“Not-your-fault-”
Antony came up and put a hand on his shoulder.
“Look here, Jimmy, don’t make too much of this. There’s no harm done. You really mustn’t make too much of it. I’ll tell you the bare truth. For God’s sake try and believe it. Lois had had a row with you-about old Hodson’s cottage-”
“She lied to me about it.”
The shoulder under Antony ’s hand was as cold and hard as ice. He went on insistently.
“Well, you had a row, and she was angry. She doesn’t like not getting her own way. She wanted to score you off. The best way she could think of was to flirt with me. Well, we’ve known each other long enough to be blunt-I told her there was nothing doing. And just then Julia came to call us in. Women don’t like leaving a row unfinished-they think of ways to get even with you and have the last word. I do honestly believe that’s what brought Lois here tonight. It was damned silly of her, and you’ve every right to be angry, but don’t think it was worse than it was. I’ll be off at six in the morning, and I’ll keep out of the way-you can trust me for that! Jimmy-for God’s sake-”
It was no good. Jimmy Latter gave him a heartrending look and said so.
“It’s no good. I heard what she said.”
He turned and went out through the door in the wall.
CHAPTER 16
Antony left Latter End before anyone was up. His step rang as hollow in the hall as if the house were empty. When he drew back the bolts and turned the key in the lock it seemed as if someone must wake. He came out into the early morning-dew on the grass, and a light breeze blowing. He got out his car and took the road with a sense of escape.
During the next two days he was kept extremely busy. He lunched with Latimer, got on better than he expected, and was dragged off by him to his cottage on the Thames. Latimer would take no denial. His manuscript was there, they could go through it together-“Your partners are damned old women, but I can’t be bothered to fight them.” And, most unexpected of all, “It’s no good saying no-you must come down and meet my wife.”
Latimer the married man! Antony could hardly stretch his mind to take it in. He felt the most lively curiosity as to Mrs. Latimer. In the event, he found her a comfortable, placid housewife, comely in a country fashion and an inspired cook. In fact just what Latimer ought to have married. Being Latimer, it was quite unbelievable that he should have done so. Yet there she was, and there was Latimer, very much the husband and as pleased as Punch.
Leave of absence having been granted with alacrity by the firm, it was six o’clock next evening before he returned to his hotel. Just time in hand to change and get out to Hampstead to dine with the Mathiesons, where he spent a very pleasant evening. In the back of his mind the sense of escape persisted.
He came back to the hotel after midnight to find a slip in his room-“Miss Vane has rung up twice. She says will you please ring her when you come in.” Antony stood frowning at the words. They forced the doors of his mind and brought a sense of catastrophe with them. Nonsense of course, utter ludicrous nonsense. She might have a dozen good reasons for ringing up… “Miss Vane has rung up twice. She says will you please ring her when you come in.”
He sat down on the edge of the bed and lifted the receiver of the table instrument. When he had given the number he stayed there waiting. It was ten minutes past twelve. The only upstairs telephone extension at Latter End was in Lois’ bedroom. If Julia was expecting a call from him she must be waiting for it in the study. He had the strangest, strongest impression of her waiting for him to call her up-the instrument on Jimmy’s table-Julia in the writing-chair, waiting in a fixed silence which went on, and on, and on.
It was nearly half an hour before the call came through. At the first sound of the bell he lifted the receiver and heard her say,
“ Antony?”
“Yes. What is it?”
“Something has happened.”
“What is it?”
She went on in French-the French she had learned in the schoolroom with Miss Smithers, its familiar British ring just making what she had to say incredible.
“It’s something dreadful, Antony. It’s Lois-she’s dead.”
He made some exclamation, he didn’t know what.
“How?”
“I don’t know. It was something in her coffee.”
“Julia!”
He heard her take a shuddering breath.
“The police have been here. They’ll be coming back in the morning.”
“When did it happen?”
“After dinner-as soon as she drank her coffee. Will you come down?”
“Of course.”
“Early?”
“I’ll be down by eight.”
“Make it half past seven. I’ll meet you at the first milestone beyond the village. I want to talk to you.”
Something ran like a taut string between them. He said, “All right,” and hard on the last word there came a click and they were thirty miles apart.
He hung up at his end, and found his hand stiff and numb from the grip in which he had been holding the receiver.
CHAPTER 17
She was standing by the milestone, a bicycle leaning against the hedge behind her. When Antony drew up she went across to the car.
“We’d better get off the road. Turn up Hob Lane. I’ve got Ellie’s bicycle-I’ll be there as soon as you are.”
The car almost filled the lane. Not that it mattered, for nothing came this way more than once in a blue moon. Julia got in, leaned back into the corner, and said without any preliminaries,
“They think it’s murder.”
“Why?”
She said, “Everything.” And then, “I’d better tell you.”
“Yes.”
She took one of those long breaths. She was bareheaded, her hair a little misted with the early morning damp, her face quite colourless and strongly set, her voice low and steady.
“It’s been a dreadful two days-ever since you went. There must have been some frightful row. I expect you know what it was. Jimmy doesn’t say. He was out nearly all the first day. Lois stayed in her room till lunch, then she came down. Jimmy wasn’t there. They didn’t speak at dinner, and afterwards he went off and shut himself in the study.”
“What about the coffee?”
“He came into the drawing-room for it-just tossed it off with a gulp as if it was medicine and went away. Next day- yesterday-it was the same thing. She had her breakfast in her room. I took it up. Jimmy went out and didn’t come home till the late afternoon. He looked awful. Nobody-nobody in the house could help knowing that there had been some awful row. Dinner was ghastly. Ellie and I washed up- Minnie looked so bad that we sent her away. I took the coffee tray through. Manny put a drop of vanilla into each of the cups-she did it in front of me. The sugar and the cognac were on the tray. I took it into the drawing-room and put it down. There wasn’t anyone there. I went out on to the terrace to see if Lois was there, but I didn’t find her, so I went along to the study and called through the window to Jimmy to tell him the coffee was in the drawing-room. I didn’t hurry back. It was all being pretty grim.” She paused, stiffening herself against a shudder. She had on a warm frieze coat, but nothing warmed her. The cold came from within. It was her mind and her heart that shuddered.
Antony said, “Go on.”
“Yes-I will. After a bit I came up to the drawing-room window and looked in. They were all there. Jimmy was in his usual chair. His coffee was on the table beside him. He took it up and drank it off the way he always does. Lois had hers in her hand. She was going over to her chair by the window. Minnie was over by the fireplace. Ellie was near the window. I didn’t want to go in. I said to Ellie, ‘Get off to bed early, darling. I’m going for a turn.’ I went down through the garden and across the fields. It was a lovely evening and I just didn’t want to go in. I don’t know if it would have made any difference if I had.” The shudder came again.