The Judas Kiss (15 page)

"Why not? She looks the picture of innocence, yet she comes into the thing all the time. She saw the husband arrive and she brought us the story of the missing diamonds. Suppose she took 'em herself and told us that to cover up? Being the most friendly with the woman she had the best chance of giving her the fatal dose. I questioned her closely. She admitted nothing, but I got the impression she was holding something back."

"You might be right there, but it could be her fears rather than anything she knows."

"What fears?"

"Possibly for others in the family. When a thing like this happens it makes the people concerned afraid for one another. Who is her young man of doubtful character?"

"A fellow called Arthur Dixon. Ever heard of him?"

Roger was not surprised that in a small place like Beckford the girls' companionships were noted and talked about.

"I have met him," he said, "but do not know much about him."

"He is married but his wife has left him. Another woman talked of bringing a paternity charge against him, but the child died and it was all settled out of court."

"Was that before or after his wife went away?"

"After, I believe. Nothing was proved, but he is not the sort of man an innocent girl goes about with."

"Pearl has been too much alone," Roger said. "Her father was to blame for the way they were brought up after the death of their mother. Independence he called it, but it may not be good for young women."

"Well, there you have it," Grimsby commented. "Both open to suspicion. If the father wanted to remarry, why didn't he do it in the right way and with a woman old enough to look after 'em? Then all this would not have happened."

"Then you would have lost a job and the chance for fame," Roger remarked, "but it did happen. Apart from general suspicions there seems no definite clue as to who was responsible for the crime. Anyone else on your list?"

"Isn't that enough? There is the woman who works in the house, Mrs. Hopkins. I learned a good deal from her, but she never had much contact with her mistress. So there you have it. The locked room, possible suicide, eight suspects for murder, four in the family, Teague and Old Nan, the missing husband and someone in the hotel. The whole thing a dam' mystery. What do you make of it?" Grimsby drained his glass and leant back in his chair. His attitude seemed to say 'it beats me and I'll bet it beats you too.'

"You have set it out very clearly," Roger said, "but there is one thing you have not mentioned."

"What is that?"

"The lady's handbag. All women carry them."

"But they don't need help to pack 'em. Of course this woman had one and I have a list of the contents. Everything was examined and tested where possible. No help there."

"May I ask what the contents were?"

Grimsby consulted his book.

"Just the sort of things every woman carries. An affair to powder the nose, a compact or a flapjack they call it. A bit of lipstick, a handkerchief; some keys, including the one of the jewel box in the dressing-case; some visiting cards, an engagement book, a nail file, a little loose money and a note case containing twenty pounds. The money rather lets out the hotel servants. The bag was open on the dressing-table. They would hardly have left the cash if they took the diamonds. Nor would anyone else."

"Possibly the diamonds were taken before she arrived at the hotel?"

"It would not surprise me," Grimsby shrugged.

Both men puffed at their pipes for some little while in silence. Then Roger put his down.

"I cannot help you about the diamonds," he said, "and I cannot say who was the murderer, but I can give you a theory that may explain everything else; how the murder was done in the locked room after she had dressed for dinner."

"That should help." The Inspector sounded sceptical.

"It is only a theory and I can put it in one word."

"What is that?"

"Lipstick."

"Lipstick? You say she poisoned herself with her own lipstick? If that stuff was poisonous half the women in England would be dead and a fair sprinkling of the men!" There was now no doubt of the scepticism.

"You never met Adelaide Michelmore, or Bidaut," Roger said. "She was in many ways a very charming young woman, a former Beauty Queen, but she had one habit that was not charming. She was fond of licking her lips. It was so noticeable that no one who talked with her could fail to observe it. She had frequently to touch them up in consequence and must have absorbed a good deal of the stuff."

"What does it taste like?"

"It may be to your credit if you do not know," Roger replied, "or perhaps your misfortune. Based on lanolin, it is almost tasteless, just a little sweet and greasy. Cyanide also has little taste and the sweetness would mask it."

"You suggest that the bit of lipstick in her bag killed her?"

"Not necessarily. A woman generally has more than one such stick. It is probable that a nearly new one was used. Every one of the suspects you mentioned must have noticed her lip-licking habit. My wife and I did the first time we met her."

Grimsby sat up more alertly. "Bidaut, the husband, deals in such things. He brought her a present. As she would not go with him, he left it for her! How did he work it?"

"Bidaut, or anyone else, could get new lipstick, remove it from the holder and bore a hole from the base and mix what came out with powdered cyanide and replace it. It would be rather like the lead in an ordinary pencil, a bit thicker probably but the same in colour. Or the whole of it could have been impregnated except perhaps the top cone. The victim uses it in the ordinary way until she comes to the part that is deadly."

"It sounds possible," Grimsby said. "Devilish clever; but how can we tell?"

"When your doctor makes his test for poison, does he wash the face?"

"I guess he is more concerned with the innards," was the reply.

"That is just the one chance. If there is enough of the colour on the mouth, let him test it. If it contains cyanide, there is the answer. If it does not, my theory goes west."

"I will tell him what you say and he shall certainly test any traces that remain, if there are any. But there is another snag. Unless it is that bit of the stuff still in the bag, how is it we did not find it?"

"I cannot answer that yet," Roger said. "If it was done in the way I suggest, the person who was clever enough to fix it may also have been clever enough to remove it. It may have been in the open handbag. But first make the test. If the idea is right you must commandeer all the lipsticks you can find and test them. There is just a chance it was not thrown away."

