A Testament to Murder

by Vivian Conroy

  Howard’s head went light with relief. “Of course,” he rushed to confirm the statement. “He was just made the scapegoat.”

  Jasper stared into the room. “Theodora told Kenneth Anna Cane couldn’t swim. She had a plan with that. And the dress, the flower.” He looked at Howard again. “You are sure you saw her in the car that hit Malcolm’s wife?”

  “A woman like her. I just told you the details. The hat, the bob, the brooch.”

  Jasper nodded. “I see. We can try and work it out now. Theodora killed Malcolm’s first wife. She believed he would then marry her. But he didn’t. He married another and even dismissed her. Why didn’t she take revenge? Why did she wait all of these years?”

  Howard shrugged. “I never understood her. I even thought at times she was quite mad. She might have convinced herself he would come back to her after Cecily had left him?”

  “But that’s also years ago.” Jasper shook his head. “No, she must have wanted something else. His fortune? Did she put pressure on him to make her his heir? To ensure she kept her mouth shut about the accident? If they planned it together, like you suggested…”

  “I never suggested any such thing,” Howard said. He had a sickening feeling that his decision to do this was turning against him. “You said it.”

  Jasper seemed caught up in his own train of thoughts. “A plan…” he said. “Yes, that must be it. But not between Theodora and Malcolm. No, Malcolm didn’t know a thing about it.”

  He suddenly jumped to his feet. “You stay here. I have to ask Malcolm some questions.”

  Howard said, “You’re not going to tell him what I told you? You’re not going to say I suggested he was in a league with…”

  But Jasper didn’t listen. He had already quit the room.

  Howard buried his face in his hands and forced himself to keep breathing.

  * * *

  Jasper ran into the sickroom, finding nurse Cane leaned over the patient, putting a wet cold cloth on his forehead. She turned to him and said with a reproaching frown, “You’re making too much noise. He’s very weak today.”

  Jasper decided that even when she was looking angry at someone, her anger was still very charming. She was every inch the competent nurse who never… forgot about her part?

  Why did he want to describe her role here as a part she played?

  He put the thought aside to ponder later and said with a disarming smile, “I’ll be very careful. I think I have some news that will cheer him up.”

  It was a lie of course, but Anna Cane believed him at once. “Good news is always wonderful.”

  Tiptoeing to the door, she said over her shoulder, “Don’t exhaust him. Ten minutes at the most. I’ll be back soon.” Then she left the room, just her perfume lingering on the hot air.

  Jasper seated himself and said to Malcolm, “I know you have a very good memory. I need you to do something for me. Something very important. Something that can solve the entire situation here. Cast your mind back. Cast it back to the day your wife died. Your first wife. Do you remember?”

  Malcolm smiled sadly. “How can I not remember? That day is seared into my memory, every little thing about it. How she came to the office and bickered with me about spending money at the dressmaker’s while I still had unpaid bills lying on the desk. We parted in good spirits though and she even offered to meet me for lunch. She disliked eating lunch out of doors because it wasn’t fashionable according to her tastes.”

  His smile intensified. “She left in such a vibrant mood. Hard to believe that someone so alive can be dead mere minutes later.”

  “That day… was your nephew Hugh in town?”

  Malcolm stared at him. “Hugh?”

  “Yes. Was he in contact with you in those days? He must have been much younger then.”

  “Oh, yes, he had just been kicked out of Oxford and his mother was livid. His father was already dead then. Hugh had come to hide with me for a few days. Trying to get money out of me of course.”

  “And did he know your wife was… expecting?”

  “How do you know my wife was expecting? I never told you that.”

  “Someone mentioned it to me. It doesn’t matter who. What does matter is the question if Hugh knew about the pregnancy.”

  Malcolm seemed confused but nodded. “Yes, he found out when he arrived. He was quite happy for us.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Malcolm studied him. “What are you driving at?”

  “Did Hugh mention money to you? More money than just the sum he needed at the time?”

