by Anne Morice
At ten minutes after six he duly came stamping round the side of the house to avail himself of this charming hospitality and, as soon as his immediate needs had been attended to, Viola launched into a secondhand, although accurate description of my vision at the railway station. This at least indicated that she genuinely believed it to be a case of mistaken identity, for I felt sure that it was not in her nature to pass on unwelcome news, if she believed there was any truth in it. If so, she must have been badly taken aback by Jamie’s response.
‘Has Elfrieda been told about this?’ he asked, flashing his shrewd and sharp brown eyes from one to the other of us.
‘Why no, my dear, certainly not. I’ve only just heard about it myself and I’ve no intention of repeating it to anyone else. It would be madness to stir things up again and raise false hopes in that quarter. I am sure you agree?’ He did not, however, and did not hesitate to say so.
‘But, my dear Jamie, what possible good could it do?’
‘The point is that I have a nasty feeling that some similar tale may already have reached her ears, or will soon do so.’
‘Why do you say that?’
‘Because, my dearest Viola, another of my nasty feelings is that Tessa is probably right.’
‘You can’t be serious?’
‘I can, you know, and for the excellent reason that, although until five minutes ago I was ready to pass it off as hallucination or a waking nightmare, I now feel fairly certain that I saw Melanie too.’
‘Jamie! Are you serious? When and where?’
‘This afternoon. I was on my way back from the golf course and when I got up here, on to level ground, I saw this creature bouncing along ahead of me. The sun was in my eyes and she was quite fifty yards away, so I couldn’t swear to it, but it struck me at once that there was quite an uncanny resemblance. Naturally, I hadn’t intended to say a word about it. To do so, as you say, would only cause trouble and I could so easily have been mistaken. However, since she now appears to be flaunting around all over the place, it can only be a matter of hours before Elfrieda gets to hear about it. We must keep our little fingers crossed that the full disillusionment will have set in by now, but I wouldn’t depend on it.’
‘But Melanie must be half-witted if she thinks she can get away with it,’ Viola protested. ‘And somehow that doesn’t add up. I thought she was a shrewd little schemer, with her eye firmly on the ball.’
‘How did you recognise her?’ I asked Jamie. ‘Was it her hair?’
‘Not particularly, although the red dress struck me as horridly familiar, and also the bulging carrier bag; but I think the chief thing was her gait. You remember that rather coltish way of moving? Quite distinctive and not unattractive in its way. Her legs looked as though they had springs inside them.’
‘Why ever didn’t you catch her up and find out for certain?’ Viola asked, sounding aggrieved about it.
‘Partly from reluctance to have my worst fears confirmed, partly because it could so easily have been embarrassing. She wasn’t alone, you see.’
‘Oh?’
‘She had a young man with her, a fair haired youth in blue jeans. I didn’t recognise him at all, but Melanie, if it was she, had obviously struck up a firm friendship. They were swinging along, hand in hand. I should have felt rather silly if I’d come panting up behind them to peer into their faces and been confronted by a couple of complete strangers. Anyway, they disappeared down that footpath to the beach, so I let it go and tried to put the whole thing out of my mind.’
‘All the same,’ Viola said, frowning, ‘oughtn’t the police to be warned?’
‘If I were you, my dear, I’d lie low and not interfere. There’s a good chance that if the dear girl is still in our midst, the police know all about it and to have their attention called to it officially would only be an embarrassment.’
‘I must be stupid,’ Viola said, ‘because I simply do not follow you. If they do know, why do they allow her to wander around on the loose? Surely the practical thing would be to pick her up and pop her back in the remand home?’
‘From which Elfrieda would retrieve her in no time at all, thus starting the whole boring business up again. I can’t see that as a very satisfactory solution and I daresay they don’t either. You have to remember that since Elfrieda remains adamant on the subject of her cheque and would undoubtedly refuse to prosecute, technically the only crime Melanie has committed is in breaking the probation rules. That wouldn’t earn her a very stiff sentence.’
