The Judas Kiss (25 page)

"No."

"Very well. I have warned you of the guilt of an accessory." He then addressed the solicitor, whether or not he was satisfied with his probings it was hard to tell.

"I think, Mr. Watson, you will appreciate the position. These two, brother and sister, had a strong motive for desiring the death of the woman who, while she lived, stood between them and the money they were to get from their father. Only her intimates would be aware of her lip-licking habit, which her husband confirms. The poison that killed her, the filling for the lipstick, was prepared in the brother's studio on his palette. He then went away to create an alibi until such time as he heard of her death. The sister, almost the first on the scene after the death, removed and hid the ingenious but devilish contrivance that caused it. These facts, together with the analysts' reports and other evidence, will be produced when the inquest is reopened. I might arrest them now on suspicion, but I prefer to leave the matter to the jury. Should either of them attempt to get away, they will be immediately apprehended. I do not know if you have any comments to make?"

Mr. Watson looked very disturbed. He could not deny the gravity of the implied charges and could only make a non-committal reply. Perhaps to demand private interviews with his clients. It would be a matter for Counsel's advice. But he did not have to decide what he would say. Before he could speak, Roger Bennion intervened.

"There is another witness I would like to call."

IT was a surprise to them all when Roger said he had another witness. Some perhaps were relieved. Grimsby was annoyed. He had not achieved all he had hoped, but he felt he had done his job well and was not anxious for its effect to be spoilt.

"Who is it?" he asked.

"She will tell you," Roger replied.

He went to the door. Ben Orgles had been waiting out side and departed quickly when given the word.

"You have brought out many salient features of the case," Roger said to the Chief Inspector. "I think we may now be able to link them up and perhaps add a few more."

"Why did you not tell me?" Grimsby demanded. "There is not much we do not know."

"There is something I only learned to-day."

They had not long to wait. Ben returned, bringing with him Joy Austin. Ruth had seen to it that Joy looked her best. She was wearing a neat dark costume, her hair had been carefully attended to and, although she was pale, her dark eyes and good features would have created a favourable impression anywhere.

Who was she? What had she to do with the case? All in the room were asking themselves those questions, all but one. Roger was watching him. Recognition, anger and fear showed plainly on the countenance of Victor Gore-Black. He half rose from his seat, then thought better of it and sat down again. Roger gave the newcomer a chair and stood beside the table.

"Will you tell us your name?" he said gently.

"Joy Austin." She spoke softly but clearly. She was evidently nervous.

"And your address?"

"I have no address."

"But your recent address?"

"The Beeches, Ivybrook Lane, Ipswich."

"Were you living alone?"

"No. With him."

She pointed to Victor, who jumped to his feet.

"I object to this," he cried. "You bring a girl I befriended, a loose girl, and you want to pry into my private affairs that have nothing to do with the case. It is monstrous. I call on the Inspector to stop it."

"If you interrupt," Roger said coldly, "I shall have to ask that you be removed from the room. I thought you might prefer to hear what she has to tell us, and you can give us your own story afterwards if you wish to do so."

The tension in the room increased. Grimsby looked undecided but said nothing. Muttering something about listening to lies Victor sat down.

"How long had you been living with him?" Roger asked the girl.

"Six months," she whispered.

"He had promised you marriage and you were known as Mrs. Black?"

"Yes."

Again a tense silence. Emerald was white with mortification and anger. She could stand a good deal, but this was too much. The man by her side had been living with this girl most of the time he had been making love to her. She edged away from him as far as the settee permitted. She would have liked to cry out that the girl's story was false, but she felt forced to believe her and Victor's manner left her no doubt.

"Why did you leave him?"

"He told me to go. He said he was getting married and if I was not gone in two days he would throw me out, penniless."

"That is a lie!" Victor cried. "I gave her ten pounds." It was a hasty, foolish remark, for it admitted the truth of their relations.

"I know all about the ten pounds," Roger said, "and I also know about the ticket for London you bought her. I have it here. My man found her in a state of despair and brought her to me. But that is not the story with which we are concerned."

While he was speaking, Emerald got up and moved to the other settee beside Pearl and Peter.

"Miss Austin, did he tell you whom he was to marry?"

"No. I understood it was a lady with money."

"Let us go back a bit. What were you doing when you met him?"

"I was working for Messrs. Taylor."

"I apologise for asking it, but had you ever lived with any other man?"

"Never." She flushed a little. "I lived with my mother till she died; then I was able to keep myself."

"What is Messrs. Taylor's business?"

"They are chemists."

"They also deal in toilet preparations, aids to beauty, and so on?"

"Yes."

"Did Mr. Black make rather an odd request to you a fortnight or so ago?"

"He asked me to give him a lipstick."

"Which you did?"

"Yes."

"Can you describe it?"

"It was like many others, but Taylors made it themselves. They called it Caress. It had a big C on the bottom of the holder. I had some of them and gave him one."

"Is this it?"

The question came suddenly from Grimsby. He had listened to most of what had been said with little interest. He was not concerned in these people's love affairs. Had it been anyone but Major Bennion, he would probably have interrupted. But when it came to lipstick he began to realise what it was all about. He produced his own exhibit of the kind showing the C on the base.

"It was like that," the girl said.

"Did you ask him why he wanted it?" Roger resumed.

"Yes. He laughed and said it was for an old lady friend of his."

"Can you tell us any more about it?"

