A Pocket Full of Rye (3 page)

The young lady was continuing composedly:

“Adele married him for his money, of course, and his son, Percival, and his daughter, Elaine, were simply livid about it. They're as nasty as they can be to her, but very wisely she doesn't care or even notice. She knows she's got the old man where she wants him. Oh dear, the wrong tense again. I haven't really grasped yet that he's dead. . . .”

“Let's hear about the son.”

“Dear Percival? Val, as his wife calls him. Percival is a mealy-mouthed hypocrite. He's prim and sly and cunning. He's terrified of his father and has always let himself be bullied, but he's quite clever at getting his own way. Unlike his father he's mean about money. Economy is one of his passions. That's why he's been so long about finding a house of his own. Having a suite of rooms here saved his pocket.”

“And his wife?”

“Jennifer's meek and seems very stupid. But I'm not so sure. She was a hospital nurse before her marriage—nursed Percival through pneumonia to a romantic conclusion. The old man was disappointed by the marriage. He was a snob and wanted Percival to make what he called a ‘good marriage.' He despised poor Mrs. Val and snubbed her. She dislikes—disliked him a good deal, I think. Her principal interests are shopping and the cinema; her principal grievance is that her husband keeps her short of money.”

“What about the daughter?”

“Elaine? I'm rather sorry for Elaine. She's not a bad sort. One of those great schoolgirls who never grow up. She plays games quite well, and runs Guides and Brownies and all that sort of thing. There was some sort of affair not long ago with a disgruntled young schoolmaster, but Father discovered the young man had communistic ideas and came down on the romance like a ton of bricks.”

“She hadn't got the spirit to stand up to him?”

“
She
had. It was the young man who ratted. A question of money yet again, I fancy. Elaine is not particularly attractive, poor dear.”

“And the other son?”

“I've never seen him. He's attractive, by all accounts, and a thoroughly bad lot. Some little matter of a forged cheque in the past. He lives in East Africa.”

“And was estranged from his father.”

“Yes, Mr. Fortescue couldn't cut him off with a shilling because he'd already made him a junior partner in the firm, but he held no communication with him for years, and in fact if Lance was ever mentioned, he used to say: ‘Don't talk to me of that rascal. He's no son of mine.' All the same—”

“Yes, Miss Dove?”

Mary said slowly: “All the same, I shouldn't be surprised if old Fortescue hadn't been planning to get him back here.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Because, about a month ago, old Fortescue had a terrific row with Percival—he found out something that Percival had been doing behind his back—I don't know what it was—and he was absolutely furious. Percival suddenly stopped being the white-headed boy. He's been quite different lately, too.”

“Mr. Fortescue was quite different?”

“No. I meant Percival. He's gone about looking worried to death.”

“Now what about servants? You've already described the Crumps. Who else is there?”

“Gladys Martin is the parlourmaid or waitress, as they like to call themselves nowadays. She does the downstairs rooms, lays the table, clears away and helps Crump wait at table. Quite a decent sort of girl but very nearly half-witted. The adenoidal type.”

Neele nodded.

“The housemaid is Ellen Curtis. Elderly, very crabbed, and very cross, but has been in good service and is a first-class housemaid. The rest is outside help—odd women who come in.”

“And those are the only people living here?”

“There's old Miss Ramsbottom.”

“Who is she?”

“Mr. Fortescue's sister-in-law—his first wife's sister. His wife was a good deal older than he was and her sister again was a good deal older than her—which makes her well over seventy. She has a room of her own on the second floor—does her own cooking and all that, with just a woman coming in to clean. She's rather eccentric and she never liked her brother-in-law, but she came here while her sister was alive and stayed on when she died. Mr. Fortescue never bothered about her much. She's quite a character, though, is Aunt Effie.”

“And that is all.”

“That's all.”

“So we come to you, Miss Dove.”

“You want particulars? I'm an orphan. I took a secretarial course at the St. Alfred's Secretarial College. I took a job as shorthand typist, left it and took another, decided I was in the wrong racket, and started on my present career. I have been with three different employers. After about a year or eighteen months I get tired of a particular place and move on. I have been at Yewtree Lodge just over a year. I will type out the names and addresses of my various employers and give them, with a copy of my references to Sergeant—Hay, is it? Will that be satisfactory?”

