“Indeed? I’ve never witnessed a transmogrification before. One of your party tricks, Commissioner? I shall look forward to it—one can always find a use for a healthy young stag,” she finished with an inscrutable smile.
The butler led him to a nearby washroom, where Joe removed the traces of the forest floor and accepted a rather over-sized plaster to put across his wound before rejoining her ladyship.
Styles gave them a strange look as, arm in arm and chuckling, they went into the dining room.
CHAPTER 13
The soup, as predicted, was green in colour, though made not from nettles but from peas picked in the garden that morning and introduced to a few herbs, some excellent chicken stock and a pint or two of cream from the home herd. The “dog biscuits” that accompanied the cheese were Bath Olivers from Fortnum’s in Piccadilly. A taste not yet acquired by Hunnyton, evidently. “A light luncheon,” the dowager had announced. “You will want to save yourself for dinner. We have an excellent cook.” He managed a bowl of pea soup, a token slice of game pie with a plentiful salad and nibbled at a biscuit, cursing the superintendent for his skittish humour. Her ladyship took his refusal of dessert as an admirable masculine trait and for that he was grateful.
They ate companionably together, attended by one footman who withdrew the moment he had finished serving and clearing away. “My son Alexander is about the place somewhere, probably still in his room. He won’t be joining us,” she had explained. “He is one of those creatures who prefers to flee the daylight. The Romans had a word for that I think. London life proved too much for him, I’m afraid, and he’s come home to recuperate and gather his strength before he relaunches himself on society. Energetic and useful chap that I see you are, Sandilands, you will not find much to admire in Alex.”
Apart from this bitter remark, conversation flowed easily. His hostess was very knowledgeable about the state of the nation, and she could talk about London affairs—political and scandalous—with understanding as well as an ironic asperity which Joe found entertaining. She listened to Joe’s stories of his days in India and on the North West Frontier, some of them flattering to Sir George Jardine, his friend and mentor, some sharp and comic. Cecily seemed to prefer the latter.
When the footman brought in a tray of coffee things, Cecily dismissed him. “That’ll be all for now, Benjamin.” Joe had noted the familiar use of the Christian name for the attentive young man. Perhaps Cecily was not the old-fashioned stickler for correctness he had assumed. “The Commissioner will preside at the coffee pot.”
Joe obliged and, uninterrupted and unobserved, they settled to their coffee, free to speak their minds. She said abruptly, “So you got my message then?”
“Message, madam?” Joe said, smiling. “Would that be the anonymous letter penned by your maid and dictated by you? The letter sent to the Yard with the object of luring me down here to take issue with the man who could perhaps have had a hand in the alleged murder of your daughter-in-law?”
She sighed. “Well, I don’t expect you to arrest a dead horse, silly man!” In the days when ladies carried fans, she’d have tapped him on the cheek in flirtatious reprimand. “Lavinia’s death was planned. In my view, that’s murder. I’m sure of that. I’m pretty sure also that I know who is responsible but I have no proof. I hear good things of you from my son James. He agreed with me that you would be the best possible man to investigate and uncover the guilty party. However—James was reluctant to be seen exercising any political authority in the matter.”
Joe hoped he’d adequately concealed his incredulity.
“Astute, independent, unconnected with the family, a gentleman, and—having the ear of the Commissioner—I thought you’d do well. I decided to lure you down here.”
“You should have included hard-headed in that list of attributes. I’m afraid I can only offer discouragement. Even if I were persuaded of someone’s guilt, I doubt I could interest the Crown Prosecutor in supporting a legal case which has been satisfactorily closed for several weeks. But why now, madam? Why wait so long to launch an investigation? The whole affair had sunk quietly into the sand.”
“No, Sandilands. You’re wrong there.” At last, a note of vehemence. “It was James who first became aware of the furtive looks, the chill atmosphere … aware that friends and colleagues were crossing the clubroom or the road to avoid speaking to him. One day, he cornered one of his closest friends and forced the truth from him. You know what Parliament is for rumours! More reputations are shredded in the tearooms at Westminster than in the House. His fellows were remarking on the fortuitous timing of his wife’s death. His own demeanour may have worked against him—James did not love his wife and failed to show much in the way of regret. What a fool! He should have moped and mowed about the place for a bit. Instead, he threw himself into his usual routine of work, appearing relieved and reinvigorated.”
Joe picked up a word from this. “ ‘Fortuitous,’ madam? In what way fortuitous?”
She hesitated. “I must keep nothing from you, even the embarrassing aspects, I suppose. You may have heard it spoken of—James has ambitions of the highest order …”
“Next Prime Minister but one, is what they say,” Joe said bluntly.
She seemed pleased that he was keeping up. “Lavinia was aware of this. She decided she would enjoy the role of the PM’s wife.” Cecily closed her eyes in silent pain at the thought. “She decided to help prepare his way. She made faux pas after faux pas! She said the wrong things to the right people and right things to the wrong.” And, with emphasis: “She was wrecking his career. No overriding intelligence, you see. It would not have been the first time a great man had been brought down by a silly wife.”
“A great man?” he questioned lightly.
“Not yet, obviously. You’re right to remind me of the dangers of maternal pride. James could be great. The stage is setting itself. He has the mind and heart for the part and he’s learned his lines. The country is weary of its inconsequential political leaders. Left? Right? Who cares? The electorate is undecided because it is offered no compelling choice. Yet—rightly—people sense that stirring times are approaching and no man of character steps forward. The ship of state sails into a storm with two weak pairs of hands scrabbling to take the wheel. Churchill has a strong pair of hands and a steady vision but has been sent off duty. He’s been stood down.”
“But rumbling in the distance? I’m sure I catch the odd rumbling still.”
“He’s not a man James would choose to be seen supporting. My son wishes to present himself as a fresh political mind, unallied and without the baggage of past failures.”
Joe decided to accept all this for the moment. He knew of at least two other reasons why Lavinia’s death benefited James Truelove but he wished to avoid alarming the woman by showing too deep a knowledge of her son’s affairs.
“So, you see, we need a solution to this unpleasantness for the sake of James’s reputation but also because there is a killer—unscrupulous and effective—at large. It could be someone I speak to every day, regard as a friend … someone in my household or even family. I—we—need to know. The knowing is more important than the arresting.”
“A large number involved. I have the police notes listing all the people in the house that weekend.”
“That fateful weekend—as we say now—there were present some influential politicians. Lavinia, I remember, was making an exhibition of herself over dinner … rather worse than usually crass. I was seated at the other end of the table and unable to stop her launching into a shameful ragging of one of the guests—a woman. A woman moreover whom she had herself invited down for the weekend. I was mortified to catch the glances exchanged between a minister and a press baron. James’s friends and supporters. Supporters until that moment when his wife revealed herself unqualified to hold a tea party for teddy bears without inspiring a killing rage among the furry guests. Imagine Lavinia playing hostess on a diplomatic occasion, Commissioner!”