‘Ah, I do begin to see now what you’re driving at. And, from that rather smug expression on Tessa’s face, I have a nasty feeling that she got there first.’
‘Crime is my hobby,’ I told her. ‘I’ve had more experience of it than you.’
‘It’s true, is it?’ Jamie asked. ‘Kyril said something about it, but I didn’t know whether to believe him or not. However, I daresay you agree with me that this must be the answer to the mystery?’
‘I wonder, though? Would the police really be so devious, simply to protect Elfrieda from her own altruism?’
‘That is probably a secondary motive and I can think of a far more practical one. Melanie has proved herself to be quite a little nuisance, one way and another, so they intend to sit tight, keeping an unobtrusive watch on her activities, in the belief that she is bound to land herself in real trouble sooner or later. At which point, if we’re lucky, they’ll be able to crack down and put her away, safely out of Elfrieda’s reach and all our lives for at least a year.’ Jamie uttered this prediction with serene confidence, which I personally considered misplaced and, in fact, nothing could have been more wildly over-optimistic.
SEVEN
The first read-through of Au Pair began at ten o’clock on Tuesday morning and continued, without a hitch, until one, when we broke for lunch, Len reminding us to be back in an hour for the afternoon session.
I noticed that Janice, who had been recalled to the cast at twenty-four hours’ notice, was already well versed in the schoolgirl part, which indicated either an exceptional memory, or an unshakeable faith that her luck would turn. However, observing her sharp little face and listening to her rather tinny voice, I was struck by the notion that Elfrieda might have shown more insight than she had been given credit for in insisting that Melanie should replace her.
For a start, Janice was at least ten years too old and, although make-up and a change of hair style could obviously do wonders for her appearance, there was a maturity in her figure and movements, which I felt sure would always betray her. She was not nearly experienced enough to disguise the fact that she was an adult and not a gawky adolescent. Melanie, on the other hand, was almost the real thing and this could not have failed to enhance both the comedy and the pathos which Jamie had written into the character. With good direction and only a little natural talent, it could have been inspired casting and I was surprised that he should have set his face so firmly against it, without troubling to find out whether she was suitable or not.
During the lunch break Kyril sidled up and asked me how it was going.
‘Pretty well, so far,’ I assured him. ‘I think Len knows what he’s doing. I was afraid he’d have us all playing it as the fish-and-chip brigade on a package tour from Birmingham, and it’s not that sort of play, but there hasn’t been a hint of it, I’m thankful to say.’
‘You should not worry about such things,’ Kyril said, patting my shoulder. ‘These proletarian attitudes are something of a pose. He would not be such a fool as to let them influence his artistry.’
‘As I am beginning to realise.’
‘He has a big chip on the shoulder, that one, and it takes an amusing form. You know, he is not such a working class boy as he would wish us to believe. His father was a pharmacist, I believe, but you mustn’t say I told you and you must pretend not to know.’
‘Honestly, Kyril, it amazes me how you dig out these scandalous secrets.’
This caused him to shake with silen
t laughter and, when he had recovered, he asked me if I would care to take an aperitif at his flat that evening and cast an eye over his model for the set. I accepted at once because his designs were invariably imaginative and original and I was particularly interested to see what he had done with this one. Jamie had allowed for only one set which, except for lighting and props, remained unchanged throughout, but it was a complicated one, on two levels, the façade of a villa in Cyprus, containing a pair of furnished flats which separate English families, formerly unknown to each other, had rented for their summer holidays. Part of the action took place on the terrace outside the ground floor flat, part on the balcony of the one above and some on both simultaneously. So it would require ingenuity, as well as technical expertise.
‘I would like to very much,’ I told him, ‘but only if you can lay on a taxi to take me home afterwards.’
‘But of course, chérie. In fact, I shall drive you myself.’
‘That’s kind of you! I’ll simply have to do something about hiring a car. I can’t always rely on other people for lifts.’
