Christmas in Nuala

by Harriet Steel

  ‘I’d only gone a little way down the drive,’ he continued, ‘before I realised that it might take me a long time to find Julia. I ought to make certain my uncle was safe first. He wasn’t in the habit of locking his doors, and the alarming thought occurred to me that if Robert was prepared to fight me, he might also attack my uncle. I saw a light in the bungalow and assumed Robert was back inside, but I couldn’t be sure he would stay there.’

  Pausing, the count drank some water from the cup his wife held to his lips. ‘Strangely, the kerosene lamps were still lit on the landings. When I got up to his study, I found my uncle hadn’t gone to bed but had fallen asleep in his chair. As I tried to rouse him to persuade him to lock himself in until I came back from searching for Julia, I heard footsteps on the stairs. I went to the door and saw Robert holding a gun. The rest you know.’

  He let go of his wife’s hand and rubbed his forehead wearily. She stroked his arm. ‘You’re tired, my darling. You must rest as Doctor Hebden advised. The inspector understands you can’t answer any more questions, don’t you, Inspector?’

  De Silva stood up. ‘Of course, thank you for your help so far. If I may, I’ll come back soon and let you know how matters are progressing.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ***

  With Prasanna and Nadar still at the lake village guarding Rushwell, the station was quiet. De Silva decided to telephone Gopallawa Motors to find out if they had recovered the Arcantis’ car from outside Sunnybank.

  ‘The driver of our breakdown truck brought it in yesterday, sahib,’ said the manager. ‘The damage is not too bad. The front fender is bent, and the paintwork will need to be attended to, but when that is done, the car should be as good as new.’

  De Silva’s ears pricked up. He was surprised there was so little physical damage. ‘Can you estimate how fast the car was going when it crashed?’

  ‘Not fast; two or three miles an hour at a guess. Forgive me for asking, sahib, but when the work is finished, where should I send the bill?’

  ‘I’ll deal with that later. Leave the work for the moment and keep the car at your garage.’

  Gopallawa sounded dissatisfied, but he agreed. After assuring him that he would be paid eventually, de Silva put down the telephone. The conversation had been most interesting.

  Chapter 10

  ‘I’m sorry Prasanna and Nadar had to stay at the lake village for another night,’ said Jane.

  ‘Oh, it will do them no harm to put up with a bit of discomfort. I had to in my early days in the force. The important thing is to keep Robert out of sight until we find out more.’

  The afternoon sun beat down on the lawn at Sunnybank. A small brown lizard was basking at the top of the garden steps to the verandah where de Silva and Jane had just finished having their lunch in the shade.

  ‘I suppose I’d better telephone the Residence,’ he said. ‘Archie Clutterbuck will want to know how things are going.’

  ‘Will you stay for some coffee afterwards?’

  ‘Yes, if he doesn’t want to see me at the Residence.’

  His mind was troubled as he went to make the call. He wished he had something more definite to tell Archie. This matter of the identity of the third man, the one he had seen in the study, still perturbed him. If Rushwell was telling the truth, who had it been?

  ‘The only sensible conclusion is that Rushwell’s lying,’ growled Archie Clutterbuck when they had talked for a while. ‘Bring him back to town and charge him. After that, make the arrangements to transfer him as soon as possible to the gaol at Kandy. They have more resources down there than we do to hold him until a hearing can be set up. That may not be for some time. The courts won’t be sitting until the New Year now.’

  Reluctantly, de Silva admitted to himself that Clutterbuck was probably right. First, there was the evidence of his own eyes, and then what he’d heard from Anna Phelps and Count Arcanti. Clarence had taunted Robert that he would change his Will, and Robert didn’t trust his cousin. It could easily have been the case that Robert simply snapped and could take no more. So why did he still have doubts?

  ‘De Silva?’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘Did you hear me? I said let me know when you’ve charged him. I’d like to put the Arcantis’ minds at rest, and Mrs Clutterbuck is nagging me to wrap things up quickly now Christmas is so close.’

  ‘I hear you, sir.’

