The Case Of William Smith (18 page)

And if she could have killed me then and there she’d have done it,’ said William cheerfully.

They were driving back to the Cedar House through the early afternoon — mild, grey weather, and everything very peaceful.

‘Where do you suppose she’s gone?’ said Katharine.

‘Back to town to beat up Brett, I should think. She just pushed herself into a fur coat, new and quite expensive, and a small car, ditto. I suppose she’s got rooms or something?’

‘A flat. Rather a nice one, I believe. I should think Cyril’s been paying the rent.’ She laughed and said, ‘That’s gossip.’

‘Whose?’

‘Brett’s.’

William looked straight in front of him, frowning.

‘How does she stand with Brett these days?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘You don’t think she told him she’d seen me? I didn’t think so myself, but — well, I don’t know.’

Katharine said quickly, ‘Oh, no, she couldn’t have.’

‘Why?’

‘Because he went on asking me to marry him.’ She laughed a little. ‘You needn’t worry, darling — he isn’t in love with me, and never has been. I think he just thought I’d do nicely to settle down with.’

‘You say he went on asking you. Do you mean after Mavis saw me?’

‘Oh, yes. He wrote to me just after that, and he rang me up — well, actually it was the night before we were married. I don’t know how he found out where I was. So, you see, Mavis couldn’t have told him about seeing you.’

William fell into a dead silence for the best part of a mile. Then he said,

‘I think the business is in a pretty fair mess. Cyril has obviously got the wind up, and Mavis was uncommon anxious to make him hold his tongue. I didn’t press him — I thought we’d better get the family reunion part of it over first. But he had a bit of a breakdown and said one or two rather odd things.’

‘What sort of things?’

‘Well, I should think there’s been some funny business about your money, because he blattered out something about Brett wanting to marry you and that would have made it all right, and then something about Mavis saying so. It was all muddled up, you know, because the poor chap rather went to pieces, but I got the impression that Mavis had been pretty keen on the idea of Brett putting things square by marrying you.’

Katharine’s colour brightened dangerously.

‘Kind of him, and of her! But I kept on saying no.’

William didn’t take any notice of that.

‘The thing is, I got the idea that Mavis had gone on being keen right up to the present moment. Cyril rather put it forward to show that she couldn’t have recognised me when I went to see her in December, because if she had she wouldn’t have been pressing Brett to marry you.’

She made a quick angry sound.

‘William, I shall scream if you go on talking as if I was something on a bargain-basement counter waiting to be picked up!’

He gave a fleeting grin, put out a hand and patted her, and was sober again.

‘She certainly did recognize me, but she must have known that I didn’t recognize her. Well, she had my address. She’d make enquiries, and she’d hear all about William Smith having lost his memory. I wonder if she came along on the night of December the seventh and pushed Mr, Tattlecombe under that car — not as Mr. Tattlecombe of course, but thinking it was me. You see, she didn’t know what he looked like, or anything about him. She may just have been meaning to give the layout a onceover. Or she may have had some kind of a plan for getting me to come out. And then the door opens and someone does come out — right size, hair looking the right colour with the light shining from behind—’ He paused and added cheerfully, ‘I wonder how long it was before she found out that she hadn’t bumped me off.’

Katharine didn’t say anything at all. William went on again.

‘It’s all theory of course, but it might quite easily have been that way. I’m practically sure there’s been some funny business with the accounts. Well, my coming back would mean a show-down. It must have been an awful shock when I walked in on William Smith’s appointment. I’ll say this for the Jones, she didn’t bat an eyelid. But the position would be fairly grim. First line of defence my loss of memory. No depending on it. Anyone might recognize me, and once you start bumping into people you’re apt to go on. If Brett could get you to marry him, that would be a second line. They’d reckon on my not wanting to make things difficult for you, and if I happened to meet with an accident, there wouldn’t ever be any question about the marriage.’

‘William, I said I’d scream, and I will! I wouldn’t have married Brett ever.’

‘But they weren’t to know that,’ said William reasonably. ‘He’s always been considered a very fascinating chap.’

At about this time Miss Silver was entering the cold, hygienic precincts of St. Luke’s Hospital in company with Sergeant Abbott, who had invited her over the telephone in the following terms,

‘The Chief says I can take you along if you don’t mind being a friend of the deceased.’

After rather passing from hand to hand, they found themselves in the brisk and businesslike presence of the Sister to whose ward Mr. Davies had been carried on the night of his accident. To her were presently added a couple of student nurses, one of whom had been on day and the other on night duty during the few hours that elapsed before he died. All three concurred in saying that Mr. Davies had uttered nothing more intelligible than a groan.

