Hollow Crown

by David Roberts

  ‘Ugh! That’s enough, Edward,’ Charlotte stopped him. ‘It’s illegal now, I suppose, to use phosphorus in matches?’

  ‘Yes, as a result of Scannon’s case and one or two others, it was made illegal to use white phosphorus in matches. In fact, its use was outlawed by the Berne Convention in 1906 but it took time for our great democracy to take the necessary action to ban it.’

  ‘It’s too horrible,’ Verity said. ‘I knew I hated Scannon and now I hate his father as well.’

  Adrian said, ‘Yes, but it’s more complicated than that. There are other reasons why Scannon might have been murdered.’

  ‘You mean because of his links with the Nazis?’ Verity said.

  ‘Not that either, or rather not only that. I mean – dash it – I don’t like talking about this in front of you girls . . . ’

  Charlotte said, ‘Don’t be silly, Adrian. This is a murder investigation and we’re not blushing virgins.’

  Edward sighed as he recalled being admonished by Verity on another occasion in almost the same words. He wondered what his brother would say if he could hear their conversation. Well, he knew what he would say; he would be outraged.

  Adrian shrugged and went on, ‘Well, you’ve been warned. Scannon wasn’t just a pansy – he liked . . . he liked being treated roughly.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Verity asked, intrigued.

  ‘Well, I’ve got a few friends who . . . it’s illegal but you can’t legislate away human feelings.’

  ‘Oh for God’s sake, Adrian, spit it out. We do know about Oscar Wilde and they say Noel Coward is . . . that way.’

  ‘You know I said Matt had committed suicide when Scannon and he fell out? Well, I talked to some of his friends and they said it wasn’t just about his art being a failure. They said Scannon liked to . . . to tie him up and do horrible things to him and when he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, take it any more Scannon went off and found other young men who would . . . oblige. And these were often violent, ill people – the dregs. I don’t know, perhaps it’s all lies. I hope it is. I’m just repeating what I was told but when news got out about Scannon’s murder, people who knew about his sexual habits assumed he’d been killed by one of his . . . his boys.’

  There was silence after this. Both the girls prided themselves on being unshockable and Verity had seen terrible acts of violence in Spain but this seemed so disgusting. She said viciously, ‘He deserved to die. Why don’t we leave it at that?’ The idea that violence could be desired . . . could be domesticated made her feel physically ill.

  ‘Yes, I agree. Leave that for Pride to deal with. I want to know about Molly’s death,’ Edward said stubbornly. ‘From what we’ve discovered, it makes it less likely than we first thought that the two killings are related and that makes things easier. Molly’s death must be because of her relationship with the King – the baby and or the letters she stole.’

  ‘Maybe,’ Verity said slowly, ‘but not certainly. I’ve been doing some digging, too. You probably already know this, Edward, but by coincidence a friend of mine has just got back from Kenya and he says you haven’t been as frank with us as you might have been about Molly’s . . . trouble.’

  ‘What do you mean? I’ve told you the facts.’

  ‘No you haven’t – at least, not all the facts. I don’t mean to speak ill of the dead,’ Verity went on, sententiously, ‘but you didn’t tell me how much she was disliked – perhaps hated is not too strong a word. Respectable people, my friend says, would have nothing to do with her. Not to put too fine a point on it, they called her a whore. He says she broke up two marriages and apparently Douglas Davenant – the man her husband found her in bed with – was destroyed by the scandal. Molly dumped him, society ostracized him and he went off to Lake Rudolph and got speared by a native or eaten by a lion or something. My friend couldn’t remember the details. I’m sorry, Edward, it’s no good looking like that at me. It may be beastly but, if we are to find who killed Molly, we have to face facts, however unpleasant.’

  Edward hesitated and then said, ‘Molly wasn’t a whore but she was promiscuous. As for the rest, don’t forget I took her out of Nairobi so I never heard what happened to Davenant. I really don’t think you can blame Molly if he went off the rails. Perhaps he just wanted a bit of adventure and it was just bad luck he was killed.’

