The Evil That Men Do.(Inspector Faro Mystery No.11) (7 page)

Chapter Seven

‘Vince has been called away to attend a sick child,’ Rose
told her father when they met at breakfast.

Faro was never at his best in the morning, especially
when a murder case kept him awake half the night
wrestling with theories, sifting through evidence, and
discarding improbabilities. Since he was emotionally
concerned with Cedric’s death and the outcome, he had
fallen into a deep and exhausted sleep at dawn.

Normally he always claimed he needed his first breaths
of fresh air to sharpen his wits. Vince appreciated his
stepfather’s approach to each new morning and the two
men were normally silent as each read his own mail
and their comments were few and only where strictly
necessary.

Rose, who saw her father rarely, was unaware that at
breakfast time he was apt to be grumpy. She prattled
at a great rate about her plans for the day. Grace was
taking her to the shop where she could look at the school
uniform and then they were to go on to the Botanic
Gardens.

Faro listened, polite but vague and trying to smile a
little, just to please her.

‘You will enjoy that. I presume Grace will be calling
for you in their carriage.’

Rose frowned. ‘It is rather out of her way, Papa. I thought I would take the omnibus to Charlotte Square.’
And clasping her hands delightedly, ‘I do so enjoy public
transport. We have nothing like that at home. It is quite thrill
ing—’

‘Rose,’ he interrupted. ‘I must insist that you avail yourself of
Grace’s carriage, or if you wish to explore, then you take Mrs
Brook with you.

‘Mrs Brook—’

‘Yes, my dear. You see, it isn’t quite right for a young girl who
is a stranger to Edinburgh to wander round unescorted.’

‘How am I to cease being a stranger if I can’t search out places
for myself? I like my own company. Besides, I am used to going
about Kirkwall alone.’

‘Kirkwall is not Edinburgh. There are dangers in a city that
you would not encounter in Orkney.’

‘I’m not a child any longer, Papa,’ Rose said in wounded tones.

‘I am quite aware of that,’ he said coldly.

Then, her heightened colour warning him that she was upset
by his remark, he put his arm around her, hugged her to him.

‘I want you to be happy here, my precious. And safe. I realise
your papa is a great fusspot, but do bear with me. Will you -
please?’

Resting her head against his shoulder, her sunny smile
restored, she said: ‘Of course I will, dear Papa. I just love Edin
burgh so much. I can hardly believe that I am to stay here soon
- for always - with you. And I want to know everything about it.’

‘And so you shall, love. Now - another piece of toast?’

Fondly he watched her pour out his second cup of tea. She
was so lovely, this daughter of his. It was a dream come true,
having her sit there across the table. They would soon get used
to each other’s ways.

As he was leaving for the Central Office, she helped him into
his cape and, handing him his hat, smiled.

‘Aren’t you fortunate to have Sergeant McQuinn with you. Such a nice man, isn’t he? He’ll look well after you, I’m sure.’

Faro bit back an angry response at thus being entrusted to his
sergeant’s care, kissed her goodbye, and with the domestic harmony only slightly dinted by her innocent remarks walked more
sharply than usual in the direction of the High Street and the
Central Office.

There McQuinn awaited him, busily writing notes at his desk.

‘Well, sir, I’ve been to Priorsfield. Mention of burglars in
the district works wonders,’ he added with a chuckle. ‘I sternly demanded what security measures they had on hand and as one
thing led to another I expressed an admiration for all those lovely
exotic potted plants and was told they came from Mr Theodore’s
greenhouses.’

‘ “How do you keep them so well?” I asked. “I hope if any of
you are using poisonous chemicals you sign for them.”

‘And what did I discover? That the only poison used in that
house was rat poison.’

‘Rat poison?’

‘Rat poison, the very same, Inspector. Arsenic, ordered and
signed for by who but Mr Cedric himself.’

‘Don’t you mean Mr Theodore?’

‘No, definitely Cedric. Like you I thought they had said the
wrong name. But it seems that most of the Langweil business is conducted from Priorsfield. According to Mrs Gimmond, there were rats in all their malthouses. Everyone knew about that, but
Mr Theodore also left domestic matters like vermin extermina
tion to his brother.’

‘As you know there’s been a plague of rats in the sewers for
as long as folk can remember. In spite of all attempts to get rid
of them, no sooner is one old rat-infested building pulled down
than they spread like wildfire into the foundations of the other
houses.’

Faro nodded. ‘Including Priorsfield, McQuinn,’ as he remem
bered Piers Strong’s argument for hygiene, for an all-clean,
rat-free Edinburgh. ‘They’re an infernal nuisance.’

‘Right, sir. And I gather Mr Theodore wasn’t aware of their presence until he found they had gnawed their way into his new library. Carried in with boxes of old books stored in the cellars they were nesting behind the shelving.’

‘The maids all shuddered and squealed, going on about how they went to light fires in the morning they could hear the rats scuttling about.’

‘So there was arsenic in the house.’

‘A plentiful supply, to all accounts. And in regular use,’ was the reply.

‘Did you get the impression that Cedric had any enemies on the staff?’