  “I think that… well, he did ask me kind of childlike whether I would still support him once the baby was there and I would be a father. He always considered me a far more liberal father than his own had ever been.”

  “So Hugh was in trouble and fled to you and when he arrived he discovered you were going to have a child of your own and he would be excluded.” Jasper felt exhilaration rush through his veins. “It all fits.”

  “I don’t follow.”

  “Hugh must have decided that if the baby was never born, he wouldn’t lose your favour. Perhaps he only meant for your wife to have an accident and lose the baby. Not for her to die.”

  “You think… Hugh caused the accident?” Malcolm’s face was ashen. “I don’t believe you.”

  “Theodora caused the accident and Hugh put her up to it.” Jasper leaned back and banged his fist into his palm. “I can even prove that to you.”

  Malcolm shook his head. “You’re getting carried away by all the mystery of the past few days. Theodora couldn’t drive a car.”

  “That’s what she told everyone. But are you sure? I have a witness who saw her behind the wheel. In fact…” Jasper leaned forward. “I knew of the case when I was still with Scotland Yard. I never handled it, but a friend of mine did. I asked him at the time what he thought. And he told me that it was sad that women were such bad drivers. I asked him how he knew that the driver had been a woman. He told me they had found blonde hairs in the car. The witness says the woman had a blonde bob.”

  “Theodora did have such hair at the time, but…”

  Jasper raised his hand. “It’s all clear to me now. Theodora killed your first wife, expecting you would then marry her. Of course, you had no such plans, but Hugh put the idea into her head. The night she died she wore a white dress to remind Hugh of what he had made her believe. To remind him of what she had done for him and how he had let her down. Here they were, united again, and he knew she had not received her dues from the old murder plan. Theodora hinted at the table that she knew something about the dive the wheelchair took. But what if she meant that she knew about the past and would tell you?”

  Malcolm said, “I would never have believed her. I would have thought she was honestly mad enough to give herself credit for what had just been an accident, or in any case not something aimed against my wife in particular.”

  “Hugh believed her,” Jasper said. “He met with her and he killed her. He cleverly used Kenneth’s pocket knife to divert suspicion. Hugh has been lying about things ever since he got here. He lied about taking the basket from the car with nurse Cane. He wasn’t with her then.”

  Malcolm shook his head and reached for water. He drank and rested the glass on the sheet before him. “Hugh was a man who liked to have it easy. He never amounted to much, and his art work was ugly and uninspired. But he was no killer. He didn’t have the guts for it.”

  “That’s what he wanted all of you to believe.” Jasper nodded firmly. “He played a clever part.”

  “But if he killed Theodora, then who killed him?” a voice asked from the door.

  Jasper jumped.

  Nurse Cane was standing there, looking at them. Her face was less reddish and her eyes clear and bright. Her blonde hair hung free to her shoulders. “Your ten minutes are up,” she told Jasper with a prim little nod. Again it struck him how she acted exactly like you’d expect from someone in her profession. As if she had s
tudied nurses and copied their mannerisms.

  The secret she had told Kenneth. Why they couldn’t be together. Kenneth being Malcolm’s son? Or…

  His head spun with this new idea. He forced a smile at her. “You shouldn’t listen in on conversations, Nurse. That can be dangerous.”

  “Still her question is a valid one,” Malcolm said. “If Hugh killed Theodora, then who killed Hugh? He didn’t kill himself.”

  Jasper said, “He was dressed to look like you. Someone fell for the ruse and, wanting to kill you for the inheritance, killed him by mistake.”

  Malcolm laughed softly. “Your theory about my wife’s death is too complicated, Jasper, and your theory about Hugh’s is too simple. Better sleep on it and see if you can come up with a better solution. Easier is usually the better way.”

  Jasper walked to the bedroom door, passing Anna Cane. He said to her, “I want to talk to you as soon as you are done here.”

  She said, so soft Malcolm couldn’t hear her, “Can we speak outside? I feel safer there and the evening air is so pleasant.”

