Death of a Ghost (19 page)

Max went on to talk about the tragedy.

‘Terrible,' he said. ‘Terrible. One of the most useful of women. One cannot assimilate it somehow.'

He sighed with genuine regret.

Campion raised his eyes to find the man regarding him impudently. There was no hiding it; Max was the master of the hour.

‘Useful!' said Donna Beatrice, sitting up. ‘Through all the horror that's the word I've been searching for. Claire was useful.'

‘Poor Potter,' said Campion lamely. ‘He's badly cut up, I'm afraid.'

He broke off awkwardly. Max was looking at him and smiling. His head was a little on one side and his heavily drawn mouth drooped at one end with what was, unmistakably, tolerant amusement.

Outrage, combining as it does shock, anger, reproach, and helplessness, is perhaps the most unmanageable, the most demoralizing of all the emotions. Campion pulled himself together with difficulty and strove consciously to survey the man in front of him with true impartiality, but the thought which stuck most obstinately in his mind was that Max was very sure of himself and must consider himself absolutely safe.

Donna Beatrice copied Max's smile but without meaning, and the effect was rather horrible.

Voices on the stairs ended the nightmare and Campion rose as the Inspector and Belle came in.

It was a tottery little old woman who peered round the room from under her white bonnet. The Belle Darling whom Lafcadio had loved, protected, and leant upon was beaten to her knees by the deluge of horror poured down upon her. Campion looked at her and there rose up in his heart genuine ruthless hatred which took possession of him and gave him back the poise and confidence which had temporarily deserted him.

Belle was leaning on the Inspector, who looked as nearly humanly concerned as Campion had ever seen him.

‘Sit down, ma'am,' he said, using the old-fashioned form of address. ‘Don't worry. Leave that to us. We'll see to everything.'

He caught sight of his friend with relief.

‘I've got to go down to the mor –. I've got to go with Doctor Fettes,' he said. ‘He's waiting for me. I'll leave Mrs Lafcadio with you. See you tomorrow.'

He nodded casually to Max, ignored Donna Beatrice and was gone.

Belle permitted herself to be led to her chair by the fire. Max did not move from the hearth and Campion was shocked to find that it required an absurdly vigorous effort to prevent himself from kicking the exquisite little figure out of the way. From that moment, however, Belle required all his attention.

‘Albert,' she whispered, beckoning him to come closer. ‘Listen.'

He dropped down beside her chair and she laid a little plump hand on his shoulder.

‘I'm worried for Linda. If that child comes home to – to
this
, after the other shock … you see what I mean? See she stays in Paris or else is told before she comes to the house.'

He put up his hand and held hers where it was on her shoulder.

‘I will,' he said. ‘Leave everything to us. You heard what the Inspector said. Leave everything to us.'

Belle's brown eyes grew slowly blurred and the tears rolled down her cheeks.

‘Oh, my dear, if I could. If only I could.'

‘Well, why not, Belle?' Campion was as earnest as he had ever been. The vacuity had vanished from his face, leaving him unexpectedly capable.

Her grip on his shoulder tightened.

‘Albert,' she whispered. ‘Oh, my dear, for pity's sake find out and
stop
it.'

His eyes met hers through her tears.

‘I will,' he said quietly. ‘I will. I promise, Belle.'

Max did not seem to hear this conversation, or if he did he was not interested. He had moved over to the corner cupboard and was examining the useless ivory baton once presented to Wagner.

The following morning when the Inspector came Campion was still in the house, having taken up his quarters in Linda's little suite.

Oates sat down on the window ledge, gathering the skirts of his raincoat about him. He was brisk and practical.

‘The inquest is fixed for twelve o'clock,' he said. ‘Only formal evidence, and a postponement. There's no need for either of us to turn up. I'm waiting for Fettes to see Potter before I put him through it. Care to come?'

Campion signified his grateful acceptance of the favour and enquired after Belle.

‘In bed I hope,' said the Inspector. ‘I got Fettes to insist on it. Then he can trot down to the court and swear that neither she nor Potter is in a fit state to give evidence. There's no point in dragging that poor old lady through the tiresome business again. What's the matter with you, by the way? You look all het up.'

