Spider's Web Part 7

"So we have heard," Sir Rowland observed drily.

"Whatever it was," Mrs. Brown continued, "he was killed for it. And whoever killed him didn't find the thing. That was probably because it wasn't in the shop, it was here. I thought that whoever it was who killed him would come here sooner or later, looking for it. I wanted to be on the watch, therefore I needed a dummy Mrs. Brown. A subst.i.tute."

Sir Rowland made an exclamation of annoyance. "It didn't worry you," he asked the gardener, speaking with feeling, "that Mrs. Hailsham-Brown, a perfectly innocent woman who had done you no harm, would be in danger?"

"I've kept an eye on her, haven't I?" Mrs. Brown replied defensively. "So much so that it annoyed you all sometimes. The other day, when a man came along and offered her a ridiculous price for that desk, I was sure I was on the right track. Yet I'll swear there was nothing in that desk that meant anything at all."

"Did you examine the secret drawer?" Sir Rowland asked her.

Mrs. Brown looked surprised. "A secret drawer, is there?" she exclaimed, moving towards the desk.

Clarissa intercepted her. "There's nothing there now," she a.s.sured her. "Pippa found the drawer, but there were only some old autographs in it."

"Clarissa, I'd rather like to see those autographs again," Sir Rowland requested.

Clarissa went to the sofa. "Pippa," she called, "where did you put... ? Oh, she's asleep."

Mrs. Brown moved to the sofa and looked down at the child. "Fast asleep," she confirmed. "It's all the excitement that's done that." She looked at Clarissa. "I'll tell you what," she said, "I'll carry her up and dump her on her bed."

"No," said Sir Rowland sharply.

Everyone looked at him. "She's no weight at all," Mrs. Brown pointed out. "Not a quarter as heavy as the late Mr. Costello."

"All the same," Sir Rowland insisted, "I think she'll be safer here."

The others now all looked at Miss Peake/Mrs. Brown, who took a step backwards, looked around her, and exclaimed indignantly, "Safer?"

"That's what I said," Sir Rowland told her. He glanced around the room and continued, "That child said a very significant thing just now."

He sat down at the bridge table, watched by all. There was a pause, and then Hugo, moving to sit opposite Sir Rowland at the bridge table, asked, "What did she say, Roly?"

"If you all think back," Sir Rowland suggested, "perhaps you'll realise what it was."

His hearers looked at one another, while Sir Rowland picked up the copy of Who's Who and began to consult it.

"I don't get it," Hugo admitted, shaking his head.

"What did Pippa say?" Jeremy wondered aloud.

"I can't imagine," said Clarissa. She tried to cast her mind back. "Something about the policeman? Or dreaming? Coming down here? Half-awake?"

"Come on, Roly," Hugo urged his friend. "Don't be so d.a.m.ned mysterious. What's this all about?"

Sir Rowland looked up from Who's Who. "What?" he asked absent-mindedly. "Oh, yes. Those autographs. Where are they?"

Hugo snapped his fingers. "I believe I remember Pippa putting them in that sh.e.l.l box over there," he recalled.

Jeremy went over to the bookshelves. "Over here?" he asked. Locating the sh.e.l.l box, he took out the envelope. "Yes, quite right. Here we are," he confirmed as he took the autographs from the envelope and handed them to Sir Rowland, who had now closed Who's Who. Jeremy put the empty envelope in his pocket while Sir Rowland examined the autographs with his eyegla.s.s.

"Victoria Regina, G.o.d bless her," murmured Sir Rowland, looking at the first of the autographs. "Queen Victoria. Faded brown ink. Now, what's this one? John Ruskin yes, that's authentic, I should say. And this one? Robert Browning... hm... the paper's not as old as it ought to be."

"Roly! What do you mean?" Clarissa asked excitedly.

"I had some experience of invisible inks and that sort of thing, during the war," Sir Rowland explained. "If you wanted to make a secret note of something, it wouldn't be a bad idea to write it in invisible ink on a sheet of paper, and then fake an autograph. Put that autograph with other genuine autographs and n.o.body would notice it or look at it twice, probably. Any more than we did."

