Noose for a Lady

by Gerald Verner

  ‘I’m afraid we had to judge by the evidence,’ said Shelford, a little defensively.

  ‘Yes,’ Gale nodded. ‘Fortunately I was not hampered by any such consideration. I’m not a detective. I know nothing about such things as cigar ash, fingerprints, alibis, and tangible clues of that kind.

  ‘Margaret Hallam is as incapable of poisoning anybody as she is of walking a tight-rope. I came here to find the real murderer, and I have. I know who killed John Hallam now.’

  ‘Who?’ demanded Evershed, curtly.

  ‘The same person, who later killed Jonas Rigg, using practically an identical method, because Rigg had seen something on the night Hallam was killed that he shouldn’t have seen.’

  ‘Something — or someone, Simon?’ asked Martin. He was very pale, and his hands gripped on the back of a chair behind which he was standing so that the bones of his knuckles stood out white.

  ‘Someone,’ said Gale.

  ‘Mr. Upcott?’ asked Vanessa. She, too, was white. Her fingers plucked at the cloth of her coat which she had not taken off. Jill looked at her and then at Martin, and her face was troubled.

  ‘No, Vanessa,’ answered Gale. ‘It was not Upcott whom Rigg saw that night.’

  ‘How do you know who it was he saw?’ snapped Mrs. Langdon-Humphreys. ‘The man’s dead.’

  ‘Yes, Mrs. Langdon-Humphreys — the man’s dead,’ said Gale. ‘The person he saw took very good care that he should die before he could say what he saw.’

  ‘Then how can you know?’ she demanded.

  ‘You’ll see very soon,’ he replied. ‘There’s only one person it could be.’

  He stopped as the door opened and Mrs. Barrett came in. She pushed a dinner-wagon, laden with tea things, across the carpet to Jill’s chair.

  ‘Shut the door, Frost, will you?’ said Gale. ‘Mrs. Barrett is staying to hear the rest of what I have to say.’

  The Inspector nodded and went over and closed the door.

  ‘Perhaps,’ said Gale, ‘it would be as well if you locked it, Inspector.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ said Frost. He turned the key, took it out of the lock, and slipped it into his pocket.

  A queer whimpering sound came from Miss Ginch.

  ‘I don’t like it,’ she said. ‘I’m frightened! I wish to leave, Mr. Gale.’

  ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to stay until I’ve finished, Miss Ginch,’ he said.

  ‘I don’t want to,’ she cried, getting up quickly. ‘I should much prefer to go home.’

  ‘Sit down, Miss Ginch,’ said Jill, soothingly. ‘I’ll give you a cup of tea.’ She began to put milk in the cups. She spoke calmly enough, but her hands were shaking.

  ‘I don’t want any tea,’ said Miss Ginch, sharply. ‘You’ve no right to keep me here.’

  ‘Please be quiet, Miss Ginch,’ said Gale.

  ‘I won’t … I’m not going to stay here … ’

  ‘Doctor Evershed,’ said Jill, ‘would you mind passing this to Miss Ginch?’

  ‘Certainly,’ he replied, taking the cup and saucer from her. ‘Here you are, Miss Ginch.’

  ‘I don’t … ’ she began.

  ‘Please sit down,’ said Simon Gale.

  She started to make a further protest, thought better of it, and sat down again in her chair. Evershed put the cup and saucer into her hand.

  ‘Drink that,’ he said. ‘You’ll feel better … ’

  ‘I can understand Miss Ginch’s nervousness,’ said Gale. ‘It is not pleasant to be locked in with a murderer.’

  ‘You mean … ’ It was a whisper from Mrs Langdon-Humphreys.

  ‘Oh, yes,’ said Gale, ‘the person who poisoned Hallam and Rigg is here.’

  Vanessa uttered a little sighing moan — as though she had been about to speak and caught her breath.

  ‘Nearly all of you had a motive,’ Gale went on. ‘Hallam was a mental sadist. He liked to find out things about people — things they were afraid, or ashamed, of becoming public. He wasn’t an ordinary blackmailer — he didn’t want money. He wanted the pleasure of torturing his victims with the threat of exposure. He knew something about most of you, and it must have been a great relief when he died.’

  ‘Can you pass this cup of tea to Simon, Vanessa?’ whispered Jill.

  ‘Eh?’ said Vanessa with a start. ‘Oh, yes.’

