by Anne Morice
‘No, it isn’t, but why?’
‘Just had a blinding flash myself and realised that when I get to this hostelry, which shall be nameless out of consideration to Tessa, I shall be minus transport. Damn nuisance, really, but things haven’t worked out according to plan and I was unprepared for this contingency.’
‘Doesn’t bother me, Anthony, but how does it help to go through Chissingfield?’
‘I’ve got an old friend there, name of Mahomed, who runs a garage. He might be able to fix me up with some broken-down old hire car.’
Curiously enough, this was the very topic to distract my tortured mind from the Weston Arms. I had already been suffering pangs of guilt over the fact that Robin and I were luxuriating in two enormous rooms, while Anthony was obliged to doss down in some back street hovel, but had been unable to see a way out of it. To have suggested that he take over part of our premises would have brought fierce opposition from Robin, who would inevitably have seen it as a means whereby the hotel could wring an extra and unfair profit and it might not have done Anthony any good either. There was a fair chance that it would end with one or more of the Godstow party moving in and sharing our bathroom.
I now saw a better way to make amends and I said: ‘It seems silly to hire a car when we have two between the three of us. Why not borrow one of ours?’
It is always a pleasure, of course, to lend other people’s property in a deserving cause and, although neither Robin nor Toby appeared to be ecstatic about my offer, I was able to shame them into endorsing it. So we made straight for the hotel, removed the picnic baskets, and Anthony drove off to his elusively named destination. The minute he had gone Robin said: ‘Damnation!’
‘What’s the matter now?’
‘I’ve left my . . . something in the car.’
‘Something you need?’
‘Something I wouldn’t want to fall into the wrong hands. Or into any hands, for that matter.’
‘Where did you leave it? In the boot?’
‘Yes. Having noticed the somewhat easy-going attitude to keys in this establishment, I decided that would be the safest place for it. Oh well, never mind! Anthony’s bound to remember to lock the car, when he’s found somewhere to park it.’
‘He’s left his number, so you could ring him up and remind him to.’
‘I will, but he won’t be there yet and, anyway, I have something more important to do first.’
DAY FOUR. EVENING
(1)
Important or not, it availed him nothing, for there was still no reply from the Chissingfield number.
Robin toyed with the idea of putting Verity on the carpet and grilling her about whether she had written it down correctly, but soon realised that this would be another waste of time. Further evidence of how far he had been subverted by the unwinding process came from the fact that it was not until later that he realised that far more reliable sources of information were open to him and, even then, he was reluctant to use them.
‘It could lead to all kinds of farcical complications,’ he explained. ‘Supposing, for instance, that Verity had got it wrong and the number belongs to someone who has never heard of me? I should look a prize ass calling all that machinery into play to no purpose whatever and it could cause hideous embarrassment to some innocent householder. The very thing to sour relations between the public and police.’
‘Oh, but wouldn’t they be discreet about it? Is there any reason why the innocent householder should ever know?’
‘Maybe not, but I still feel inclined to drop it. The annoying thing is, there was something vaguely familiar about that number, but if it was really urgent and really me he wanted, there’s nothing to stop him trying again, is there? The best thing is to put it out of my mind. Besides, Anthony may have arrived at his pub now, so at least I can get that business sorted out. He’ll curse me, I expect, but I think the safest bet would be for him to take it out of the car and keep it by him. Nothing like race meetings for bringing out the car thieves and then I really should have egg on my face.’
Half an hour later a call came through on my bedroom extension and Anthony said:
‘Hallo! Is your old man there?’
‘Downstairs in the bar. I could get you transferred, if you have an hour or two to spare, but perhaps you’d rather I took a message?’
‘Just put it as tactfully as only you know how, that he’s losing his marbles.’
‘Okay. Is that all?’
‘If more is required, you can say that at six twenty-five, acting on instructions, I proceeded to the Municipal Car Park, where I had left the vehicle in question, in an attempt to retrieve the article he had described from the rear luggage compartment of said vehicle.’
‘And then what?’ I said, cutting into this somewhat laboured comedy act, which was about on a par with his usual level of performance in days gone by.
‘It wasn’t there. Neither in the aforementioned luggage compartment, nor anywhere else in said bloody vehicle.’
‘You’re quite sure?’
‘Quite. I examined every inch of it on my hands and knees.’
‘I’ll tell him. Thanks for letting us know.’
‘No trouble. Not much, anyway. See you tomorrow!’
‘Yes, but before you hang up, Anthony . . .’
‘What now?’
‘Two things, actually. The first is what did said article look like?’
‘According to the description, much like any other brief case. Flat, black and boring. I could hardly have missed it.’
‘No, you couldn’t.’
‘What’s the other one?’
‘More of a request this time. If it’s all the same to you, it might be as well not to mention, even to your closest friend, that Robin has lost a flat, black and boring brief case.’
(2)
Robin and Toby were the only customers when I joined them in the bar and they were holding a discussion with Kenneth, who had no doubt instigated it for professional purposes, on current American speech. Toby considered himself to be an authority on this subject, Mr and Mrs Parkes having recently been on a package holiday to Florida, an event which had revolutionised the language and customs of his household at Roakes Common. He was explaining the difference between English muffins and the other sort when I arrived, but luckily Mr and Mrs Fellowes were hot on my heels and Kenneth was obliged to descend from these linguistic heights to the mundane world of gin and tonic and dry sherry.
