Poison in the Pen (The Miss Silver Mysteries Book 29)

by Patricia Wentworth

  He was regarding her with a kind of quizzical respect.

  ‘Do tell me how you would distract the attention of a man whom you were going to poison.’

  Miss Silver turned her knitting and measured the sleeve against her hand.

  ‘I think I should say I saw a strange dog in the garden. The cyanide would, of course, be dissolved and contained in some small bottle which would go easily into a handbag or a pocket.’

  ‘I see you have it all worked out. How fortunate for society that you do not devote your abilities to crime!’ The gravity of her look reproved him. He hastened to say, ‘I suppose it could have happened like that. How long was Mettie Eccles away from the tea-room?’

  ‘It was quite a long time.’

  ‘You noticed her return?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Was there any change in her appearance?’

  ‘Yes, Randal, there was. She was, she had been, agitated. There were signs of tears. Her face was freshly powdered. It is, of course, quite possible that Colonel Repton had been informing her that he intended to divorce his wife. He had already told his sister and Mr Barton of his intention. If Miss Eccles was not the person he had in mind as the author of the anonymous letters, he might very easily have taken the opportunity of confiding in so old a friend.’

  He shook his head.

  ‘You are building houses with a pack of cards. Very ingenious houses, I’ll give you that, but you no sooner set one up than you proceed to knock it down again. As a plain man, I don’t mind telling you I’d give all your ingenious suppositions for a ha’p’orth of real evidence. And it is only in the case of Scilla Repton that there is really any evidence at all. Plainly, she had a motive. Even if she knew that Repton had altered his will – and she may not have known that he had already done so – his death would save her settlement, her reputation, and any chance she might have of marrying Gilbert Earle. She had knowledge of the presence of cyanide in the gardener’s shed, and she had easy access to it. She had an angry interview with him within an hour of his death, and could have introduced the cyanide into the decanter either then or at some previous time. The interview closed with the damning words overheard by Florrie as Mrs Repton left the study – “You’d be a lot more good to me dead than alive.” This constitutes a strong case.’

  ‘Undoubtedly. But it does not link up with the anonymous letters, or with the death of Connie Brooke.’

  He let that go.

  ‘To return for a moment to Mettie Eccles. Your last remark about her was to the effect that if she were not the author of the letters and Repton had therefore no accusation to bring against her, the agitation which you noticed might have been due to his having told her that he intended to divorce his wife. Don’t you think this possibility derives a good deal of support from the fact that she immediately and directly accused Scilla Repton of having killed him? Such an accusation might very well have sprung from a belief that, driven by her infidelity, Colonel Repton had taken his own life. It certainly seems to me to be the most natural explanation.’

  ‘What does Miss Eccles herself say about her interview with Colonel Repton?’

  ‘Nothing that amounts to anything. She just says she took him in his tea, and that he was sitting at his table and appeared to be as usual. She says that she didn’t stay, and that she went up to Miss Maggie’s room to tidy herself before going back to the others. I can press her, of course, as to whether Repton said anything about his wife. But look here – do you seriously suspect her?’

  Miss Silver went silent for a moment. Then she said, ‘Suspicions are not evidence, as you have pointed out. But I believe that somewhere there is the evidence which would convict the person who is responsible for at least a double murder. It occurs to me that this evidence may lie farther back in the case than has been supposed. I feel quite sure that the question of the anonymous letters is fundamental. I would like, therefore, to go back to the letters received by Doris Pell, the girl who was found drowned in the Manor lake. She lived with an aunt, who was formerly maid to Mrs Grey, and they did dressmaking. I suppose the aunt was interviewed by the police?’

  ‘Oh, yes, Crisp saw her. There had been more than one letter, but she was only able to produce the last one. It was the usual disgusting type of thing, full of what seem to have been completely unfounded suggestions of immorality.’

  ‘And what did Miss Pell have to say to Inspector Crisp?’

  ‘Oh, nothing at all. The poor woman just went on crying and saying what a good girl Doris was, and how no one had ever had a word to say against her or anyone in their family. They were Chapel people and very religious, and Doris just couldn’t bear the shame of it.’

  Miss Silver was casting off. As the last stitch fell from the needles, she looked across them at the Chief Constable and said, ‘Would you have any objection to my going to see Mrs Pell, Randal?’

  THIRTY

  MISS PELL LIVED three houses beyond the post office. Now that she was alone there, the house was too big for her and she was thinking of taking a lodger. Only of course she would have to be very particular about the sort of person she would take. A man was not to be thought of, and a female lodger must neither be so young as to have the slightest inclination towards flightiness, nor so aged as to be a possible liability in the way of attendance or nursing, a thing which Miss Pell was careful to explain you undertook for your own family – and she would be the last to shirk her duty to a relative – but she couldn’t, no she really couldn’t consider it in the case of a stranger. Doris’s room was therefore still unoccupied.

