03 - Murder at Sedgwick Court

by Margaret Addison

  The inspector paused for a moment before going on. Count Fernand again refused to catch his eye or say anything.

  ‘Very well. If that’s the way you wish to play it, so be it. My only interest in you, as I have already said, is to establish whether or not you were involved in the murder of Miss Montacute.’

  ‘I’ve already said I wasn’t,’ the count said, sulkily.

  ‘Forgive me if I find it hard to accept your word.’

  ‘Are you going to tell Lord Belvedere about my not being a count?’

  ‘As I said before, he already has his suspicions. If you’re worried that you will be required to vacate Sedgwick, you needn’t be. No one is leaving this house until I say so. But,’ the inspector fixed the man with a hard stare and said quietly, ‘I wouldn’t go proposing marriage to Lady Lavinia, if I were you, otherwise I might well feel obliged to advise the earl of the sort of brother-in-law he’d be gaining.’

  The count stared at the carpet miserably, and said nothing. The inspector thought how ordinary he appeared without his foreign accent and his charm.

  The policeman was interrupted from asking further questions by a rapid knocking at the door, followed immediately afterwards by the entrance of a young constable, clearly out of breath. Before the inspector could admonish him for entering before waiting for an answer, or indeed ask him what he wanted, the constable had bounded over to him and was whispering rapidly in his ear.

  Both Sergeant Lane and the man who called himself Count Fernand looked on with interest. To the frustration of both men, neither could hear what was being said. Whatever it was, the inspector was giving the constable his full attention, and every now and then he uttered the odd exclamation, nodding his head as he did so.

  The constable departed, closing the door carefully behind him and the inspector’s attention reverted to Count Fernand.

  ‘Now that we have got all that cleared up, let’s get down to business and proceed with this murder investigation, shall we? I think we’ve wasted quite enough time on your dubious activities, young man. Right, without further ado, let me ask you where you were between four o’clock and seven o’clock this morning. And you’d do well to answer me truthfully, young man.’

  ‘In bed, Inspector, but unfortunately no one can vouch for me,’ the count replied, rather wearily. ‘Is that when she was killed, Emmeline, I mean?’

  ‘We think it was, yes. What can you tell me about her?’

  ‘She was quite a sweet little thing. Awfully pretty. Tended to be happy and excited, although who wouldn’t be in her position? Money no object and a doting father. How lucky some people are.’

  ‘I gather that when you were all together in Florence you had a preference for Miss Montacute over Lady Lavinia, is that right?’

  ‘Miss Montacute. Lady Lavinia. Both women lovely in their own way.’ The count gave the policeman a feeble smile. ‘But yes, my preference, as you put it, was for Miss Montacute.’

  ‘Easier to ingratiate yourself with Miss Montacute than Lady Lavinia, I would imagine.’ The inspector returned to his chair and sat down. ‘Yet you made a sufficiently favourable impression on Lady Lavinia for her to invite you to stay here at Sedgwick.’

  ‘Charm and flattery, Inspector. You should try it.’ Count Fernand laughed.

  ‘Perhaps I will. Now, what can you tell me about Miss Montacute and Dr Harrison?’

  ‘I am sure that you have already heard all about it, Inspector. You don’t need me to tell you.’ The young man sighed and leaned back in his chair. ‘I don’t pretend to be any more observant than the next fellow, but suffice to say that I turned my attentions to Lady Lavinia. I am not one to indulge in unnecessary competition unless I have to. Having said that, what Emmeline saw in the fellow I can’t imagine. A pretty boring, ordinary sort of chap, if you ask me.’

  ‘I understand it created rather an unpleasant atmosphere, what with Miss Brewster being here too?’

  ‘You can say that again, Inspector. The night before last Vera created a bit of a scene, alluded to the failed kidnap attempt concerning Emmeline. It happened some years back, you may remember it?’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘Poor Emmeline was pretty shaken up by it, I can tell you, and so was Jemima for that matter. She had a proper set to with Vera. At one point I thought she might strike her. Of course, Harrison had been sailing damned close to the wind. Miss Brewster may be rather dull, but she’s not stupid.’

  ‘I understand you took matters into your own hands, sir?’

