Charles had straddled an upright chair. He sat with his arms folded along the back and looked at her across them.
‘Not my business,’ he said.
The rage had gone out of Myra. Her voice came heavily.
‘A bad business — you might have told me —’
‘How could I?’
There was a flash from the dark eyes.
‘I got it out of her. I’m not a fool — I can see what’s under my nose. She’s been mooning about like a lovesick rabbit all this month, but to tell you the honest truth I thought it was you.’
Charles felt a thrill of horror followed by relief. He was in a mess, but not quite such a mess as that. To have been the object of a fatal passion on the part of Hester Constantine would just about have put the lid on.
Myra’s big mouth twisted.
‘Go on — say it if you want to! She never did have any sense. If she had she’d have fallen for you. I could have fallen for you myself, as far as that goes, thirty or forty years ago. But Hester, no — she’s got to pick on James Moberly, another rabbit that can’t stand up and fight for itself any more than what she can. But that doesn’t say they won’t have anyone to fight for them. I’m no rabbit!’
His quick dark smile flashed out.
‘Much more like a charging rhinoceros.’
She burst out laughing.
‘Oh, yes, I could have fallen for you, Charles.’ She dragged out a gaudy handkerchief and wiped her eyes. ‘You’ve not got to make me laugh. It’s all damned serious. You’ve got to listen to me. I’ve got things to tell you — things you won’t like, but they’ve got to be said, and they’ve got to be listened to.’
‘All right — shoot!’
She looked at him out of her big dark eyes. It was a dominant look.
‘Hester hasn’t got any fight in her, and no more has Moberly. But I have. He’s Hester’s husband and my son-in-law, and I’m not having a case cooked up against him for murdering Lewis, which he never did and wouldn’t have had the guts. Well, I’m not standing for an innocent man being hanged, and when the innocent man is my son-in-law, I’m just about going to raise Cain. Have you got that?’
‘Admirably lucid.’
‘I mean it.’
‘I’m sure you do. What are you going to do about it?’
She sat back in her chair, laid a hand on either knee, and said, ‘I’m going to tell you something.’
‘Go ahead.’
She nodded.
‘I’m no fool. Lewis had some hold over Moberly — he used to hint as much. And James wanted to get away. He wanted to marry Hester — God knows why, but he did. Lewis was mean, and he was a bully. He had a bad nature. Everyone will say James had plenty of motive for killing him. And he had the opportunity. He had ten minutes after Lilias went and before you arrived, and only Het to say that he was with her all the time and never went out of the study. Mind you, she’s speaking the truth. I know Het, and I put her through it. She couldn’t stick to a lie with me pressing her like I did. She’s telling the truth. She and James were there in the study all that ten minutes, and he hadn’t any more to do with Lewis being killed than what I have. But Hester’s his wife — who’s going to believe her? Any woman ’ud swear her husband never left her if it was to clear him in a murder case. I wasn’t born yesterday, and I know how it’s going to look.’
Charles said,
‘That’s perfectly true. But if it’s any consolation to you, I’m a pretty strong challenger. Lewis was shot with my revolver. I had a better opportunity than anyone, and I’m the only suspect who had any interest in destroying the will which he had made in favour of Maida Robinson.’
‘And I suppose you think that’s going to make me put it on you! Dossie says all men are fools, and there’s times when I think she’s right. Why, you poor fish, I’d sooner see James hang than you — if it wasn’t for Hester. I’m fond of you — didn’t that ever get into your head — honest to God fond of you. I don’t know what people want having daughters — especially mim-mouthed rabbits. I’d have liked a son, and I’d have liked him to be like you.’
Charles looked at her with an odd mixture of feelings. He was touched, moved, but still a little detached — able to survey the scene with the kind of humour which is not so very far from tears. Myra always had been able to move an audience in just that way. He stepped to her side of the footlights to take his part in the show, but he was able to bring genuine feeling to the part as he said,
‘Thank you, old dear. You are clever enough to know that I reciprocate.’
