Ten Lords A-Leaping: A Mystery Part 36

" 'Pity'? That's all?" Jamie asked.

"Short shrift, but I took it as admission. A blameless person would show at least a little concern or curiosity. But there was a look in his eye-I know it-another sort of wary flicker. The night was drawing in, but there was a glow from the cottage sitting room window and I could see an uneasiness in his face. He didn't linger. You'd think he might-he hadn't seen me in a dozen years, more."

"But," Tom began, "if this ... intelligence pa.s.sed between the two of you, he must have realised that you also suspected the truth about your brother's murderer. One leads inevitably to the other, does it not?" He paused, as John nodded. "I wonder what he planned to do. You and Anna were surely a threat to him now."

"He wasn't so troubled that he didn't go to some barmaid's for the night," Jamie remarked.

"So." Bliss cleared his throat noisily. "You, Mr. Allan, bogged off to this monastery in the pitch black of Dartmoor for a bit of a think-"

"The light lingers in the summer. I had a torch. I know the moor well. I've walked it for years."

"I think we've established that there's proof that John did as he says," Tom reminded the DI.

"Did Mr. Allan tell you he was leaving?" Bliss turned to Anna. "Leave a note? Send a text?"

"John's absences don't surprise me, Inspector," Anna replied.

"But you didn't know for certain his whereabouts between-what?-seven o'clock Sat.u.r.day evening and about an hour ago."

"Which is why I unthinkingly s.n.a.t.c.hed up that tie-that tie, the one Mr. Christmas is holding in his right hand-from the Labyrinth. I recognised the tie pattern. John had gone to Shrewsbury. I know it's mad, John with his old school tie, but I had lost my mind in those moments. I was frightened that he had-" She paused and reiterated her encounter with Oliver that Sunday before dawn.

Bliss and Blessing exchanged glances. Blessing spoke: "But once the boy-Max-came across the tie, this vital piece of evidence, so claimed, why wasn't it pa.s.sed immediately to-"

"To you? Because we got rather caught up in events," Tom responded. "The moor and such."

"Much is my fault, Inspector," Jamie continued. "When I was shown the tie Max had found, I couldn't fathom how it had got into the tunnel, when I'd seen it that very morning in our bedroom-my wife's and mine-so by the time I returned from a recce of my bedroom, we were, as the vicar says, caught up in other events."

"You see," Tom explained, "this tie-this undamaged tie." He displayed it. "Was taken by Max on Sat.u.r.day evening from Jamie's bedroom. He hoped that I would be able to do a trick, but I was missing, as I said, a few necessary accoutrements and I was indisposed on the terrace." Tom gestured to the open French doors through which richly filtered evening light poured. "Disappointed, Max returned indoors, here, into the drawing room and left the tie, as children do, thoughtlessly somewhere-on a chair, on a table ..."

"Then Max must have it tucked behind that Meissen bowl over there." Marguerite gestured towards an ormolu cabinet on the other side of the room. "I noticed it after Oliver announced his engagement and thought it odd, as none of the men was dressed with any formality."

Tom glanced at her sharply. "Did you see anyone ... pick it up? Put it in-?"

"No. I would have said by now. And I should point out"-she turned her attention to Bliss-"that neither I nor Roberto was witness to this aborted magic trick on the terrace. So despite your ... attentions to him, he had no involvement in Oliver's death, did he?"

"He claimed not."

"Claimed? You still believe otherwise."

"I understand that Mr. Sica-and you, Your Ladyship, more or less invited Lord Morborne into the Labyrinth to view the new statue."

"We didn't quite schedule a dawn appointment, Inspector."

"Mr. Sica was witnessed crossing the south lawn sometime before sunrise Sunday morning."

"By a child."

"He told us, Your Ladyship, that he'd spent much of the night working in his studio, later taking a walk in the grounds, which contradicts your claim that he had been with you." Bliss frowned. "And it appeared a red thread from a piece of his clothing had caught in the branches of the Labyrinth."

"The jacket had been worn by someone else."

"We know that now." Bliss flicked a glance at Anna.

"And surely final proof of Roberto's innocence is that he's dead." Marguerite raised her head and surveyed the room, as if challenging anyone to contradict her.

And now, but for the whisper of the breeze billowing the curtains on the French doors, an uncomfortable silence settled over the room. Hector lifted his eyes from his coffee cup to glance miserably at his mother, almost, Tom thought, as if he was seeking succor from her-she sat directly across from him-but she had turned her attention to a point above Tom's head, to the Triumph of Death and its harsh, unforgiving imagery, her fine fingers tracing the curve of the brandy gla.s.s. Ignored, Hector turned his head to his guests, but no one met his glance, nor did anyone meet anyone else's-except Madrun, who regarded Tom from behind her gla.s.ses with a barely suppressed avidity that he wished she would suppress. Dominic frowned in intense concentration, his long, elegant fingers pressing a cat-like rhythm into Lucinda's shoulders until she, drawn from her own thoughts, winced and shrugged his hands off. Breaking the silence, she said: "I know this sounds like something out of a detective novel, but hasn't it been established that the butler did it? I thought Gaunt had been trying to escape on the moor and you'd a.s.sembled us here simply for a jolly sort of wrap-up." She appealed to Bliss, who chose the moment to leave the fringes of the drawing room and reclaim the fireplace and the centre of the enquiry, DS Blessing following, chair in hand.

