The Daughters of Gentlemen (32 page)

‘So you’re saying,’ said Sharrock, some time later, ‘that Mrs Sandcourt is the mother and not the sister of the youngest Matthews lad?’

‘Yes,’ said Frances. ‘There was an unfortunate liaison with Professor Venn. She chose, however, to blame a servant, Daniel Souter, not because of any loyalty to Mrs Venn but because the young man had resisted her blandishments for love of his sweetheart, Daisy. That was her revenge for being spurned.’

‘A cruel revenge,’ said Sharrock.

‘I do not think she anticipated how far her father would go to exact his retribution. The maidservant Matilda was a mother herself by then, and recognised the signs, but soon afterwards the Matthews family went to Italy, and Matilda did not encounter Mrs Sandcourt again until she reappeared as a respectable married woman and patroness of the school. I think that Matilda demanded and got £20 as the price of her silence. Mrs Sandcourt of course cared nothing about the school, but she knew that her patronage would be endorsed by her husband and it gave her some freedom to meet with Theodore Paskall, who was her real interest. Mrs Sandcourt, being married to a much older man, no doubt looked forward to a time when she would be a very wealthy widow and then she may have hoped to marry young Mr Paskall. But I do not believe he cared for her quite as much as she cared for him. I think if you ask Mr Matthews and Mr Paskall you will find that they had thought to unite Mr Theodore to Wilhelmina Danforth to secure her fortune, which will be hers, and therefore her husband’s as soon as she marries. It would also appear, from Mrs Sandcourt’s great anxiety to prevent the match, that he had no great objections to this. Wilhelmina for her part would do as she was told. Only one person might have been able to sway her and that was her cousin Caroline Clare, but she had disappeared.’

‘And she, you said, is Mrs Quayle?’

‘Yes. Matthews engineered a sham wedding, with Mr Paskall playing the part of clergyman. Mary Ann Dunn, out of loyalty to her master, was a witness and kept the secret. Joshua Jenkins was at the point of death and I think they dressed him and carried him to the church. It was dark enough that Mrs Quayle could not see his true condition. He died only hours later. When she discovered what part her supposed husband played in the death of Daniel Souter, she ran away as soon as she was able.’

Sharrock examined some notes. ‘Young Freddie Matthews has just told us that he saw his father go out with a pistol that night. He claims that until now he believed his father not to be guilty of any crime. He is lying about that of course, but I can’t prove it.’ He rubbed his eyes and glanced at his desk drawer, where France suspected was a flask of some medicinal beverage. ‘And you say it was Mrs Quayle who wrote the pamphlets that were put in the school?’

‘She was concerned that Wilhelmina, who was of marriageable age, and due to leave school, might be forced into an unwanted match for her fortune, so she asked her mother, Mrs Gribling, to go to the school bazaar to see if she could find out if her cousin was well and happy. Unexpectedly Mrs Gribling was recognised by Mrs Venn, who addressed her as Mrs Clare, not knowing that she had remarried. Mrs Sandcourt was nearby and overheard the conversation. She later spoke to Mrs Gribling and established a correspondence between herself and Mrs Quayle. She offered to pass on news about Wilhelmina, which of course was very much what Mrs Quayle wanted. It was Mrs Sandcourt who, hoping to prevent Theodore Paskall’s wedding, told Mrs Quayle about the plans to marry off Wilhelmina to a fortune-hunter and asked Mrs Quayle to use her influence to prevent it.’

Sharrock scratched his head. ‘And what was the maidservant’s part in all this?’

‘The pamphlets? Oh, none at all. But Matilda happened to meet Mrs Sandcourt and her sister Lydia and Horace while they were out walking and saw at once what she may already have suspected, that the boy was the son of Professor Venn. To anyone who knew Professor Venn or had seen his portrait the resemblance was very striking. She suggested that Mrs Sandcourt might like to pay her more – she was hoping for a £100.’

‘Now you’re not going to tell me that Mrs Sandcourt strangled the maid?’ said Sharrock dubiously.

‘No, but I think she sent her a letter making an appointment to meet her in secret.’

‘Only someone else kept that appointment?’

‘Yes.’

Sharrock nodded thoughtfully and looked at his notes. ‘There was only one person who had no witness to his movements that night, and who had a reason to protect Mrs Sandcourt’s reputation, and that was her husband,’ he said. ‘I had better pay him a visit.’

Frances fingered a paper in her pocket, a recent message from Tom, which she was not about to show Sharrock. ‘Mr Sandcourt has interests which take him from home and which he does not divulge to his wife,’ she said. ‘No, I think the person Matilda met in Hyde Park was Theodore Paskall. I know that father and son often worked late in the office together and I am sure they would have stood alibi for each other if necessary. And I think that Matilda may have recognised him. Whoever killed her was someone she knew, someone she allowed to approach close to her, even when she was alone and in the dark.’

There was a pause while Sharrock suffered a coughing fit and he opened the box of lozenges again.

‘Try letting the lozenge dissolve in your mouth,’ urged Frances. ‘It will do more good.’

He grimaced. ‘That can’t be right. They taste like coal tar soap.’

‘If you are in the habit of eating coal tar soap then I suggest you desist,’ said Frances.

