The butler came in and cleaned the broken teacup away, applying a cloth to the wet carpet.
Then there was a loud crashing noise.
Howard turned his head to Cecily at the window. She swung to them with her hand raised to her throat. “The car! Patty has had an accident.”
* * *
Kenneth didn’t remember what his father had done with the nurse, or his mother at the window, but he ran from the room, out of the front door and down the drive like an idiot. He tried to breathe even, to last longer as he sprinted for the two lions guarding the gate. The Triumph stood against one of the pillars, its hood curled up in a strange shape of crooked metal.
Patty lay slumped across the wheel. Kenneth halted beside the car and reached out for her, touching her hair, then her shoulder. He felt the warmth of her skin on his fingertips.
“Are you OK?” he asked.
Patty groaned.
He wanted to take a hold of her and drag her out of the car. Perhaps it could catch fire?
But someone yelled behind his back, “Don’t move her! She could have neck damage.”
It was the lawyer, Koning. He halted beside Kenneth and looked at Patty. “Mrs Bryce-Rutherford, can you hear me? Do you think anything is broken?”
Patty groaned again.
“We need a doctor,” Kenneth said.
“The butler is calling one now,” the lawyer assured him. He looked at the car. “She must have lost control of the wheel. Why else crash into the pillar? There’s no turn here.”
Kenneth sat on his haunches and looked underneath the car. “Something is dripping out,” he reported. “Fluid. Can it catch fire?”
The lawyer felt the hood. “The engine isn’t very hot. She had only just left the house.”
Patty lifted her head. She stared at them, a reddish line across her forehead and a bruise on her cheek. “What happened?”
“Can you move?” the lawyer asked. “Can you get out and away from the car?”
“I’m so dizzy,” Patty said.
“I’ll help you.” The lawyer pulled the door open and took Patty into his arms. He carried her away to the house. Kenneth watched with his mouth open. Don’t touch her. She could have damage. Don’t…
And there he went carrying her off like some hero from a bad romance novel.
Kenneth exhaled in a huff. If he had done this, his father would have lectured him for hours. But Koning didn’t have his father here.
Kenneth sat on his haunches again and studied the liquid leaking from the car. Had it really been an accident?
Or had someone tried to kill Patty as well?
* * *
Cecily screamed to Howard, “We’re leaving right now!”
Howard said, “Control yourself. Nothing happened.” He didn’t look at her but at Patty who was lying on the sofa with the lawyer hovering over her, dabbing at her forehead with a wet cloth.
“I want to leave right now!” Cecily repeated in the same hysterical high-pitched tone. “I’m taking Kenneth with me.”
“I don’t want to leave,” Kenneth said. He stood leaning against the wall, his hands pushed into his pockets.
Patty groaned and tried to wipe the lawyer’s wet cloth away, but the man kept dabbing at her face. Howard wanted to say he was only making it worse, but he didn’t have time as the door opened and Jasper breezed in.
Howard said, “We don’t need you, we need a doctor.” The former inspector got on his nerves more and more.
Jasper ignored him and leaned over Patty on the sofa. “Mrs Bryce-Rutherford, what happened?”
Patty mumbled, “The car… It didn’t want to stop.”
“The car didn’t want to stop?” Jasper repeated. “Can you be more specific?”
“I tried to stop it. It wouldn’t stop.”
“Someone cut the brake lines,” Kenneth said.
Jasper shocked upright and looked at him like a predator fixating on a prey. Howard wished fervently Kenneth had kept his mouth shut.
Kenneth sad, “I saw liquid leaking from the car. It must be the brakes.”
“And when did you see the car?”
“I ran out after the crash. I wanted to help Patty.”
Jasper said, “You ran out and then?”
“I looked under the car and I saw it. I was afraid it would catch fire and burn.”
Jasper said, “And you know things about cars? Like where the brake lines are?”
“Sure,” Kenneth said.
Howard wanted to groan.
Kenneth said, “You should have a look at the car and find out if the brake lines were cut and who did that. Perhaps he left fingerprints?”
Jasper said to Patty, “How are you feeling?”
“Sore.”
“She just can’t drive,” Cecily shot. “I saw her and she was zigzagging. She hit the pillar because she’s a maniac. Or she drank.”
“I didn’t drink anything but coffee before I left,” Patty said, shooting upright and staring at Cecily. “You’re so mean. Maybe you cut the brake lines? You never could stand me marrying Hugh.”
“Hugh is dead now and you inherit the lot. You only came after him for his money. You always intended to get rid of him.”
Patty dropped back on the sofa again. “I think I’m going to faint,” she announced.
Howard said to Cecily, “Look what you’ve done.”
“It’s true. She’s just a gold-digger. She got on board that ship to get herself a rich man. She chose Hugh on purpose. She never wanted to be married to him. She wanted him to be dead so she could have it all. She killed him!”
Jasper said, “Calm yourself, Mrs Jones. I want to talk to all of you about the car.”
Howard sighed. “Do we really have to answer questions each and every day?”
“As long as people keep getting killed or injured here, yes.”
“I want to leave.” Cecily stamped her foot. “I’m not staying here one moment longer.”
