Murder in Oils 10 weekend bonus

 

 

Chapter 10

 

“Did you mean it? That you are in love with me?” demanded Ida.

“Did you eavesdrop on my telephone conversation?”

“Of course I did,” said Ida. “I wanted to know what you said, and you didn’t tell me not to. Are you in love or are you just satisfying the solicitor that you are looking after me?”

Alexander pulled her into his arms, and kissed her with a thoroughness which left Ida in no doubt as to his feelings.

“Oh!” said Ida. “I wish I had known you two years ago; why would anyone use opium when they could have kisses?”

“You’re adorable,” said Alexander. “But now I have to handle David with the delicacy and finesse of a man deboning kippers.”

Ida giggled.

“I am sure you will manage,” she said. “You haven’t popped the question.”

“I ought to ask his permission.”

“Ask, anyway.”

“Will you marry me, Ida?”

“Yes!” said Ida.

“We can have a long engagement so you can go to university,” said Alexander.

“Do you mind?”

“No; I want you to be sure, and to have found yourself entirely,” said Alexander. “And if you meet some young man your own age and prefer him I prefer to know before we are married.”

“Nobody has cared for me as tenderly as you except Basil,” said Ida, soberly. “You treat me as a princess, but you still assume I am capable.”

“It’s how Papa treats Mama,” said Alexander.

 

oOoOo

 

 

“David, there’s going to be someone else for dinner, old man,” said Alexander, strolling out to where David was knocking billiards around a billiards table. “Do you want a game?”

“Why not?  Who have you invited?” David collected the balls to re-rack.

“Well, I could scarcely refuse to put up Basil’s solicitor, could I?” said Alexander. “The trouble falls on Ida’s head, and she was willing to open up a guest room. Do the rooms that back onto the servant’s quarters have windows?”

“Of course they do; the servants live on what is essentially a mezzanine as the kitchen is in a kind of half basement. Part of it is under the studio, which is why there’s a balcony-terrace,” said David. “There are rooms for female servants above the housekeeper’s room, just that we only have Gladys because servants are in short supply.  The male servants sleep in rooms with windows under the balcony, all very hygienic.  It was supposed to be a ballroom, but Basil took it over.”

“Oh, that makes perfect sense,” said Alexander. “I should have a proper look around.”

“Do, the design is revolutionary and efficient,” said David, enthusiastically. “All pipes and electrical wiring is inside conduits in the thickness of the walls, and can be accessed by a number of concealed panels, with ladders and crawlways. We don’t have to be disturbed at all by plumbers or electricians, they can go into the crawlways out of sight and get on with it.”

“Fascinating,” said Alexander, neglecting to point out that this made murder much easier too.

“I am a good architect,” said David, smugly. “Now what’s this about Basil’s solicitor? He hasn’t got anything to leave.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” said Alexander. “I’d pay a good bit for some of his paintings, and if he has left them to Ida, I probably shall. I gather he intended to do so; and apparently there’s a legacy to Campbell as well. You wouldn’t want to deprive the poor chap of that.”

“No, no of course not, nor any keepsakes he leaves to Ida,” said David. “If he sold a few paintings, it might put her through university, if she is strong enough.”

“If it doesn’t, I have a mind to do so; I want to pay my addresses to her. You were right to make me examine my feelings over why I started using her name; I want to ask her to marry me,” said Alexander.

“I... my dear fellow! This is very sudden.”

“Yes, I know, I am not used to being knocked for six by a woman like this,” said Alexander with a deprecating show of frankness. “And I am aware that you must find her harder to live with, without Helen providing a buffer between two powerful intellects and stubborn natures.”

“I... why, that could be why I find her so difficult,” said David. “You think she is as clever as I am?”

“Oh, the whole family is brainy,” said Alexander. “I think it’s plain that one of you is cleverer than the other two, but by normal standards, Ida is quite brilliant.”

David preened, and Alexander addressed the table to hide the laugh inside that it was not David whom he had meant.