To Campion the night had brought no counsel. He was still undecided on his course of action and never remembered finding himself in a similar quandary. The situation in which he was at once so certain in his mind and so utterly devoid of concrete evidence was mercifully new. Of one thing alone he was sure. The time to confide in the Inspector had not yet arrived.

‘I'm all right,' he said. ‘A bit puzzled, that's all.'

‘You should worry!' Oates spoke grimly. ‘There's hell blowing up in the department. Orders are to get it all cleared up and over quickly. Imagination is a wonderful thing. I wish that darn doctor would turn up.'

In the end Doctor Fettes phoned to say that the P.M. had taken him all night and if he was to get to the inquest on time he could not visit Little Venice first. However, his assistant, Doctor Derrick, a sandy-haired young man with a blue suspicious eye, arrived and pronounced Mr Potter fit for examination.

Campion and the Inspector went into the faded spare bedroom which had housed so many famous folk in the great days when Lafcadio was a lion.

Campion was prepared for a painful experience, but even so the sight which Mr Potter presented as he sat up in the big Italian bed, propped by the glistening pillows, had in it that element of the unexpectedly shocking which is the very essence of embarrassment.

The natural redness of his face had gone, leaving it a network of tiny red veins so that his skin looked like crackle-ware. His eyes had shrunk and become paler, as if they threatened to disappear altogether, and his mouth was loose and piteous. He looked old and frightened to stupidity.

The Inspector stood regarding him gravely and for some seconds it seemed that the man in the bed had not noticed the intrusion. Suddenly he glanced up.

‘The suggestion that I killed my wife is absurd,' he said. He spoke without vehemence or, it seemed, much personal feeling.

Oates cleared his throat.

‘What put such an idea into your head, Mr Potter?' he began cautiously.

For a moment the washed-out eyes rested on the policeman's grey face with contempt.

‘I've been listening to Lisa,' he said shortly. ‘No point now in beating about the bush. No time for conventions, manners, affectations. Too many affectations in my life, anyway. Too many in everybody's life. It's all no good rotten stuff.'

The Inspector shot a sidelong glance at Campion.

‘It's very unfortunate that Miss Capella should have been able to get in to you,' he said sternly. ‘She will probably get into serious trouble.'

If he hoped to shake the man in the bed out of his uncompromising mood by this threat he was disappointed. Mr Potter, normally the kindest of men, shrugged his shoulders.

‘I really can't help it,' he said. ‘I can't help anything. I should like to be left alone.'

‘Now, Mr Potter,' Oates's tone became conciliatory, ‘I do realize that it must be most painful for you to talk now, but the matter is urgent. There are several questions I want to put to you and an explanation I must have. In trying to help you yesterday Miss Capella raised a question which must be cleared up – do you understand?'

The question was an afterthought, for Mr Potter had turned away and was staring out of the window at the speeding sky.

Oates repeated the words and the figure in the bed moved. He looked at his tormentors and with an obvious effort strove to concentrate.

‘I am alone,' he said suddenly. ‘I am quite free. I can go where I like, do what I like. I wish I was dead.'

There was complete silence after he had spoken. Campion felt breathless and the Inspector's eyes contracted. It was very terrible.

Oates deliberated. Finally he shook his head.

‘I must know,' he said. ‘Why did you send a telegram yesterday morning to the Headmaster of Blakenham to say you were in bed, ill?'

Mr Potter looked at him vaguely for a full minute before replying.

‘Other things were important,' he said at last, and then very painstakingly, as though he were treading on new ground, ‘nothing that was important then is important now. Nothing at all is very important now. It was for some trifling reason – I had a lithograph print I was pleased about.' Mr Potter seemed astonished as he remembered. ‘I wanted to show it to someone. I was mad.'

‘Where did you go?' Oates prompted.

‘To Bill Fenner's studio in Putney. We spent all day talking and looking at stuff. I was playing truant, like a child. As if it mattered!'

‘When did you come back?' demanded Oates, making a mental note of the name and district. ‘When you saw me – all of us?'

