‘Do you think it might have been a photograph in Hermione’s album?’
‘Yes, V. It might have been the photograph of her and Peter on their wedding day.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Because before Harry killed Hermione they had been talking about Peter Lamming and she showed him the photograph. He ripped it out of her album and in a fury, I imagine, killed her using the poison she happened to be experimenting with. I found the photograph by chance at Turton House when I was looking at one of Harry and Christobel Redfern. I opened the frame and found the photograph of Lamming and his new bride.’
‘Are you sure it was the one from Hermione’s album?’
‘Yes. I took it to Treacher. He got the album off Violet Booth and the experts confirmed it. There was no doubt that was where it had come from. I was almost certain then that Harry had killed the old lady but I couldn’t prove it. I also sent Treacher a letter I had had from Harry and the graphologist decided that it was written by the same person who had penned those notes they found on the bodies of his victims – though of course he had tried to disguise his handwriting ’
‘Do you think Harry discovered you had taken the photograph?’
‘It could account for what he did to you. If he knew I had discovered the link between him and Hermione Totteridge, he would have known that he had to act quickly.’
Verity thought about this. ‘And he killed General Lowther because he had mowed down Isabella’s parents in a motor accident? That sounds a bit farfetched. Why should he do that?’
‘Harry told me he had a thing about people who used cars as weapons – as he put it. First Christobel Redfern and then Isabella’s parents died in motor accidents. I remember Jack Amery’s driving was so bad that it sent him up the wall. He came to England to take revenge on everyone he thought had ruined his life. He convinced himself that he could have married Isabella but she ran away from him and then died of grief for her husband.’
‘But I still don’t understand how he could have been certain that General Lowther would drink the cyanide in a glass of Clos des Mouches.’
‘He didn’t. It was a coincidence.’
‘A coincidence! You mean all that stuff about insects was wrong?’
‘Yes, I’m afraid so. I did precisely what I always tell myself not to do. I selected a few “facts” and constructed a theory round them. To be fair to myself, Eric Silver suggested it first and initially I thought it sounded a bit fanciful. When he was murdered, I decided it must be correct. It didn’t help that Harry had overheard Silver tell me his theory and was able to play up to it. He quoted the appropriate lines about rotting carcasses and, in a stroke of what he would no doubt have called genius, left my family motto on Silver’s body.’
‘And that motto happens to feature flies?’
‘That’s right, V.’
‘So the theory led you to Harry even though it was wrong?’
‘He led me by the nose. I kept telling myself he was too obvious a suspect.’
‘He was taunting you?’
‘Yes. He thought he would be able to kill me before I put the final piece in the jigsaw – but he left it too late, thank God. Mrs Booth worked it all out and got to him just before he got to me.’
‘Golly!’
‘Golly indeed. There’s a French saying someone told me once: “L’homme pense. Le dieu rit.”’
‘Though in this case le diable rit,’ Verity said grimly. ‘But the important thing is that he didn’t kill you,’ she added, putting her hand on Edward’s knee.
‘There was a time when I expected him to but then I was lulled into a false sense of security. You remember when our friend Major Stille appeared while Harry and I were searching Jack Amery’s house? He would have killed me if Harry hadn’t knocked him unconscious and saved my life.’
‘Why didn’t he let Stille kill you?’
‘He wasn’t ready for me to die. He wanted to play with me for a little longer. It amused him to confuse me. That photograph he found in Amery’s house showing Amery with Peter Lamming in Kenya had no particular significance but he wanted me to think it had. But, in the end, he wanted me to work out who had murdered Miss Totteridge and James Herold and persuaded General Lowther to kill himself. Only then would he kill me. It was meant to be a sort of coup de grâce. He couldn’t quite decide how to punish me and then it came to him. As I told you, he believed I had deprived him of the woman he loved – a complete fantasy, of course. He was just trying to transfer his guilt to me.’
‘So he decided it would be poetic justice to take me away from you?’
‘Yes, V, and he was right. I nearly went mad when I discovered that he had abducted you.’
Verity shivered as she remembered her ordeal. ‘And when Violet Booth killed him – I mean, when her gun went off in the struggle – you had no idea where I was and realized you would never be able to force Harry to tell you?’