  The house was one of a row of cottages all joined together, so Miss Pell had no need to be nervous. If she were to knock upon the wall on the right as you looked to the front, old Mrs Rennick would knock back and call out to know what she wanted. If she knocked on the lefthand wall, young Mr Masters would do the same. There were of course, drawbacks to this state of things, because Mrs Rennick disagreed a good deal with her daughter-in-law. They carried on long arguments from one room to another. And though the Masters’ baby was very good on the whole, it did sometimes cry. But then, as Miss Pell had often said, when you sit and sew all day it’s nice to hear what’s going on next door.

  Miss Silver paid the visit, to which Randal March had raised no objection, at about half-past three. Miss Pell admitted her to a narrow passage with a stair going up on one side and a half-open door on the other. Everything was very clean, but the house had the peculiar smell inseparable from the profession of dressmaking. The room into which she was ushered had a good-sized bay window. It seemed improbable that it was ever opened.

  Seen in the light, Miss Pell appeared to be about fifty years of age. She had sparse greyish hair brushed back from the forehead and pinned into a tight plait at the back. Her features were thin and sharp, her complexion sallow, and her eyelids reddened. She began to speak at once.

  ‘If it’s about some more work for Miss Renie, I’m afraid I couldn’t undertake it – not at present. You are the lady who is staying with her, aren’t you – Miss Silver?’

  Miss Silver said, ‘Yes,’ adding with a friendly smile, ‘And you are too busy to take any more work?’

  ‘I couldn’t manage it – not for a long time,’ said Miss Pell. She spoke in a curious, faltering way, running two words together, pausing as if she was short of breath, and then going on with a rush. She went on now. ‘I haven’t really caught up, not since my poor niece – staying with Miss Renie, you will have heard about her, I dare say. And apart from missing her as I do, I was left with all the work the two of us had in hand, and I don’t seem to be able to get it straightened out.’

  Miss Silver knew trouble when she saw it, and she saw it now. The reddened eyelids spoke of lack of sleep. She said in her kindest voice, ‘I know that everyone has felt the deepest sympathy with you in your loss.’

  Miss Pell’s lips trembled.

  ‘Everyone has been very kind,’ she said. ‘But it doesn’t bring her back. If it
hadn’t been for those letters—’

  She didn’t know what made her speak of the letters. She had been asked about them at the inquest, but ever since she had tried to keep them out of her mind. Wicked, that’s what they were, and not fit language for a Christian woman to call to mind. And Doris always such a good girl. She felt her way to a chair and sat down because her legs were shaking. Her thought found its way into words.

  ‘She was always such a good girl. None of the things in the letters were true. She was a good Christian girl.’

  Miss Silver had sat down too.

  ‘I am sure she was, Miss Pell. If the person who wrote those letters could be found, it might save some other poor girl the same experience.’

  Miss Pell stared at her.

  ‘Anyone that was wicked enough to write those letters would be wicked enough to know how to hide themselves.’

  ‘Do you think that your niece had any idea who had written them?’

  Miss Pell’s hands, which were lying in her lap, jerked and closed down, the right hand over the left.

  ‘There wasn’t anything to say who wrote them.’

  ‘If she had had any idea, in whom would she have been most likely to confide?’

  ‘She hadn’t any secrets from me.’

  ‘Sometimes a girl will talk to another girl. Had your niece any special friend? Was she, for instance, friendly with Connie Brooke?’

  Miss Pell looked down at her own clasped hands.

  ‘They had known each other from children,’ she said. ‘Miss Renie will have told you I was maid to Miss Valentine’s mother, Mrs Grey – and a sweet lady she was if ever there was one. When my brother died and I had to take Doris, Mrs Grey let me bring her to the Manor. And just about then Mrs Brooke and her little Connie came to Tilling Green, so there were two little girls very much of an age, and Miss Valentine was the baby.’

  ‘And they went on being friendly?’

  ‘Really fond of each other, that’s what they were. The very last bit of work Doris did was to alter a dress for Miss Connie. And she must have been one of the last people she spoke to too, because that was one of the things she went out for that afternoon, to go along to the school and let Miss Connie have her dress.’

  Miss Silver looked at her gravely.

  ‘Miss Pell, you knew, did you not, that Connie Brooke was believed to have told Mr Martin that she knew who had written those letters?’

  ‘It wasn’t Mr Martin who said so.’

  ‘No, it was his housekeeper. It was all over the village that Connie Brooke knew about the letters, and that Mr Martin had told her that it might be her duty to go to the police. Do you not think it would have been her duty?’

  ‘I couldn’t say.’

  Miss Silver waited for a moment. Then she said, ‘Connie died next day, as suddenly as your niece did. If she had told Mr Martin what she knew, I believe that she would be alive today. It was all over the village on Saturday that Colonel Repton had been heard to say that he knew who had written the letters. On Monday afternoon he was dead too. If he had told the police what he knew, he would not have died. Now, Miss Pell, I think that you know something, and I think it is of the first importance that you should tell what you know.’

  A little colour came up into the sallow face. The eyelids came down for a moment over the faded eyes, and then were raised again. In a changed voice Miss Pell said, ‘It is the third sign—’

  ‘Yes, Miss Pell?’