The big eyes sparkled. She said briskly,
‘And now we’ll get down to brass tacks. Thursday night, the night before Lewis was shot, he had us all in and showed us that damned Collection. I’d seen it time and again, so I was more interested in watching the people than in looking at his jeweller’s window. I watched you for one, and you were so busy looking at that girl Maida you hadn’t eyes in your head for anyone else.’
Charles laughed.
‘She was worth looking at.’
Myra tossed her head, very much as she might have tossed it at eighteen.
‘Oh, she’s got what it takes — I’ll grant you that. And a nerve — nerve enough for anything.’
‘Answer adjudged correct!’
Myra frowned.
‘You were looking at her, and everyone else was looking at the jewellery, and I was looking at your Lilias Grey.’
His eyes narrowed.
‘And what did you see?’
‘I saw her looking at you when you were looking at Maida. Hating you quite a piece she was.’
‘Maida isn’t anything to me.’
She chuckled.
‘You liked looking at her all right.’
He laughed.
‘Who wouldn’t!’
‘And your Lilias Grey didn’t like it a bit. She switched over to the diamonds. Then Maida put on the Forrest necklace and went swanking off to look at herself in the glass, and after a bit when she came back we all got up and moved about. And that’s when I saw Lilias pinch the brooch.’
Charles stiffened. His arms lying along the back of the chair pressed down upon the wood — harder. He raised his eyebrows and said,
‘Do you mind saying that again?’
Myra flounced in her chair.
‘Come off it! You heard me. Your Lilias Grey pinched what Lewis called the Marziali brooch — the one with the five big diamonds that the girl was wearing when her husband stabbed her and the young man she was carrying on with.’
‘Do you know, I should so very much prefer it if you didn’t keep on saying my Lilias Grey. She is my adopted sister.’
‘All right, all right — don’t lose your hair! You can call her your grandmother, or your old-maid aunt, or your girl friend, for all I care. I saw her take the Marziali brooch and stuff it into her bag.’
Charles was pale. He said in a hard voice,
‘And why didn’t you say so at the time?’
She gave something between a laugh and a snort.
‘You’d have loved me a lot if I had, wouldn’t you! The whole cast on the stage, and Miss Lilias Grey unmasked as a thief! Quick curtain!’ She laughed again scornfully. ‘Believe it or not, I can behave like a lady — when I try. I can’t always be bothered — I grant you that — but I can do it when I like. So I let everyone get away, and I told Lewis on the quiet.’
There was a horrid little silence. What Charles thought didn’t bear thinking about, but you can’t just shut off your thinking the way you turn off a programme on the wireless. He said quite soon,
‘You told Lewis?’
Myra flung out her hands.
‘Of course I did. If I hadn’t I’d have been a what-you-call-it — accessory after the fact, wouldn’t I?’
‘How did he take it?’
‘Oh, quiet — very quiet.’ She chuckled. ‘Said he wasn’t surprised, and I needn’t say anything, he’d deal with it.’
/> Yes, that sounded like Lewis all right. Charles could hear the way he’d have said it — dry, with the kind of nasty dryness like grit, rubbing the skin, getting into the eyes, catching you on the raw. His chin was down upon those folded arms. Lewis had said he would deal with it. Had he dealt with it, and how? Somebody had dealt with him.
‘Give you any idea of what he meant to do?’
‘I didn’t wait — I’d had enough. I don’t mind people when they let off steam and you wonder how much of the furniture they’re going to break. It’s your quiet ones that get me. I never did like to see a cat go after a bird — soft, you know, and kind of slithery. If I’d got anything handy I’d throw it. Lewis could be like that if he’d got a down on anyone. I tell you what — I never did like Lilias and never shall, but I got pretty near being sorry for her after I’d told Lewis. I mean I’d have given her a good tongue-lashing myself, but Lewis was nasty, if you know what I mean, and I thought I wouldn’t care about being in her shoes.’
