Chapter 13 #2
“So I’ll take my leave, before you change your mind and bring out the handcuffs.” Lucy rose, then hesitated, the flippant manner dropping away. “It has to be one of my relatives, doesn’t it?”
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t hold you to blame,” Lucy said wryly. She gestured at the list on the desk. “If that’s what I assume it is, we have enough secrets between us to furnish a dozen motives.”
She left and Alec had peace at last to delve into her family’s secrets. He resumed scanning the list where he had left off, then started at the top again.
“Edward Devenish and his divorcée.” Alec reached for the telephone. “I must put in a call to his pals in Hampshire.”
Tom flipped through his notebook, but Ernie Piper beat him to it. “Hetheridge, Chief, Bill Hetheridge, Danesbury House, Nether Wallop.”
Alec asked the operator to find the number, ring through, and call him back. He went back to the list. “Sir James Devenish, prosecuted for assault and battery for horse-whipping a farmer who shot a fox ravaging his hen-house.”
“Five pounds or sixty days,” said Piper. “He paid, of course. Hefty damages, too.”
“Actual bodily harm, that’s aggravated assault,” said Tom. “He should have done time for that.”
“Brother magistrates on the bench, no doubt, all sympathising with the chastisement of a dastard who dared to shoot a fox. As all his county friends would have heard about it, and he didn’t actually go inside, it’s not much of a secret.
In fact, he’s probably quite proud of himself.
But even if he’d done something he didn’t want known, he’d surely not believe his mother would tell the world. ”
“Ah,” said Tom, “but it shows a propensity to violence, towards people as well as dumb animals, and he gets the London house back, remember. Maybe he wants to sell it. These landowners sometimes get desperate for ready cash.”
“Maybe. I hope we don’t have to go into his financial position. Who’s next? The present Lady Devenish.”
“Josephine Devenish, Chief, but Lady Eva mostly calls her ‘that woman’ in the records. Looks like they didn’t get on.”
“She’s been selling off family heirlooms and giving the proceeds to her son? So young Teddy comes in again.”
“Won’t the stuff be his in the end, anyway?” Piper asked.
“I imagine so, but it’s not yet. It’s certainly not Lady Devenish’s to sell. I don’t know what Lady Eva’s interest in it would be, if any, but Sir James might well kick up a dust if she told him.”
“Wouldn’t he have noticed things disappearing?”
“Judging by what Mrs. Fletcher told us, laddie,” said Tom, “not unless she sold his guns or his fishing rods. But, Chief, if he’s as henpecked as Mrs. Fletcher told us, likely she wouldn’t care if he found out.”
“On the other hand, with theft to hold over her, perhaps he wouldn’t be so hen-pecked. Whether she’d murder her mother-in-law to keep the upper hand with her husband, though …”
“They didn’t get on, Chief,” Piper reminded him. “The two ladies, I mean.”
“It’s still pretty thin, even if you add that misappropriating the family jewels is frowned on in the best circles.
We’ll have to tackle her about it, though.
” As Alec spoke, the telephone bell rang.
He unhooked the receiver. His call to Danesbury House came through, and a moment later he was speaking to an incredulous Bill Hetheridge.
“Scotland Yard? Detective Chief Inspector? You’re pulling my leg. Who is this? Is that you, Freddie?”
“This is Detective Chief Inspector Fletcher,” Alec repeated patiently. “If you doubt it, you may ring up Scotland Yard and enquire as to my credentials, but that would waste our time, both of us, and I’m engaged in a murder investigation.”
“Murder! I say, chaps, listen to this! It’s a detective chappie wants to know about a murder.” A confused noise of several excited voices
came down the wire. “Right-oh, Chief Inspector, fire away! Who’s been murdered? Are we all suspects? How jolly!”
“If that were the case, Mr. Hetheridge, I should be on your doorstep. I’m seeking information about the movements of Mr. Edward Devenish.”
“Haw, haw, haw, he wants to know about Teddy! No, Ginger, you can’t talk to him. I say, Chief Inspector, Teddy’s not here.”
“I’m aware of that. Can you tell me exactly when he left your house?”
“Anyone know when Teddy left last night?” Bill Hetheridge’s companions could be heard arguing, as could the clink of bottle and glass. “Sorry, Chief Inspector, it was after dinner but no one knows exactly when. You might say he did a moonlight flit, didn’t say goodbye to anyone. Who’s he done in?”
“I’m checking on the movements of a large number of people. Why do you suppose Mr. Devenish left without saying goodbye?”
“Hang it all, no suppose about it, haw, haw! Teddy was all broken up, hopes dished, fed up, abso-bally-lutely pipped at the post. You see, the young chump was dashed keen on our Ginger, and she’d been leading him on a bit …
. yes, you did, Ginger, it’s no good denying it.
Persuaded me to invite him, didn’t you?”
“And Miss … er … Ginger handed him his hat?”
“That’s it in a nutshell. Don’t know how you Scotland Yard chappies do it, damned if I do.
What made it worse was, his grandmother told him to stop seeing Ginger, said she’d tell the parents if he didn’t.
You see, he defied the old bird, swore he didn’t care if he was disinherited, and Ginger told him he might not care but she jolly well did and she hadn’t any use for a halfling with empty pockets. Brutal, eh, what? Haw, haw, haw!”
Alec hung up on the sounds of general merriment. “Fatuous ass.”
“Disappointed in love?” Tom asked.
“It’s more complicated than that,” Alec said grimly. “Young Devenish is in the soup right up to his chin.”