‘So you decided to follow “Alice Conyers” to India?’

‘It wasn’t that simple. I had to plot and plan and save up the fare. I looked up old clients on the Côte. Some of them had heard what had happened to Isobel and were very generous to me, for old times’ sake. As soon as I’d got enough together I came out to Bombay. It wasn’t difficult to track her – every newspaper was full of her. She was being a complete commercial and social success. She was even making a name for herself as a philanthropist! In Delhi I met Edgar. Probably a stupid idea but I took him into my confidence. We decided to follow her to Simla when the weather turned – she spends every summer up here – and we used his money and my experience to set up here.’

‘And the blackmail money? The jewellery you extorted? What happened to that?’ Carter wanted to know.

‘I guessed she’d have told you about that,’ said Flora with a smile of satisfaction. ‘Poor little Isobel, menaced by an unknown blackmailer! Well, I can tell you, Superintendent, that she got off lightly! The demands were very reasonable in the circumstances. She truly deserved to suffer more. And never forget that we are talking about money that is not rightly hers at all. I think you do forget that!’ She turned a scornful gaze on Joe.

With a defiant gesture she swept the shawl from her shoulders. Every eye was drawn to the Holbein jewel glowing richly against the black velvet. ‘Here’s your proof! I wouldn’t want you to wreck the whole establishment in an effort to find it – I’m sure that’s what you were planning to do. Such a very memorable brooch, isn’t it? I wouldn’t be surprised if it were posted as missing believed stolen so that you can find it in my possession!’

Simpson shuffled his feet uncomfortably. Joe and Carter looked back at her, non-committal.

‘You may call it blackmail, Superintendent, but if you were to question Alice Conyers-Sharpe in your official capacity I think you will find that she will say she has merely been sending gifts to an old employee in return for a service she values greatly. She is well known to be generous. With ICTC funds,’ she added waspishly. ‘So, I wear this openly. I have shown it to you. As yet there is no indication that it is stolen and I assume you would apprise me of that at once if such were the case… Nothing to say? Then I suggest we put an end to this farce. I will detain you no longer. I know you have more important crimes to investigate.’

‘Just one or two more things you can tell us, Flora,’ said Joe. ‘Do you remember all your mistress’s lovers?’

Flora gave the question her full attention. ‘I think I would recognize most of them if I saw them again but I couldn’t possibly enumerate and name them! Some stand out more than others.’

‘Feodor Korsovsky. Does he stand out in your memory?’

‘Ah! Feodor! At last you begin to behave like a detective. No, I never met him. He had left her and gone to New York before I started to work for her. But she talked of him. She talked of him a great deal. He was one of the first of Isobel’s lovers. They were together for quite a long time and she was actually faithful to him – she claims. She met him in Nice at a café frequented by singers. She always used to fancy that she had a good singing voice. Still does, I believe. They seemed to be genuinely in love with each other but he had to go off to New York and they were separated by the war. He wrote to tell her he wasn’t coming back. He’d rejoined his wife who’d been waiting for him for years in America. Isobel never forgave him. For her he epitomized the treachery of all men. She certainly hated him.’

‘So you realized the threat he posed to Alice Conyers-Sharpe – that is Isobel Newton’s security. And you were presumably aware, as was the whole of Simla, that he was scheduled to appear at the Gaiety. You would have been able to ascertain without any difficulty the precise time of his expected arrival in the town.’

‘What are you implying?’ she asked, pale and controlled.

‘We are implying, Flora, that you are the only one in Simla who would have the personal knowledge of Korsovsky, the motive for killing him and the means of purchasing his death. We intend further to charge you and others as yet unnamed with bringing about the murder in similar circumstances and for exactly the same motive of Lionel Conyers a year ago.’

Flora was staring at them in wide-eyed astonishment, unable to speak.

‘I hope you have taken in the importance of what I have just said,’ Joe added, ‘and the seriousness of your situation. We come finally to the bottom of these two murders.’

‘Two murders?’ Flora had found her voice. ‘Two murders?’ she said again. A slow smile spread across her face. ‘But, Commander, there have been three murders!’

Chapter Twenty-three

«^»

Listen, Flora,’ Carter started to say carefully, ‘we are investigating the murders of Lionel Conyers and Feodor Korsovsky. We believe you to have procured with the help of an accomplice or accomplices the murders of these two men. We believe you to have had them killed to preserve intact the false identity of Alice Conyers-Sharpe in order that you might continue to blackmail her. We have no evidence – no report even – of a third murder. If you have any information to give regarding a third killing I suggest you give it at once.’

‘May I make one thing quite clear, Superintendent? I have killed no one. I have not ordered or “procured”, as you put it, the murder of anyone.’ She laughed again, eyes shining with humour. ‘Oh, dear! You’re back to square one, I’m afraid. If not worse since I present you with not two unsolved crimes but three! Haven’t you guessed? Can’t you guess? No? Then I shall have to spell out for you a message you would much rather not hear, I think.’

‘Get on with it, Flora!’ said Carter, exasperated.

‘Oh, my God!’ murmured Joe under his breath. Fascinated, he could only watch and wait for Flora to confirm an awful suspicion and, without doubt, she was enjoying herself, teasing out the suspense, playing with them, and they could only silently sit it out.

‘You should know, gentlemen, that Lionel Conyers was the second victim and Korsovsky the third. The first, oh the first victim, was killed much earlier. But the motive for all three murders is the same. To bring about and maintain the personation of Alice Conyers by Isobel Newton – if we’re using official language.’

‘And the first victim?’ asked Carter.

‘Was Alice Conyers herself!’

‘What the hell are you talking about, Flora?’

She sat forward in her chair looking at each of the three men in turn, claiming their absolute attention.

‘Alice Conyers was murdered. And by Isobel Newton.’

‘Don’t be silly! She died in the rail crash. Everyone knows that. You yourself inspected the body!’ Carter was becoming angry.

‘Yes! I inspected the body! I’ve already told you that – but I didn’t tell you everything I noticed about the state of the corpse! I was left alone with it for as long as I chose to take. The official cause of death registered by the harassed doctor who had the task of processing over two hundred accident victims was accidental death due to a broken back and head injuries. A reasonable assessment considering the time available to him and the circumstances. After all – who is going to look for murder amongst so much carnage?’

She paused for a moment, fearing no interruption from her audience who were weighing every word, every nuance.

‘But I was looking more carefully, with the eye of one who knew that something was not as it should be. Before even I had taken in the stockings and the underwear I had noticed that the injuries to the head were unusual. Her face was completely…’ she reached for a word, ‘… obliterated. Smashed beyond recognition. When I had inspected the clothing and come to the conclusion that my mistress had changed places with this poor girl I took a closer look at the injuries. Not a pleasant task. I have no training in these matters and it took a lot of determination to handle a corpse in such a way but I managed. I turned the body over. Her back was injured as the doctor had said. Certainly there was much bruising to the spine and that seemed to be clearly the spot on which she had fallen. I would say that the impact of her fall was on the back. Why then was there such damage to her face?’