  ‘Well,’ Charlotte said, ‘Verity’s right. We can’t assume Molly was killed for political reasons. We have to look at who was at Haling when she died and see if anyone had a link with her. Didn’t you say Boy Carstairs knew her in Kenya? Could he have had it in for her?’

  ‘I think he might have been her lover at some point,’ Edward said slowly. ‘I must talk to him. We’ve hardly exchanged a dozen words. In fact, I got the impression he was trying to keep out of my way at Haling. However, I don’t think he’s a murderer. Molly was murdered for politics, by which I mean her relationship with the King. That has to be the most likely explanation. There is one thing I haven’t told you – I didn’t even tell Lampfrey – but it was when we were going through her flat – you remember, Verity, when I met you coming back from Harrods?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I found a brooch or badge by her bed. It was a swastika set with diamonds and rubies. Look . . . ’ He put his hand in his pocket and passed the object to Verity.

  ‘It’s horrible,’ she said, almost dropping it. ‘Why didn’t you give it to Lampfrey?’

  ‘I don’t know. I should have done but, to tell the truth, I don’t believe she was a Nazi and I didn’t want her name besmirched.’

  ‘Besmirched!’ Verity said scathingly. ‘I don’t believe this, Edward. You’ve got to face up to the real Molly Harkness. You say yourself she wasn’t perfect. If, after she’s dead, you start trying to “save her face”, or whatever it is you’re doing, we’ll never get to the truth.’ Edward looked down at his shoes.

  Adrian said gently, ‘She’s right, you know. Mrs Harkness, from what you tell us, was a gutsy woman and she wouldn’t thank you for trying to protect her reputation if it meant not finding her killer.’

  ‘Anyway, there’s another explanation for the swastika being in her bedroom – two others, actually,’ Charlotte broke in. ‘She might have been given it – maybe even by the King himself. It’s not impossible.’

  ‘And the other explanation?’ Edward queried.

  ‘You said she told you her flat had been searched by someone looking for the letters. Maybe whoever that was dropped it.’

  ‘Sounds unlikely. If her flat was being searched by someone who knew their business, they’d hardly be carrying a piece of Nazi jewellery, let alone dropping it.’

  ‘They missed the King’s letters to Molly which you found under the bed, Edward,’ Charlotte responded tartly.

  ‘Perhaps they weren’t under her bed when the flat was searched. We just don’t know,’ he pointed out.

  There was a moment’s silence before Verity said, ‘There’s another thing I’ve found out, Edward – about Dannie. I know you’ll think I’m just being . . . . spiteful or something but I was talking to a Party worker about Stille – you know how he keeps popping up and pretending to be one of us . . . stirring up trouble? I had to report what I knew to the Party. Well, I was told something I didn’t really want to know.’ Verity took a deep breath: ‘They say she works for Stille – Dannie, I mean. It may be she was at Haling as Stille’s agent.’

  Verity knew she did not need to spell it out to Edward that she was suggesting Dannie might have slept with him on Stille’s orders just so she could be near Molly’s room, steal the letters and murder her to stop her talking.

  What Verity had said did not greatly surprise Edward. He had resigned himself to the knowledge that Dannie had used him and, though he was inclined to think she had not killed Molly, he did believe her to be capable of it. She was a ruthless woman, of that he had no doubt.

  ‘I didn’t know she was a Nazi but what you say doesn’t altogether surprise me. But what
you don’t explain, Verity, is why she should kill Molly. Look at it logically. The Nazis are hand in glove with the King and Mrs Simpson – we can’t doubt that – so surely it’s in their interests to protect his reputation?’

  ‘No, it’s you who aren’t thinking clearly, Edward,’ Verity said vehemently, determined to have the whole thing out, however painful it might be. ‘I’m not saying they would use the letters to discredit the King. Just the opposite, as you say. They would want to take them to protect him from Molly’s trouble-making. They’ll be destroyed by now or lodged somewhere safe in Berlin.’

  ‘And if they thought Molly might kick up a stink – even say she was pregnant with the King’s child – to protect him they might very well have decided to kill her,’ Charlotte said excitedly.

  Glumly, Edward studied his boots again. ‘Well, this is just speculation. We must get some hard facts, as you say, Verity,’ he said at last.

