Chapter Twenty-Eight #2
“He had a great many—acquaintances, and I’m afraid he seems to have”—what was the tactful word?
—“to have affronted most of them. The sheer number is sufficient reason for our slow progress, added to the public nature of the scene of the crime. If we understood his behaviour, it might help us understand the mind of the murderer. Will you tell me about him?”
Sir James looked up for the first time. His faraway gaze seemed to pass through the detectives, beyond the stable yard, across his broad acres, and into the past.
“His mother claimed he was fragile and cosseted him. She and his older sisters indulged him, spoiled him. I assumed he’d grow out of it.
He did grow stronger. I tried to take him in hand, but he had no interest in manly sports, no interest in the land his ancestors farmed for centuries, that would have been his one day.
” He sounded incredulous and the face he turned to Alec was bewildered.
“Difficult to know what to do,” Alec murmured.
“If he’d had an intellectual bent, if he’d wanted to go to a university, I’d have let him, though I believe a young man in his position learns more that’s useful right at home on the estate.
But he wasn’t interested in his studies.
The only thing he had a spark of interest in was flummery like poetry and painting.
All very well for girls, though most of them have more sense these days.
Edward wouldn’t even settle to one of those!
He wrote little, painted a little, played the piano a little … Tchah!”
“A would-be Renaissance man, sir?”
“A dabbler! And didn’t those fellows include swordplay among their skills? Edward wouldn’t know—wouldn’t have known the hilt from the blade. I should have put my foot down and made him stick to something. But what?”
“Difficult to know,” Alec agreed.
“I let him go to London. Sow a few wild oats, I thought, then you can get serious. Next thing I know, he’s hanging on the skirts of a divorcée ten years his elder! Maybe you remember that, Chief Inspector. It was at the time of my mother’s death.”
“I do.” Alec clearly remembered trying to get hold of the divorcée and her rowdy entourage to confirm Teddy Devenish’s alibi.
“He went straight back to her before his grandmother was in her grave. That was too much even for my wife. When he refused to give the woman up, I washed my hands of him. Not that it called him to heel, of course, as Mother left everything to him. Nothing I’ve heard of him since suggests any amendment in his character.
” He dashed a hand across his eyes. “So much for the glorious career of my son and heir,” he said harshly. “Enough?”
“Thank you, sir.”
“I can’t see how it’ll help you lay hands on … his killer.”
“Nor can I at present. All I can say is that, put together with a great deal of other information, it may at least speed things up. Don’t worry, sir, we’ll catch him.” Alec stood up, Ernie following suit.
Sir James heaved himself to his feet, leaning with both hands on the desk. “You don’t suppose Edward was killed by that woman’s ex-husband, or a jealous lover of hers?”
“That was four years ago, sir,” Alec protested. “We’ve come across no sign Mr. Devenish was still in touch with her.”
“You’re sure?”
“Pretty sure. I can’t recall her name, though. Can you?”
“No. My wife— No, we mustn’t remind her of that dreadful time. She has enough to bear. You don’t want to see her, do you?”
“I spoke to Lady Devenish in town, thank you. We’ll be off, then.”
“Thank you for coming. I’m afraid I was growing rather impatient. I realise you’re doing everything possible and having seen you work at Haverhill, I’m glad you’re in charge, Chief Inspector. Do you mind showing yourselves out? You can go through this door to the yard and round to your motor.”
As they crossed the stable yard, Alec looked back and, through the window, saw him slumped at the desk, one hand covering his face.
“Whew!” said Ernie. “That was all right. I thought we were sent to have our knuckles rapped.”
“We were lucky.”
“What a waste of time, though, half a day on the road for half an hour’s chat.”
“Not entirely a waste of time.” He ought to have talked to Sir James sooner. Mackinnon’s report had been excellent, but the baronet had not been nearly as frank to the Scot. Somehow, knowing what made Teddy tick ought to make it easier to understand the murderer.
A couple of horses whickered at them as they passed; a stable hand glanced out from a stall and waved a sort of salute, without a pause in his whistling.
Everything was was spotless, the cobbles wet from a recent washing.
Alec wondered what would happen to the place without a direct heir to keep it going.
An archway led on to a back drive, which they followed round the house to the front.
“You drive, Ernie.”
“Right, Chief. D’you think there’s anything in the divorcée business?”
“A jealous lover from the past? It doesn’t seem at all likely. I suppose we’d better find out her name and do a bit of digging. As if we need any more suspects!”
“I know her name: Rendell. Called herself Mrs. Genevieve Rendell so I don’t know her husband’s first name.”
Alec frowned. “Does any Rendell, male or female, turn up in any of our lists?”
“No. But a lover—”
“Don’t waste time over it for the present. If we come to a dead end, we’ll take another look. We’re not desperate yet.”
“You reckon this Clark bloke, Chief?”
“I reckon he’s our first priority, if only because of the possibility of danger to his brother. But I’m not losing sight of the Russians.”