‘Bad news!’ I told Robin and gave him a paraphrase of Anthony’s report. He dismissed it by saying:
‘Silly fool! Of course it’s there. I saw it myself only . . .’
‘When?’
‘I’m trying to remember,’ he admitted with diminishing confidence. ‘Oh yes, when I put the picnic baskets in. I had to move it to make room for one of them. So it must still be there.’
‘What must?’ Toby asked. ‘One thing I do wish you’d remember is to include me in your conversation. Anyone would think I was here for my own pleasure, instead of the selfless cause of saving your marriage.’
‘Some papers I left in the car,’ Robin explained, ‘and where, in a manner of speaking, they had no business to be. In case you’re wondering why they were there, I can best describe them as the albatross that’s been round my neck ever since we decided to come here. As you know, I was hooked on the idea that by recollecting the past in the tranquillity of a holiday mood, I should hit on something which had passed me by in the heat of battle. With that in mind, I had brought along some files, so that I could check back on various points as they might be resurrected. Those are the files which are now missing.’
‘But you’re not bothered? You consider it more likely that Anthony is mistaken?’
‘If you turn off the lights, you may hear me whistling.’
‘All the same, it’s possible,’ I said. ‘He’s not terribly bright, except where horses are concerned.’
‘Now, that’s where I consider you and Robin
are mistaken. I think you should try to re-arrange your ideas about him.’
‘I’ll try anything once, Toby. Where do we begin?’
‘As I understand it, as soon as Anthony learnt that Robin had left a brief case in the car, he leapt off to retrieve it, then scuttled back to his pub for a good read.’
‘Even so, why would he then say it wasn’t there?’
‘Because one glance at the papers it contained made it necessary for him to destroy them.’
I was too flabbergasted by this aspersion to utter a word and Robin filled the gap for me.
‘Can you be implying that he was involved in some way with the events they relate to?’
‘Up to his neck. I would go so far as to say that he has done very well out of it and the last thing he would care for is to have the case re-opened.’
‘I never heard anything so preposterous in my life,’ I said, stung into speech again. ‘In what way has he done very well out of it, I should like to know?’
‘The best of all ways. He is now a rich man and has achieved everything in life which had always seemed beyond his reach.’
‘Don’t talk piffle! You know very well where his money came from.’
‘I know where he says it came from, but I would remind you that it arrived in two instalments, round about the time when your Pauline was murdered.’
‘She’s not my Pauline, she’s Robin’s, and you’re out of your mind. Just because she was killed during the same year as two elderly spinsters died in their beds is no justification for calling him a liar.’
‘It would be easy enough to check whether the elderly spinsters ever existed and, if so, who inherited their money,’ Robin said, ‘but I agree with Tessa that it would take rather more evidence than a missing brief case to set up enquiries of that kind.’
‘Very well, tell me this, Tessa! When you met Anthony in London and told him that you and Robin were planning to come here, what was his reaction? Think carefully, now!’
Having done so, I replied: ‘As I told you, he assumed that the holiday was a blind and that the murder investigation was on again.’
‘And why was that, you should ask yourself? He may have been here when the murder was committed, almost certainly was, but it is equally certain that he was far away when the news broke and all the locals were talking about it. So why, two years later, should he have made such an assumption, unless it had a particular significance for him?’
‘Easy! Knowing all about Robin’s job, it was simply an association of ideas.’
‘I don’t agree, but I’ll let it pass because I have another trip down memory lane lined up for you. Before you parted from him in London, did he not tell you that he was planning to enter one of his horses for this meeting? Rather a long way to come, wasn’t it, for such a minor event? Isn’t it more likely that it was just an excuse to be on the spot and find out as much as he could about what Robin was up to?’
‘No, and that’s where you really show your ignorance. For horses of that calibre, it’s not the location or prize money which matters. It’s whether the distance is right and what the competition is likely to be. If those conditions measure up to requirements, people think nothing of taking their horses three or four hundred miles and back again the next day.’
‘You had better listen to her, Toby. There is a remote chance that she knows what she is talking about.’
‘If it comes to that, so do I, and here is something she may find it more difficult to argue her way out of. Having, for whatever reason, decided to come, the next step is to ensure that he will be staying in the same hotel as you and Robin. This is tricky, though, because you have both heard tales of all the many like-minded cronies in the neighbourhood who would be only too happy to put him up. So there is the danger that you will be asking yourselves why he should have chosen to dissipate Auntie’s money on the exorbitant charges of Mattingly Grange, which is several miles from the race course, in the knowledge that he will have no transport to convey him there. He finds the way out of this difficulty by inventing some friends who had invited him to stay, but been obliged to put him off at the last minute. However, as we know, the plan then started to go wrong. Mattingly Grange, which normally can be relied upon for acres of empty rooms, had been invaded by a personage whose goodwill was infinitely more precious than his and they call him back to say that he is not to come, after all.’
