“I'm afraid you don't understand, Mrs Lupton,” intervened Giles. “Superintendent Hannasyde has to proceed in the—er—customary way. There is no —”
“Henry!” said Mrs Lupton, unheeding. “Will you kindly inform the Superintendent that you have no objection to my presence?”
“Well, my dear, naturally I—naturally I —”
“It is now obvious to us all that he has every objection,” said Randall. “You know, you had very much better withdraw, my dear aunt. I feel sure that Uncle Henry's double life is going to be exposed. My own conviction is that he has been keeping a mistress for years.”
Giles could not forbear casting a quick look from Randall's handsome, mocking face to Henry Lupton's grey one. The little man tried to laugh, but there was no mirth in his eyes. Superintendent Hannasyde remained immovable.
Mrs Lupton flushed. “You forget yourself, Randall. I am not going to stand here and see my husband insulted by your ill-bred notions of what is funny.”
“Oh, I wasn't insulting him,” said Randall. “Why shouldn't he have a mistress? I am inclined to think that in his place—as your spouse, my dear Aunt Gertrude—I should have several.”
Across the room Giles' eyes encountered Hannasyde's for one pregnant moment. It was evident that Randall had at last succeeded in startling the Superintendent.
Mrs Lupton seemed to swell. “You will either apologise for your impertinence, Randall, or I leave this room. Never have I been spoken to in such a manner!”
“Dear aunt!” said Randall, and kissed his fingers to her. Mrs Lupton swept round, and stalked from the room. Randall inhaled a deep breath of tobacco smoke. “I said you might need me,” he remarked, and lounged towards the door.
Henry Lupton said in a strangled voice: “Wait, Randall! What—what do you mean by this—this very questionable joke?”
Randall glanced contemptuously down at him. “My good uncle, I have got you out of one mess: get yourself out of this!” he said, and walked negligently out of the room.
Giles would have followed him, but Lupton, a tinge of colour now in his cheeks, stopped him, saying: “Please don't go, Mr Carrington! I—really, I should prefer you to remain! You are a legal man, and I —”
“I cannot undertake to advise you, Mr Lupton,” Giles said. “I am here merely as the late Mr Matthews' solicitor.”
“Quite, quite! But my position —”
“By all means stay,” interposed Hannasyde. He laid his own letter before Henry Lupton. “Did you write this, Mr Lupton?”
Lupton glanced unhappily at it. “Yes. That is—yes, I wrote it. We—my brother-in-law and I—had a slight disagreement over a—a personal matter. Such things will happen in the best regulated families, you know. I thought it would be best if we met and talked it over. Without prejudice, you know.”
“Did you meet him?” Hannasyde asked.
“No. Oh, no! You see, he died before there was really time.”
“Did he answer your letter, Mr Lupton?”
“Only by telephone. Just to let me know that he couldn't manage an appointment.” He gave a nervous laugh. “I was very much annoyed at the time—well, my brother-in-law had a sort of manner that rather put one's back up, if you know what I mean.”
Hannasyde said in his measured way: “Mr Lupton, I want you to realise one thing. Except in so far as they may have a bearing on this case I am not concerned with your private affairs. Nor, I can assure you, have I any desire to make wanton trouble in your family circle. But when I went through the late Mr Matthews' papers at his office, with Mr Carrington here, I found the name and address of a lady calling herself Gladys Smith. You will understand that I had of course to follow this up. I called on Mrs Smith at her flat yesterday, and what I saw and heard there were sufficient to convince me that you are—intimately acquainted with her.”
Henry Lupton looked towards Giles for support, and getting none said in a blustering voice: “Well, and what if I am? I should like to know what bearing it can have on this case?”
“That is what I also want to know, Mr Lupton.” Hannasyde left a pause, but Henry Lupton said nothing, and after a minute he continued: “You had an appointment to see your brother-in-law on Monday, 13th May.”
Lupton moved uneasily in his chair. “Yes, certainly I had. But this is—is quite ridiculous! There is no reason why you should drag in Mrs Smith's name.”
“Are you going to tell me, Mr Lupton, that your appointment with the late Mr Matthews had no bearing on Mrs Smith—whose name and address I found in his diary?”
It was evident that Henry Lupton hardly knew what to reply. He mumbled something about consulting his solicitor, seemed to think better of it, and chancing to catch sight of his own letter to Gregory Matthews, said with a good deal of agitation: “I didn't poison him, if that's what you suspect! Yes, yes, I know very well what's in your mind, and I admit I was a fool to write that letter. That ought to convince you—for I never dreamed that anything like this would happen.”
“I don't suspect anything,” said Hannasyde calmly. “But it is obvious to me that at the time of his death you were on bad terms with Gregory Matthews; equally obvious that the existence of Mrs Smith had something to do with that. I think Mr Carrington, in the absence of your own solicitor, would advise you to be frank with me.”
Giles said nothing, but Henry Lupton, dropping his head into his hands, groaned, and answered: “Of course I've no desire to obstruct the police. Naturally I—I appreciate your position, Superintendent, but my own is—is extremely equivocal. My wife has no suspicion—I have my daughters to consider, and my whole object is to is to—”
“Please understand, Mr Lupton, that I am not here to investigate public morals,” said Hannasyde coldly. “I can only tell you in all honesty that your relations with Mrs Smith are more likely to become known through a refusal on your part to be frank with me than through a voluntary statement made to me now.”
“Yes,” agreed Lupton unhappily. “I see that, of course. I suppose you'll make inquiries, and it'll get round.” He gave a shudder, and lifted his head. “I have known Mrs Smith for a number of years,” he said, not meeting Hannasyde's gaze. “I needn't go into all that, need I? My work takes me about the country a good deal. I—there has always been plenty of opportunity without creating suspicion. I've been very careful. I don't know how my brother-in-law found out. It's a mystery to me. But he did find out. He asked me to call at his office. I'd no idea—I thought it odd, but he was a strange man, and it didn't cross my mind… anyway, I went, and he taxed me with—with my connection with Mrs Smith.” His face twitched. He clasped his hands tightly on his knee, and said in a constricted voice: “He knew all about it. He even knew when I'd last been with her, and how they thought—the other people in the block, I mean—that I was a commercial traveller. He must have made the most minute inquiries. It was no use denying it. He knew everything - oh, things one wouldn't have thought he could know! He - was very unpleasant about it.” He broke off, and turned with a kind of appeal towards Giles. “You knew him, Carrington. It's no good trying to explain to the Superintendent. No one who was unacquainted with Gregory would understand.”
“I didn't know him well,” Giles answered.
“You must have seen the type of man he was. Power! That's what he liked! He didn't care about my wife, you know. Not enough to make him threaten me with exposure. That wasn't it. It was - a cruel streak in his nature. They're all of them like that, the Matthews, in a way. He wanted to pull the strings and see the puppets dance. Well, I told him he couldn't do that with me. I - I have danced, often, in - in minor things, but this was different. I don't want you to think of it as a mere sordid intrigue, because I swear it's not like that. Mrs Smith - well, she's just the same as a wife to me. I'd marry her if I could, but, you see, it's all so impossible. There are my daughters, for one thing, and my position, and - and my wife, of course. I've even got a grandson. One can't, you know. But that's what I meant when I wrote that.” He pointed to the letter, lying on the desk before Hannasyde.