Mrs. Brown looked puzzled. "But what could Charles Sellon have written which would be worth fourteen thousand pounds?" she wanted to know.

"Nothing at all, dear lady," Sir Rowland replied. "But it occurs to me, you know, that it might have been a question of safety."

"Safety?" Mrs. Brown queried.

"Oliver Costello," Sir Rowland explained, "is suspected of supplying drugs. Sellon, so the Inspector tells us, was questioned once or twice by the Narcotic Squad. There's a connection there, don't you think?"

When Mrs. Brown merely looked blank, he continued, "Of course, it might be just a foolish idea of mine." He looked down at the autograph he was holding. "I don't think it would be anything elaborate on Sellon's part. Lemon juice, perhaps, or a solution of barium chloride. Gentle heat might do the trick. We can always try iodine vapour later. Yes, let's try a little gentle heat first."

He rose to his feet. "Shall we attempt the experiment?"

"There's an electric fire in the library," Clarissa remembered. "Jeremy, will you get it?"

Hugo rose and tucked in his chair, while Jeremy went off to the library.

"We can plug it in here," Clarissa pointed out, indicating a socket in the skirting-board running around the drawing-room.

"The whole thing's ridiculous," Mrs. Brown snorted. "It's too far-fetched for words."

Clarissa disagreed. "No, it isn't. I think it's a wonderful idea," she declared, as Jeremy returned from the library carrying a small electric radiator. "Got it?" she asked him.

"Here it is," he replied. "Where's the plug?"

"Down there," Clarissa told him, pointing to the socket. She held the radiator while Jeremy plugged its lead into the socket, and then she put it down on the floor.

Sir Rowland took the Robert Browning autograph and stood close to the radiator. Jeremy knelt by it, and the others stood as close as possible to observe the result.

"We mustn't hope for too much," Sir Rowland warned them. "After all, it's only an idea of mine, but there must have been some very good reason why Sellon kept these bits of paper in such a secret place."

"This takes me back years," Hugo recalled. "I remember writing secret messages with lemon juice when I was a kid."

"Which one shall we start with?" Jeremy asked enthusiastically.

"I say Queen Victoria," said Clarissa.

"No, six to one on Ruskin," was Jeremy's guess.

"Well, I'm putting my money on Robert Browning," Sir Rowland decided, bending over and holding the paper in front of the radiator.

"Ruskin? Most obscure chap. I never could understand a word of his poetry," Hugo felt moved to comment.

"Exactly," Sir Rowland agreed. "It's full of hidden meaning."

They all craned over Sir Rowland. "I can't bear it if nothing happens," Clarissa exclaimed.

"I believe... yes, there's something there," Sir Rowland murmured.

"Yes, there is something coming up," Jeremy noticed.

"Is there? Let me see," said Clarissa excitedly.

Hugo pushed between Clarissa and Jeremy. "Out of the way, young man."

"Steady," Sir Rowland complained. "Don't joggle me... yes... there is writing." He paused for a moment, and then straightened up with a cry of "We've got it!"

"What have you got?" Mrs. Brown wanted to know.

"A list of six names and addresses," Sir Rowland told them. "Distributors in the drug racket, I should say. And one of those names is Oliver Costello."

There were exclamations all around. "Oliver!" said Clarissa. "So that's why he came, and someone must have followed him and oh, Uncle Roly, we must tell the police. Come along, Hugo."

Clarissa rushed to the hall door, followed by Hugo who, as he went, was muttering, "Most extraordinary thing I ever heard of." Sir Rowland picked up the other autographs, while Jeremy unplugged the radiator and took it back into the library.

About to follow Clarissa and Hugo out, Sir Rowland paused in the doorway. "Coming, Miss Peake?" he asked.

"You don't need me, do you?"

"I think we do. You were Sellon's partner."

"I've never had anything to do with the drug business," Mrs. Brown insisted. "I just ran the antique side. I did all the London buying and selling."

"I see," Sir Rowland replied noncommittally as he held the hall door open for her. They both left, and a moment later Jeremy returned from the library, closing the door carefully behind him. He went over to the hall door and listened for a moment, then returned to the centre of the room. After a glance at Pippa, he went over to the easy chair, picked up the cushion from it, and moved slowly back towards the sofa where Pippa lay sleeping.

