False Pride

by Veronica Heley

  Bea said, ‘Let’s be clear about this. Someone did take steps to discover whose son he really was?’

  ‘Correct. You must understand that Nicholas, our younger brother, had died by this time. George asked me to arrange for tests to be made, and they were conclusive. Owen was indeed George’s son. I must admit I was somewhat relieved to learn that it was so. But his words had set me thinking that I might well have been missing out by cutting myself off from society, so …’ He fiddled with his glasses and looked self-conscious, ‘I took a colleague’s advice and for the last couple of months I’ve been seeing a counsellor once a week on Thursday afternoons.’

  ‘Oh!’ Magda drew back in her chair, her eyes wide.

  Lucas smiled. Just a crack of a smile, but it was interesting to see how it changed his face. He no longer looked autocratic, but almost genial. There was charm there, now.

  Lucas said, ‘Life opens up, as it were. I suppose I have Owen to thank for that.’

  ‘You know he’s dead?’ said Bea.

  He inclined his head. He knew.

  Bea cleared away the soup plates, stacking them on a tray. ‘Will someone help me bring in the next course?’

  Magda and Mrs Tarring sprang to help her, while Piers went back to his sketches, and Lucas got up to wander around the room, looking at this and that. When Bea brought in a big dish of mixed salads, she found him standing by the window overlooking the garden. He’d put on a pair of glasses to scrutinize the portrait Piers had painted of her second, much-loved husband, Hamilton, who’d died far from home.

  Lucas flicked a glance at Bea. ‘Your friend Piers painted this? I recognize the hand. His prices have been rising for some years. This is a good example of his work. Strong. The sitter was a “giver” and not a “taker”, I assume.’

  Unexpectedly Bea felt tears well up. ‘That’s Hamilton, my second husband. And yes, he was a good man. Piers and I married very young. Too young. We parted company after four years and went our separate ways. Then I met Hamilton, and we had many happy years together before he died. I miss him still.’

  ‘You are good friends now with this Piers? The interaction between the two of you indicates it.’

  ‘Yes. Come back to the table. Cold meats and salad.’

  He inclined his head, put away his glasses and returned to his seat, where Magda helped him to a selection of everything.

  Bea was amused to see that Piers had gone back to drawing Lucas, instead of eating. Lucas didn’t seem to have noticed. Bea wasn’t sure how he’d react to being sketched, so tapped Piers on his arm, saying, ‘Perhaps Lucas would like to see the chart we’ve been working on.’

  Piers put aside his pencil with reluctance, but went off to fetch it.

  Lucas poked at some salami. ‘What is this? Do I like it?’

  Magda said, ‘Yes, you do. We had some last week, remember?’

  Bea smiled to herself. Lucas was eating everything he’d been given. She finished off her own plateful as Piers brought up the unwieldy sheets of paper on which they’d been working. Lucas pushed aside his empty plate and held out his hand for the papers. Piers meekly surrendered the lot.

  Bea, Mrs Tarring and Magda hastily cleared away the used plates as Lucas laid the timetable out on the table and, frowning, donned his glasses. He looked through them, blinked, and took them off again. Without a word, Magda took the glasses off him, cleaned them, and put them back in his hand.

  Bea noticed he wasn’t looking at Magda. And Magda wasn’t looking at him. Bea wasn’t sure what this meant. Possibly that they were now conscious of each other’s presence in a way they hadn’t been before?

  Lucas studied the paper on which they’d been working. Everyone waited to hear what he’d have to say. Finally he put his finger on the ‘box’ that Bea had filled in. ‘Who wrote this? It’s in a different hand from the rest.’

  ‘I wrote those names down,’ said Bea. ‘It’s only a suggestion, but I do wonder if any or all of them are involved in what’s been happening. Shall I make some coffee?’

  No one seemed interested, so she took the remains of lunch out to the kitchen, helped by Magda, but not by Piers … who had gone back to his sketching.

  When she returned, she found Lucas still studying the timetable. As she took her seat again, he said, ‘Ferdinand, Shirley and Hilary. But not the twins? Why not? You have a good reason?’