‘It was the worst moment of my life. Fortunately, Dr Booth and I worked out where you might be. I blame myself for failing to notice that horrible dungeon when I went to Temple Island before but Roderick Black knew about it, thank God.’
‘I still think Eric Silver’s was the most horrible murder.’
‘I can never forgive Harry for that. I think he must have been following me for some time while he tried to decide what would be the most painful way of killing me. Don’t forget that he had already written to invite me to stay but I hadn’t replied. He saw me go into the dentist and, on a whim, followed me. By coincidence – a coincidence he could never have foreseen – he got into the building and heard Silver tell me about his three dead patients. Then he had a brainwave. He would make it impossible for me not to investigate their murders by killing Silver and leaving my family motto on his body.’
‘It worked.’
‘It did, V,’ Edward agreed. ‘His only mistake was to “play” me for too long. He thought he could tease and confuse me indefinitely, as though I was a salmon on his line.’
‘Instead of which,’ Verity said, stroking his cheek, ‘he had a shark. But, if Violet Booth hadn’t confronted him on the launch, would you have been able to stop him?’
‘I’d told the police what I suspected but they wanted proof. Perhaps I wouldn’t have got to him before he finished me off but I think he was arrogant and I think he was becoming careless. He was also getting bored . . . that was always his problem. I don’t think he would have killed me without giving himself the pleasure of telling me how stupid I had been, but who knows? Violet Booth saved my life as I have already told her. In the end, a woman Harry knew nothing about took her revenge for the death of her sister and the destruction of her niece’s life.’
‘And Stille’s dead too. I can hardly believe it,’ Verity said after a pause. ‘I almost wish he had lived to see his precious Third Reich reduced to dust and ashes.’
‘Assuming it is,’ Edward said gloomily.
‘In the meantime,’ she said, cuddling up to him, ‘we have a few more weeks of peace. What shall we do with them? What if I’m not better and the doctors insist I go to a sanatorium?’
‘You are better. You certainly look better despite everything you’ve been through, but whatever happens, I think we should get married. I realized when I thought I had lost you – when I had lost you – that Harry was right in one respect at least – I couldn’t live without you. It sounds melodramatic, I know, but it’s the truth. I don’t mean that, if you weren’t here, I’d cut my throat. I suppose I’d be able to go on from day to day, but you give my life meaning. I think Harry sensed somehow that, because he didn’t know what it meant to love, his life was meaningless.’ He turned to look at her, almost spilling his drink as he did so. ‘Will you marry me soon, V? We could do it secretly if you want, without any fuss, in a register office.’
‘Yes please!’ Verity said. ‘I do love you, Edward. When I was in that horrid damp hole, I thought of you and it kept me going. I was sure you would fin
d me so I never quite gave up. I knew then that, if I did get out and you still wanted me, I would be very proud to marry you. You’re the only man I trust absolutely – and I include my father in that. But I’m not much of a catch, you know. I’m ill and out of a job. I’m fractious and un-reasonable and your relations think I’m not good enough for you. Shall we get married tomorrow?’
Historical Note
During the war, Jack Amery lectured and broadcast on behalf of the Germans, and attempted to recruit a ‘Legion of St George’ to fight the Russians from Britons who were interned in a camp at St Denis, outside Paris. He was unsuccessful. After the war he was arrested and tried as a traitor. He pleaded guilty and was hanged on 19 December 1945.
Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin, the Pomeranian conservative politician who came to England in 1938 in a fruitless attempt to generate support for those who opposed Hitler within Germany, continued to work for Hitler’s removal throughout the war. He and his son were involved in several plots to kill Hitler including Stauffenberg’s briefcase bomb which just failed to kill him on 19 July 1944. Kleist-Schmenzin was arrested the following day and hanged at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin on 9 April 1945. His son was sent to the Eastern Front but survived the war.
Finally, apologies to Radley – they, not Eton, won the Ladies’ Plate in 1938 when they beat an excellent Pembroke College eight in the remarkable time of six minutes and fifty-six seconds.
Something Wicked Page 27