Pippa stirred in her sleep. Jeremy stood frozen for a moment, but when he was certain she was still asleep, he continued towards the sofa until he stood behind Pippa's head. Then, slowly, he began to lower the cushion over her face.

At that moment, Clarissa re-entered the room from the hall. Hearing the door, Jeremy carefully placed the cushion over Pippa's feet. "I remembered what Sir Rowland said," he explained to Clarissa, "so I thought perhaps we oughtn't to leave Pippa all alone. Her feet seemed a bit cold, so I was just covering them up."

Clarissa went across to the stool. "All this excitement has made me feel terribly hungry," she declared. She looked down at the plate of sandwiches, and then continued in a tone of great disappointment, "Oh Jeremy, you've eaten them all."

"Sorry, but I was starving," he said, sounding not at all sorry.

"I don't see why you should be," she reprimanded him. "You've had dinner. I haven't."

Jeremy perched on the back of the sofa. "No, I haven't had any dinner either," he told her. "I was practising approach shots. I only came into the dining-room just after your telephone call came."

"Oh, I see," Clarissa replied nonchalantly. She bent over the back of the sofa to pat the cushion. Suddenly her eyes widened. In a deeply moved voice she repeated, "I see. You it was you."

"What do you mean," asked Jeremy.

"You!" Clarissa repeated, almost to herself.

"What do you mean by 'You'?"

Clarissa looked him in the eye. "What were you doing with that cushion when I came into the room?" she asked.

He laughed. "I told you. I was covering up Pippa's feet. They were cold."

"Were you? Is that really what you were going to do? Or were you going to put that cushion over her mouth?"

"Clarissa!" he exclaimed indignantly. "What a ridiculous thing to say!"

"I was certain that none of us could have killed Oliver Costello. I said so to everyone," Clarissa recalled. "But one of us could have killed him. You. You were out on the golf course alone. You could have come back to the house, got in through the library window, which you'd left open, and you had your golf club still in your hand. Of course. That's what Pippa saw. That's what she meant when she said, 'A golf stick like Jeremy had.' She saw you."

"That's absolute nonsense, Clarissa," Jeremy objected, with a poor attempt at a laugh.

"No, it isn't," she insisted. "Then, after you'd killed Oliver, you went back to the club and rang the police so that they would come here, find the body, and think it was Henry or I who had killed him."

Jeremy leaped to his feet. "What b.l.o.o.d.y rubbish!" he declared.

"It's not rubbish. It's true. I know it's true," Clarissa exclaimed. "But why? That's what I don't understand. Why?"

They stood facing each other in tense silence for a few moments. Then Jeremy gave a deep sigh. He took from his pocket the envelope that had contained the autographs. He held it out to Clarissa, but did not let her take it. "This is what it's all about," he told her.

Clarissa glanced at it. "That's the envelope the autographs were kept in, " she said.

"There's a stamp on it," Jeremy explained quietly. "It's what's known as an error stamp. Printed in the wrong colour. One from Sweden sold last year for fourteen thousand three hundred pounds."

"So that's it," Clarissa gasped, stepping backwards.

"This stamp came into Sellon's possession," Jeremy continued. "He wrote to my boss Sir Kenneth about it. But it was I who opened the letter. I came down and saw Sellon..."

He paused, and Clarissa completed his sentence for him: "... and killed him."

Jeremy nodded without saying anything.

"But you couldn't find the stamp," Clarissa guessed aloud, backing away from him.

"You're right again," Jeremy admitted. "It wasn't in the shop, so I felt sure it must be here, in his house."

He began to move towards Clarissa, as she continued to back away. "Tonight I thought Costello had beaten me to it."

"And so you killed him, too," said Clarissa.

Jeremy nodded again.

"And just now, you would have killed Pippa?" she gasped.

"Why not?" he replied blandly.

"I can't believe it," Clarissa told him.

"My dear Clarissa, fourteen thousand pounds is a great deal of money," he observed with a smile that contrived to be both apologetic and sinister.