Jasper said, “You will have to stay here, for there have been two murders and two attempts to harm people. Perhaps the cutting of the brake lines on the car was a murder attempt as well. Directed against Mr Bryce-Rutherford? Or his wife?”
“Hugh was already dead this morning.”
“So we must assume Patty was the intended target?” Cecily spat. “Who would want to kill her?”
“Well,” Jasper said, “assuming that your husband’s death left you with his fortune, who would get it all after your death?”
“I have no idea,” Patty said. She waved cool air into her face with a delicate hand. “I just want you to leave me alone. I could have spinal damage. I could be dying.”
“Ha-ha,” Cecily said.
Patty glared at her. “You pushed the wheelchair down the rocks. I know. There was a grease stain on your dress.”
“You did it. You were wearing red. Theodora saw you!”
“How do you know Theodora saw someone wearing red?” Jasper asked.
It was suddenly very still in the room. Howard could feel his heart beat all through his body.
Cecily said, “I… I was just guessing.”
Jasper stared at her. “Did you listen in on the conversation between Malcolm and the secretary? Did you decide she had to die because she had seen you?”
Cecily shook her head. “Of course not. I had no reason to kill Theodora. Or anybody else.” She swallowed hard. “I would never have used Kenneth’s pocket knife. I told you so before.”
Kenneth ran to the door. “You all hate me!” he cried and rushed out.
Cecily gestured to Howard. “Go after him. Keep him from doing something stupid.”
Howard nodded and rushed to the door.
But Jasper said, “I’ll go after him. You’re all staying right here. No one is leaving and no one is to be alone.”
Howard halted, already on the threshold. “He’s my son.”
“He’s also a suspect in a murder case. You all are. You stay right here.”<
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* * *
Jasper overtook Kenneth in the garden on his way to the steps leading down to the dock and the beach. “It was clever of you to notice the liquid that leaked from the car,” he said as he came to walk beside him.
Kenneth shrugged. “I read about it in a book.”
“You like to read, huh?”
Kenneth shrugged again. “Do you really think someone tried to kill Patty? What for? She’s fun.”
“I thought you liked nurse Cane.”
Kenneth stared ahead.
“Your mother says there is some girl in Provence you like. Is that true?”
“I used to. But she’s silly.”
“I see.” Jasper folded his hands on his back. “That thing you read about the brake lines on a car, did you share that with anyone?”
“I may have talked about it at dinner, at home.”
“Not here at the villa?”
“I can’t remember.”
“You seem to often say you can’t remember things.”
“It’s true. In Provence I got lost in a storm. I can’t remember where I was. At all. My father found me.”
Jasper committed this to mind as something worth looking into. “And you can’t remember what secret Anna wanted to tell you?”
Kenneth tensed. “I tried to save her. In the water, I did.”
Jasper looked at some plants along the path. “Ah, lavender.”
“That’s not lavender. It’s salvia.” Kenneth stopped abruptly. “Who do you think killed Theodora and Hugh?”
“Who says the same person killed them both?”
Kenneth’s eyes widened. “There could be two killers?”
Jasper shrugged. “I work from motive. I don’t see a motive for anyone to want both of them dead.”
“They were heirs. There are two less heirs now.” Kenneth started to walk again, dangling his hands by his sides. “I think the killer knew who had already been in the will and who was still to come. Two days gone is two heirs gone. Two heirs dead is two more heirs gone. That only leaves three of us.”
Jasper said, “Fascinating. And how would the killer know which heir is on the document?”
“He could have access to the safe. Or he asks the butler or the chauffeur. They know. They witness it.”
Jasper didn’t say he had already questioned both men and was fairly sure they hadn’t talked. The lawyer had said people had quizzed him but he had given them ‘misleading information’.
What that meant exactly Jasper didn’t know.
Kenneth said, “It must be someone who knows what’s in the will. Why else would he take the risk of killing people?”
“You think it’s a risk?”
“Of course. And with you here… We all knew who you were before the first murder.”
That was very true.
Jasper said, “Perhaps the killer is playing a game with me. Trying to see who is smartest?”
Kenneth’s expression was unreadable. He stood and watched the view. “It’s different here. Different from Provence. I like it. I want to stay here forever.”
“But it wasn’t so different from Provence after all. You got lost there and you couldn’t remember, and here the same thing happened with Anna and the boat.”
Kenneth looked at him, his eyes wild. He reached out and pushed Jasper in the chest, sending him flying backwards. While Jasper struggled not to fall to the ground, Kenneth ran down the steps to the beach. He almost tripped and fell, but he kept his balance in the last instance and ran on.
Jasper exhaled in relief that the boy had not tumbled down the steps; the parents would have blamed him. Another accident. Another death even? Those steps were steep and rock solid. They could break some bones.
He sucked in air. Kenneth was incredibly strong. Strong enough to hold Anna Cane under water. To stab Theodora. To bash in Hugh’s skull.
He was also clever. And vain. He fit the profile of the killer Jasper was building in his mind perfectly.
There was just one problem.
Jasper didn’t want him to be guilty.