  ‘Once by a dream,’ said Miss Pell, looking fixedly at her, ‘and once by the Bible text, and once by your mouth. If there was a third sign, I said that I would know what I had to do.’

  If the words were strange, her manner was perfectly composed. Her hands now held each other lightly and without straining. Miss Silver said, ‘There is something you know and that you think you ought to tell?’

  The answer she received was an indirect one.

  ‘I will tell you about the signs. You won’t understand unless I tell you about them. Because when Doris came home that day I promised her that I wouldn’t speak of what she told me, and it isn’t right to break a promise to the dead – not unless there is a sign, and I’ve had three. She said to me, “You’ll never tell, Aunt Emily, now will you?” And I said, “Of course I won’t.” Nor would I ever, if it hadn’t been for the signs.’

  ‘What were they, Miss Pell?’

  ‘The first was a dream that I had in the night. Last night it was, and as clear as if I was waking. I was here in this room and sewing on something black, and I was crying over the work, and I remember thinking that it would be spoiled, because nothing spots quicker than black. And then the door opened and Doris and Connie came in together, holding hands like they would when they were little girls. They had a big bunch of flowers between them, holding it – lilies, and roses, and all sorts. And there was a light all round them, so that they shone. Doris was on the right and Connie on the left. In my dream they came right up to me, and Doris said not to cry any more, because there was no need, and not to trouble about the promise I’d made, because it didn’t matter. And I woke up in my bed upstairs with the alarm clock going.’

  Miss Silver said very kindly indeed, ‘It was a comforting dream.’

  Miss Pell’s eyes were full of tears.

  ‘It ought to have been, but it wasn’t. I’d heard about Colonel Repton, and I kept troubling in my mind about whether the dream meant that I was to break my promise and go to the police, and whether it was a sign, or whether it had just come up out of my troubling about what I had said to the police. I hadn’t told any lies – I wouldn’t do that – but when they asked me if I had told them all I knew, I just put my handkerchief up to my face and cried, and they thought that I had.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘So I thought what I could do to make sure about the sign. And what I did, I took my Bible and I shut my eyes and opened it just where it fared to open and put my finger on a verse. And when I opened my eyes it was the fifteenth verse of the eighth chapter of Zechariah, and it said – “These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgement of truth and peace in your gates.” So I thought, “If that isn’t a sign, I don’t know what is.” And then it come over me that I’d never broken a promise in my life, and that I’d got to be sure. And I thought, “If the Lord wants me to speak, He can send me a third sign just as well as the other two, and if there is a third sign, I shall know that it’s from the Lord and I shall know what I’ve got to do.” And then you come knocking at the door, a stranger, and the very words of the sign in your mouth, telling me that there was something I knew, and that I should tell it.’

  Miss Silver repeated the words.

  ‘Yes, I think you should tell it.’

  Miss Pell brought out an old-fashioned linen handkerchief neatly folded and touched her eyes with it.

  ‘It was that last day before Doris was drowned. She went out in the afternoon, and she’d got a mauve silk blouse she was taking to Miss Maggie at the Manor, and a dress she’d made for Miss Wayne, a blue wool that she had, coming out of mourning for her sister, and she said it was a little tight under the arms though I couldn’t see it myself, so Doris had been letting it out. Quite a round she had, what with leaving the blouse, and the dress, and looking in to settle the pattern of a couple of nightdresses for Miss Eccles and finishing up with Miss Connie. She left the dress she had been altering for her to the end because of the children not coming out of school until four. Well, she went there, and she was properly upset, the same as she was when she came back home. And at first she wouldn’t tell me anything at all, only that there was something not quite right about the neck of Miss Maggie’s blouse and she’d promised to alter it quick and run up with it in the evening. “Well,” I said, “you’re not letting yourself get upset about that, are you?” And she said, “No, Aunt Emily, it isn’t the blouse,” and she burst out crying. So then I went on at her to tell me what it was, and she said if she did,
would I promise faithfully never to breathe it to a living soul – and I promised. So then she told me.’

  ‘What did she tell you?’

  ‘She said it had come to her who had written those dreadful letters, and she said it was this way. There were four houses she’d been in that day – up at the Manor with Miss Maggie’s blouse, and at Willow Cottage with Miss Wayne’s blue wool, and into Holly Cottage about Miss Mettie’s nightgowns. And last of all in at the Croft with Miss Connie. That’s the only four houses she was in. And in one of them – and she didn’t tell me which – she picked up a little bit of paper that was on the floor. You know how it is, if you see something lying about like that, it just comes natural to stoop down and pick it up. Well, that’s what Doris did, and when she’d got it in her hand she could see it was a torn-off piece of one of the letters she’d had. A bottom left-hand piece it was, with the Til of Tilling on it. Torn right in half the word was on the letter when she got it, where it said everyone in Tilling Green knew that Doris went with men on the sly. Well, there was this piece and she’d picked it up, and she came over faint and had to sit down.’