The Dying of the Light: A Mystery (15 page)

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Authors: Michael Dibdin

BOOK: The Dying of the Light: A Mystery

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Rosemary gave a refined shrug.

‘That’s up to you, Inspector. Personally speaking, I wouldn’t have thought that it would have made a very favourable impression. At all events, I take it that you are no longer proposing to “do” me for murder.’

Jarvis stared blankly at her for a moment, then abruptly burst out laughing.

‘Don’t tell me you fell for it!’

Rosemary flushed.

‘I beg your pardon?’

Jarvis sat down on the seat and slapped Rosemary’s knee familiarly.

‘You really believed I was going to arrest you, didn’t you?’

‘I must admit you sounded awfully convincing,’ she replied.

Jarvis nodded.

‘So did you, Miss Travis, when you told me if I left without speaking to Mrs Hargreaves then you’d be the next to die. I didn’t believe you really were in danger, of course, but just a moment there I thought that
you
did. Well, now I’ve got my own back!’

Rosemary looked him in the eye.

‘I meant exactly what I said, Inspector.’

Jarvis waved Dorothy’s letter in her face.

‘You can’t have it both ways! You now admit you knew all along that Mrs Davenport hadn’t been murdered, so why on earth should you think you would be?’

Rosemary shook her head.

‘You weren’t paying attention, Inspector. You heard what you wanted to hear, not the actual words that were spoken. That’s why people fail to guess the solution to detective stories, even though they’ve been given all the clues.’

‘You told me you would be the next to die,’ insisted Jarvis. ‘Those were your very words.’

‘And you assumed that by “die” I meant “be murdered.” ’

Jarvis narrowed his eyes.

‘You mean … You meant …’

Rosemary nodded.

‘If it had come to that, yes. I couldn’t let Dorothy’s sacrifice go for nothing.’

Jarvis looked at her.

‘I believe you would, too.’

Rosemary smiled.

‘But fortunately for both of us,’ she said, ‘it didn’t come to that. Dot meant well, but she was always a bit vague when it came to working out the details of the plot. Left to my own devices, I’d have led you a merry old dance! As it was, of course, I had to improvise. There was no time to attempt anything really interesting.’

Jarvis got out his notebook.

‘Right then, let’s have it from the beginning.’

Rosemary groaned.

‘Must we, Inspector? I must confess that my heart always sinks at the prospect of the scene where All Is Explained.’

‘There has to be one, though, doesn’t there?’

Rosemary nodded resignedly.

‘Very well, I shall try and be as concise as possible.’

Jarvis licked his pencil.

‘It was still early when I discovered Dorothy’s body,’ Rosemary began, ‘but I knew it would not be long before people were up and about, so I had to work quickly. First I went downstairs to the study and added some of that blue liqueur to the remnants of the morphine syrup.’

‘How did you know it was there?’ prompted Jarvis.

‘Miss Davis used to drink cocktails made with different-coloured liqueurs, including a blue one, arranged in layers. I don’t know how she managed to stop them all getting mixed up …’

‘Back of a spoon. One of Tomkins’s party tricks. They should get together, that pair. Talk about a marriage made in hell.’

‘I then washed out the miniature spirit bottles which Dorothy had drunk from and replaced them in their wooden case,’ Rosemary went on.

‘Why not just throw them away?’

‘Someone might have noticed if the set had been missing, but it was very unlikely that anyone would bother to check whether the bottles still had their original contents or not. After that I ground up some sleeping tablets and added the powder to the dregs of her cocoa. Finally, I crept into Mr Purvey’s room, removed one of his syringes and left part of the plastic wrapping on the floor near the head of Dorothy’s bed.’

Jarvis whistled quietly.

‘With her still in it?’

‘I was acting as Dorothy’s executor, Inspector. She had given me my instructions. How could I not have carried them out to the best of my ability?’

‘Go on,’ said Jarvis above the sound of his scribbling pencil.

‘At length Dorothy’s absence was remarked and the alarm raised. My principal concern, of course, was to ensure that no one tampered with the items of evidence I had prepared. To that end I refused to leave Dorothy’s room until the police arrived. Miss Davis tried to remove me, but I made such a fuss that in the end she gave up and left me there. I took advantage of this to stage a brief conversational exchange for the benefit of Mr Channing next door. My voice is deep enough to do a passable imitation of Anderson, particularly when muffled by the wall. My purpose in all this was to provide clues for your officers to collect when they arrived. In the event, however, they made no attempt to speak to any of the residents, let alone Channing, and even failed to notice the medicine and the cocoa by Dorothy’s bed until I pointed them out.’

She turned round, pointing to the other policeman, who was now prancing about on the gravel yelling, ‘Assume the position, motherfucker!’ at his shadow on the car.

‘Tell me, Inspector, why does your colleague try and conceal his myopia by wearing those ridiculous shaded glasses?’

Jarvis shook his head.

‘Don’t ask,’ he sighed.

‘I only mention the matter because it’s so very dispiriting to have to bring the finer points of one’s work to people’s attention,’ Rosemary went on. ‘Even once I’d got him to notice the morphine bottle and the mug of cocoa, your colleague didn’t seem capable of grasping their significance until I explained it to him. As for the wrapping from the syringe, I dropped a brooch right beside it and got him to pick it up for me to save my bad back and he
still
didn’t see it. In the end I retrieved it myself and replaced it before you arrived. I knew that once the morphine and the cocoa had been analysed someone was bound to come to question me about the allegations I’d made. I just hoped it would be someone of a rather higher calibre – as happily proved to be the case.’