‘No. From what Mrs Gimmond said, he was well liked. Seemed she was acquainted with the servants in Charlotte Square too. Said they were all shocked, that he had been a good master and would be sadly missed.’ McQuinn frowned and shook his head. ‘But you know, I got an odd impression that she didn’t care for him personally.’

‘Indeed? How so?’

McQuinn frowned. ‘Nothing in what she said, but her face gave it away somehow.’

‘What is she like, this Mrs Gimmond?’

‘Handsome woman. Well spoken. Not quite the wife you’d expect Gimmond the butler to have. Odd that she’d marry a low-class chap like him.’

Faro looked at McQuinn. Gimmond’s impeccable accent hadn’t fooled his sergeant. ‘What makes you think he’s low class?’ he asked.

McQuinn shrugged. ‘You can always tell. Something in his manner gives him away. He’s not quite the ticket, not confident enough. I’ve met a lot of butlers in my time and Gimmond is not quite easy in the part.’ He shook his head. ‘You know, sir, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he’s had trouble with the police at some time. He has that nervousness, the sidelong shifty look that old lags display when a uniform shows up on the doorstep and their old sins begin to bother them.’

Faro remained silent. He was not at that moment prepared to take McQuinn into his confidence about Gimmond’s past. But his sergeant’s observations were worth noting.

‘Did you get any useful information about upstairs?’

‘Scandal, you mean?’ grinned McQuinn. ‘Not a whiff. As I said, all seemed to be blessed harmony, a devoted family. Not only working together but holidays too. Never seemed to tire of each other’s company. As you know, I expect, the brothers were also keen golfers and their wives often accompanied them. That seemed to surprise Mrs Gimmond. Quite unusual for keen golfers to want their wives along, she said.’

Faro smiled. ‘You’ve done very well, McQuinn.’

McQuinn laughed. ‘And I’ve been invited to look in again. So I’ll keep at it. Mrs Gimmond is a good cook too.’

‘I would have expected that.’

‘But then, Inspector, you’re not a poor bachelor like me. You have good connections.’

Faro refused to rise to the bait even when McQuinn added with a grin: ‘How’s that pretty daughter of yours, sir? Staying long?’

‘She is here to finish her education. Going to school.’

McQuinn whistled. ‘School, is it? Well, well, you astonish me. I’d have thought she was more ready to be here to find a husband,’ he added with a grin.

Faro seized the papers on his desk without further comment. He was determined to stick to his resolution to stay on cordial terms with McQuinn and not allow his sergeant’s abrasive personality to threaten the efficient performance of their working relationship.

‘Where next, Inspector?’

‘Somehow, somewhere, we need to track down whoever attended Cedric Langweil and told him that he had a diseased brain which was going to kill him in six months.’

‘Sounds like Dr Laurie’s domain.’

It was, but all enquiries regarding the missing consultant seemed doomed to failure.

And then they had a piece of luck.

Faro found a note awaiting him from Maud Langweil. With it a letter of condolence from a Dr Henry Longfield who had just heard on his return from New York that Cedric had died.

‘Perhaps he will be able to help you,’ Maud wrote. ‘He has been in America for the past six months. It is possible that Cedric saw him just before he left.’

When Vince read the letter, he looked almost happy for the first time in weeks. An enquiry at Surgeons’ Hall confirmed that Longfield dealt with cancer patients at the Infirmary. He was also a consultant physician.

Considerably heartened by this information, Faro went to visit the doctor in his house in Moray Place.

Dr Longfield was not dismayed by the presence of a detective inspector. The police often called when sudden death required discreet enquiries.

‘Cedric was a friend of mine, yes. We had known each other since student days and I was sorry to hear of his death.’

‘Sorry but not surprised?’

The doctor frowned. ‘Both, as it happened. Why do you ask?’

‘Did he ever consult you professionally?’

‘Only once, curiously enough, just before I left for America. He wanted me to give him a thorough examination. I did so and gave him a clean bill of health.’

‘You mean there was no sign of illness?’

‘None at all. He was strong and healthy, in excellent condition - a man in the prime of his life. It would not have surprised me had he lived to be ninety. And yet such things do happen. Massive heart attack, was it?’

‘Not exactly. I will be frank with you, Doctor. Cedric Langweil’s death is baffling. He told his family that he had a brain disease and was unlikely to live until the end of the year. Which prediction was in fact correct. But that was not how he died...’

And Faro proceeded to relate the facts as he knew them.

At the end, Longfield was silent for a moment. ‘So that is the reason for this visit, Inspector. It does sound as if someone gave him a helping hand. Curious, because on several occasions he showed considerable interest in the workings of the human brain. Why we did certain things and so forth; a true Darwinian, he regarded man as just a little higher than the apes. Often he said it was only our superior thought processes that kept us above the laws of the jungle. Some of us, that is,’ he added with a wry smile.

‘In fact, now that I give it particular thought in the light of what you have told me, Cedric frequently asked me what were the first indications of disease of the brain. Most unfortunate,’ he sighed, ‘this morbid preoccupation must have preyed on his mind until he believed that he was suffering from some abnormal condition.’

He shrugged sadly. ‘The result was that he took his own life, in a state of mental aberration and disturbance. And yet that does amaze me. You see, he did not strike me as a man who would entertain such notions. He loved and lived life to the full even as a student. He would never accept the second best and he worshipped beauty.’