‘Did he say what he was going to do?’
‘No, he didn’t. It’s pretty plain what he did do. He rang her up and told her to come and see him three o'clock Friday and bring she knew what with her. And so she did.’ Myra fixed her eyes on him in their darkest stare. ‘She came along down at three. I don’t know whether she brought the brooch or not. Suppose she brought something else. She says she left him alive. Suppose she didn’t.’
‘I don’t think we’ll suppose anything of the sort.’
‘Then the police will. Do you think I’m going to hold my tongue and let them put the murder on James, or on you? I’m not going to, and that’s flat! She had a motive, hadn’t she? She had taken that brooch, and he was going to be nasty about it. Oh, yes, he was. I know Lewis, and I wouldn’t have been in her shoes. Suppose he said he was going to prosecute. I don’t say he’d have done it, but she wasn’t to know that. Suppose she thought she was for it.’
Charles said,
‘The will was burned. She hadn’t any motive for burning the will.’
She shook with laughter.
‘She’d have loved that girl Maida to have the money, wouldn’t she! It’s not Maida’s fault if everyone doesn’t know Lewis’s new will was going to leave her the whole blooming pile. And it was lying there on the table. Wouldn’t Lilias have been a chump if she hadn’t put a match to it? If the money came to you, she’d get her whack, wouldn’t she?’
Charles said,
‘Suppositions aren’t evidence. I think I’ve had enough of them.’ He got up. ‘March and Crisp are calling for me any minute now.’
Her face changed.
‘Arresting you?’
‘Not yet. Just going along up to Saltings to have a look-see.’
She stared.
‘What for?’
‘The other revolver. I’ve no idea whether it’s there or not. I can’t make up my mind what is going to incriminate me most.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Oh, it’s as simple as mud. I had two revolvers. When I gave one of them to Lewis I scratched his initials on it. Everyone knew he kept it in his drawer. When he was found dead everyone jumped to the conclusion that he’d been shot with that revolver. He hadn’t. He was shot with the other one — the one I kept. And thanks to our admired Dossie, the police have just tumbled to it. So March and Crisp and I are going up to Saltings to look for the other one — the one that ought to have been in Lewis’s drawer.’
Myra took hold of the arms of her chair and heaved herself up. She took a plunging step forward and caught at him.
‘Charles — you’re not going to let yourself go down the drain for that worthless slut!’
He said, ‘Hold up, old dear.’
‘You mean shut up. But I won’t! She’s not worth it, and you needn’t think I’ll stand by and see you do it, because I won’t! Piling up the evidence against yourself and sticking it under their noses — you damned fool! You needn’t tell me — that girl’s never been straight I know a wrong ’un when I see one, and that girl Lilias is a wrong ’un. Broke your marriage up, I shouldn’t be surprised—’
He was trying to get her back into her chair.
‘Myra, I must go.’
She clutched him.
‘Now Stacy’s a nice girl — nothing low about Stacy. And that’s the sort that gets easy taken in by a wrong ’un. Fond of her, aren’t you?’ His mouth twisted.
‘So-so.’
She burst out laughing and came down thump into her chair.
‘Get along with you for a liar! All right, I mean it — you can go. And remember what I’ve been saying, because I mean that too.’
He was at the door with his hand out to open it, but he turned back.
‘Myra, for God’s sake hold your tongue!’
She blew him a kiss and said,
‘Tooraloo!’
TWENTY-EIGHT
RANDAL MARCH CAME BACK from Ledlington with Inspector Crisp sitting beside him, a small case across his knees. Randal had compared him to a terrier. He does not care about the breed but it has its uses. The resemblance sprang to the eye. There was the wiry hair, the pricked ears, the look of alert efficiency. In one respect the terrier has the advantage. He is not afflicted with class-consciousness, whereas in the Inspector’s case it provided him with a conviction that a section of his fellow-citizens were out to down him and that if he didn’t keep a pretty sharp lookout, they might succeed. At the sight of Charles Forrest emerging from Warne House with a certain air of not being in any hurry his hackles rose. He said, ‘A cool hand,’ in the voice which always sounded just a little angry, and the Chief Constable nodded and said, ‘Oh, yes.’