  Lucas was as dispassionate as a High Court judge, which made Bea nervous. ‘You understand that a lot of what is written there is conjecture. Piers has been checking the hospitals to see where the bodies might have ended up, alive or dead. Mrs Tarring hasn’t finished yet. She was trying to find out which police force was dealing with which crime.’

  ‘Yes, I see. Thank you, Mrs Tarring.’ He really had excellent manners. He took off his glasses, and sat back in his chair. ‘Well, I can confirm that much of what you have written here is correct.’

  Bea said, ‘Owen upset everyone in the family, it seems. The question is, which of you retaliated?’

  ‘Well, it’s true that Owen persuaded George that Kent did not respect his father as he ought to do. Owen was always trying to portray Kent in a bad light. He hinted that Kent was trying to rush his father into an early grave, and that he, Owen, was the only one who really cared for him. Unfortunately my brother gave credence to some of the wild tales Owen spread around about Kent. No sooner did Kent disprove one lie than Owen thought up another. But Kent was too well grounded; perhaps I should say, over-confident? He didn’t do anything about it for a long time.’

  Bea said, ‘Owen didn’t like anyone very much, did he? We heard that he tried to pick quarrels with everyone, and that the rest of the family wanted you to intervene in the family squabbles.’

  ‘I considered doing so, yes. But I decided there was no point. If my brother chose to make a favourite of his younger son, there was nothing I could do about it. As for the rest of the family, they were appropriately provided for. And I had my own life to lead.’

  Did he give a sideways glance at Magda when he said that? Possibly. Hmm.

  ‘Owen couldn’t get at you in any way? I heard he coveted your flat for himself?’

  A ghost of a smile. ‘Owen was a bully, and if you stand up to bullies, they usually cave in. Yes, he tried it on with me, and I told him I was thinking of investigating what he’d been up to in Melbourne before he came to England. I wondered aloud if his past in Australia had, perhaps, not been as pure as driven snow. I said I was sure his father would be interested to know all about it. He assured me he wouldn’t mention a swap again.’

  ‘I like it,’ said Bea. ‘But his defeat over the flat probably made him all the more determined to bring you down.’

  ‘Possibly. But I saw no reason to give in to blackmail, and I did in fact set various enquiries into his past in motion.’

  Mrs Tarring said, ‘That was well handled, my lord. Even Kent couldn’t have done better.’ And then, remembering, ‘It will probably be you who runs the organization in future, my lord.’

  ‘Only until we find a suitable candidate to take over. No doubt our solicitors will help us find someone appropriate.’

  Mrs Tarring persisted, ‘There are other Rycrofts. One of them, perhaps, might step up to the challenge?’

  Lucas’s eyebrows rose, but all he said was, ‘We will discuss this some other time.’ He collected the eyes of everyone round the table. ‘Shall we move on? I see you have already prepared a rough timetable for yesterday morning. You believe Owen was killed on the Friday. I understand the police think so, too, since they asked me to give them my movements for the whole of that day.’

  Magda said, ‘You’ve been in touch with the police? You know I can give you an alibi for Friday?’

  ‘Indeed. I informed them of that. Now: this timetable. May I add my tuppence-worth?’ Without waiting for their consent, he said, ‘On Saturday morning my breakfast was interrupted by a courier bearing a request on the Rycroft Trust paper, for me to remove certain
items from the bank. A key was enclosed, together with an authorization. A typed covering note apparently signed by my brother George requested that I retrieve the jewellery from the bank and hand it over to Kent. The rest of the paperwork had been signed by Kent – or so it appeared.’

  Bea said, ‘You didn’t accept this at face value?’

  ‘Certainly not. Since when did Kent involve me in such an errand? I went to my study and rang Kent. As I had suspected, he knew nothing of the matter and had not signed any such papers. His father had not mentioned any such thing to him, either. We concluded that if someone could produce paperwork convincing enough to fool the bank, the jewels were in jeopardy. Even if we destroyed that authorization, a second set of papers could be produced by the swindler to remove the assets on another day when we might not have the opportunity to intercept them. Owen had shown himself to be without shame or morals in pursuing vendettas against various people whom he imagined had slighted him, and we assumed that this was just another of his little plots, which this time was aimed to incriminate myself and Kent. We decided therefore to remove the jewellery from a bank whose details were known to the office and to go together to deposit them in another bank, perhaps under a false name. To keep them safe.’