He put a lozenge in his mouth with obvious distaste. ‘But when had young Paskall and the maid ever met? He had nothing to do with the school.’

‘Young Mr Paskall once described himself as his father’s messenger boy – he had worked for him since he was sixteen and learned the business from the humblest duties upwards. The Paskalls do insurance business with the school. I think he first met Matilda when he came to the door with messages from his father. He might even have been the father of her child, although until she saw him again and realised that he was a man with some prospects in Bayswater it suited Matilda to blame that on Professor Venn and use Mrs Venn’s guilt to extract money from her. I think that when Matilda recognised Mr Paskall junior, she demanded money from him too. The last thing he wanted was a scandal when his father was due to enter parliament, and he knew that Matilda was the kind of blackmailer who would be a leech upon him forever. He decided to kill her. I doubt that he would ever admit it, but you might be able to persuade Mrs Sandcourt to tell the whole story if you can promise that she will not be prosecuted. Somehow, I don’t think she will be too squeamish about sacrificing him. She may not have known that he would stoop to murder – she was certainly very shocked when she learned that Matilda had been killed.’

Sharrock nodded. ‘But what about the attack on Mrs Quayle – she’s been hiding away for years – why try to kill her now?’

‘When the body in the ditch was identified as Harry Clare, and the police came to interview Matthews, he told Paskall about what had happened – in fact I may have witnessed that conversation outside the church on the day after your visit. Mr Paskall would have panicked in case the story of his fakery was exposed, after all, neither of them had realised until then that Harry Clare even knew about the sham wedding, and neither knew if he had told anyone else about it. Paskall probably confessed what he had done to his son, who saw the chances of his father getting into parliament vanish. And of course he very much wanted that for his father, as he would then have the sole charge of the business. With that and marriage to an heiress he would have been very well placed. He didn’t want to wait for Mr Sandcourt to die.’

‘Young Paskall might have murdered Sandcourt,’ observed Sharrock. ‘Then there would have been a fine uproar!’

‘As you say, the death of a wealthy man always comes under very great scrutiny,’ said Frances. ‘No, Mr Paskall junior was content to marry Wilhelmina. But Mrs Quayle had to be dealt with. He attended the inquest on Harry Clare, hoping she would be there. She was not, but he followed her mother, who called in on her daughter before she went home. That was how he found out where she lived. He took his chance and fortunately he did not succeed.’

‘And did Matthews murder Mr Clare? Might as well hang him for one as the other if you can prove it.’

‘I think,’ said Frances, ‘that Harry Clare did come to the manor house, and that he died there, and his body was put in the ditch. But it is quite possible that his death may have been an accident, perhaps the result of a struggle and a fall. I don’t think Matthews is a man who engages in violent combat. Even his shooting of Daniel Souter was not fatal and he was very shaken by it. When he found that Clare was dead, Matthews concealed the body with the help of Mary Ann Dunn.’

‘Hmmph!’ said Sharrock. ‘She has a lot to answer for but no court would convict her – she can always claim she was working under her master’s direction.’

‘It may have been the other way about,’ said Frances. ‘It was very striking that although nothing appeared to have been stolen from the body, such as the money or the watch, something that would have at once told the police that there had been some foul play, all the items on his person that showed he came from America such as his banknotes and invoices, were in his pocketbook and so were protected from the wet, while all the things that might have helped identify him such as his rail ticket and business cards, were loose in his pocket and soaked beyond recognition. That suggests to me that the items were deliberately arranged in that way. The loose items might even have been wetted before they were put in his pockets. The watch was not a distinctive one and quite unmarked. Neither Matthews nor Mary Ann realised its significance. There was one thing that did occur to me, however. I have observed that gentlemen who carry business cards about their person do not keep them loose in their pockets where they might become damaged. They have a little case. Maybe they even have the case engraved. But no such case was found on Harry Clare.’

Sharrock made some notes, then he threw his pencil down on the desk and sat back. ‘I wonder,’ he said.

‘Ask and I may be able to enlighten you,’ said Frances with a smile.

‘Well what I am wondering is this – did Mrs Venn ever suspect that her husband was – er –more friendly than he should have been with one of the schoolgirls? I mean, a maidservant is one thing but the daughter of a gentleman is quite another, so I am told.’

‘I have never asked her that,’ said Frances. ‘She did consider him a possible danger, which was why she had him removed to a sanatorium.’

‘Where, after a few weeks, he demanded to be allowed to return to the school,’ said Sharrock.

‘Oh? I wasn’t aware of that.’

‘Yes, well you don’t know everything, do you? I have recently spoken to a nurse who had charge of Professor Venn during his stay. He was doing very well, I understand, until he died suddenly. Dr Montgomery certified death as due to a sudden paralysis of the heart, but the nurse was not so sure.’

‘You know, of course, the reason he was there,’ said Frances.

‘Oh yes, morphine addict. And on a small dose while in the sanatorium. Not enough to kill him. And I don’t think he died from disease of the heart.’

‘Then what do you believe the cause of death to be?’

‘That is what I am intending to ask Mrs Venn,’ said Sharrock. ‘She walked into the station this morning and confessed to murdering him.’