‘Perhaps Elfrieda could help you with that problem,’ Kyril said, with one of his wolfish grins.
‘Oh really? Don’t tell me she’s in the car hire business too?’
‘No, but she may have a second-hand one to dispose of. It is improbable that she will have much use for it now.’ This remark recalled something Len had told me at our first meeting and I said:
‘Oh, I see! She bought it for Melanie?’
‘Yes, and driving lessons to go with it. What an imbecile to throw it all away, wasn’t she, for such a mess of potage as fifty pounds?’
‘Absolutely daft, I agree. One could understand it, up to a point, if she were finding her new life rather a strain and decided the time had come to move on, but if it’s true that she’s still prowling around Dearehaven, it makes no sense at all.’
‘Why do you say she is still in Dearehaven?’ Kyril asked with such untypical sharpness that he quite made me jump.
‘At least two people claim to have seen her and I am one of them.’
‘Where?’
‘At the railway station. I could have been mistaken, though,’ I added, for I was beginning to regret having brought the subject up. It was not that I had been sworn to secrecy or felt any obligation to suppress the news, but the eager way in which Kyril had pounced on it, so different from his normal lethargic responses, was making me uneasy. To get away from the subject, I said:
‘Perhaps I won’t talk to her about the car just now. Something tells me that it wouldn’t go down very well.’
‘No, she is not very approachable these days.’
‘And she looks dreadfully ill. Don’t you think so?’
‘I don’t know. I didn’t notice anything particularly bad while I was talking to her and she always has the face of someone who is nearly dead. Is it worse today? I can’t see very clearly from this distance.’
‘Terribly tired and drawn looking. As though she hadn’t slept for a week.’
‘Well, that’s nothing, ma chère. She very often doesn’t sleep; although I think things were better when you came here the first time. Perhaps the naughty girl so tired her out that even with all that pain she could not keep awake at night. You are seeing her now in her normal state and anyone else would have been dead years ago. I shall go and cheer her up. Don’t forget this evening. I’ll be waiting outside for you at six o’clock. And, if I should run into a certain person perhaps I shall invite her to join us.’
Pausing only to help himself to another sandwich, he ambled away, his shoulders hunched and heaving with mirth as though he had just made the funniest joke in the world.
The rehearsal continued throughout the afternoon and during the latter part of it we were joined by the author. He sat quietly and unobtrusively in a corner of the room, scarcely lifting his eyes from the script, but making copious notes as we went along and I noticed that, little by little, Len’s composure deserted him. He rarely looked directly at Jamie, pretending indeed to be almost unaware of his presence. Clearly, though, it was only a pretence, for his eyes frequently strayed obliquely in that direction, reminding me of someone in a studio audience who has been warned not to look at the camera, and he became increasingly fidgety and forgetful, losing his place and losing his grip as well. I could only trust that Jamie had recognised the demoralising effect he was having and did not intend to make a regular habit of it.
We broke at five-thirty, with sighs of relief from all sides, but fresh trouble was awaiting us, literally just around the corner. Not for nothing had our round house once housed an aquarium, for we could just as well have been fishes swimming around in a tank ourselves for all we knew of conditions in the world outside. On this particular afternoon they had changed in a dramatic fashion and, attired as I was in the cotton slacks and sandals which had been so appropriate when I set out in the morning, it was a nasty shock on reaching the stage door to find that the alleyway outside had been transformed into a shallow river, with the rain still beating down on to it like a deluge of soluble pebbles.
Several other people in the same plight were peering dismally out through the half open door, among them Viola and Jamie, although there was no sign of Kyril.
‘He must have left before this started,’ Viola said, in answer to my enquiries. ‘Trust Kyril! I’d offer you a lift, but I can’t even get to my car until it lets up a bit. Do you want to hang on?’
‘No, it’s all right, thank you, I’ll get a taxi.’
Len was inside the stage door keeper’s office, speaking on the house phone.