  Loud and clear, he thought wryly as he returned to the verandah.

  ***

  ‘You don’t look happy, dear,’ said Jane. ‘What does Archie want you to do?’

  ‘I have to bring Rushwell back to Nuala and charge him, then arrange for him to go down to the gaol at Kandy to await trial.’

  ‘Poor Anna Phelps. This will be such a shock for her.’

  She paused, studying his expression. ‘Shanti? What’s on your mind?’

  ‘It may be nothing, but I spoke to the manager at Gopallawa Motors this morning. His people have looked at the Arcantis’ car. Considering that the countess told me she ended up in the ditch at our gate because she lost control of the steering, I was surprised how little damage the car sustained. And now I think of it, I’m sure Robert Rushwell said something about using his car to take them all to the Clutterbucks’ party because the Arcantis’ car was having problems.

  ‘What did the manager say exactly?’

  ‘That the car wouldn’t have been going faster than two or three miles an hour at the most. Yet the countess said she couldn’t stop in time.’

  ‘Why would she lie?’ Jane considered for a moment. ‘Unless she wanted to make sure you were the one to leave the scene and go for Doctor Hebden. That would leave her alone with the uncle and her husband. But what was she planning to do?’

  They lapsed into silence. The lizard suddenly darted from one side of the verandah’s top step to the other; its tongue flicked out to catch an insect before it resumed its motionless disguise.

  ‘They’re clever little creatures,’ remarked Jane, noticing the lizard out of the corner of her eye. ‘You wouldn’t know he was there now. Nature is very adept at deceiving the eye.’

  ‘Well, I’ll be off to the lake village.’ said de Silva, standing up. ‘If I must bring Rushwell in, I may as well get on with it. I won’t wait for that coffee.’

  ‘Will you be home in time for dinner?’

  ‘I fully intend to be. Once Rushwell’s tucked up in one of the cells, Prasanna or Nadar can take over again.’

  Chapter 11

  He came home that evening leaving Robert Rushwell guarded by a slightly more content Nadar. The constable hadn’t been relishing the prospect of yet another night at the lake village.

  Jane was in the drawing room.

  ‘Mission successfully accomplished,’ he said, feeling more cheerful than he had earlier in the day. ‘Rushwell’s still denying everything, but Archie’s right: the only sensible conclusion is that he did it.’

  ‘It may be the sensible conclusion,’ said Jane. ‘But I think it’s the wrong one.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Robert couldn’t have committed the crime, because he wasn’t there.’

  De Silva groaned. ‘What are you talking about, my love? I saw him.’

  ‘No, you thought you saw him. I’ve been thinking about it all afternoon. It was the lizard that started it. The creature gave me the idea of the eye fooling the mind.’

  De Silva took his time to let her words sink in.

  ‘I’d like to believe you,’ he said at last, ‘But I know what I saw. Robert Rushwell was standing in that doorway, then he closed the door, shutting himself in with Arcanti and Clarence.’

  ‘No, don’t you see? That’s not what happened. There were only two people in the study: Clarence and Count Arcanti.’

  De Silva frowned. ‘So, who killed Clarence?’

  ‘Oh, do keep up, dear. It was the count, then he wounded himself in order to mislead you. Do you remember the mirror that was propped up in t
he study? The one that had obviously been taken off the wall?’

  ‘Yes, but what does that have to do with the case?’

  ‘It has everything to do with it. You thought you saw Robert threatening Cosmo Arcanti, but what you really saw was Arcanti’s reflection. He was acting as if he was being threatened.’

  ‘Wait a minute, let me think about this.’

  But Jane was too full of her idea to stop. ‘I think the Arcantis used that mirror. They moved it to a position near the door where it would have filled up most of the space anyone coming in would see. You told me you only caught a glimpse of the count’s face when Robert briefly stood aside.’

  ‘But surely the gilt frame would have been visible? I would have realised there was a mirror there.’

  ‘Not if the frame was covered with a dark cloth of some kind, and the Arcantis kept the lights low.’