It took a lot of skill to lose, just, to David, but Alexander managed the feat, and David was full of bonhomie. Alexander then opened the note from Dr Craiggie, which said pretty much what the doctor had told Ida, and a rider that he was looking forward to dinner.

Alexander laughed.

“Oh, Dr Craiggie has invited himself to dinner too; his sister is so very middle class, she won’t let him have fish and chips, and when he heard that we have no such bourgeois qualms here he let the fish shop know there’d be an extra place at dinner. Cheeky old man! But I can’t blame him.”

“Indeed!” said David. “I am glad you are not at outs with him over Basil’s... death.”

“It was a misunderstanding,” said Alexander. “Death causes changes to a body, and Campbell had not explained that the symptoms had been whilst Basil was still alive. Under the circumstances, it was not unreasonable, even as he assumed that Helen fell because she had quarrelled with you leading to a moment of carelessness.”

“Old fool,” said David. “Helen is the one person who never quarrels... quarrelled... with me. I... I can’t believe she’s gone! What will I do?”

“You’ll find the strength to carry on for your family,” said Alexander.

“Yes, I suppose so; such as it is, now, and Ida leaving me, too,” said David.

“Perhaps you could find it in you to be kind to Miss Truckle and let her stay until she can find another position,” said Alexander. “I think she has kindly intentions, and she is not as forceful as jolly people like that nurse.”

David shuddered.

“To have a buffer – good word of yours – between me and Gloria too would be useful,” he said.

If he remarried, Alexander was happier to throw Miss Truckle to the wolves than subject the hapless child Cyril to a stepfather like David.

 

oOoOo

 

 

Gloria came down from her room for afternoon tea, limping visibly, and Ida solicitously put a little table by a chaise longue of hideous design of wood tortured into geometric curves, and canvas between the wooden frame.  Alexander had seen more comfortable-looking camp beds for Other Ranks, but perhaps, like the armchairs, looks were deceiving.  Ida provided a comforter to lie on, pillows, and a light shawl ‘not too heavy on your poor legs’ for her, and Gloria certainly enjoyed the attention, if not the level of comfort of the chaise longue. She did look somewhat drawn.

“Miss Wandsworth!” said Alexander. “You were, I believe, worried that you might be blamed for carelessness, but I can assure you that the poison was given to Basil deliberately.”

“I hardly can feel comforted by that,” said Gloria. “People might accuse me of trying to kill him!”

“Oh, not without a good motive, surely?” said Alexander. “After all, the current theory has to be that he was killed because he saw Helen murdered; and Helen was your dear friend.”

“Yes, quite so,” said Gloria. “I... I was hoping to go to the funeral.”

“You could always use Basil’s wheelchair,” said Ida. “It’s been cleaned, after all.”

“I... I don’t need that much aid,” said Gloria. “Perhaps David will lend me the strength of his arm.”

“Not a good idea with the gossip rife in the village,” said Ida. “Admittedly, the village folk think that David is boffing Anna, but you know how they talk.”

“Excuse me, what is this?” asked the nurse.

“Oh, the gossip is that David pushed Helen downstairs, and you poisoned Basil so you could marry David,” said Ida. “Don’t pay any account to it; when I was ill, the story ran that I had been disappointed in love and tried to kill myself. You know how village people are.”

“It’s disgraceful and should not be allowed,” said Anna, in something close to a frightened screech. “It’s iniquitous that a nurse or doctor should have their reputation smirched and their character taken away like that!”

“Murder, unfortunately, entertains the masses, and they love to point fingers at the gentry,” said Alexander.

“But... but you have discovered surely that there was no murder? Helen must have just lost her balance!” said Anna. “I have no motive, I am out of a job. I do not want to marry David, not at all.”

“Good,” said David.

