4.Little Victim (22 page)

Turning round sharply, Antonia gave a little cry. What she saw gave her such a shock that icy coldness passed right through her and broke out on her skin in gooseflesh. For a moment she couldn’t feel her heart beating at all and then it seemed to pound with enormous rhythm.

A woman had entered the room. A woman whose stiff ghost-white hair looked like a helmet, which was a remarkable feat to have achieved in this hot weather. Her Roman nose was very red as a result of over-exposure to the sun – it brought to mind a ferocious Red Indian. She wore a snuff-coloured khaki suit and, in addition to her handbag, she held a grey finely woven straw hat with an ivory satin ribbon. She was pressing a handkerchief to her left cheek.

The stately scent became more pronounced. It was her scent of course.

The woman seemed to have met with some accident. Her right hand looked badly scratched. Could she have been attacked by some animal? There was also an ugly gash across her left cheek and her handkerchief was saturated in blood . . .

31

The Veiled One

‘Lord, it’s you,’ the former judge groaned. ‘I thought I caught the Chimera whiff. I told you not to come back. Why is it you never listen to me? Why did you come back? Go away. I don’t want to see you ever again. For as long as I live. Which won’t be long now.’

The woman said, ‘How are you feeling, Toby?’

‘I feel rotten. I won’t last the day. I see my future like an inch-long white ribbon before my nose.’

‘I don’t think you’ve taken your medicine. You promised you would without fail.’ The woman spoke in a precise, measured, level way.

Too measured, Antonia thought – like one of those electronic voices issuing from machines. It must be his wife. Lucasta Leighton. Antonia watched her go up to the former judge and reach out for his forehead. Her manner had something of the sleepwalker in it.

‘You are dripping blood all over me! What have you been up to? She drinks blood,’ Leighton told Payne. ‘She is a vampire. Dotty and doting. She takes advantage of my helplessness. I detest her. She is a monster.’

‘Why haven’t you taken your medicine?’

‘She insists on sleeping in my bed. She’s ruined my life. I keep telling her to go away but she doesn’t listen.’

‘Who are these people?’ Lucasta Leighton was examining her bloodied hand with a puzzled frown, as though she had noticed there was something amiss for the first time.

‘They have been sent by Roman Songhera. Well, Ria told me what he does to his enemies. Roman Songhera should be told about you, don’t you think?’

‘I think you need another injection.’

‘No, not another injection! Don’t let her go to the bathroom!’ Leighton cried. ‘Would you do me a great favour, Major? The bathroom floor’s made of what I believe is called tessellated marble. I want you to go and smash each one of this human manticore’s syringes and bottles against it, reduce them to powder with your heels, then flush all her witchy tinctures down the loo.’

Oh dear. Antonia felt the sudden urge to laugh. How perfectly awful.
Comedia horribilis
. A black farce!

When Major Payne made no move, Leighton said, ‘These people work for Roman Songhera. They know everything about it, Lucasta.’

‘There’s nothing to know. Pay no attention,’ she mouthed at Antonia and tapped her forefinger lightly at her forehead. She seemed to suggest the former judge was deranged.

‘They know everything,’ he reiterated. ‘They know everything.’

‘They are lying. Look at them! Just take a good look at them!’ Lucasta’s voice was higher now. A hysterical note had crept into it ‘How can you think they work for Roman Songhera?’

‘We most certainly do not look the part,’ Major Payne said. ‘That’s precisely the reason why he employed us. The money’s awfully good. And we’ll get more as soon as we give Songhera a name.’

‘He’s bluffing,’ Lucasta said.

‘They think it was me. I can see why.
I
thought it was me! They’ve been very logical about it.’ Once more Lord Justice Leighton shut his eyes. ‘Nothing matters any more, but I don’t see why they should go on believing it was me. It isn’t right. You led me on. You deceived me.
It was you,
not me
.’

‘I am awfully sorry but I must ask you to leave, if you don’t mind.’ Lucasta Leighton turned towards the unwelcome visitors in a parody of graciousness. ‘My husband is in precipitately declining health.’

‘I refuse to take part in any sort of consolidated alliance,’ Leighton declared, sticking out his lower lip. ‘Especially one of a criminal nature.’