  De Silva recalled that, as old Clarence wouldn’t have electricity, and the only lighting in the tower came from the kerosene lamps and candles, they had been. Now that he thought about it, the candelabra lying on the floor could have been stood in a position that would throw light back onto the face of whoever was standing in the doorway, an image that would be reflected in a mirror angled for that very purpose. Both Cosmo and Robert had worn evening dress at the party. They were of similar height and build, with the same colour hair. He suddenly remembered the black gloves that the figure he had believed to be Robert Rushwell had been wearing. Had he used them to avoid it being obvious from a reflection in the mirror that it was Cosmo who had closed the door? Had something the countess had said when they were on the landing outside the study been the signal to the count to execute the illusion? He frowned. ‘Are you suggesting that the count shot his uncle and then himself?

  ‘Yes – but I suspect he killed his uncle before he knocked out his cousin and sent the countess here to ask for help. Clarence would have been far too likely to make trouble if he’d still been alive when you and the countess reached the study. One of the shots you heard was probably fired out of the window. The count later inflicted his wound on himself, trying to do as little damage as possible, and he succeeded – Doctor Hebden confirmed his wound was a minor one. While you went for Doctor Hebden, the countess had time to dispose of the gun. The count had already moved the mirror back before he shot himself and then let you into the room. The noises you heard when you were outside the study trying to get in were the sound of him doing that as well as knocking over furniture. The only problem was that he couldn’t hang the mirror back up on the wall on his own.’

  De Silva deliberated. ‘Where did you get this idea from? Surely not just the lizard?’

  Jane smiled. ‘I admit there was more to it than that. I read a mystery novel – last spring I think it was – where the villain used a similar trick.’

  ‘It’s a long shot,’ de Silva said doubtfully. ‘Archie may just laugh at me.’

  ‘But Arcanti is interested in magic and illusionism. Maybe he’s a much better magician than his performance at the party might suggest. I’m not saying he knew of the book, but he and the author could have had the same idea.’

  There was a long silence.

  ‘Very well,’ he said at last. ‘You may have something, and I’ll run the risk. But first, I’d like to go back to the house and have another look around.’

  ***

  There was no sign of activity at the bungalow. It looked as if the servants de Silva had met had left, perhaps permanently. He wondered if that was because they didn’t want to have to answer any more questions.

  The door to Clarence Rushwell’s tower was unlocked, so he and Jane went in. Up in the study, he ran a hand over the mirror and then tried to lift it. ‘Goodness, it’s heavy. Do you really think Arcanti could move it on his own?’

  ‘I’ll show you.’

  Pivoting the frame from one bottom corner to the other, Jane succeeded in moving the mirror several feet. She stopped to catch her breath. ‘There. If I can do it, I’m sure he could.’

  Between them, they carried the mirror until it was opposite the door. It was already quite dark in the room, but Jane closed the study curtains. De Silva lit the two candelabras. Shadows flickered across the walls.

  ‘We need to cover the frame,’ said Jane. She looked around. ‘There’s nothing suitable here. I’ll go and get some of those clothes from the bedroom.’

  In the bedroom, she opened the wardrobe and took out two of the jackets, a voluminous old-fashioned cloak, and some long scarves.

  ‘I think that will do,’ she said, standing back to survey her work when she had brought them downstairs and used them to hide the gilded frame.

  De Silva studied the arrangement thoughtfully. ‘I saw the count’s face very briefly, but there was enough light to make him clearly recognisable. If I was seeing his reflection, there must have been a lamp or a candle close by, or his face would have been in shadow. Why didn’t I see either of them reflected in the mirror?’

  ‘The count must have been very careful how he positioned whatever he used. The mirror wasn’t necessarily against a wall. It could have been propped up by furniture, closer to the door and at an angle.’

  They spent a few minutes moving the lamps and candles, the black-draped mirror and – using it as a prop – Clarence’s desk, from one place to another, until they achieved the result they wanted.

  ‘I think this is as close to the scene as we’ll get,’ said de Silva at last.

  ‘Good.’ Jane faced the mirror. ‘Now, we must imagine that I’m Count Arcanti, and see if my idea works.’