  ‘Did I?’ For a moment Count Fernand looked confused, and then he laughed. ‘Ah, you’re referring to the diamonds aren’t you?’

  ‘I am.’

  ‘A bit of a parlour game to entertain the ladies, Inspector. Wealthy young women always like to show off their diamonds and have others admire them. I knew Lavinia and Emmeline would want to see each other’s gems so that they might compare them. Emmeline cheered up no end, I can tell you, particularly when she was given the opportunity to talk about the Montacute Diamonds.’

  ‘So looking at the diamonds was just a sort of game, was it, sir?’

  ‘It was, Inspector. The aim was to lighten the atmosphere and cheer everyone up.’ The count began to look a little wary. ‘Everything was a little fraught. I was only trying to help.’

  ‘Do you always carry a jeweller’s loupe on you?’

  ‘I do, Inspector, but you needn’t read anything into it.’

  ‘Needn’t I?

  ‘No.’ Count Fernand sighed. ‘If you must know, I do it to impress the ladies. They respect a man who they think is knowledgeable about diamonds.’

  ‘I don’t doubt it,’ agreed the inspector, before adding sharply, ‘and are you knowledgeable about diamonds?’

  ‘I like to think so.’

  ‘What did you think of Miss Montacute’s diamonds?’

  There was a distinct pause before the count answered. He swallowed hard and took a deep breath.

  ‘They were fabulous, Inspector, quite fabulous.’

  ‘Righto, I think that’s all for the time being, count,’ Inspector Bramwell said.

  ‘What?’

  Count Fernand was clearly taken by surprise at being dismissed so abruptly. For a moment he remained seated, as if he thought he had misheard the inspector. He gave a quick glance at Inspector Bramwell, and seeing that the policeman appeared engrossed in his papers, made swiftly for the door.

  ‘Ah, just a moment before you leave, sir.’

  ‘Yes, what is it?’ Count Fernand swung round, his hand still clasping the door handle.

  ‘Yes, sir, just one more thing, or should I say two?’

  ‘Yes?’ the count snapped.

  ‘You have admitted that you are not a foreign count.’ Inspector Bramwell smiled at him warmly. ‘I am rather interested to know who you really are. What’s your real name, young man?’

  ‘You said you had two things to ask me.’

  ‘Did I? Oh, yes, so I did.’ The inspector sat up in his chair and looked at the count with interest. ‘Now what was it? Ah, yes. Are you by any chance a jewel thief?’

  Chapter Nineteen

  ‘It really is too bad,’ said Lavinia scowling, the effect of which was to make her quite beautiful face plain and ugly. ‘Expecting us to wait like this. I mean to say, why should they want to interview Max before me? I found Emmeline’s body after all. They should want to speak to me first. And this is my house … well mine and Ceddie’s. Did you see how they spoke to my brother first, Rose? I suppose it’s because he’s a man. I’m of no importance because I’m a woman.’

  ‘I don’t think they asked Cedric very many questions,’ said Rose. ‘They want to interview him again later.’

  ‘Well, I’m tired of waiting. I don’t know who that inspector thinks he is.’

  ‘The man heading the investigation into Emmeline’s murder.’

  ‘Well, I’ve got far better things to do than stand around waiting for the inspector to condescend to s
ummon me for interview. I’m not going to just stay here, especially with the likes of Vera and Jemima, who really are so dull and boring at the best of times, I – ’

  ‘Ssh, they’ll hear you.’ Rose looked around quickly at the other two women who, to her relief, appeared not to have heard Lavinia’s rant. ‘Do be quiet, Lavinia, and do be reasonable. This is a murder investigation, not a dull tea party.’

  ‘Well, I’m bored and I still see it as quite an affront that the inspector decided to interview Felix and Max before me.’ She grabbed at Rose’s arm as an idea crossed her mind. ‘I say, Rose. What about if I were to say to the constable over there that I had suddenly remembered seeing something when I came across Emmeline’s body. The inspector would want to interview me then, wouldn’t he? He wouldn’t be able to get rid of Max quick enough.’

  ‘I think that would be a very bad idea,’ said Rose, holding on to Lavinia’s sleeve as if afraid that her friend might really be about to carry out her threat.

