03 - Murder in Mink (10 page)

Clara’s decision to visit Laura Pettibone had not been
taken without a considerable amount of argument with herself. Would the girl
think her intrusive? Would she prefer to be left alone? Yet at the same time
none of the Campbells had paid her a visit and surely she would appreciate some
company? Whichever way Clara looked at it she could not decide the best course,
but someone had to visit Laura and explain the new circumstances. She was sure
Laura would rather it was a friend who broke the news that her husband-to-be
was now embroiled in a murder case, than the police.

There was no sign of the elusive Mr Pettibone when Clara
arrived around midday. She had refrained from coming earlier knowing the
well-heeled often did not arise before the sun was high in the sky. As it
turned out she was still a little early for Laura Pettibone was reclining on
her sofa draped in a silken dressing wrap, with a night mask pushed haphazardly
up onto her forehead.  She brightened when she saw Clara, in fact she shot to
her feet and embraced her in a bear hug.

“Wonderful Clara, you have come at last! I knew you would
not let me down! Has the maid shown you the room I had prepared for you?”

Clara felt her heart sink. She had not intentionally forgotten
the invitation to stay at the Pettibone household, but she had assumed with the
calamity of Saturday she would be an unwelcome intrusion. Clara’s policy in
these situations was to be honest but gentle.

“Dear Laura, I have to discuss that with you, for
something rather serious has come up.”

Laura drew back.

“More serious than my disaster of a marriage ceremony?”
The girl looked petulant.

“I’m afraid so. You see the woman who claimed to be
Andrew’s wife, well she is dead, and the Campbells want me to investigate what
happened. Andrew is implicated in the matter and they want me to prove his
innocence. So you see it is prudent for me at the moment to remain at the
Campbell house where I am at the heart of things.”

Laura was dazed by this rush of news. She shook her head
as if to dislodge the confusion.

“That woman is dead?”

“Yes.”

“And Andrew is implicated, why?”

“For one thing she interrupted his wedding to you, and
then her body was found on the Brooklands racetrack, where Andrew was all
yesterday. And finally because, unfortunately, she was genuinely his wife.”

Laura sat down heavily on her sofa. Her face had turned
ashen. One hand plucked unconsciously at the hem of her sleeve.

“She really was his wife?”

“Yes.”

Clara had expected tears, but Laura took the news with
great calm. If anything she looked resigned to the matter.

“I feared as much. I mean, a woman doesn’t march into a
church like that with no reason.”

“No, I suppose not. I’m very sorry though.” Clara perched
herself on a stool, “How has your father taken it?”

“Daddy goes quiet when he is upset. He must be very upset
because he has not spoken a word since Saturday. I wish he would say something,
just anything, so I could know what to do.”

“Do you still want to marry Andrew?”

Laura’s face sagged.

“I don’t know. He lied to me and he was committing a
crime by marrying me.”

“Bigamy. Yes.”

“And he hasn’t been to see me at all. Not to explain or
ask forgiveness.” Laura scrunched up her face with anger, “He should have come.
Instead he ran away. How can I marry him after that?”

“I imagine it depends if you love him.” Clara sighed,
“But right now we have to think of other matters. As I say the woman is dead
and the police are looking for her murderer.”

Laura gave a little start.

“She was murdered? They are certain?”

“She was strangled.” Clara wished there was an easier way
to break this to Laura, “There main suspect is naturally Andrew. Though no
doubt they will look at the rest of the family as well. They may even consider
you or your father Laura.”

“Oh daddy would never kill anyone!” Laura gasped, “Nor
would I for that matter!”

“Even when your honour and reputation have been so
brutally harmed?”

Laura blanched again, it was clear she had not considered
the full implications of Saturday’s fiasco.

“Daddy still wouldn’t!”

“Well at least you now know what to expect if the police
call. Where did you go after Saturday, anyway?”

“Straight back here.” Laura gave a small sniff as if
tears really were now threatening, “Where else was there to go? And I have been
here since. This is an awful mess, isn’t it?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Oh why did I agree to marry him at all? My friends said
he was not right for me, too serious and stiff, even Susan said not to. But
when he asked me at the dance all I could think of was how nice it would be to
be married to an officer, and how Andrew was so much more of a man than the
boys who haunted around me usually. Look where such thinking got me?”