‘Yes – yes, I think so.' The effort of recollection was clearly difficult and Mr Potter's forehead was furrowed for a moment until his eyes suddenly widened and he looked at the Inspector blankly.

‘No, of course,' he said. ‘Of course, it was yesterday. I came back before, that's how it happened. I understand now.'

‘You came back before?'

‘Yes. About five o'clock. Does it matter?'

The Inspector sat down on the edge of the bed.

‘Try to remember it exactly, sir,' he said. ‘I know it's difficult.'

‘No,' said Mr Potter unexpectedly. ‘No, it's very clear, although it seems a long time ago.' He sat very still and his face worked helplessly. ‘I saw her and I didn't know,' he said. ‘My poor Claire, I didn't know.'

‘You saw her?' The Inspector's quiet echoes gently forced the man to keep to the story.

‘She must have been dead then,' whispered Mr Potter. ‘When I came in the first time I saw her lying there, the glass at her feet, and I didn't know. Even then …' His voice trailed away.

The Inspector's eyes snapped.

‘The glass at her feet? We found no glass there.'

‘I washed it out and put it back in the cupboard,' said Mr Potter simply.

‘Why?' There was something very like stupefaction in the Inspector's face.

‘More affectation,' said Mr Potter. ‘Another thing that didn't matter. Polite fiction. It's all silly trumpery stuff … no real point in it.'

‘Why did you wash out the glass?' the Inspector persisted.

‘It was Thursday,' said Mr Potter. ‘At a quarter to seven on Thursdays Mrs Lafcadio always comes … came … down to the studio to ask my wife and me to dinner. I knew it was no use trying to rouse poor Claire, but I thought if Mrs Lafcadio did not see the glass the evidence of – of my wife's condition would not be so apparent. So I sluiced it out and replaced it in the cupboard. Then, as there seemed nothing else I could do, I hurried out, hoping no one had seen me. I see now how idiotic it was. It didn't matter what I did.'

The Inspector, who had taken out his notebook now, sat, his pencil poised and an odd expression in his eyes. Campion caught his thought and the recollection of the curious scene in the dining-room after the reception came back to him.

He saw the bright interior, the straight brown legs in the sensible shoes sticking out across the picture framed by the doorway, and Mr Potter's nervous attempts to keep the Inspector and himself outside. The whole mystery concerning the man's early visit to the studio became suddenly clear.

The Inspector braced himself. To officials facts are facts and must be treated as such.

‘When you saw Mrs Potter how did she look? Where was she?'

‘She was lying face downward on the divan, half sitting, her body twisted so that her face was hidden.' Mr Potter spoke with a sort of wonderment, as though his mind were concerned with essential things far removed from the trivial matters he related.

‘Weren't you surprised to see her like that?'

Mr Potter roused himself with an effort.

‘I couldn't have told you this yesterday,' he said, ‘because yesterday it seemed a serious matter, but now it seems so small. My wife frequently drank enough alcohol in one draught to render her completely unconscious for some time. I think it took effect very quickly. It was a form of drugging, I suppose. If anything upset her too much … I mean, if she suddenly found she could not bear anything … she used to do that. I remember it worried me, I was frightened by it and … God forgive me … shocked. It seems ridiculous now. Why shouldn't she?'

‘So when you saw Mrs Potter lying on the divan you thought she was … you thought that was what had happened and were not alarmed?'

Oates was speaking with unexpected gentleness and it occurred to Campion that he must share his own curious feeling that Mr Potter was living in a new stark world in which there were very few familiar landmarks.

‘Yes,' said Mr Potter. ‘I thought she was drunk.'

‘So you took the glass away so that Mrs Lafcadio should not see it, possibly examine it, and guess what was the matter?'

The man in the bed laughed. It was a strange sound, having in it nothing of the melodramatic but a percentage of pure derision.

‘Yes. Asinine.'

‘Why did you wash the glass?'

‘I –' Mr Potter looked at his persecutor and unexpectedly his eyes brimmed over with tears. ‘We had an arrangement about the incidental housework. We each washed up and tidied up as it occurred. I rinsed out the glass naturally and stood it on the shelf to drain. I couldn't put it away dirty.'