She smiled graciously at Jarvis.

‘As soon as we met, Inspector, I sensed that you were someone who would respond to a challenge. I therefore proceeded by indirection, continually insisting that the murderer must be one of the residents and refusing to consider the Andersons as possible suspects, despite the evidence against them which I kept bringing to your notice. I also deliberately avoided any mention of the syringe, even though the prescribed dose of morphine clearly wouldn’t have been enough to kill Dorothy. I thought you would enjoy thinking that you’d outwitted me there.’

Jarvis had stopped making notes. He opened his mouth to say something, then shook his head.

‘Once you had gone upstairs to see Channing,’ Rosemary continued, ‘I had to find some way of distracting the Andersons’ attentions while you spoke to the others. I took a chance and approached Mrs Hargreaves, who had been unexpectedly kind to me the day before. She gamely agreed to create a diversion by breaking out and hiding in the grounds. Miss Davis assaulted her violently when she found her, and warned her of even more brutal reprisals if she said anything to you, but despite her origins I’m glad to say that Mavis proved to be an absolute brick. She produced the story I had taught her about the cocoa, and luckily you believed her.’

Jarvis folded up his notebook and put it away in his pocket together with Dorothy’s letter.

‘I did what?’ he inquired urbanely.

Rosemary eyed him.

‘Well, you
did
, didn’t you?’

Jarvis laughed.

‘My dear Miss Travis, you surely don’t think that a police officer of twenty years’ experience can be deceived by such moonshine? This isn’t one of your detective stories where some old lady runs rings round Inspector Clod. This is real life.’

Rosemary assumed a politely quizzical expression.

‘But you arrested them, didn’t you?’

‘Yes, on charges of cruelty and neglect arising from what I’d learned about conditions here at the Lodge,’ Jarvis returned.

‘You didn’t need to wait for Mavis’s testimony to do that!’

‘No, but once Anderson had overheard her trying to frame him and his sister, I
had
to act. What would have happened if I’d left her there? That pair would have beaten her within an inch of her life, wouldn’t they?’

Rosemary nodded.

‘But if you knew all along that the whole thing was a hoax, why did you get so fearfully cross when Mavis refused to confirm her earlier testimony just now? For that matter, why come at all?’

Jarvis smiled at her.

‘I came to see you,’ he said.

‘Me?’

He nodded.

‘I just dropped by to see how you were getting on.’

Rosemary looked flustered.

‘But you seemed so angry!’ she protested. ‘All that business about feeling like a clockwork toy.’

Jarvis laughed.

‘You’re not the only one who can play a part, Miss Travis!’

Rosemary fixed him with a cool stare.

‘Well, anyway, it comes to the same thing in the end.’

She bit her lip.

‘Do you think it
is
the end, Inspector?’

Jarvis rubbed his forehead.

‘Well, I don’t know. You’ve left me quite a little pile of loose ends to sort out, one way and another. But certainly you won’t be seeing Anderson or his sister again, if that’s what you mean.’

Rosemary shook her head minimally.

‘I was thinking of Dorothy.’

‘Sorry?’

Rosemary shook her head impatiently.

‘Never mind. I was talking to myself, really.’

Jarvis blushed furiously.

‘You mean do I believe in an afterlife?’ he mumbled.

Rosemary said nothing.

‘Well, I don’t know,’ he went on. ‘I mean, I don’t
not
believe in it.’

A faint smile appeared on Rosemary’s lips.

‘A good answer to a stupid question,’ she said.

‘How about you?’ demanded Jarvis, seemingly stung by her condescending tone.

Rosemary considered, as though this was the first time the question had ever occurred to her.

‘Well, I used not to.’

She paused.

‘But now I’m not sure that I perhaps don’t not believe in it any more.’

After a moment they looked at each other and both burst out laughing.

‘What now?’ asked Jarvis, standing up.

Rosemary consulted the watch she had been loaned by one of the nurses.

‘It’s nearly time for tea.’

‘No, I meant generally. Are you going to stay here, or …?’

She got to her feet, smiling broadly.

‘Something really quite extraordinary has happened! Do you remember my nephew Stuart, the one I told you that you reminded me of when we first met? Well, just this morning I received a letter from him, completely out of the blue. It turns out that this affair has been on the news in Canada, and he’s written asking if I’d like to go and stay with him and his wife for a while.’

Her smile faded.

‘It might not work out, of course. We may not get on, or I may hate the place. But I must say I’m rather tempted.’

She glanced pertly at Jarvis.

‘How’s that for a happy ending?’

Jarvis grimaced.

‘As you said earlier, Miss Travis, it seems a bit contrived.’

‘If this were a story, perhaps. But as
you
said earlier, Inspector, this is real life, and life is perfectly shameless. It permits itself everything – even happiness.’

She looked down at the flowerbed and shivered.

‘It’s growing cold. Shall we go in?’

Table of Contents

Cover

About the Author

Other Books by This Author

Title Page

Dedication

Part One