"As Dominic already told you, he saw Gaunt from the Gaze Tower sneaking around the stables this very afternoon, didn't you, darling?" Lucinda tapped Dominic's resting hand with her fingers as her eyes followed the moving figure. "Surely that-"

But a disdainful glance from Bliss quelled her. "The other tie, Vicar," he said, "the one found in Lord Kirkbride's drawer, the one you cut up-"

"Gaunt's," Tom replied, then amended, "in Gaunt's possession, I should say. For many, many years. But once upon a time the tie was Oliver's."

"Oliver's?" Marguerite echoed. "But I don't understand ..."

"Something sordid happened when Oliver was a student at Shrewsbury, Lady Fairhaven, though fewer than a handful of people ever knew about it-until this weekend." Tom looked to DI Bliss. "Shall I or shall you?"

With Bliss's permission, Tom summarised events on The Wrekin more than a quarter century ago. "Of course," he added, "Oliver's role in this crime isn't absolutely certain, without proof, yes, Inspector?"

"But if Gaunt believed it so," Marguerite interjected, "then surely you have a motive."

Tom demurred. "There may be proof. What none of you know-including you, Inspector-and what Gaunt told me earlier on the moor is this: Oliver used his school tie-and you must forgive me, Jamie, for asking you to wear the thing this evening-to silence Kimberly's screams as ... he raped her.

"You see," he continued, as one of the women-Anna-released a short, sharp cry, "he stuffed the tie in her mouth."

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE.

"Am I to understand," Jamie said after a moment, "that Gaunt kept the tie from this appalling incident on The Wrekin for all these years as a sort of ... memento?"

"I'm not sure memento is the word," Tom responded. "Talisman? Fetish? Goad? I doubt he was thinking rationally at that moment. It was only later, quite a bit later, after certain scientific advances, that he realised it very well could contain DNA evidence. I'm not sure anyone's noticed, but he's been setting about here, this weekend, gathering other things that might contain Oliver's imprint, a gla.s.s, laundry, a facial tissue, a cigar stub."

"I saw him collect that last one." Lucinda pushed to the edge of her chair. "Well, there you have it, Inspector-Gaunt had a motive, he had the opportunity, and-now-the means. Have I got the traditional three correct? Yes? Case closed, then. May we leave this horrid place now? Sorry, Hector, darling, Egges...o...b..'s really quite lovely-in other circ.u.mstances."

"I think you've missed something entirely, Lucy," Jamie cut in. "There are two ties. As Tom's suggested, that tie-the cut-up one, the one I found in my drawer this afternoon-is the one Gaunt kept all these years. My tie is this one." He held it up. "This is the one Max pulled from my drawer Sat.u.r.day evening and left in this room. This one is the tie that ... strangled Oliver. Isn't that right, Tom?"

Tom nodded. "I think the question is-" He paused as he might in the pulpit at St. Nicholas, to reclaim the congregation's attention. "-I think the question is, how did the tie manage to travel from this drawing room to the Labyrinth between Sat.u.r.day evening and the early hours of Sunday morning?"

No one responded. Silence descended again, this time like a pall, the atmosphere now charged with unease and foreboding energy. Tom found his eyes drawn helplessly to Lucinda as she resettled herself in the chair she'd been keen to vacate a moment earlier. She reached up to her shoulder to touch Dominic's hand, patting it gently, almost regretfully, and released a thin sigh. He watched her lips part, sure she was to give voice to his question, hoping that if she did, the contents might spare him humiliation, but Hector, as if unwilling to have anyone supersede him, interrupted: "Well, it wasn't me walking about in the middle of the night with a silly b.l.o.o.d.y tie. I told you before, Inspector, that I was in bed with my wife."

"Hector, please don't take this amiss," Jane responded, "but I would swear I saw you outside on the lawn sometime in the night. You were wearing that white terry-cloth robe of yours."

"How dare you."

"Hector, we must get to the bottom of this, if we're all going to carry on." Jane shifted impatiently on her feet. "I was going to have to tell Inspector Bliss sooner or later anyway. How can I not? I know it doesn't look good: You've never cared for Oliver and the two of you had been snapping at each other in the last days, I don't know why. We had to watch the two of you hitting each other at twenty thousand feet in the air and-"

"Oh, for G.o.d's sake." Hector's cup hit the saucer with a nasty crunch. "I couldn't sleep. I went out for some air, that's all. That's all," he repeated, turning his attention to Bliss. "I landed up on the terrace around ... I don't know the time-before dawn. I sat for a while and went back to my wife."

