“And when will that be? I hope you’ll give me the chance more often to become better acquainted. You find I’m the best fellow in the world.”
“It’s entirely up to you whether we become friends or not. So far I’ve only asked you one thing, and that you refused.”
“But I gave him the ring!”
“The ring … oh, that was such an age ago I’d already forgotten about it. I asked you to tell me the full story of Maloney’s death.”
I repeated what I knew about his nightly training sessions, that I’d actually heard him fall, and had stood over the body.
“Tell me … just before it happened, had there been some sort of scene, between him and the Earl?”
“No. I know for certain that the Earl never spoke more than ten words to Maloney.”
Which was true, in the literal sense. The message sent via Osborne was a different matter. But I didn’t want to reveal that I knew about Maloney’s machinations. I was taking care not to drink too much and lose control over what I should or should not be saying.
She changed her tactics. Her face and posture took on a softer expression and she embarked on a longer story.
“I’ve already told you, on the way to Chester, that the Earl was once my closest friend. No one knows him as well as I do, and perhaps no one will ever love him as much. And, just lately, I know things have been happening to him, horrible, dreadful things … they want to kill him … but of course you know that. The most awful thing about it is that the Earl won’t do anything to protect himself. Only two people know who is trying to kill him: the Earl and myself. And he doesn’t do anything, I feel it’s my duty to save him. I would very much like you to help me. I gather you hold the Earl in high regard … ”
“Yes, I’d do anything to ensure his safety. Tell me more.”
But I didn’t trust her for a moment. Even if I hadn’t known so much about her accomplice Maloney I would not have believed a word she said. One reason was that she was speaking like an automaton, in a cold, remote, inhuman voice. The other was that she was so very beautiful.
Nothing brings out my pessimism and distrust more than feminine allure. Were I a dictator I’d have all such women locked up. It would make the world a far more peaceful place.
“Now listen to me, Doctor,” she went on. “You may think that what I’m about to tell you is sheer fantasy. Or you may already know about it. There must be, either in that house or its environs, someone … some being, totally mysterious and impossible to name … or some person who knows how to make himself … how to exploit all the powers of superstition … to make himself unknowable and unapproachable. Maloney wrote to me about a mad peasant who started prophesying, and about some strange old man who was seen one night. The poor lad couldn’t have imagined at the time … Doctor, I am convinced he was the one who killed Maloney.”
I pushed back my chair and stared at her in astonishment. Yes, I too had concluded that the mysterious night rider had been the one who threw Maloney from the balcony. And I had actually seen him, if only for a moment …
But I had never revealed this to anyone, apart from Cynthia. How could Eileen St Claire know of it?
For just a moment, the temptation to trust her and tell her all I knew was exceedingly strong. But I conquered it, and said nothing.
“Too late,” she remarked. “It’s no use putting that silly face on now. You’ve just shown me that you do know about it. It’s all I needed.”
“I can’t deny I also saw the old man beside the lake. But I don’t see what he’s got to do with the rest of it.”
“Because it was him. He was the one who killed Maloney, and who’s trying to kill the Earl. And I happen to know who he is, behind his disguise. If you help me, we can expose him.”
“How, exactly?”
“Your evidence is necessary to neutralise him. Give it in writing, before witnesses, that you saw someone in disguise on the balcony Maloney fell from.”
It was uncanny … How could she know I had seen him?
But I saw what she was up to. The trap had been set with consummate skill. Her request gave every impression of being made in the Earl’s best interest, and quite probably I might have been taken in had Maloney not spoken out so rashly on that last night; if he hadn’t betrayed the fact that he was one of those trying to stop the Earl getting possession of the Roscoe legacy; and if he hadn’t invited me to join them.
“I’m sorry, I can’t write anything of the sort without asking for the Earl’s consent. Since it’s his life at stake, he’s the most competent person to decide, in the last analysis.”
“Well, if you don’t want us to save his life, or if you don’t want to do it this way … ”
“I must in any case discuss it with him first.”
For a moment she was at a loss.
“But he won’t give his consent. He won’t let the police interfere in his affairs. He’s too proud for that … but yet, we have to save him.”
She stood up, and placed her hand on my shoulder. Her breasts were almost brushing against my cheek. I think the closeness of that body would have roused the passions of a mummy.
I held her round the waist and pulled her to me.
“Do believe me,” she murmured. “You do trust me, don’t you?” (stroking my hair).
At this point the mummy would most certainly have assured her of his undying trust. But inside me that quirky little devil which is stronger than all my other instincts, and which every so often makes me do the most surprising things, was beginning to stir.
“I don’t trust you one little bit,” I said, tenderly but with absolute firmness. “I know the whole story. I know that you too are interested in the Roscoe legacy.”
She immediately pushed me away.
“What do you know about all that?” she asked, with a laugh.
I got up. For a while we stared at each other in silence. Anger did wonders for her looks.
“Go home,” she said.
“I’m going,” I replied. “All the same, wouldn’t it be wiser for us to talk it over calmly?”
“I can’t think what there is to talk about. Just go. Oh … you’re so impudent. I’ve never been quite so disappointed in anyone. You looked such a meek and gentle soul … Who are you, really?” she asked suddenly, her eyes wide open.
“I’m not a detective, I do assure you, and this whole business is really nothing to do with me. I only got involved because of you, and your ring.”
The fear in her voice made me master of the situation. All my timidity vanished, and I drew added strength from the fact that never in my life before had a beautiful woman been afraid of me.
The novelty of the situation made me almost cruel. I must have cut a rather comic figure, rather like Schlesinger the zoo garden hose, who discovered he was really a rattlesnake.
“It might interest you to know,” I said, in my best rattle-snake hiss, “to what extent I am an initiate into these mysteries, and just how much I could harm you if I chose.”
“Harm me?”
“If you’re interested, sit with me here on the sofa and I’ll tell you everything.”
With a gesture of resignation she sat down.
No doubt a psychologist would describe what I did next as pure sadism — the strange ecstasy I felt as I stroked this peerless woman’s body, always aware that her muscles were tense with a rage she could barely choke back, and that she longed to hurl herself at me in all her feline magnificence. But she had no choice other than to submit. She had no other way to find out what, by hook or by crook, she simply had to.
And I told her the little I knew. That Maloney was sent to Llanvygan by the Roscoe heirs, that it was he who took a shot at the Earl, who left the trapdoor open in Pendragon, and who tried to steal the documents by which the Earl could prove that William Roscoe’s fatal illness had been artificially induced … I told her I was aware that she too was part of the conspiracy, and that she had given me the ring to put me under suspicion and divert attention away from Maloney.