Then Charles got into the back of the car and they drove away.
Saltings stood up in the eye of the sun. They left the car and went in, and through to Charles’ flat. He might have been the careless host with a couple of friends.
‘Bedroom, sitting-room, kitchenette, bathroom. Used to be the billiard-room and things like pantry and offices. Not a bad bit of work for the architect. Adams is a clever chap. Well, it’s all yours — you can do anything you like with it.’
March was not feeling particularly happy. There are moments when being a policeman runs counter to one’s instincts. He frowned and said,
‘Where did you keep that revolver?’
They were in the sitting-room. Charles indicated a bureau of pleasantly mellowed walnut. The flap was down, displaying pigeonholes. Behind the diamond panes above were shelves with painted china birds and figures — a parrot, a canary, green linnets, a charming Industry, and an even more charming Indolence lying asleep in a porcelain chair with ruffled ringlets and one slipper dropping off whilst a kitten played with the spool which had fallen from her hand. Crisp set them down as gimcracks. He thought the less of Major Forrest for possessing them.
‘In one of these drawers?’ he said.
There was an elegantly wrought panel on either side of the central pigeonhole. Charles slid a hand into the hole, slipped a catch at the back of it, and brought the panel away, and with it a narrow upright drawer.
‘It used to be here,’ he said.
Crisp made haste to take the drawer from him.
‘Nothing there now,’ he growled.
Charles smiled very pleasantly.
‘As you say.’
‘Does the other side open the same way?’
Charles opened it. There were some papers, a bunch of keys. There was no revolver.
‘It’s not there.’
Charles said, ‘No. Did you expect it to be?’
‘Didn’t you?’
‘No. I’m quite methodical — I’ve always kept it on the other side.’
‘And the ammunition?’
‘I hadn’t any.’
‘Why?’
‘I hadn’t used it since the war.’
‘Was it loaded?’
There was a pause before the answer came.
&nbs
p; ‘I don’t know.’
Crisp made an impatient movement, an impatient sound.
‘Really, Major Forrest!’
Charles said in a quiet, even tone.
‘Well, I don’t. It may have been. I came home wounded from France. When I got out of hospital the war was over. My kit had been sent down here. I shoved that revolver behind the panel with the other one. I didn’t look at it again until I had the pair of them out and gave one to Lewis. That’s all I can tell you.’
‘You gave one to Mr. Brading, and you kept the other. Where is the other?’
‘I’ve no more idea than you.’
The dark eyes had a faint sparkle. Randal March caught it. He said,
‘Just when did you see it last?’
Charles frowned.
‘I couldn’t say.’
Crisp said, ‘Did you see it when you found Mr. Brading’s body?’
‘Meaning he was shot with my revolver? What do you expect me to say to that?’
‘I’m asking you whether you recognized the weapon which was lying on the floor by Mr. Brading’s body when, according to your statement, you came into the laboratory and found him dead.’
Charles gave a short laugh.
‘Do you suppose I was fool enough to touch it? What would you have said if I had? I’d something else to do. I suppose, like everyone else, I took it for granted that it was his own revolver, and that he had fired it himself.’
Crisp came back sharply.
‘You say you thought it was suicide?’
‘I suppose that was my first impression.’
‘Do you mean you’ve changed your mind?’
‘I changed my mind when I heard the police evidence about the fingerprints. It agreed with what I knew about my cousin. He was not at all likely to commit suicide.’
There were three long drawers in the bureau. Whilst these questions and answers were going on Crisp had the top drawer out and was sorting through its contents. He worked quickly and neatly. He had everything out, and he put everything back. Then he started on the second drawer. Half-way through he said,
Mr. Brading's Collection Page 18