  ‘Well, I’m not staying here.’ Lavinia threw off Rose’s arm and walked straight over to the constable. ‘I’m feeling rather unwell, Constable. You see, I can’t get the image of poor Emmeline’s body out of my mind. If I don’t go and have a lie down, why, I think I might faint. You wouldn’t want that now, would you?’

  ‘Err, no, miss.’ The young constable looked rather pale and fiddled with a button on his tunic.

  ‘Lady Lavinia, actually,’ Lavinia said, sweetly. ‘My friend here, Miss Simpson, is just going to see me up the stairs. That’s all right, isn’t it? She’ll be down again as soon as she’s got me settled.’ She turned her head slightly, so that she could talk over her shoulder. ‘Come along, Rose. I’m jolly afraid I’m about to faint. Yes, I really think I am. I’m feeling rather lightheaded. Oh, thank you, Constable.’ Lavinia smiled sweetly again at the policeman, who had offered her his arm to steady her.

  Rose hesitated, in two minds whether or not to play along. From what she’d heard of Inspector Bramwell, she thought it highly unlikely that he would be taken in so easily by Lavinia’s rather melodramatic performance. She also imagined that he would be far from impressed at discovering them absent from the drawing room. But, like Lavinia, Rose was finding being in one room with the others dull and oppressive. The chance to escape the confines of the drawing room if only for a few minutes was too tempting. Besides which, it would give her the opportunity she sought to put some more questions to Lavinia without being overheard.

  ‘I thought you weren’t going to play ball,’ complained Lavinia, as they dashed up the stairs. ‘I think we’ll go to my boudoir, don’t you?’

  ‘You really are incorrigible, Lavinia,’ Rose said, trying to keep up with her agile hostess. ‘There’ll be all hell to pay when the inspector finds out what we’ve done. He wanted us to keep together until we’d given our statements. And they won’t know to look in your boudoir for us.’

  ‘It will jolly well serve him right for keeping us waiting,’ retorted Lavinia. ‘He let Felix go to his room.’

  ‘That’s because he’d given his statement,’ said Rose, following Lavinia into her boudoir. ‘I expect he’ll let the count too, when he comes out.’ She hovered by the door. If she were to sit down, she felt that she might well be inclined not to leave. ‘Are you feeling better now?’

  ‘Better? Oh, yes, it was just the shock of finding her body like that.’ Lavinia sank down thankfully on to a richly upholstered settee and curled her legs up under her. ‘Ah, that’s better. I say, I feel jolly hungry. I didn’t eat much at breakfast because I was worried about Emmeline, although I was thinking more of her reputation at the time rather than anything more sinister having occurred to her. I never thought for a moment that she might be dead, and murdered at that. I was jolly hungry at luncheon, particularly as it was so late and only soup, but no one else seemed very interested in food. I thought people might consider it as being in rather bad taste if I was the only one to eat, my being the hostess and all that.’

  ‘I really don’t think you’re half as heartless as you like to make out,’ Rose said, deciding, despite her reservations, to sit down for a moment or two. ‘Tell me, didn’t you like Emmeline at all? I thought she was your friend. Aren’t you even a little bit sorry that she’s dead?’

  ‘Well, of course I am.’ Lavinia sighed and picked up a magazine, the pages of which she flicked through aimlessly. ‘You know what I’m like, Rose. I just don’t want to think about it. It’s too awful. And it won’t bring her back, will it?’

  There were a few moments of silence as neither woman spoke, each lost in their own thoughts. Rose watched Lavinia flick through the pages of the magazine, hardly giving each page a proper glance. She found herself watching the pages being turned until Lavinia flung the magazine down on the table with a resounding thud.

  ‘It’s rather awful to say it, and I’d only say this to you, Rose … but I was becoming rather tired of Emmeline. I was even beginning to wish that I hadn’t invited her to stay.’

  ‘I thought you found her amusing.’

  ‘Oh, I did on the Continent. We had the most absolute fun in Florence, even with Jemima watching over our shoulders like some mother hen. I thought we’d have just as much fun here at Sedgwick.’

  ‘And you didn’t?’

  ‘Well, of course not, because Emmeline went all silly over Theo, didn’t she? She didn’t seem to be interested in anything else.’

  Rose nodded, which Lavinia seemed to find sufficient encouragement to go on.

