men. At the same instant Bruce Gardener came out of the hall and at once the three men closed round him.

  Alleyn came over to Verity and Prunella.

  ‘Good morning, Miss Preston,’ he said. ‘I wondered if you’d be here.’ And to Prunella, ‘Miss Foster? I expect your splendid Mrs Jobbin told you I’d called. She was very kind and let me come into your house. Did she tell you?’

  ‘Yes. I’m sorry I was out.’

  ‘There wasn’t any need, at that juncture, to bother you. I’m sorry you’re having such a horrid time. Actually,’ Alleyn said, ‘I may have to ask you to see me one of these days but only if it’s really necessary. I promise.’

  ‘OK,’ Prunella said. ‘Whenever you like. OK.’

  ‘My dear Alleyn!’ said a voice behind Verity. ‘How very nice to meet you again.’