  Bea said, ‘What you didn’t know was that your phone was bugged and someone was listening in to all your conversations.’

  ‘What!’ A long stare at Bea. ‘Ah. That explains a lot. I couldn’t understand how anyone else should have known what I was doing. Who installed the bug, and who was listening in?’

  Bea said, ‘We don’t know for sure, though we have our suspicions. So you rescued the jewellery, put it in your briefcase, and with Magda took a cab to Piers’s place. On the way—’

  ‘Kent rang me. I confirmed I had the gems and that I was on my way to Piers’s studio, which is where we had agreed to meet before going on to another bank. Kent said he was uneasy about not letting George know what was happening. He said he would contact him direct and fill him in before meeting me at the studio. I dropped Miss Summerleys, er, Magda, at the artist’s place and took the cab on, intending to call at the barber’s shop and return. But on the way—’

  ‘George rang you to ask what was going on. He’d had a phone call from Kent while he was at his late breakfast, telling him about the plan to remove the Rycroft jewels from the bank. It threw him into a tizzy because he knew nothing about it. He got into his car and started back to London. And, on the way, he phoned you?’

  ‘Yes. He was furious. Said Owen would never dream of cheating him and that Kent and I had made this story up to damage the lad’s credibility. He demanded we take the jewels back to the bank in which they had been lodged. I refused. He said he wanted a meeting straight away with Owen and Kent and me, at his London address. He said he was going to ring Kent direct and tear him off a strip. He said I should go straight to the London house and wait for him, that he’d be there in an hour or so. He rang off before I could demur. I rang Kent to make sure he knew about the change of venue, but he didn’t pick up. I assumed he was out of touch because he was a careful driver and wouldn’t take calls when in traffic. I left a voice message for him to ring me.’

  Bea said, ‘Clearly, Kent didn’t get the message about a change of venue. What time had you arranged to meet him at the studio?’

  ‘Eleven. I had planned to visit the barber’s first, remember?’

  ‘While you were en route to the barber’s and before Kent arrived, the twins arrived at the studio in search of the jewels.’

  Lucas said, ‘How did they know the jewels had been taken out of the bank, and where they were going to be taken?’

  ‘We know there was a bug under your desk which would tell the listener what you planned to do but …’ Here Bea stopped to think. ‘Did you say, in your breakfast call to Kent, that you planned to take Magda with you to the bank?’

  He shook his head. ‘No, I didn’t. In the heat of the moment I’d forgotten all about the appointment with Piers. It was only when Miss … when Magda reminded me that I asked her to come with me.’

  ‘Which means,’ said Bea, ‘that it wasn’t only your phone that was bugged, but also Kent’s. You spoke to him in the taxi after leaving the bank, and told him you had Magda with you and that she’d have the jewels with her at the studio. Someone was listening in to that phone call, which you made to Kent’s landline, right?’

  ‘There were two bugs? Who placed them?’

  ‘We can’t answer for Kent’s, but yours was planted, we believe, by a man answering Ferdinand Rycroft’s description.’

  Mrs Tarring jumped on that. ‘Unproven.’

  ‘Ferdinand?’ Lucas had trouble taking that in.

  ‘His description matches the man who gained access to your study on a day when you were out. He created a diversion during which he might well have installed a bug and left, saying he’d got the address wrong.’

  Lucas looked at Magda, who nodded. ‘A slightly built man in brown, with a red waistcoat.’

  Lucas tightened his lips. ‘I find it hard to believe that the Ferdinand I knew would do such a thing. I’ve always thought him a poor sort of creature, defeated by life. He hardly raises his eyes from the floor when he speaks. You really think he was able to obtain and place listening bugs in our houses? Why? And how did he acquire such things?’