“You are not to blame for this.” Clara patted Laura’s
hand, “You did nothing wrong by following your heart, and I for one would not
blame you if you still wanted to marry Andrew after all this.”

“You are nice Clara, but I really need to think hard on
this. Would you mind leaving me alone?”

“Of course not.” Clara stood and got her handbag, “If you
want me I shall be at the Campbells and I shall come at once.”

“Thank you Clara, you have been such a friend! You know
Susan has never come to see me?”

“She is still rather ill.” Clara said defensively.

“Really? I could have sworn I saw her in the field next
to the church when I came out with daddy. No matter, who am I to determine how
poorly someone is?”

Yet the bitter edge to Laura’s words suggested she was
sorely hurt by her friend’s apparent betrayal.

In the meantime, while Clara was
facing Laura, Tommy had took it upon himself to deal with the obnoxious uncle
Eustace. He had come to the conclusion that while it was highly unlikely
Eustace had murdered Shirley Cox, he might know something about the whereabouts
of the other Campbell family members. And he was not limited by loyalty as to
what he would or would not say. In fact Eustace would quite happily implicate
most of his relatives in the crime, should it suit him.

Tommy found him once more in the drawing room, making a
vain attempt to read
The Pickwick Papers
, while a brandy and soda was
cupped in his right hand.

“Is lunch served?” Eustace asked without looking up.

“Not yet.”

“Blast them, I’m famished.” Eustace flung down the book,
“I can’t stick Dickens, I don’t know why I try.”

Eustace gave a loud belch. Tommy grimaced.

“The stomach is all in knots again, I swear it’s the
cooking here.” Eustace swallowed hard, “I lie in bed at night with my gullet on
fire and my belly bubbling. I always have a decanter of tonic water at the
bedside, but these days no matter how much I drink it fails to improve my
bilious attacks. I blame it on a childhood of bland food, you know.”

Tommy would rather have blamed it on Eustace’s girth and
fondness for alcohol.

“I came to see who was around.” Tommy wheeled himself to
the drinks cabinet and poured out a gin and tonic, “The house is bally quiet
all of a sudden.”

“Oh they are all wretched, hiding themselves away from
the truth.”

“How do you mean?”

Eustace waggled his glass at Tommy.

“I see it this way. My nephew gets swept away by this
Shirley Cox in the war and marries her without telling a soul, but a few weeks
back in the trenches and he sobers up, thinks to himself what has he done? A
few more weeks and he is ignoring her letters, pretending she doesn’t exist,
thinking she will go away if he ignores her. She doesn’t know his real address
after all, she writes to him at the front. So he avoids London, keeps his head
down and weeks turn into years and Shirley Cox all but vanishes from his mind.
Maybe she’s dead? Maybe she found someone else? Whatever, he doesn’t care as
long as she doesn’t bother him. Then he meets this pretty slip of a thing
called Laura, none too bright either, but with a fair amount of money and the
only child to inherit a fancy estate. What could be better? Andrew proposes and
everything goes as planned.

“So the wedding comes round and maybe once or twice in
his darkest dreams Andrew thinks of Shirley Cox and wonders where she is, hopes
she is dead or living another life. But he brushes it all off, because what
does it matter? He never imagines she will turn up at the church! What a
commotion! What bad luck that she happened to read the wedding announcements in
the paper the very day his was listed! And now she appears to reclaim her
husband. Well, Andrew is embarrassed and upset. He has been made a fool of and
everyone now knows his secret. He seeks out Shirley, she wants him back, but he
has no intention of returning to her. There is no love there, instead there is
bitterness, hate even. She has trapped him and what can he do? I doubt he meant
to kill her, but they argued and it grew out of hand. Suddenly he has her by
the throat and she is dead. Voila!”

“An interesting hypothesis.” Tommy said, without
mentioning that it was also the obvious one that everyone had considered, not
just Eustace who deemed himself so clever, “But why put the body on the
Brooklands racetrack?”