‘You’ll be lucky,’ he said, putting his receiver down, when, having consulted a list pinned to the wall, I began to dial Dearehaven Cabs Ltd. ‘Quite apart from the fact that they all go home for tea the minute there’s a drop of rain about, this happens to be the business man’s commuting time and all the best pickings are at the railway station.’
‘I’ll have to try, all the same. It doesn’t look like stopping for hours and even if it does I don’t fancy paddling through six inches of water to the other end of the town.’
‘Go ahead, if you must, only I’m warning you that you’ll be wasting your time, having just worked through the list myself. Two of them don’t answer and the third has a recorded message, saying please try again later. There’s a place out on the Dorchester road who might have someone, but it’d take them twenty minutes to get here and they’re not all that reliable.’
‘Haven’t you got your car today?’
‘Oh, sure, and I’d be happy to drive you wherever you want to go, only Elfrieda has prior claim. Hers has gone in for servicing and she asked me to lay on a taxi to stand by to take her home, which is how I happen to be so well informed on the current situation.’
‘So you’ll take her in yours?’
‘When she’s ready, which could be in ten minutes or two hours. Sorry about that.’
‘Oh, it’s all right, thank you, Len, but I wish I knew her secret. I can’t see anyone waiting around for me for a couple of hours, while I made up my mind whether I was ready to leave or not.’
‘Oh, come on! It’s not like that at all. She’s got someone coming to see her, that’s the problem. Business appointment and she can’t tell how long it may go on for. Doesn’t bother me. I’ve got hours of work on the script to get through before tomorrow. I can just as easily do it here as at home.’
‘Then I’d better follow your noble example,’ I said. ‘Curl up in a corner and learn my lines until the sun come out.’
Hardly was the resolution formed than Kyril came through from the back of the theatre. He did not appear to be hurrying, so it must have been anxiety which made him out of breath and out of humour:
‘So here you are, Tessa! I have been waiting for you for such ages. You had forgotten perhaps that you were coming for a drink this evening?’
‘Not at all. It was a question of how to get there.’
‘
But in my car, naturally. We had arranged all that.’
‘I don’t see any car.’
‘How could you? It is out in front. Parking is strictly forbidden here. It is half forbidden on the Esplanade, so I shall be in trouble if you don’t hurry up.’
‘Okay, I’m all ready. Goodnight, Len. Hope you don’t have to wait too long.’
‘Surely you must know that I wouldn’t desert you,’ Kyril said reproachfully, as we crossed the stage and then went down through the auditorium towards the foyer.
‘The suspicion was rearing its ugly head,’ I replied. ‘You should know me better than that. I have been waiting in the foyer for at least twenty minutes.’
I had no intention of arguing with him, although in fact this was the first place I had looked in myself, and had spent almost ten minutes there, before concluding that I had made a mistake and that he was waiting for me by the stage entrance. It would have been tactless to mention this, since clearly his old world code of chivalry prevented his admitting that he had temporarily forgotten all about our appointment, only remembering it again when he was half way home.
EIGHT
It was Len who found her and, according to the medical reckoning, she had then been dead for not less than half an hour. However, this was not so precise an estimate as it sounded because there was no way of establishing whether she had died instantly or remained alive, though unconscious, for some time after the accident. The events which led up to the discovery were as follows:
Soon after Kyril and I left the rain eased off, the sun came out and two minutes later Jamie set off to slosh his way back to his cliff top. Others soon followed his example and by half past six almost the only people left in the theatre were Marples, the stage door keeper, who had just come on duty, Elfrieda, alone in her office, Len at work on his script in the Green Room and Viola. She was the only member of our team who was also appearing in that evening’s production, which happened, rather appropriately, to be Heartbreak House. The change in the weather had come too late for her and she had realised that she would scarcely be able to get to her car and drive to the cottage before it was time to turn round and come back again. So she had gone to her room to read a book until it was time to dress.