A Night of Errors (30 page)

‘Oliver, it seems, did contact his brothers some time before his accident. Their names were Jaques and Orlando, and they were both struggling professional men. Just why Oliver did act on his mother’s information and seek them out I don’t know. But it seems clear that when he had done so he was rather inclined to amuse himself with the situation. By promising them first this and then that he contrived to set them at loggerheads. While Oliver was actually in hospital after his accident the brothers went on a fishing holiday together to talk the matter over. One day, when they were out in a boat on a lonely lake, they quarrelled. Orlando, who is a thoroughly criminal type, hit Jaques over the head with a boat-hook and killed him outright. It was a nasty situation and he made the best of it by binding the body to the anchor and dropping it in deep water. He then returned to the shore and said that his brother had got out on the other side and was walking over a range to the next valley. Later he told a similar yarn to Oliver, with whatever additions might make it more plausible. And hard upon that, and as soon as Oliver was out of hospital, he travelled with him to England. With some notion of accounting for Jaques’ disappearance, and without Oliver’s noticing the fact, he travelled on Jaques’ passport.

‘So you see that this long lost Orlando was in a fix. He had murdered Jaques, and quite soon there would be inquiry and a lot of trouble. That was the situation when Oliver and Orlando came down here – secretly because of Oliver’s shyness about his subtly changed appearance. That was the situation when Orlando stepped out on the terrace and found Oliver dead and murdered at his feet.

‘It was an appalling situation. He was likely to be convicted of killing both his brothers – justly in the one case and unjustly in the other.

‘I must say that each time I come back to the way he handled the matter I am compelled, in a fashion, to admire him the more. For what he instantly saw was not merely a way out of deadly peril; it was also a way into an inheritance. He would give the impression that Oliver had killed that brother who would be judged on the evidence of the immigration authorities to have travelled home with him – Jaques, to wit – and that then Oliver had committed suicide. He would then hurry back to America, resume his normal life as after a holiday, receive the news that Oliver had killed Jaques and then committed suicide, and be able as a result to claim the whole Dromio inheritance. I remember that when I worked out these comings and goings with rosebuds by a fountain’s edge at Sherris this morning I added one for the heiress whom Oliver was pursuing. I have a notion that Orlando, having become a baronet, hoped to nobble her too. And I doubt whether he knew how financially embarrassed the Dromio affairs were.’

There was a long silence. Then Mr Greengrave nodded. ‘I see,’ he said. ‘At least I
think I
see
.’

‘It is certainly a very odd case. And Orlando Dromio exploited every factor in it with lightning speed to his own advantage. In another walk of life he would have made a great general. As it is, he will hang.’

Hyland suddenly sat up, a man revived. His black braid glistened, his silver buttons shone. For the last word, after all, was to be his. ‘No,’ he said. ‘It will be the electric chair.’

And Mr Greengrave rose. ‘It is very horrible – very horrible and very sad. With the unfortunate women who are left stricken by the calamity there will be work for which I must brace myself indeed. But now’ – and he glanced at the empty decanter – ‘and although Appleby knows that my head is not to be trusted, I think another bottle of port would be not altogether out of the way. I am only sorry that I cannot offer you such a vintage as my friend Canon Newton might do.’

Appleby looked at his watch. ‘Certainly the night is still young. It was a good deal less than twenty-four hours ago that Hyland and I first heard of all this.’

Mr Greengrave nodded. ‘Do you know, I am constrained to think of our family’s namesakes in Shakespeare’s play? To the first appearance of those earlier Dromios there was sometimes given the title,
The Night of Errors
. I think we may say that we have been through just that.’

John Appleby first appears in
Death at the President’s Lodging
, by which time he has risen to the rank of Inspector in the police force. A cerebral detective, with ready wit, charm and good manners, he rose from humble origins to being educated at ‘St Anthony’s College’, Oxford, prior to joining the police as an ordinary constable.

Having decided to take early retirement just after World War II, he nonetheless continued his police career at a later stage and is subsequently appointed an Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard, where his crime solving talents are put to good use, despite the lofty administrative position. Final retirement from the police force (as Commissioner and Sir John Appleby) does not, however, diminish Appleby’s taste for solving crime and he continues to be active,
Appleby and the Ospreys
marking his final appearance in the late 1980’s.

In
Appleby’s End
he meets Judith Raven, whom he marries and who has an involvement in many subsequent cases, as does their son Bobby and other members of his family.

These titles can be read as a series, or randomly as standalone novels

These titles can be read as a series, or randomly as standalone novels

Published by House of Stratus

The Ampersand Papers While Appleby is strolling along a Cornish beach, he narrowly escapes being struck by a body falling down a cliff. The body is that of Dr Sutch, an archivist, and he has fallen from the North Tower of Treskinnick Castle, home of Lord Ampersand. Two possible motivations present themselves to Appleby – the Ampersand gold, treasure from an Armada galleon; and the Ampersand papers, valuable family documents that have associations with Wordsworth and Shelley.

Appleby and Honeybath Every English mansion has a locked room, and Grinton Hall is no exception – the library has hidden doors and passages…and a corpse. But when the corpse goes missing, Sir John Appleby and Charles Honeybath have an even more perplexing case on their hands – just how did it disappear when the doors and windows were securely locked? A bevy of helpful houseguests offer endless assistance, but the two detectives suspect that they are concealing vital information. Could the treasures on the library shelves be so valuable that someone would murder for them?