Chapter Twelve
Howard paced the corridor gathering courage to knock on the door. He had thought long and hard about this, looking at the situation from all sides. Normally he was a quick decision maker, as he trusted in his own ability to see possible pitfalls. But that was business and this was personal. Here there was so much at stake that he didn’t dare even think of making a mistake. It wasn’t just his own life hanging in the balance but also that of his son.
When thinking of the little baby he had carried in his arms, the toddler he had played with and the proud boy who showed him he could fly a kite, Howard’s throat constricted and he knew he’d do anything to keep that life safe.
He halted and knocked. The sound was too loud and he shrank under it but the voice from inside called out, “Come in.”
Jasper sat behind Malcolm’s desk, making notes. He glanced up at Howard and gestured for him to come closer and sit on the chair in front of the desk. Howard sat and waited as he watched the other man write. What was he taking down, so painstakingly in that neat handwriting? Things about Malcolm? This household? About them, the suspects?
Although Jasper was a stranger here like they were, he had power. The French police chief trusted him and had put him in charge here. All because of his reputation back home.
Jasper said, “Is there something you want to tell me?”
“Yes.” Howard felt like he had reached a point of no return, stood in a vantage point like the one they had visited together, staring down at the sea below. He knew he had to jump in, not knowing if he’d break his neck.
Jasper said, “Is it about Kenneth?”
“No,” Howard said. “It’s about Theodora.”
Jasper leaned back in the chair. Howard could have sworn he had seen a flash of surprise in the former inspector’s face but as it came and went so quickly, he could not be sure.
“Yes?” Jasper said.
Howard took a deep breath. “Did you know that when Malcolm’s first wife died she was pregnant?”
“No, I did not.” Jasper held his hands very still on the desk before him.
“Yes, she was pregnant and that is exactly the reason why she had to die. I didn’t understand that until much, much later.”
“I don’t follow.”
Howard raised a hand to indicate Jasper had to hear him out, let him tell the story in his own way. “Do you know how Malcolm’s first wife died?”
“In an accident,” Jasper said. “Close to the office.”
“Two streets away from it. She was on her way to the dressmaker’s. She crossed the street, and a car hit her. The driver never stopped to look what they had done. The driver was never found.”
“But the car was…” Jasper said slowly.
Howard looked at him. “Excuse me?”
“I remember a case like that. Reading about it in the newspapers.” Jasper gestured. “It becomes a habit to notice odd cases even if you’re not involved yourself.”
Howard nodded. “I see. Yes, the car was found. It was abandoned. The driver had been wearing gloves. And even if they hadn’t… I doubt their prints were on record.” Howard took a deep breath. “I’ve known for all these years who that driver was.”
Jasper blinked. It was the first time that Howard had seen the former Scotland Yard man unbalanced, overtaken. It gave him a secret satisfaction.
He rushed to continue, “I was on my way to the office. I was late, something quite unusual for me. I saw Malcolm’s wife and wanted to wave at her. Then the car came. I stared in horrified fascination as it hit her. I saw the driver. It was a woman.”
“A woman?” Jasper echoed.
“Yes. A woman I knew. Theodora.”
Now the former inspector’s bewilderment was complete. “Theodora, I mean, Miss Cummings, the secretary in your firm, drove the car that hit and killed Malcolm’s first wife?”
“Yes. I’ve neve
r spoken up because I knew no one would believe me. Theodora could not drive. And she didn’t have a car, or money to buy one.”
“The car used in the accident was stolen,” Jasper said.
“Yes, so I heard later on. I couldn’t imagine Theodora stealing a car and killing someone with it. So I never mentioned it to anyone.”
Jasper studied him. “You protected a killer?”
“No, of course not. I convinced myself I had been mistaken. It had been someone looking like her. All I had seen well was a hat she had, a conspicuous one with feathers, and her hair. She had quite a light blonde bob then. Oh, and her shoulder in a dark green dress with a brooch. A flashy golden brooch with stones.”
“You saw a lot in those short moments.”
“It was easy to see.” Howard leaned his hands on his knees. “But I told myself later on it couldn’t have been Theodora. If I had told Malcolm, he would have laughed at me. And Theodora herself? She already hated me. Made my life miserable every way she could. I wasn’t about to give her more reason.”
“And so the case was never solved. An accident, without a culprit.” Jasper moved his pen about on the desk. “And you didn’t think it mattered at all?”
“Of course I did. But I knew that Malcolm… Well, he had never been faithful to his wife. He had affairs. And after her death he was engaged to Cecily so quickly. I… I even wondered if he had conspired to kill her.”
“Malcolm?” Jasper asked with hitched brows.
“Yes. I think he’s capable of killing.”
“But she came from the office having just met him there.”
“I thought Theodora and he were in a league. I thought he had promised her something silly like marrying her and she did it for him.”
“The bridal gown,” Jasper said.
Howard leaned forward. “Excuse me?”
“The bridal gown. The dress she wore when she died. And the flower in her hand. Did he promise her marriage and did she come here to force him to keep his promise?”
“Marry her?” Howard asked. “At their age? With him dying?” His tale was going down a little too well with the inspector.
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