  ‘When you had your talk with Molly on the night she died, did she tell you anything that might give us a clue to her murderer? Didn’t you say she gave you the impression she was waiting for someone?’

  ‘I’ve thought about that a lot. She definitely hinted that she half expected me to be someone else when she opened her bedroom door.’

  ‘A lover?’

  ‘I don’t know. I thought so at first but now I’m not so sure. She said she was – how did she put it? – “fancy-free”. She said, rather bitterly I thought, that there had been lovers but she hadn’t got one at the moment. Those weren’t her exact words but that was what she wanted me to understand. Oh, that reminds me. She told me she had been introduced to the Prince of Wales, as he then was, by a man called Lewis Van Buren. I think he must have been South African. She admitted to me he had briefly been her lover. I got the impression he lent money and supplied women, and no doubt other things, to the Prince’s set.’

  ‘A Jew?’ Charlotte inquired.

  ‘Yes, I think so. Molly genuinely liked him. I wondered, V, if you could find anything about him in the Gazette files?’

  ‘I’ll look him up but I can’t see what he would have to do with her death.’

  ‘Nor can I, but she might have told him more than she told me about what happened in Kenya. They either met in Cape Town or on the boat – he might have seen someone or know something.’

  ‘It’s worth looking into, I suppose,’ Verity said doubtfully. ‘Anything else, Edward?’

  ‘Only that Mr Harbin told me he saw Leo Scannon remove something from Molly’s room while I was examining her body.’

  ‘Golly! Did he say what?’

  ‘He wasn’t sure but he thought it might have been an envelope – something white, anyway. He also noticed that, under his dressing gown, Scannon was still dressed in the clothes he had worn at dinner. He hadn’t been to bed.’

  ‘A cool customer, Scannon,’ Adrian commented.

  ‘No, he didn’t seem cool. He was genuinely shocked when we found Molly dead – in fact he was almost “struck dumb” as they say in romances. It was left to me to tell Pickering to call the police and the doctor. Then, when he had recovered himself a little, he suggested searching Molly’s room before the police came, but I refused. Anyway, it was too late by then. Lampfrey arrived very quickly.’

  Edward thought about telling them of his botched attempt to tamper with the evidence and how he had hidden Molly’s bag in the chimney but it was so absurd and, having made such a fool of himself with Dannie, he did not want to heap more ridicule on himself. He wondered if Verity had told Adrian and Charlotte that he had slept with Dannie, and how she had tricked him. He thought she probably had and he certainly wasn’t going to broadcast his idiocy.

  ‘Well,’ Verity said, ‘let’s assume for the moment Molly was killed by someone at Haling. I know . . . I know . . . ’ she said, raising her hand as Edward opened his mouth. ‘Someone from outside could have shinned up the creeper and got into her room through the window . . . ’

  ‘This really is the opposite of a “locked-room” mystery,’ Adrian said. ‘I have just read The Hollow Man, you know, by John Dickson Carr. It’s brilliant. You see, no one could have got into the room where the murder happened . . . ’

  ‘Yes, all right, Adrian, but can we keep to the business in hand,’ Verity reprimanded him.

  ‘Sorry,’ Adrian said, humbly.

  ‘There weren’t so many people staying at Haling. Why don’t I write them down like they do in books.’ Verity took a piece of paper and a pencil from Adrian’s desk and licked the lead in a businesslike manner. ‘We all know about Edward,’ she said brightly. ‘He’s the prime suspect. He had opportunity and motive. His job was to shut Molly up and she was shut up.’

  ‘I say, V,’ Edward said plaintively, ‘don’t rag. I’m not in the mood.’

  ‘We have to face facts,’ she said, and then relented. ‘Anyway, to continue. There were the Benyons. You know them, don’t you, Charlotte?’

  ‘Yes, we know them and they are the nicest couple. I could never believe either of them could . . . ’

  ‘You mean just because they were fool enough to buy one of Adrian’s pictures . . . ’

  ‘Verity!’ Edward and Charlotte exclaimed in unison.

  ‘It’s no use you all being so lily-livered. We must be objective if we’re to get anywhere. I think you, Edward, and Adrian ought to go and see them and see what they remember.’