‘I must admit,’ Robin said, voicing a thought which, regrettably, had also occurred to me, ‘there was something faintly fishy about that story of the woman falling off her horse and breaking her pelvis. I put it down to the fact that he is such a lousy actor that he can’t even make the truth sound convincing.’
‘Very likely, my dear, but in this case he was doubly handicapped by the fact that it wasn’t the truth. And everything I have told you so far makes a neat and logical prelude to the final move in the game.’
‘What was that?’
‘The telephone call. Naturally, I had no idea then what lay behind it, but obviously it was Anthony, trying to get you to intercede for him and persuade the hotel to find him a room. Naturally, he preferred to remain anonymous while negotiations were in progress.’
Robin shook his head: ‘No, that won’t do. The anonymous caller gave a Chissingfield number, from which, as you know, there was no reply.’
‘Doubtless, the call box where he was standing. He could hardly tell Verity it was urgent and then ring off leaving neither name nor number. And for the time being he had found out all he needed to know, which was that you were still here. The next step, you may be sure, was to try again as soon as he reached the cottage, but that turned out to be unnecessary. Bobbie told him we were on our way there and Tessa completed the business by kindly offering him the loan of your car. I rest my case.’
He was allowed to give it more rest than it deserved because before counsel for the defence, in the person of myself, could make mince meat of his accusations, we had been accosted by Mr Fellowes. He had evidently been sent on this errand by his wife, who I saw giving him a nod of encouragement, as he hovered within a yard of our table.
‘Sorry if I’m interrupting anything, but Avril . . . we’ve been trying to attract your attention. We think it’s high time we stood you that other half. What are you all drinking?’
When he had moved away to transmit the order to Kenneth, who had just been granted the rare opportunity to greet two customers from the outside world, Mrs Fellowes called out to ask what sort of a day we’d had. As there is no more uncomfortable way of conducting a conversation than across a distance of several yards, Robin pulled up two more chairs and invited her to join us.
‘Terribly sweet of you,’ she said, dropping into the nearer one. ‘It seems silly to divide ourselves up when we’re the only people here.’
‘Although I see that two new passengers have come aboard,’ I remarked. ‘Whereas the others seem to have gone ashore for the evening. Or have they now abandoned ship?’
‘No, I expect they’ll be back soon. Denzil has taken them to see some play his son is performing in. He invited me and Charles to join them, but we’ve been feeling so cooped up that we decided to stick to our original plan and go for a good long tramp across the fields. It’s some little theatre which no one round here has ever heard of, but I expect you know all about it, don’t you, Tessa? I gather you and Jimmie are old friends?’
‘Although I must say this is the first time I’ve heard of his father taking any interest in his career.’
‘Frankly, I don’t think he sees it as a suitable one for his son and heir, but I shall let you into a little secret. Oh, there you are, Charles! What an age! I thought you’d deserted us.’
‘Yes, sorry about that, but Kenneth was in a talkative mood. He’ll be over with our drinks in a minute.’
Familiar now with Mrs Fellowes’s capacity for deviation and fearful of her little secret slipping from my grasp, I cued her in:
‘You were saying something
about Mr Godstow and Jimmie?’
‘Oh yes, so I was. Well, you see, my dear, it’s our belief that we have Diana’s little friend, Stephanie, to thank for the expedition to the theatre this afternoon.’
‘You mean she and Jimmie . . . ?’
‘Exactly! Something in the wind there, unless I’m much mistaken. Didn’t you notice the way she was yearning at him at Denzil’s party?’
‘Not specially. So many girls do spend half their time yearning at him that I’ve got used to it. I’m waiting for the day when he starts yearning back at one of them.’
‘Well, my voices tell me that day may not be far off and let’s hope they’re right. She is just the kind of daughter-in-law Denzil would love to have and at least it would put an end to this silly feud.’
‘Quite right!’ Toby said. ‘Two excellent reasons for a young man to enter into matrimony.’
‘Oh dear, I must be careful what I say to you, mustn’t I, Mr Crichton? You are much too cynical for romantic people like me. Really Charles, whatever can have happened to Kenneth? I suppose you did remember to tell him that we wanted the drinks now and not tomorrow morning?’
‘Yes, he is taking his time, I’m afraid, but there’s no rush, is there? We haven’t got a train to catch.’
‘All the same, I think you should go and have a tiny word with him.’
‘Well, the fact is . . . he’s had a bit of a knock, poor chap. Knock for me too, as it happens.’
‘Oh dear, what was that?’
‘Tell you later,’ Charles said, in a sort of shamefaced rumble. ‘Don’t want to cast a blight over the proceedings.’
‘My dear man, you are casting a blight, simply by sitting there and looking so stricken. Besides, if Kenneth knows, it will be all round the place in half an hour and I’m sure our friends would rather hear about it than be left wondering.’
As she was absolutely right, so far as at least one of their friends was concerned, I threw in some murmurs of encouragement and, still with obvious reluctance, he said:
‘Well, fact is, those two chaps who just came in brought some rather bad news about an old friend of ours. It’s poor Frank Winthrop, Avril.’