‘My husband has a serious condition. Physical as well as psychiatric. He is on medication. Please –’

‘I have, after all, devoted my entire adult life to law and justice. I will
not
betray my principles.’

It was you. You lied to me.
Those were the words Mrs Gilmour had overheard. It had been Lord Justice Leighton and his wife. A middle-aged couple. Home Counties written all over them. The husband had looked distraught.
Of course
. Antonia held her breath. Lucasta Leighton had been at Ria’s bungalow. She had entered the bedroom
after
Lord Justice Leighton had left it. Leighton had believed he had killed his daughter, but he hadn’t.

‘
Please
,’ Lucasta Leighton said again, with greater emphasis, and this time she gestured towards the door. She took her hand off her cheek and Antonia gasped – it was an incredibly deep wound. Lucasta Leighton’s cheek appeared to have been ripped apart.

‘What – what happened to you?’ Antonia couldn’t help asking. ‘Who did this to you?’

‘Let me tell you first what Lucasta did.’ Leighton had loosened his chartreuse-coloured cravat from around his throat. ‘I will tell you
everything.
She destroyed my daughter and now she wants to destroy me. You should know about it, then you can report back to that filthy wop. Tell him it’s the wicked stepmother who did it. Let him deal with her as he sees fit. Tell him I insist on something protractedly painful.’

‘Oh, it’s nothing, my dear.’ Lucasta gave a dismissive smile. ‘A little accident.’

‘I understand Roman Songhera keeps crocodiles.’ Leighton smacked his lips. ‘He breeds them. Ria wrote about Roman’s crocs in the most lyrical terms. You will be fed to the crocodiles, Lucasta, and they will tear you apart and they’ll devour every bit of you until you disappear completely.’ He spoke with weary relish. ‘You are bound to taste foul but I don’t think they are particular.’

‘Now, Toby –’ The next moment Lucasta Leighton winced. She must be in dreadful pain, Antonia thought.

Leighton laughed horribly. ‘Oh dear. I keep forgetting you have been wounded. That woman struggled, I expect? You said she was big? Did she bite you?’

Had Lucasta Leighton committed
three
murders? It was she who had taken one of the fruit knives, of course, of course.
A woman with an immaculate hairdo
. Antonia felt a sick feeling in her stomach. She tried to catch her husband’s eye but he appeared ghoulishly mesmerized by the spectacle of the warring Leightons.

‘You wouldn’t have thought it of her, would you? It wasn’t all plain sailing, though. At one point she was seen.’ Lord Justice Leighton gave the impression of having summoned up all his strength. ‘There was a witness to Ria’s murder. She told me about it. That wop’s wife happened to be peeping in through the window. She called on Lucasta yesterday. They had tea together.’

‘Sarla Songhera witnessed the murder?’

‘She did. Mrs Songhera was quite amiable, apparently. Grossly fat but amiable and well disposed. She seemed to approve of what Lucasta did. She seemed to admire her for killing my daughter. She came again today and again they had tea together, then Lucasta came up to change – into her hunting outfit. Just look at her!’ Leighton shook his forefinger. ‘Aquascutum. Lucasta believes in being dressed for the occasion. Well, the hunting season opened this morning.
Vive le sport!
She was clutching something in her pocket. A knife, I think. I knew at once she intended to kill that woman. She had that look about her. Did you manage to do it, my precious?’

‘I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, Toby. I am afraid you are delirious.’

‘How I got to marry her, I don’t know. I admired her air of efficiency and sense of the theatre. We used to do impressions together,’ Leighton confided in Major Payne. ‘I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw her sitting downstairs, waiting for me. I’d just arrived from the airport, but there were great delays, so she beat me to it. She’d bought all the right things. Sola topis, mosquito repellent and antihistamine tablets.’

‘You didn’t tell her you were coming to Goa?’

‘Of course not. I said I was going to Baden-Baden, for my health, but she’d found my ticket in my desk, damn her. She’d been rifling my desk, reading my letters, spying on me! She then followed me all the way to the subcontinent. One might have been excused for taking her for my bloody shadow. She hopped on the next plane apparently and that’s how we ended up at this ghastly place.’ Lucasta Leighton went to the door and opened it. She looked at Antonia, then at Payne. ‘If you don’t leave at once I will call the management.’ She was pressing the handkerchief against her cheek once more.