“I’m afraid the murder of Helen left clear marks,” said Alexander. “The implement with which she was hit still had blood on it, which has gone to Scotland Yard, and the bruise from it on her arm as she flung it up defensively is clear, including a faint trace of the pattern on it. But I am standing back until the funerals are over, to avoid causing any more anguish. I will be pleased to offer my arm to you, Miss Wandsworth, at the funeral, as I am known to be a friend of Basil’s.”

“So long as Ida isn’t jealous,” said David.

“Oh, not at all,” said Ida. “I recognise that Alex is chivalrous to all.”

“My dear! Not proper to use his first name,” said Miss Truckle. “Especially not shortened!”

“Yes, it is; he proposed, and I said ‘yes’,” said Ida. 

“Ida! You have not known him long...” tried Miss Truckle.

“No, but I have known him longer through Basil talking about him,” said Ida.

“Do you think it wise to throw yourself away on a policeman, even if he was gently born?” asked Gloria.

“Hardly throwing myself away,” said Ida. “You should look up the Armitages in Debrett’s. He’s descended from a Royal Duke.”

“Oh, bugger,” said Alexander. “I was keeping that quiet.”

“Well, well, you have done well for yourself, Ida,” said Gloria. “But you shouldn’t let him know that you know how cleverly you have wormed yourself into his affections. Nice for you not to be dependent on David any more.”

“I have a legacy that will see me through University so I wasn’t in the position of hanging on David’s sleeve; when I am twenty-one, the trust winds up, and I know how to be a careful housekeeper,” said Ida. “We didn’t have much in the way of disposable assets when I was keeping house for David and Basil while this house was being built, you know. It took years, and I was quite capable of producing good meals.”

“A great asset to a policeman who sometimes arrives home at most irregular hours, and sometimes with witnesses in semi-protective custody,” said Alexander. 

“And where is your ring?” asked Gloria.

“Still in Cartier’s,” said Alexander. “I know just the ring, by Oscar Heyman and brothers.”

There was a profound silence.

Gloria positively glared at Ida for attracting a man who thought nothing of buying a piece of one-off jewellery from such a prominent designer.

“So long as it’s pretty, I’d be happy with any ring,” said Ida.

“Easy to say,” said Gloria.

“They were scarcely known when I got engaged to Helen,” said David. “Naturally, I got her a good stone from Cartier’s.”

“And I am sure you will get as lovely a ring for any woman when you remarry,” said Gloria.

“I could not possibly consider remarrying, and I consider that remark in poor taste, Gloria!” snapped David. “My poor Helen is not even buried yet!”

“A rather premature conjecture,” murmured Alexander. “And considering the ill-natured gossip,  rather foolish, don’t you think?  Things like that could run David’s head into a noose, because enough gossip would have the Home Office feel they ought to prosecute, and evidence to the contrary of his guilt despite, juries have a bad habit of saying ‘no smoke without fire’ and convicting husbands of dead wives on statistical probability.”

“I would never have killed Helen, or even hit her,” said David, bewildered.

“And I know you’re totally innocent, from a number of clues,” said Alexander. “But any talk of remarrying, however much in jest Miss Wandsworth may have been, would be perceived in the village as certain proof that David was involved in her killing. And I only investigate crimes; I don’t have much say in court. I can present the evidence, and the jury can still choose to ignore me. Trial by jury is a great institution but the British public as a whole hate adultery.  And we all know David has not been adulterous, but if the newspapers became involved? He’d be prejudged and convicted.”

“I didn’t mean anything by it,” said Gloria, sulkily.

“No, no, of course not,” said David. “But do be careful!  Even Ida has more sense than that.”

“I wouldn’t dream of gossiping about you,” said Ida. “Partly, it’s your own fault, though, you won’t pass the time of day with the locals, so they don’t like you.  I chat in shops, so they like me. It’s how people work.”

“Humans are illogical creatures,” said Alexander, cheerfully. “Another game, David, before dinner?”

“Yes, splendid idea,” said David. “You’re good enough to keep me on my toes.”

Alexander sighed in relief; he had the formula to keeping David happy.

He would be glad to get away for a day or so when the funeral was over.