  Chapter 12

  ‘Much as I respect Mrs de Silva’s intuition,’ said Archie Clutterbuck when de Silva telephoned him the next morning to outline Jane’s theory and their experiment the previous evening, ‘I wouldn’t like to stand up in a court of law with nothing else to support the case for the defence.’

  ‘I appreciate that, sir, but we also have the information from Gopallawa Motors about the Arcantis’ car. I think the countess was lying about not being able to control it. I believe she crashed into the ditch outside my house deliberately, so that we needed to use my car. I would have to be the one to go for Doctor Hebden, giving her time to dispose of the gun that killed Clarence Rushwell and wounded her husband. With your permission, I’d like more time to pursue the idea before I send Robert Rushwell down to Kandy.’

  He heard a harrumph at the other end of the line, then, after a pause, ‘Yes, the lack of damage is surprising. Well, I suppose there’s no harm in giving Mrs de Silva’s theory some consideration, but I’m not promising anything. Now, I have other matters to attend to, so I’d better be going. We’ll speak again in due course.’

  Only moderately hopeful, de Silva decided to go down to the station to check on his prisoner.

  Robert Rushwell was despondent. It was only to be expected, thought de Silva. He wouldn’t mention Jane’s idea and raise any hopes that were quite likely to be dashed.

  ‘Inspector Chockalingham telephoned yesterday from Colombo, sir,’ said Prasanna. ‘I told him we didn’t know when to expect you, but I would ask you to call him back when you came in.’

  ‘Get him for me now, please. I’ll take the call in my office.’

  A few minutes later, Prasanna put his head round the door. ‘I’m sorry, sir. Inspector Chockalingham is out now and not expected back at the station until after lunch.’

  That was a nuisance, but there was nothing he could do about it. ‘Tell them I’ll be in this afternoon, and would he call me as soon as possible when he returns.’

  Early that afternoon, the telephone rang. He picked up the receiver and heard his former colleague’s voice.

  ‘Good afternoon, de Silva! I have news that I hope you’ll be pleased to hear. The Customs and Immigration Office confirm that Count Arcanti and his wife arrived in Colombo a little over a month ago. I’ve been to the Colombo hotel they gave as their first address. The manager says they stayed for three nights.
The count wasn’t well and remained in his room for the first two days, but the countess went out a few times.’

  ‘What kind of hotel is this?’

  ‘A small one and very cheap. Didn’t you tell me that they claim to be wealthy?’

  ‘They do.’

  ‘Odd, eh? And they were in Tourist Class, not Cabin Class, on the ship from Naples.’

  ‘Did you find out anything about how they travelled up from Colombo?’

  ‘The hotel manager said they left by car. He wasn’t sure, but he thinks they planned to drive all the way.’

  ‘Did you manage to find out where they got the car from?’

  ‘I’m not sure yet. I have a few more garages to visit. All I know so far is that on one of her forays from the hotel, the countess came back with it: a black Delage. Perhaps they saved their money to splash out on that.’

  It was the same make of car that the countess had crashed outside Sunnybank.

  ‘The manager remembers it,’ Rudi Chockalingham continued. ‘I doubt his usual clientele drive that class of car, if they drive one at all.’

  ‘You said the count was unwell and confined to his room. Who was driving the countess?’

  ‘She drove herself.’

  ‘Well, well, that is interesting news. Thank you.’

  ‘Do you want me to keep on asking around the garages?’

  ‘If it’s not too much trouble, but I think you may already have given me what I need.’

  ***

  Archie Clutterbuck’s study had escaped Florence’s Christmas fever, but, as he was shown in by one of the servants, de Silva thought that his superior looked hunted. Perhaps he was afraid that if he stayed in one place for too long, his wife would drape him in tinsel. He listened while de Silva recounted the conversation with Rudi Chockalingham.

  ‘Good work,’ he rumbled when de Silva came to the end. De Silva was surprised. When he’d first mentioned Jane’s idea to Archie, he hadn’t been very encouraging.