Frank Abbott got to his feet. The prettier of the two nurses looked at him admiringly. He said,

‘Well, thank you very much, Sister.’

Miss Silver coughed.

‘What about the patients on either side of him in the ward?’

The Sister’s gracious smile of dismissal chilled off.

‘I am afraid they would not be of any help to you. You see, the screens were round his bed, and as you have heard, he was unconscious.’

‘Perhaps if you will be so good as to let me have their names and addresses, just for my own satisfaction — ’

‘Oh, certainly, but I am afraid — the man on the right died on the following day. Yates, on the other side, is still with us. As a matter of fact he goes out tomorrow. He had rather a severe relapse.’

Miss Silver looked at Sergeant Abbott in a pointed manner, and he obliged.

‘Perhaps if we could just see this man Yates — ’

They found Mr. Yates, a friendly talkative Cockney, quite disposed for company. They were presently left with him, and after a few preliminaries he was asked whether he remembered an accident case in the next bed on December the seventh.

‘Acourse I do. It’s me leg that’s been bad, not me ’ead. Only in for a few hours, poor bloke. Old gentleman like ’im hadn’t got no business dodging around in front of cars after dark — see? The h’eye isn’t quick enough — see? You get flummoxed and down you go. Pity.’

‘Did he say anything at all?’

‘The screens was round his bed,’ said Mr. Yates. ‘Always know a bloke’s going to pop off when they puts the screens round him. Started doing it to me once, but I soon put ’em to rights. It was that little red-headed nurse — pretty gal. And I says to her, “You put those screens round me, and I’ll knock ’em over — see?” She says, “Oh, Yates!” and I says, “Don’t you Oh, Yates me! There wasn’t no one to put screens round when I was born. Eight in a room we was, and if I’m a-going to die I can do it just as well in a crowd as being born — see? Only I ain’t a-going to die, and you can go and tell Sister so with my love.” So she says, “Oh, Yates!” again and goes for Sister. But I never ’ad no screens.’

Miss Silver leaned forward.

‘A very commendable spirit,’ she said. ‘Mr. Yates, are you quite sure that poor Mr. Davies didn’t say anything?’

Yates put his head one one side. He had a little puckered monkey face. His eyes were dancing bright.

‘Well, there wasn’t nothing you could call a message, if that’s what you’re looking for.’

Miss Silver inclined her head graciously.

‘Just anything you heard him say, Mr. Yates — even if it was only a word or two.’

‘Well, it wasn’t nothing really. I shouldn’t ’ave heard it only my leg was bad and I couldn’t seem to get off. There was a bloke down at the far end of the ward playing up, and Nurse trying to settle ’im, when I heard the old bloke behind the screens call out. Not loud — see? “Joan,” he said — leastways that’s what it sounded like.’

‘Joan, or Jones?’ said Miss Silver.

‘I dunno — might ’ave been either — you pays your money and you takes your choice. If ’e’d got anyone belonging to ’im name of Joan, then you can take it it was Joan. And if ’e’d got anyone belonging to ’im name of Jones, then you can take it it was Jones. It might just as well ’ave been one as the other. So if it’s going to be any comfort to anyone, you’d better make up your mind which way you want it to be and stick to it — see?’

Miss Silver coughed.

‘What else did he say?’

Mr. Yates nodded brightly.

‘Said she didn’t believe ’im — jus’ like that. — “She didn’t believe me.” ’ He puckered up the whole of one side of his face in a monkey grin. ‘Coo lumme, I could ’ave told ’im that! Waste of time thinking up lies to tell ’em. ’Orrid unbelieving minds women’s got. So I says, “Never mind, chum,” I says, “you just take it easy.” And ’e says, “She pushed me.” “She didn’t ought to have done that, chum,” I says, and ’e gives a kind of a groan and starts muttering. And bimeby ’e stops and I can’t ’ear nothing, so when Nurse comes along I tells ’er. “I think ’e’s gone,” I says, and so ’e was.’

Frank Abbott said, ‘Did you tell anyone he’d spoken to you?’

Mr. Yates shook his head.

‘Nobody arst me. And next day I ’ad my h’operation, and after that I was crool bad.’

Emerging upon the street, Frank Abbott said,

‘It’s about as much good as a sick headache so far as evidence goes, but I suppose one might describe it as local colour.’

Miss Silver shook her head.

‘I should not advise your describing it in that manner to Chief Detective Inspector Lamb.’