"Hector," Lucinda drawled. "Don't put on middle-cla.s.s airs. You don't share a bedroom with Georgie, never have. You sleep with Bonzo."

"Be quiet. I've had quite enough of you these last days."

"Hector, like my wife"-Jamie glanced over his whisky gla.s.s-"I don't want you take this amiss, but this afternoon you were late for our meeting in your office and you arrived ... well, I can only describe your state as 'shambolic.' "

Lord Fairhaven was silent for the beat of a heart before his face filled with blood. He sputtered: "Are you accusing me of ... what? what was it? electrocuting that ... that ..."

"Roberto is his name, Hector." Marguerite cut in with words as icy as her stare. "Was, rather. And he was a splendid artist with a promising future."

"Mummy, for G.o.d's sake! I'm your son. I didn't particularly care for ... Roberto." He battled a frown. "But who you choose to-"

"That's not the point, Hector," Marguerite snapped. "I think it's fairly obvious that Roberto might have seen something, witnessed something, heaven knows what, in his night wanderings and-"

"Well, he didn't b.l.o.o.d.y see me!"

"Lord Fairhaven." Bliss exercised a neutral tone. "Would you care to account for your movements this afternoon."

Hector exploded. "I was doing exactly what I told James and Jane and Mr. Christmas I was doing. I missed my morning run, so I thought I'd take one after lunch."

"In the heat of the day?" Bliss's tone was sceptical.

"Have you noted Egges...o...b..'s many shade trees, Inspector?"

Bliss grunted as Blessing noisily turned a page in his notebook.

"You didn't," Tom interjected, "miss your morning run Sunday, however."

"My lord?" Bliss frowned as Hector shot Tom a daggered gaze.

"Then let me be completely frank about Sunday morning: I couldn't get back to sleep. I went out for some air. I returned to my bedroom. I still couldn't sleep. I gave up. I went for a run. I came back. Had a shower. Then found Jane at my door with unexpected news. There you have it."

"And why weren't you frank about your movements earlier?"

"I forgot ... well, it didn't seem important. I didn't think anyone had seen me anyway."

"Evidently someone had, my lord."

"Mrs. Gaunt."

"Who kept it to herself."

"I expect the Gaunts take the non-disclosure clause of their contract seriously," Hector responded airily.

"Do they now." Bliss spoke with barely suppressed fury.

"Lord Fairhaven," Tom interjected. He had been thinking of something Hector had said earlier. "You said a moment ago that Roberto did not see you on the terrace-not surprising given the darkness. But your tone seems to suggest that you might have seen him."

Hector flicked him a hateful glance. "I saw many things. The moon, the stars, the-"

"Roberto in the motion lights in all his nearly naked glory?" Marguerite suggested.

"Mummy, don't be vulgar." He placed his coffee cup on a side table. "All right, I did glimpse him. What of it?"

"And was he alone?" Bliss asked.

Hector shifted slightly in his seat. "I can't be certain. The motion sensors only light intermittently. I heard voices. Thought I did."

"And-again-you didn't care to mention this earlier?" Bliss glared at him.

"I wasn't certain. I couldn't think it mattered. It was some good time before dawn, which is apparently when Olly met his maker."

"Male voices?"

"They were at some distance, Inspector, but, yes, I would say so."

"Distinguishable?"

"Well, one of them was Roberto's. I think that should be clear by now, Inspector."

"The other, then."

"I have no idea. From the terrace it sounded like murmuring. There was, however, a sound like someone punching at someone else. The only word I could distinguish was one I won't repeat in this company, and I don't know who said it."

"Roberto's torso appeared bruised when Tom and I visited his studio with the kids yesterday," Jane remarked.

Tom added: "You, too, have bruises on your chest, Dominic. They were noticeable at the pool yesterday afternoon. Lucinda claimed you had walked into an open wardrobe in the dark."

"Did she? Well, there you go."

"I don't think Lord Fairhaven and the late Lord Morborne were the only two men exchanging blows this weekend," Tom added.

"Why would I be exchanging blows-as you put it-with Roberto?"

"You were attracted to him, and he wasn't attracted to you." Marguerite shot him a look of disbelief.

"Nonsense," Dominic snapped, raising his gla.s.s to his mouth.

"Did Roberto say nothing about these marks to you, Lady Fairhaven?" Bliss asked.

"He wasn't given to that sort of thing. I noted them, but a.s.sumed they were the consequence of his work, stone flying about and the like, although ..." She regarded Dominic coldly now. "Of course, Roberto had been fine-polishing these last few days. No great chips of marble flying about, I shouldn't think."

"Again, nonsense. A complete fabrication." Dominic took another sip. "I spent, as I said yesterday in this company, Sat.u.r.day night and Sunday morning in Lucy's room, or, rather, she in mine. Together, at any rate."