‘I am nothing but a feeble-minded fool. No one would have thought I was once described as “possessing the finest legal brain in Britain”. I thought the world of Lucasta’s managerial qualities,’ Leighton went on. ‘She’s not quite human. She’s a demon. Never gets tired. Can exist on four hours’ sleep a night – like that Thatcher woman! Disgrace to womanhood. I didn’t feel too well that day, so it was she who phoned Knight. We weren’t sure about the address. Knight showed us where Fernandez Avenue was, though he didn’t come with us. We went together, she and I. I should have gone alone, then none of this would have happened.’

‘I wanted to help you,’ Lucasta said. ‘I love you.’

‘My brother-in-law is a fool but sometimes fools see the truth more clearly than the wise. I happened to overhear something he said. It was to the effect that Lucasta poisoned Imogen while nursing her – that’s my first wife – in order to get me! I didn’t believe it then, but now I wonder. I very much wonder.’

Antonia blinked. Had Lucasta committed
four
murders?

‘Don’t you believe a word of what he says. He is seriously ill.’

‘My darling Ria – I miss her so much!’ Leighton sobbed.

‘Toby – darling –
please
– do not distress yourself.’ Lucasta Leighton made an imploring gesture but the next moment she reeled back and leant against the wall. Her hand clutched at one of the chairs. Had she been overcome by nausea? Delayed shock? She needed to go to the hospital – have the gash cleaned and sterilized – stitched up – properly dressed – she must be given a tetanus jab – she might get blood poisoning.

Antonia was suddenly filled with dreadful pity for both of them. Love, she thought. The misery, the confusion and the horror of it. Oh God. The heart weeps.

‘I told Lucasta to wait outside. I rang the bell. Ria hadn’t changed one little bit,’ Lord Justice Leighton whispered. ‘Lovelier than ever. She got the shock of her life when she saw me. She didn’t recognize me – thought I was a stranger at first – stared as though I were Banquo’s ghost. Gasped. I wanted to kiss her but she wouldn’t let me. She thought I had died, you see. Turns out that Lucasta and my sister concocted a scheme between them – a ruse – while I was in hospital – last November.’

‘You nearly died!’ Lucasta cried. ‘It was her fault!’

‘I collapsed in the woods, but it wasn’t a heart attack – exhaustion, mainly – worry. I recovered fast enough. It was all Lucasta’s idea of course, that letter. Iris hasn’t got the brains. Cardinal Richelieu in a frock, that’s Lucasta. She put Iris up to it – made her write a letter to Ria saying I’d died.’

‘I did it for your sake. Your daughter’s letters were killing you. Your daughter had no right to treat you the way she did. She had it coming to her. She didn’t seem to realize that actions have consequences and extravagances have to be paid for in the end. She was degenerate. I couldn’t bear to watch you suffer!’

‘You were right, Major. I asked Ria to come back with me. She refused. We did have an argument. She said some awful things to me and I got angry. I took her by the shoulders – shook her – she slapped me – I pushed her back – against one of the bedposts, as it happened. I didn’t mean to. I thought I heard a crack – it was probably something else, but I – I thought she was dead. My sweet little Ria. My lovely girl. I got into a panic. I couldn’t feel her pulse.’

‘She had only passed out?’

Leighton bowed his head. ‘The same thing happened with me last November, oddly enough. I collapsed in the woods and my sister couldn’t find my pulse. She thought I was dead . . . I thought I’d killed Ria. I rushed out and told Lucasta. I wasn’t myself. I’d become bloody dependent on her, that’s the trouble. I asked her to go and check. I would never forgive myself for that, never. To think that I
was
wrong! Ria
was
alive! It was Lucasta who killed her! She strangled her.’ He covered his face with his hands.

‘I did it for you. Your lovely girl was a blot on the escutcheon. Rotten through and through. She did shameful things, outrageous thing, disgraceful things. And as though that were not enough, she set out to destroy you.’ Once more Lucasta was speaking in measured tones. ‘Can’t you
see
? I couldn’t let her go on. She’d have started writing to you again. She’d have resumed her torture tactics. I did what I did in good faith – finished her off – got rid of the rot. Please, darling – do try to understand!’