  Bea said, ‘I may be wrong, but sometimes worms turn. Owen not only made fun of Ferdinand, but threatened his comfortable lifestyle, and he wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Your brother George was besotted with Owen and some members of the family feared that, if Owen had his way, they’d be cut off without a penny. Owen pushed people too far. They tried to get you to intervene; you declined. Some of them started to meet and to talk about what could be done to stop Owen. And that, I think, is where the twins’ access to a different lifestyle came in handy. Through their contacts at nightclubs or on the Internet, they acquired pieces of listening equipment so that they could find out what Owen was doing. Perhaps they hoped to entrap him into some unwise comments which they could take to his father as proof that the lad was unworthy of the name of Rycroft.’

  Lucas frowned. ‘You think they planted bugs indiscriminately?’

  ‘They didn’t do it themselves. They got Ferdinand to do it, because he was unobtrusive and could furnish himself with sufficiently good paperwork to gain access to the different Rycroft houses. No one else could do it so easily. Shirley couldn’t, because you didn’t let her loose in your place. So yes, it was Ferdinand who put a bug under your desk. He got in under false pretences and did the deed without rousing suspicion. I think he also put bugs in Kent’s house, and in Owen’s flat. That way the conspirators would know exactly what was happening.’

  Piers said, ‘That’s how they knew that Owen was planning to have Lucas and Kent take the jewels from the bank on false papers, in order to accuse you both of theft.’

  Bea continued, ‘Fate played into their hands. They knew what Owen planned to do and then, phut! He was out of the picture, but the scam had been started and they saw that they could take it over for themselves. They adapted Owen’s plan to divert the jewels into their own hands leaving Lucas and Kent to take the blame.’

  Lucas said, ‘You think the twins were in on it with Ferdinand?’

  ‘I think they all saw pound signs, but I don’t think they acted as one. I think they split in different directions. Take the twins; they saw an opportunity to grab the jewels while they were in your possession. So they turned up at Piers’s studio thinking they could somehow bamboozle you and Kent into handing them over. But you weren’t there, and neither was Kent. They lost it. They assaulted Piers and tortured Magda …’

  Lucas dropped his eyes to Magda, whose eyes were on her fingernails. He touched her hand and said, ‘I’m sorry.’

  Bea continued, ‘When the twins had gone, empty handed, Piers left in search of you, my lord, and Magda took refuge here. Only after they’d gone did Kent arrive at the studio
to find the place empty. We don’t know who he met there, but someone bashed his head in, took his ID and left him there to die.’

  Lucas blinked. Slowly. ‘Yes. Kent’s death is perhaps the very worst of this affair. I was fond of him. He was the best of the family. What a waste. A criminal waste.’

  SEVENTEEN

  Sunday, early afternoon

  Bea said, ‘You knew Kent had died?’

  ‘Yes. I’ll come to that in a minute.’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘But if I’m following you correctly, you don’t think it was the twins who killed him, because they were otherwise engaged?’

  Bea nodded. ‘They left the studio only to come here and confront Magda. They didn’t find her, but they did find me. I didn’t help them, either. So they left to look for Magda at your place. They didn’t want to return to the studio because they’d roughed up Piers and thought he would have called in the cops.’

  ‘You think the twins had an accomplice who killed Kent?’ He looked down at the paper on the table, homing in on the box in which Bea had written three names. ‘One of these three?’

  ‘It’s possible,’ said Bea, looking hard at Mrs Tarring, who changed colour but made no comment. ‘Now, your brother had asked you to abandon your plans for the morning to meet him at the London house. Did you not try to let Piers and Magda know of the change of venue?’

  ‘Of course. No reply to either. I couldn’t think what had happened. I was in two minds; I could return to the studio and explain what had happened or meet with George and make my excuses to Piers later. But if I went back to the studio I’d miss my brother and Kent, who should both be approaching the town house at that point. Or so I thought. I arrived at the town house and used my key to let myself in. The Rycroft family papers are housed there and I consult them every now and then so I’ve always had a key. George didn’t mind, especially as he doesn’t come up to town for weeks at a time. His housekeeper didn’t like me arriving unannounced. She said she hadn’t been expecting anyone, that neither George nor Kent had said they were planning to call in. I told her they were on their way and that I’d wait for them.