“I see it this way. She found him at the racetrack, that
was where the argument took place. He leaves her body on the track hoping one of
the other racers will go round the corner and run over the body. Isn’t that
what that foreigner Francke almost did?”

“Yes, but the police aren’t stupid. They would see she
was strangled.”

“But he isn’t thinking straight!” Eustace sneered as
though Tommy was being impossibly stupid, “He acts spontaneously!”

“Andrew isn’t the sort who strikes me as being prone to
spontaneous actions.”

“All right Mr Clever-Clogs, who do you think did it
then?”

Tommy sipped quietly at his drink, noting how the pause
irritated Eustace further.

“I don’t have a ‘suspect’ in mind. Too early to say.”

“Pish! It’s obvious one of this lot did it!”

“Some would say it rather odd that you are so keen to
accuse your own family of murder.” Tommy said with a morbid smile.

“You don’t know them all that well, that’s your problem.
I told you that!”

“So? What can be so bad about them that it makes you
believe them murderers?”

Eustace gave a harrumph.

“You don’t understand at all, I mean the girls, Peg and
Susan, I dare say they are harmless enough, though both a bit loopy. Look how
Peg dresses! And Susan runs off in the night to drown herself, you can’t tell
me those are the actions of a person living in a perfectly normal, happy
family.”

“I admit that was troubling me.” Tommy agreed, “But
people can act oddly for no real reason.”

“Have you not seen how Glory treats that girl? Typical
wicked stepmother. Let me tell you it’s Hogarth and that witch I blame for all
this. She has a negative influence on everyone around her, see how Andrew has
become a walking tree stump, never uttering a word? It’s because he doesn’t
dare. She’ll jump on the slightest thing. I’ve heard her say some spiteful
things to Susan, she treats her like a rival, always trying to dress to outdo
her. Oh you didn’t see the Christmas when she forced Susan into this ghastly
frock that made her look a frump and then Glory turns up in the exact same
dress which she can carry off like a dream because she has the figure of a
gnat. If she had been my wife I would have had some words for that
performance.”

“There are often problems between stepdaughters and
stepmothers.” Tommy frowned, “But I didn’t realise it was that bad. Didn’t
Hogarth marry her quite soon after his wife died? I didn’t attend that wedding,
but I think my parents did.”

“The first Mrs Campbell wasn’t cold in her grave.”
Eustace snorted triumphantly, “It was scandalous, people talked. Eugenie
Campbell was dead a week when the banns were read. I suppose you might argue
she had been ailing for some time, but whichever way you look at it Hogarth had
to have known Glory and fallen for her before his wife departed this earth.”

“Was she a family friend?”

“Hogarth’s secretary. Now another clue, note how she
won’t allow him to have another secretary in the house? It can hardly be because
of financial considerations, so what?”

“Perhaps she fears another woman in the house will
distract him, like she did?” Tommy finished Eustace’s train of thought.

“Precisely! Glory isn’t going to risk that. Oh no, she
has her claws in Eustace and it wouldn’t surprise me if she has seen to it that
all of his estate, when he passes, goes straight to her. Then where will poor
Peg and Susan be? I dare say it will be a Hell for them. Quite frankly I went
and revised my own will to ensure they had a portion each. But don’t tell a
soul, as they think I am leaving it all to the League of Dumb Friends.”

Tommy found that an interesting aside into uncle
Eustace’s character. Perhaps he was not such the bad humoured and mean soul he
made himself out to be.

“You’ve told me how Glorianna is perhaps an adulteress
and not necessarily nice to her stepchildren, but hardly why she could be a
murderess.”

“She could be though.” Eustace grinned, and it was a
decidedly nasty look, “She could kill. I’ve often wondered if she would have
had the guts to hasten Eugenie Campbell off this mortal coil. Eugenie had
tuberculosis, but her death came faster than most had expected. You have to
wonder, don’t you, what with the quick wedding. I mean there was no real
inquiry because Eugenie was known to be dying. Who knows?”

Tommy was reluctant to admit to himself that it did all
sound very odd, at the very least it was improper.