"I asked him if he had given it to her and he said he thought he would send it by post."

"Did he do so?"

"Not for some days. He asked if I had any paper with Taylors' heading on it. I had not, but I gave him the leaflet that is inside the box they sell them in."

"Did he use it?"

"He asked me to write on the side, 'We hope you will accept this free sample.' I said I thought he was to give it to her but he said it would be more fun to post it and tease her about it."

"Then he did post it?"

"I don't know. I suppose he did."

By post! That explained a lot. Grimsby was beginning to see the light, but would this fit in with the facts he had discovered? Black's face was black indeed.

"A concoction of lies," he muttered. "No proof for any of it."

Roger disregarded him. He spoke again to the girl.

"Am I right in supposing that this lipstick episode happened some days before he told you he wanted to get rid of you and bought you that ticket for London?"

"Yes," she said.

"Thank you, Miss Austin." To the general surprise he added, "I do not think I have to trouble you any more now. It has been brave of you to tell us so much. I want to ask Nan a question or two, if she will let me call her that."

He smiled at the old housekeeper, who made no reply, "Now, Nan," he said, "I suppose you generally get the letters when the postman leaves them?"

"That's right."

"Can you remember a letter coming for Mrs. Michelmore that contained a small, hard object that might have been a lipstick, although you of course did not know what it was?"

"I can."

"What makes you remember it?"

"She hardly ever got letters. She had no friends. It was the only one for days."

"Which day did she get it?"

"The day before she went to the hotel."

"You are quite sure of that?"

"I wouldn't say so otherwise."

"You never actually knew what it did contain?"

"How could I? She was one to keep things to herself."

"What would have happened to the envelope or any leaflet it may have contained?"

Nan shrugged. "We burn rubbish most days, or use it to light fires."

"You never told me this," Grimsby interrupted.

"You asked me if she had received a box of chocolates or some such thing. I said she hadn't."

"Thank you, Nan," Roger said. "That is all for the moment." He turned to Emerald. "You told us that Jasper left his key with you?"

"He did," he replied.

"And you did not use it to go into his rooms?"

"I had no occasion to."

"Did you part with possession of it at all?"

Emerald hesitated. "I did," she said after a long pause.

"Will you tell us to whom and in what circumstances?"

Again the hesitation. "It was on the day Jasper went away. He put it on the mantelshelf. Later, in the evening, Victor called and he asked what it was, "

"This is not true!" Victor cried.

"Be quiet " Roger said sternly. Then to Emerald: "You told him what it was?"

"I did. He said he had lent Jasper a book. As he had gone away he would like to get it."

"So he took the key. Did he return it?"

"The next day."

"You do not know how long he was in the flat?"

"I do not."

Jasper sprang to his feet. "That must be true," he said. "He lent me a thing called 'The Marmalade Murder.' It was gone when I came back."

"Thank you," Roger said. "I have one more question for Nan. You told me that on the evening of the day Mr. Jasper left, you went for a walk with Teague and you saw a light go up in his studio?"

"That's right."

"You thought it might be Miss Emerald, who had the key?"

"But she was wrong," Teague interrupted before she could reply. "I looked back agen and saw it was 'im." He pointed to Victor. "The curtain were drawed but not quite close. 'E pulled it back to give it a good swish and then I see'd 'im. I didn't think no more about it, 'im or Miss Emerald, it were all the same."

"This is a conspiracy of lies," Gore-Black muttered, his face wet with perspiration. "I deny it all. A conspiracy of lies."

"I think that is almost as far as I can or need take it," Roger said, disregarding him and addressing the Chief Inspector. "I can leave it with you. You have a fair and conclusive picture of the whole case, starting with the acquisition of the lipstick and on to the preparation of the fatal mixture in the studio and its dispatch by post to the intended victim. There has been corroboration of details stronger than I expected. I might add I never suspected Jasper. Whether or not he is tidy in his habits I do not know, but I could not believe that anyone mixing a deadly poison on his palette would leave a considerable portion of it there. On the other hand, another man", he glanced at Gore-Black, "another man, taking some risks but relying on the novelty of the fiendish idea, might think it prudent to leave traces that, if suspicions were aroused, would incriminate someone else."

"The dirty devil!" Jasper cried.

"It seemed odd," Roger went on, "that you went to town when you did and remained for so long, returning when you heard of the death. It might have looked like the creation of an alibi. But I know why you went and I ascertained that you met old friends of both sexes."

"Things being as they were," Jasper said, "I had no reason to hurry back."

"Quite so. For somewhat similar reasons I believed the story Emerald told us. Her removal of the means of death undoubtedly made detection more difficult, but had she been aware of its deadly nature and been a party to its use, I am sure that coat of hers would have been so thoroughly searched that she would have found it and destroyed it."

Then he again addressed Grimsby.

"As to the motive for the crime, you realised that the members of the family benefited by it, but you possibly overlooked that one outside the family anticipated an equally large benefit by marrying into it. A marriage that I trust will not and cannot take place."

"It never will!" Emerald muttered.

"I am glad of it. To some it may have seemed chivalrous when Victor Gore-Black protested your innocence and affirmed his intention to marry you. To me it had the reverse effect. Your guilt would have forfeited your inheritance and all his plotting would have been in vain. He did not mind Jasper being suspected but not you."

Roger paused a moment.

"There is one further bit of evidence. As I told you, I only received it this morning and its value has yet to be established. I will ask Ben Orgles to produce it."