  ‘But that wasn’t a motive for his murder,’ Gale continued. ‘It was something much simpler than that.’ He paused, and Vanessa held out the cup of tea.

  ‘Thank you,’ he said, taking it, and then, seeing that she was without one, he added: ‘Oh, look here, you have this, Vanessa.’

  ‘No, no,’ she answered quickly. ‘It’s all right.’

  ‘Vanessa can have this one, Simon,’ said Jill.

  ‘No, really,’ said Vanessa, ‘you have it.’

  ‘Will you drink this tea, Vanessa?’ he said quietly, holding it out towards her.

  ‘Well, I won’t … I’m not in a hurry,’ she stammered.

  ‘Take it,’ he said.

  ‘Oh, well — if you insist … ’ She took it from him reluctantly.

  ‘Why are you making such a fuss, Simon?’ said Jill. ‘There’s … ’

  ‘Don’t touch that tea, Vanessa!’ cried Gale, as she was raising the cup to her lips. I’ve changed my mind.’

  He almost snatched the cup and saucer from her hand. ‘Jill shall drink it,’ he said.

  ‘I’ll do nothing of the kind,’ said Jill. ‘What’s the matter with you, Simon?’

  ‘Drink this tea, Jill,’ he ordered, thrusting the cup and saucer at her.

  ‘I won’t,’ she answered.

  ‘Why?’ he snapped.

  ‘Because it’s ridiculous,’ she retorted. ‘First you want Vanessa to have it and when she won’t … ’

  ‘She would,’ he said. ‘She was going to — if I hadn’t stopped her.’

  ‘Well, I won’t,’ declared Jill, definitely. ‘I think you’ve gone mad, Simon.’

  ‘Frost,’ said Gale, curtly. ‘Search the pockets of Miss Lane’s coat.’

  ‘I object,’ exclaimed Mrs. Langdon-Humphreys, angrily. ‘How dare you? ’

  ‘I don’t mind,’ said Vanessa, putting her hands in her pockets. ‘There’s nothing.’ She stopped suddenly. Her face changed as she pulled out a little screw of tissue paper. ‘Oh,’ she said, starting at it, ‘how did that get in my pocket?’

  ‘Give it to me, Vanessa,’ said Gale.

  ‘What is it?’ asked Shelford.

  Gale unscrewed the paper and shook two little white pellets into the palm of his hand.

  ‘I don’t know how they got into my pocket,’ said Vanessa, staring at them. ‘I’ve — I’ve never seen them before.’

  ‘You’d better take these, Doctor Evershed,’ said Gale.

  ‘That’s what you put in the tea, Vanessa,’ cried Jill, accusingly. ‘I saw you — you dropped something in when you took it from me.’

  ‘I didn’t — I didn’t drop anything in the tea!’ exclaimed Vanessa.

  ‘Of course, you didn’t,’ began Mrs. Langdon-Humphreys.

  ‘She did,’ broke in Jill. ‘I saw her, I tell you … That’s why I wouldn’t drink it.’

  ‘It won’t do, Jill,’ said Gale, shaking his head. ‘Vanessa was prepared to drink that tea. She wouldn’t have done that, if she’d poisoned it. But that’s why you wouldn’t drink it. You were afraid that I really did know who poisoned Hallam, weren’t you? That I was coming out with the truth — and you thought you could stop me by poisoning the tea and throwing the blame on Vanessa. She handed me the cup, and you’d have sworn that you saw her drop something in it. When the poison was found in her pocket, which you had slipped there earlier, the proof against her would be complete.’

  ‘Jill!’ gasped Vanessa, in horror. ‘Oh, no … no … ’

  ‘It isn’t true, Simon … ’ began Jill.

  ‘I suppose it was vanity that made you think you’d get away with it?’ continued Gale, ign
oring the interruption. ‘You never imagined that anyone would suspect you. You’d got away with it twice when you killed Hallam and Rigg, and you thought you could do it a third time?’

  16.

  ‘It’s lies … all lies, Simon,’ cried Jill, her face the colour of chalk, against which the make-up on her cheeks stood out garishly. ‘You’re just trying to save Margaret at any cost.’

  ‘It’s the truth,’ said Simon Gale, ‘and you know it’s the truth. You were safe enough so long as no one began to suspect you. Once that happened, everything became clear.’

  ‘I can’t believe it,’ muttered Vanessa. ‘Jill … ’

  ‘Of course, you can’t,’ said Jill. ‘It’s not true, that’s why. How could I have poisoned my father — I wasn’t even here that night.’