William and Katharine came back to Rasselas Mews on the Sunday night. Katharine could hardly believe that they had been away for something less than thirty-six hours. So much, so very much, had happened in that short, strange space of time. She was Katharine Eversley again, for one thing. There was a strangeness in that. To come back to the name of her girlhood, to the name of the bride of that last year before the war, and to the name which she had borne through the bitter years of widowhood, and to come back to it with the bitterness all gone and happiness flooding in — this in itself made the day before yesterday seem like something which had been left behind a long time ago.

There was a parcel on the doorstep at the top of the flight of twelve steps which led to the front door. William stubbed his toe against it in the dark. They took it into the sitting-room, and found a cardboard box wrapped in brown paper. When the paper was removed a two-pound jar appeared. It was labelled Apple Honey, and it had a scrap of paper tied round the neck on which was written in an upright, old-fashioned hand, ‘With kind regards — Abigail Salt.’

Katharine said, ‘How frightfully good of her. It’s the same as she gave us for tea when we went there, and we said how nice it was. We’ll have some tomorrow.’

William said, ‘All right. I say, it’s twelve o’clock! Get off to bed! I’ll just put the car away. A bit of luck, there being room for it here. I should hate to have to trail back from Ellery Street.’

Katharine put the apple honey away.

They had decided that they must go to business as usual on Monday morning. With Brett an uncertain quantity, seven years’ arrears of business waiting, and a visit to his solicitor imperative since whether actually alive or not, he was legally dead, William could still feel and say that Mr. Tattlecombe must come first.

‘There’s a very nice chap, a friend of Ernie’s — I’ve been wanting to get hold of him for some time. He’s a good salesman, and I think he’d suit Mr. Tattlecombe down to the ground. The business he’s in has just changed hands, and I don’t think he cares about the new people. If I could bring the old man round to thinking what an acquisition he’d be, it would soften the blow a bit — I’m afraid it is going to be a blow. Well, that’ll just about take up the morning. Then, I think, we’ll get the rest of the day off. I’ll have to get the legal side going. Is Mr. Hall still in the firm?’

‘Oh, yes.’

‘Then that ought to make it all quite easy. You can ring up from the shop and make an appointment, and we’ll go along together. Then there’s Brett. I suppose someone will have broken it to him by then.’

‘Mavis might — ’

‘Cyril’s bound to have done something about it, I expect. They’ll both be at the office.’

‘William — there’s Miss Silver — ’

‘Well, you can ring her up now before we start. She lives at the address you’ve got, doesn’t she — it’s not just an office?’

They were having breakfast. There was a pleasant smell of coffee and bacon. Katharine began to get up, but was pulled back again.

‘Not a step till you’ve finished what’s on your plate! Cold bacon is about the nastiest food on earth. Five minutes isn’t going to make any difference to Miss Silver.’

The bacon finished and the coffee drunk, 15 Montague Mansions was rung up. Miss Silver expressed herself as highly gratified at the return of Mr. William Eversley’s memory.

‘It should certainly simplify matters. And you say Mr. Cyril Eversley and his daughter have recognised him? That is all to the good.’

Katharine said, ‘Miss Silver — ’

‘Yes, my dear?’

‘Miss Silver, Cyril’s secretary — that Miss Jones who saw William when he called on the firm in December — he’s married her.’

Miss Silver said, ‘Dear me!’

‘I suppose I ought to have seen it coming, but I didn’t think he’d be such a fool.’

Miss Silver coughed.

‘It is never safe to rely on that with a gentleman — especially in the case of a secretary. They are so much thrown together, and he had probably come to depend on her.’

‘Oh, she’d got him completely under her thumb — you could see that. But she couldn’t quite manage to make him say he didn’t recognise William, so she lost her temper and flung off to town in her new car — a wedding present, I suppose.’

There was a little more talk. Miss Silver said,

‘I would like to see you both. Would some time today be possible?’

Katharine hesitated, half looked over her shoulder at William, who shook his head, and turned back again.

‘I don’t know — I’m afraid not. We’ve got to see Mr. Tattlecombe and our solicitor — and William will have to see his cousins. Perhaps I — ’

Miss Silver said firmly, ‘I think it is important that I should see Mr. William Eversley.’

‘I don’t know — perhaps this evening — ’ She looked round again, caught William’s nod, and went on. ‘About half-past eight, unless anything unforeseen turns up — is that all right?… Goodbye, and thank you very much.’

William had a teasing look.

‘What did you mean by something unforeseen turning up?’

All at once Katharine wished she hadn’t said it. It came echoing back on her like sound out of a dark cave. She didn’t like it. She was quite pale as she said,

‘I don’t know.’

William said cheerfully, ‘We must take care not to get run over,’ and she didn’t like that either. Then he kissed her and said they were going to be late if they didn’t hurry.