"A pretty poor chance," Grimsby muttered. "I have now to find a diamond star and a poisoned lipstick!"

"Trifles for a man of your ability," Roger assured him. "But the test comes first."

Ruth was naturally anxious to hear what had passed between Roger and the unwelcome visitor. Over their evening meal he told her of Grimsby's general suspicions and of his own theory of the lipstick. He asked what she thought of it.

"I do not know much about poisons," she said. "It sounds possible if she could swallow enough that way."

"It does not take much. There are several cases on record of a man concealing a fatal dose in a signet ring. I have never heard of poisoned lipstick. Rather a Borgia idea, but it seems to me quite possible for a confirmed licker like Adelaide."

"But she might have kissed someone else."

"A Judas kiss, though Judas ran no risk."

"If you are right and it was the lipstick, it might lead other women to give it up."

"I doubt it," Roger laughed. "Beauty cult is the oldest of feminine vanities. Egyptian women practised it about 3000 B.C. and we know Jezebel painted her eyes. It is said cosmetics were brought to Europe by the Crusaders. They were freely used in Elizabeth's reign. Cromwell, of course, banned them but they came back with Charles II. Their most extravagant use was by the Beauties and the Bucks of the Georgian era."

"Men as well as women?"

"Only the more foppish of men. In 1770 a bill was introduced into Parliament to enact that any woman who seduced and betrayed a man into matrimony by the use of scents, paints, cosmetics, false teeth or hair, bolstered hips or other such deceptions should suffer the same penalties as for witchcraft, and the marriage be null and void. I do not think the law was passed, but we all know that in the Victorian age a shiny nose was a beacon of respectability and rouge the hall-mark of sin. In the First World War, when women took to smoking and joined the services and also to working in offices, the use of beauty aids in all classes became popular and has gone on increasing ever since. Some advanced schools for young ladies now have classes for it and it is encouraged in women's prisons. You see, my dear, I have been studying the subject."

"It seems to have interested you quite a lot," Ruth said, "but unless the lipstick in Adelaide's bag was poisoned, how was the fatal one got to her and how was it removed?"

"Practical questions," Roger admitted. "I could discourse further on the subject. Lanolin, the oil from sheepskin, is the basis of many preparations for the face and the lips. Someone started a scare that it encouraged the growth of hair, see what it does for sheep! But we had better consider our own problem. Would any women have one lipstick only?"

"Very unlikely. Especially such a woman as Adelaide."

"So I thought. I am inclined to discard the one in the handbag, so the one we want is missing."

"But it was used in the room," Ruth said. "It must have been if your theory is correct. Who had the chance of getting it away?"

"That is the real point. So far as our information goes the only people who were in the room before the police took over were the chambermaid, the porter, the hotel manager, the girls Emerald and Pearl and Dr. Skelton. We can certainly acquit Skelton and I cannot see any motive for murder by the hotel people. That leaves only Emerald and Pearl."

"It is horrible!" Ruth exclaimed. "I do wish you did not get concerned in these cases."

"Well, my dear," Roger said, "it was a grisly business that introduced me to the Dean's Daughter and I have never regretted it. But I admit a holiday without crime would be pleasant."

"I should think it would! Do you really believe that either of those girls poisoned Adelaide? I am sure it was not Pearl."

"In these cases it is not safe to rely on our likes or dislikes, but I am inclined to agree with you. We may find the lipstick Adelaide used was innocuous and then we must start all over again. Or there may not be enough to test. Absolute proof may never be forthcoming."

At that moment Ben Orgles announced a caller, Jasper Michelmore. The young man came in, looking more than a little worried.

"Sorry to bother you," he said, "but have you by any chance seen or heard anything of our revered brother Garnet?"

"Not for some days," Ruth replied.

"Neither have I," Roger said, "but Grimsby told me he interviewed him yesterday morning and expected him to attend the inquest. He did not come."

"That is the trouble," Jasper told them. "He was questioned by Grimsby and none of us has seen him since. He did not sleep at home last night. We would not think a lot of that. He has friends at Torbury and if some Parish Council goes on to a late hour he sometimes stays with them. When he has a new idea he will sit up half the night to talk about it. But he was not back in the morning and I have just had a telephone call from one of his earnest supporters that he was to have conducted some sort of a service or meeting there this evening and he has not turned up. What are they to do? Apparently he was not there yesterday. He has never missed a meeting before."

"Certainly strange," Roger said. "What did you advise them?"

"I told them to get the Vicar, Forbes Fortescue. Won't do him any harm to put in a spot of work. But I have a feeling old Garnie may be wandering somewhere, suffering from loss of memory or something like that. This Adelaide business has been grim for all of us, but he may have taken it more to heart."

"He may be ill," Ruth suggested. "I know he has been working very hard."

"Have you told the police?" Roger asked.

"The Inspector sent round at dinner-time to see if he was back. Of course we had to say he was not; we would telephone them when he got in. But that was before we got the call from Torbury."

"You must all be terribly anxious," Ruth said sympathetically. "If he met with an accident, is there a hospital to which he would be taken?"

"Depends, I suppose, where the accident was," Jasper replied, "and I imagine they would let us know. I looked for his bicycle but apparently he went out on it. Of course he is, how shall I put it?, a bit eccentric and he may have had some sudden impulse to go somewhere. We all want him and so does old Watson, the solicitor. There are so many things to settle, the funeral, the estate and all that."

"I should let the police know about the meeting," Roger said, "and that you have been unable to trace him."

"I will. I saw you at the inquest. There was a bit of a shindy afterwards."