  ‘Oh, yes, you were,’ broke in Gale. ‘You went to London in the afternoon, but you came back later … you came back and waited outside the study window until you saw Maggie bring your father the glass of hot whisky and milk, which you knew she did every night. As soon as she’d gone to bed you came in through the French window, made some plausible excuse to Hallam, and dropped the barbitone into the hot drink. You’d taken it from Maggie’s drawer before you left — it was easy for you to get hold of the key, she had a habit of leaving her bag lying around.’

  ‘I didn’t … I tell you, I didn’t!’ cried Jill. ‘Why should I want to kill my father?’

  ‘You wanted to kill them both — that was the whole idea,’ said Gale, ‘but you thought you could safely leave Maggie’s death to the hangman. That way left you free of all suspicion. As a further safeguard, once Maggie had been convicted, you pretended that you were convinced of her innocence. You did everything you could to try and help her, believing that the evidence was so strong against her that nothing you could do would have any effect. But it looked good, didn’t it? People thought it was so sweet and kind of you, and that was the impression you wanted to create. How could anyone imagine that the girl who was working so hard to try and save her stepmother had planned the whole thing?’

  ‘You’re mad, Simon,’ cried Jill. ‘Mad. Why should I do all this?’

  ‘For the commonest motive in the world,’ he answered. ‘Money.’

  ‘Money?’ muttered Fergusson.

  ‘Until Hallam married again,’ Gale went on, still addressing Jill, ‘his fortune would have come to you on his death. But once Maggie came on the scene it was a different matter. The greater part of his money would go to her. You weren’t going to stand for that, and so you began to scheme how you could get it all. You hated Maggie from the first, didn’t you? But you were clever enough to pretend that you liked her while you waited your opportunity.’

  ‘It’s lies … lies, I tell you … ’ An ugly glitter had appeared in Jill’s eyes and her mouth twisted almost in a snarl. The dainty prettiness was there still but it had been smeared …

  ‘That opportunity came,’ Simon Gale went on relentlessly, ‘when Hallam threatened to alter his will. Mrs. Barrett overheard him, and you knew that she would bear witness to the fact. It supplied Maggie with a strong motive, which is what you’d been waiting for. You decided to put the plan, which you’d had in your mind for so long, into practice at once — that same night. Your alibi was easy enough to fake. Martin went to that hotel where you stayed.’

  ‘Martin … ’ breathed Jill.

  ‘Yes, that’s what he went to London for,’ said Gale. ‘You were there for dinner, but nobody saw you after. You were supposed to have gone to bed early, but there’s a service staircase close to the room you occupied — it’s easy to come and go without being seen, and you were back in your room and in bed before they brought you your tea in the morning. It was all so simple. The evidence against Maggie was so strong that the police didn’t burrow very deeply into your alibi. If they had they’d have found how weak it was. But you were seen that night — you were seen by Jonas Rigg. He didn’t think there was anything strange about it — until he learned that you were supposed to have been in London, and he didn’t learn that until he came out of prison a few days ago.’

  ‘No … no, Simon … ’

  He ignored her outburst.

  ‘Rigg had to die — a word from him would have blown your clever scheme sky high. You adopted the same method you’d used before, only this time you tried to throw suspicion on Vanessa. You knew that note would bring her to the caravan after Rigg was dead, and we were all there. You knew she wouldn’t dare produce it because of what it contained. That was when I first began to see you as the murderer, Jill. You were the only person, except Martin and myself, who knew that Rigg was going to tell us something that night. You also knew, before you’d had a chance of seeing, where the lamp was kept. Remember?’

  ‘It doesn’t prove anything,’ she cried. ‘Nothing … nothing … ’

  ‘It’s not all,’ said Gale. ‘When we first saw Rigg in the Hand and Flower and the landlord told him to get out, do you remember what he said?’

  ‘No … no … ’ She was breathing fast as though she had been running, ‘he didn’t say anything … ’

  ‘He said: “Afraid of upsetting the gentry? I don't go round poisoning people like some I could name … ”’

  ‘Well, supposing he did?’ she demanded. ‘It was a warning, Jill,’ said Gale. ‘He was trying to tell somebody that he knew, and there was nobody else in the pub except you and I, and Martin. He couldn’t have meant it for us.’

  ‘It’s absurd … ridiculous … ’ she exclaimed.