  He knew it was dangerous to meet with her alone and in the increasing darkness of the summer evening. If what he suspected was the truth, she’d have every reason not to be afraid of him. She had access to medicines, syringes. If she had already killed twice, she might not care about adding a third victim. A middle-aged inspector who got a heart attack while walking?

  But he was extra wary of her now and he had never shunned danger. “Of course,” he said. “I’ll go into the garden and wait for you there.”

  * * *

  Kenneth pushed himself closely to the rock face, listening to the voices speaking over his head. He had come from the beach in a hurry, knowing that his mother would be mad with him for being late. Just about to ascend the last steps he had heard the voices and instinctively hidden in the shadows. His dark clothes and the dusk made it impossible for them to see him.

  Anna Cane spoke, “I can’t help you.”

  “I think you can. And you must. If you want me to solve the murders, you must tell me what you told Hugh Bryce-Rutherford. You told him something.”

  “And what if that something caused his death?” Anna’s voice shivered.

  Kenneth bit the inside of his cheek. He wanted to hate her for what she had done, but he couldn’t. When he heard her voice shiver like that, betraying her fear, he wanted to rush up and hold her in his arms, protect her from anything threatening her.

  Jasper’s voice asked, “Do you think someone killed him because of you?”

  “Yes. I should never have told him what I did.” Anna’s swallow was audible. “I should have come straight to you. But I didn’t know yet that you were here and later… I just didn’t want a boy to get into trouble.”

  “Kenneth?” Jasper asked.

  Kenneth pushed himself even closer against the rocks, wishing he could become rock.

  “I liked him from the first moment I saw him,” Anna said. “I thought it could do no harm to go boating with him.”

  “But it could?” Jasper asked.

  No, that was a lie. He had done nothing wrong. Anna had done it. She had ruined everything.

  Anna said, “When we were out, Kenneth suddenly started to put his hand on my thigh. I thought he was just insecure about the boat possibly overturning but he said he really liked me and asked if I liked him too. I told him not to speak nonsense, that I was too old for him. That didn’t deter him at all. He kept touching me. Then I jumped up and the boat overturned. I fell into the water. Kenneth grabbed me and tried to drown me. He held my shoulders and pushed me underwater.”

  Kenneth closed his eyes. He could hear the water bubble and splash around them. He could feel his hands around Anna’s shoulders and the terrible anger that ate him whole.

  Jasper said, “He might have tried to rescue you. It seems he believed that you couldn’t swim. Miss Cummings had told him so.”

  “He wasn’t trying to save me. He tried to kill me. He held me under.”

  “He says he can’t remember what happened.”

  “Then he is lying, he does remember. He just doesn’t want to admit it.”

  Jasper said, “I’m not sure about that. It seems there was also an incident in Provence. Where he got lost in a storm and he couldn’t remember the way back home.”

  Water rushed again, but this time it wasn’t sea water all around him. It was rain pouring from the heavens down upon him. Down upon the boy he held to the ground, while his fist pounded into him. The boy’s cries were drowned out by the thunder. The lightning put the scene in a grim bright light. He had not moved anymore. He had…

  “Nooooooo!” Kenneth cried. He tore himself away from the rock and ran up the steps. He threw himself at Anna and beat her. “You’re lying. You’re lying. It was never like that. I was never like…”

  Someone arrested him from behind, wrestled him to his knees. As he was forced to the ground, his cheek touching the grass, Kenneth kept screaming, “You’re lying, you’re lying.”

  Voices came up to them, and lights shone. His mother’s voice cried to leave him alone, and then Father was there too, kneeling and touching him. He just wished they would let him handle this. He could handle it. He didn’t need them. They were only making it all worse.

  * * *

  Jasper came from the boy’s bedroom, having waited until the doctor had sedated him. He didn’t trust Anna Cane’s medication, not after what she had been through at Kenneth’s hands. And now that Kenneth remembered what had happened in the boat his suspicions were confirmed. Anna had never come here to care for a dying man.