  ‘Right,’ Adrian said. ‘The Hepple-Keens sound an odd duo from what you say, Edward.’

  ‘They are. There’s something sinister about him. I have a suspicion he might be a sort of policeman, unless he’s a dyed in the wool Mosleyite. I think I’ll have a word with my pal Basil Thoroughgood at the FO. He might be able to tell me which or know who to ask. Hepple-Keen’s certainly a ruthless man and it’s possible he is working for someone who wanted Mrs Simpson’s letters back badly enough to kill for them.’

  ‘And Lady Hepple-Keen?’ Charlotte asked.

  ‘A mystery that one,’ Edward said, scratching his chin. ‘I thought at first she was a dull, put-upon little woman, scared of her husband and with no other interests than her children but now . . . ’

  ‘ “Now” what?’ Verity asked sharply.

  ‘Now I’m not so sure. Do you remember, V, she got quite excited when we were talking about the child victims of the fighting in Spain. I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t turn out to be a fierce fighter for them.’

  ‘Yes, well, I’m taking her to see Joe at the New Gazette tomorrow so perhaps I’ll get to know her better but, on the face of it, she had no motive for killing Molly. Dannie – well, we know about her, don’t we, Edward,’ she said meaningfully. ‘I don’t think we’ll get much out of her if either of us were to try and talk to her but I’ve put the Party hounds on to her, so they might turn up something interesting, and I’m going to harry Joe. He knows a lot about her he hasn’t told yet.’

  ‘Oh V,’ Edward said weakly, ‘don’t let your prejudices get in the way of . . . I mean, I know you don’t like her but you said we have to be objective . . . put our feelings to one side and all that.’

  ‘I have no feelings for her either way,’ Verity said coldly, ‘but the facts are she is an associate of a known Nazi, one Major Stille, and we know she had the best opportunity of killing Molly of anyone at Haling with the exception of you, Edward. She had, in a word, motive and opportunity.’

  ‘Two words,’ Edward said, unwisely, and Verity threw a glance at him which chilled him. ‘Larry Harbin,’ he said to prevent either of the Hassels asking Verity what she was going on about. ‘I took him back to London in the Lagonda and I liked him. He’s on his way back to America now so we can’t interview him. Anyway what motive could he have?’

  As he said the words, Edward remembered what Harbin had said outside Molly’s bedroom door as they were trying to open it. ‘There is something though. He told me he didn’t approve of Molly; had warned the King about her in fact. You see, Harbin comes from Baltimore, Mr
s Simpson’s home town, and though I got the feeling he didn’t approve of her much either, he didn’t want Molly bringing down scandal on Wallis’s head.’

  ‘Hardly a motive for murder,’Charlotte said.

  ‘No, I don’t think for a moment he killed Molly but we agreed we had to put all the facts on the table.’

  ‘Who else is there?’ Verity said, finishing her notes on Harbin.

  ‘Scannon himself. He knew all about Molly and, if I hadn’t agreed to approach her about returning the letters, he said he was going to do it but he didn’t think she would take much notice of him.’

  ‘He obviously had a motive then,’ Verity said, ‘and he would have had less trouble getting a key to her room than anyone else.’

  ‘Yes,’ Edward agreed, ‘but, as I told you, his reaction when we found Molly dead did not seem to me to be that of a man who knew what he was going to find. He would have been much calmer, unless he was an accomplished actor. And don’t forget Carstairs,’ Edward continued. ‘I need to talk to him. When he came back from riding with Dannie, he didn’t seem awfully surprised when we told him about Molly.’

  ‘I think you’re right, Edward, you ought to tackle him,’ Verity said. ‘Man to man stuff.’

  ‘The servants are in the clear?’ Adrian asked.

  ‘I think so. Pickering has been with Scannon for years. Still, I would like to have an opportunity of talking to him,’ Edward said. ‘And we haven’t mentioned Ruth Conway.’

  ‘Who’s she?’ Charlotte asked.

  ‘She’s the woman Scannon hired to look after his bedridden old mother. If I know Pride, he’ll be trying to pin Scannon’s murder on her.’