  ‘When we went to Rigg’s caravan later that Sunday, Jill, you answered that veiled threat of his,’ said Gale. ‘You said: ‘Don’t make a mistake, Rigg. It’s very important. I’ll see that you’re well paid.’ You were telling him, as plainly as you could, to keep his mouth shut … It all fits in, Jill.’

  ‘You’re making it fit,’ cried Jill. ‘You’re twisting everything … ’

  ‘You were so sure, weren’t you? You felt safe, and then, when I told you I knew, you began to wonder. Could I really have stumbled on the truth?’ Gale leaned forward and Jill involuntarily shrank back. ‘You were suddenly afraid then. Something had to be done, just in case, and so you poisoned that tea. That would destroy the only danger, and get Vanessa out of the way, too — the same trick of killing two birds with one stone. You’d fallen in love with Martin, and you wanted a clear field … ’

  ‘Oh, no,’ whispered Vanessa. ‘No … ’

  ‘That’s why you were to be the victim, Vanessa,’ said Gale. ‘Well, the plan failed. The third time wasn’t lucky, because I was expecting you to do just what you did do, Jill. I knew that if I frightened you enough, you’d do something to ensure your safety. I told you at the beginning that we’d catch the murderer because it would be impossible to leave well alone. And if you were going to do anything, you had to do it this afternoon — before I had a chance of talking. I made it as easy as I could for you — and you fell into the trap … ’

  Jill Hallam’s face contorted. There was not even the remnants of the dainty prettiness, now …

  ‘You devil, Simon,’ she ground out from between her teeth, ‘you clever devil.’

  ‘Your father had a queer kink, and it’s been passed on to you,’ Gale was deliberately taunting. ‘Only it took a different turn with you. Hell’s bells, how you’ve fooled everybody. But the mask has slipped now. We can see right through to the meanness behind, and the secretive, cowardly, slyness that breeds the poisoner.’

  ‘Stop it!’ She screamed suddenly losing the last of her control. ‘Stop it, stop it, stop it … ’ She made a spring at Gale, her fingers clawing.

  ‘Look out, sir,’ warned Frost, but Shelford already had her by the wrists.

  ‘I’ve got her,’ he said.

  ‘Let go of me … let me go!’ She fought hard, biting and scratching.

  ‘Don’t you wish I’d drunk that tea, Jill?’ said Gale.

  ‘Yes, yes.’ She hardly knew what she was saying in the fl
ood of fury that welled over her. ‘I wish I hadn’t waited so long … but I never thought you’d find out.’

  ‘Not so clever as you imagined,’ said Gale, contemptuously. ‘People like you never are. It’s the kink that makes them think they are.’

  ‘I was clever … I was clever!’ she shrieked at him, struggling in Shelford’s grip. ‘It would have been all right if it hadn’t been for you … I always hated Margaret … ever since she came here … and I hated my father, too … I wanted life and fun — there was neither here, and I couldn’t get away … only if I had money … ’

  ‘Oh … ’ The voice of Mrs. Barrett, broken and tearful, sounded through her raving.

  ‘Miss Jill … Oh, Miss Jill … ’

  ‘She knows,’ Jill swung round towards the housekeeper. ‘She knows what it was like — living here … ’

  ‘I think that’s enough, Superintendent,’ said Gale to Shelford.

  ‘Yes, sir, I think so, too,’ he agreed.

  ‘You can’t touch me,’ screamed Jill, hysterically. ‘It’s Margaret you want … Margaret … ’

  ‘Oh, dear,’ said Miss Ginch, ‘she’s mad … quite mad … ’

  ‘I’m not … I’m not mad!’ A little bubbling foam appeared on the drawn back lips. ‘I hate Margaret … I want her to hang … Do you hear? … I want her to hang … ’

  ‘Be careful,’ said Doctor Evershed warningly.

  ‘You’d better take her away, Frost,’ said Gale.

  ‘No!’ She cried, sobbing and laughing in a dreadful animal-like mixture of sounds. ‘I won’t go … I won’t … leave me alone … ’

  ‘Now come along, miss,’ said Frost, soothingly. ‘It’s no good making a fuss … ’

  ‘I’d better go with you, I think,’ said Evershed.

  ‘If you would, doctor,’ said Frost, gratefully. ‘Now, come along … ’

  With the help of Shelford he managed to get the struggling, screaming girl to the door. They could hear her screams die away.

  ‘Oh,’ Vanessa began to cry softly. ‘It’s horrible, horrible … ’