  Outside the door Howard Jones was waiting. Jasper had known he would be there, not because he wanted to know how the boy was doing, but because he wanted to straighten things out. Add more lies to the ones he had told before, to keep his son in the clear.

  His son?

  Jasper gestured to him to follow, and both men went into the library. Among the walls and walls with books Jasper stood and waited as the other one rummaged through his pockets and drew lines on the floor with his shoe. “Well, Mr Jones,” he said. “What is it this time? How are you going to explain to me that Kenneth is not to blame?”

  Howard hung his head. “I’ll tell you everything.”

  “You need not. I had already called a contact in Provence, and he called me back just before I came up here to talk to the doctor about Kenneth’s condition. I know the full story now.” Jasper turned to look at him. “Still you can tell me if you like.”

  Howard said, “There’s nothing to like about this. Kenneth is ill. He does things and then he can’t remember he did them.”

  “Just things, Mr Jones?”

  “Violent things,” Howard admitted.

  “Yes, we should call it violence when a boy grabs another boy and beats him. It wasn’t a fight; it wasn’t a normal argument between playmates. Kenneth completely lost his temper and it could have ended in a tragedy, hadn’t a farmer seen them and separated them. What was he looking for in the storm? A lost sheep?”

  Howard raked through his hair. “Does it really matter? He separated them, and the boy wasn’t hurt that badly. I paid the family a handsome sum for his recovery.”

  “Or to keep their mouths shut?”

  Howard rubbed his face. “I couldn’t know it would happen again.”

  Jasper said, “Is Kenneth Malcolm’s son?”

  Howard froze. He looked him over. “What are you saying?”

  “Is Kenneth Malcolm’s son? Malcolm seemed to have thought that could be the case. And he wasn’t the only one.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Jasper sighed. “Kenneth and nurse Cane went boating. He attacked her. He almost killed her. Do you have any idea why?”

  “No,” Howard said. “I can only suppose he… tried to tell her he liked her and she didn’t reply the way he had hoped.”

  “Love spurned.” Jasper gestured around him to all the books. “So often the s
eed of tragedy and death. But no, it wasn’t that. It was even worse. Nurse Cane explained to Kenneth she might have liked him but it could not be. It was forbidden. Because they are related. They are half-siblings.”

  “What?” Howard said.

  Jasper nodded. “Anna Cane claims to be Malcolm’s daughter. And she believes Kenneth is Malcolm’s son.”

  “Well, she’s wrong. Kenneth is not Malcolm’s. I know because… the anger he is struggling with, I had it too. It comes from me.”

  Jasper watched him. “You admit that freely?”

  “Yes.”

  “Even though I might think that that makes you the perfect killer of both Theodora and Hugh?”

  Howard wet his lips. “What do you want? You’re constantly twisting things around. You told me you believed Theodora had killed Malcolm’s first wife…”

  “No, you told me that. You witnessed it, if you are to be believed.”

  “I never said Malcolm was in on it,” Howard protested.

  Jasper waved a hand. “It doesn’t matter. We were discussing your son and nurse Cane. She told him not only that his feelings for her were forbidden because they were related, but in doing so she also callously revealed that his father wasn’t whom he had always believed to be. Kenneth couldn’t handle this and lashed out at her. He didn’t want to kill her; he just wanted to force her to take back her words. To admit she had been lying and none of it was the truth.”

  “And it isn’t.” Howard stepped up to him, his eyes flashing. “Can’t you see? She is lying about everything. She’s not Malcolm’s daughter. Kenneth is not his son either.”

  “But…” Jasper held up a hand to stop him. “What if Anna Cane believed it? That she was the daughter and entitled to his fortune and that Kenneth might be… a competitor? What if she killed Theodora with Kenneth’s knife to incriminate him and then killed Hugh because he knew something about her. Vice versa, Anna’s revelation might have prompted Kenneth to act. To kill people who he thought knew something about it.”