  ‘Who’d have thought Emmeline would have lost her head over a man like Theo? Of course, one can see what he saw in her. I suppose for Emmeline it was just some little dalliance to pass the time of day.’

  ‘Do you really think so?’ Rose said. ‘It didn’t seem to me like that at all. It appeared to me she was genuinely fond of him. I’m certain Theo Harrison didn’t view it that way, as just a dalliance, I mean.’

  ‘I’m sure he didn’t. Theo has always thought rather a lot of himself. But really! I mean to say, he can hardly have expected it to come to anything, can he? Emmeline’s father would have seen to that. I can hardly imagine that he would be delighted at the prospect of his daughter marrying a country doctor, can you?’

  ‘No … I suppose not.’ Rose pondered a moment or two. ‘Which makes it all the more strange, don’t you think? Jemima’s behaviour in all this, I mean.’

  ‘Now you come to mention it,’ said Lavinia, ‘I suppose it does seem odd.’

  ‘If Jemima did report everything Emmeline did back to Mr Montacute,’ continued Rose, ‘I’d have thought she’d have felt obliged to do whatever she could to discourage an attachment from forming between Emmeline and Theo.’

  ‘One would have thought so, yes. She gave poor Emmeline a hard time about everything else, so why not that? It would have been just the sort of spiteful thing she’d have done. Do you know, she never wanted to come to Sedgwick in the first place? Emmeline had to do lots and lots of persuading.’

  ‘There’s something else that’s been worrying me.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘How did you first come to make Emmeline’s acquaintance?’

  ‘I’ve already told you,’ sighed Lavinia. ‘She was staying in the same hotel as me in Florence. She arranged for us to be introduced when we were both taking afternoon tea there one day. I remember thinking how very shy and timid she was.’ Lavinia laughed. ‘Jemima was absolutely furious about it. I suppose she wanted to keep Emmeline to herself.’

  ‘I see. Was it an expensive hotel?’ enquired Rose.

  ‘What a very strange question to ask,’ Lavinia said, looking at her friend closely. ‘I assume there’s something more behind your question besides just idle curiosity? But yes, I suppose it was quite expensive. I wouldn’t have been staying there otherwise.’

  ‘I’ll ask you another question which you might find strange. Whose idea was it that Emmeline should go horse riding with Cedric yesterday?’

  Lavinia b
lushed visibly and paused before answering.

  ‘It was mine, as I’m sure you know full well already. I daresay you’re just trying to make me feel bad about it, which is jolly beastly of you. I wasn’t being very fair on you, I admit. But I shan’t apologise, if that’s what you’re wanting me to do.’

  ‘You were hoping that Emmeline might turn her attentions towards Cedric?’

  ‘Yes. Oh, don’t look at me like that, Rose,’ Lavinia sat up on her sofa and looked earnestly at her friend. ‘You know how much I like you. But really, Emmeline would have made my brother a very suitable wife. Surely you must see that, don’t you? Hello … who’s this?’

  Lavinia’s last remark was occasioned by the sound of feet coming up the stairs at a considerable pace, and making quite a noise.

  ‘I’d better go,’ Rose said, jumping up from her chair and making for the door. ‘I’ve stayed here talking to you far longer than I intended. The constable will be wondering where I am. You stay here and rest if you like. I’ll tell the policemen where you are.’

  Rose had anticipated that it would be one of the constables or Sergeant Lane coming up the stairs to find her. It was however Count Fernand, who barely cast her a glance as he passed her on the landing and made for his room. She heard him slam the door behind him as she descended the stairs. Sergeant Lane was in the hall below and looked up at her entrance.

  ‘Miss Simpson. I was wondering where you were. I couldn’t see you in the drawing room when I looked in just now.’

  ‘I was helping Lavinia upstairs. I’m afraid it’s all been a bit too much for her. She’s feeling unwell.’

  Rose looked down at the black and white floor tiles, and had the grace to blush.

  ‘I see. Well, perhaps you could go back into the drawing room now, if you will. I appreciate that you’ve been holed up in there for some time. If you want some air, the inspector has no objection to you all strolling about outside the window for a bit. But don’t go far.’

  ‘Doesn’t the inspector want to interview me now?’