“Perfectly, Miss Dove.” Neele was silent for a moment, enjoying a mental image of Miss Dove tampering with Mr. Fortescue's breakfast. His mind went back farther, and he saw her methodically gathering yew berries in a little basket. With a sigh he returned to the present and reality. “Now, I would like to see the girl—er Gladys—and then the housemaid, Ellen.” He added as he rose: “By the way, Miss Dove, can you give me any idea why Mr. Fortescue would be carrying loose grain in his pocket?”

“Grain?” she stared at him with what appeared to be genuine surprise.

“Yes—grain. Does that suggest something to you, Miss Dove?”

“Nothing at all.”

“Who looked after his clothes?”

“Crump.”

“I see. Did Mr. Fortescue and Mrs. Fortescue occupy the same bedroom?”

“Yes. He had a dressing room and bath, of course, and so did she . . .” Mary glanced down at her wristwatch. “I really think that she ought to be back very soon now.”

The inspector had risen. He said in a pleasant voice:

“Do you know one thing, Miss Dove? It strikes me as very odd that even though there are three golf courses in the immediate neighbourhood, it has yet not been possible to find Mrs. Fortescue on one of them before now?”

“It would not be so odd, Inspector, if she did not actually happen to be playing golf at all.”

Mary's voice was dry. The inspector said sharply:

“I was distinctly informed that she was playing golf.”

“She took her golf clubs and announced her intention of doing so. She was driving her own car, of course.”

He looked at her steadily, perceiving the inference.

“Who was she playing with? Do you know?”

“I think it possible that it might be Mr. Vivian Dubois.”

Neele contented himself by saying: “I see.”

“I'll send Gladys in to you. She'll probably be scared to death.” Mary paused for a moment by the door, then she said:

“I should hardly advise you to go too much by all I've told you. I'm a malicious creature.”

She went out. Inspector Neele looked at the closed door and wondered. Whether actuated by malice or not, what she had told him could not fail to be suggestive. If Rex Fortescue had been deliberately poisoned, and it seemed almost certain that that was the case, then the setup at Yewtree Lodge seemed highly promising. Motives appeared to be lying thick on the ground.

T
he girl who entered the room with obvious unwillingness was an unattractive, frightened-looking girl, who managed to look faintly sluttish in spite of being tall and smartly dressed in a claret-coloured uniform.

She said at once, fixing imploring eyes upon him:

“I didn't do anything. I didn't really. I don't know anything about it.”

“That's all right,” said Neele heartily. His voice had changed slightly. It sounded more cheerful and a good deal commoner in intonation. He wanted to put the frightened rabbit Gladys at her ease.

“Sit down here,” he went on. “I just want to know about breakfast this morning.”

“I didn't do anything at all.”

“Well, you laid the breakfast, didn't you?”

“Yes, I did that.” Even that admission came unwillingly. She looked both guilty and terrified, but Inspector Neele was used to witnesses who looked like that. He went on cheerfully, trying to put her at her ease, asking questions: who had come down first? And who next?

Elaine Fortescue had been the first down to breakfast. She'd come in just as Crump was bringing in the coffee pot. Mrs. Fortescue was down next, and then Mrs. Val, and the master last. They waited on themselves. The tea and coffee and the hot dishes were all on hot plates on the sideboard.

He learnt little of importance from her that he did not know already. The food and drink was as Mary Dove had described it. The master and Mrs. Fortescue and Miss Elaine took coffee and Mrs. Val took tea. Everything had been quite as usual.

Neele questioned her about herself and here she answered more readily. She'd been in private service first and after that in various cafés. Then she thought she'd like to go back to private service and had come to Yewtree Lodge last September. She'd been there two months.

“And you like it?”

“Well, it's all right, I suppose.” She added: “It's not so hard on your feet—but you don't get so much freedom. . . .”

“Tell me about Mr. Fortescue's clothes—his suits. Who looked after them? Brushed them and all that?”

Gladys looked faintly resentful.

“Mr. Crump's supposed to. But half the time he makes me do it.”

“Who brushed and pressed the suit Mr. Fortescue had on today?”

“I don't remember which one he wore. He's got ever so many.”

“Have you ever found grain in the pocket of one of his suits?”

“Grain?” She looked puzzled.

“Rye, to be exact.”

“Rye? That's bread, isn't it? A sort of black bread—got a nasty taste, I always think.”

“That's bread made from rye. Rye is the grain itself. There was some found in the pocket of your master's coat.”

“In his coat pocket?”

“Yes. Do you know how it got there?”

“I couldn't say I'm sure. I never saw any.”

He could get no more from her. For a moment or two he wondered if she knew more about the matter than she was willing to admit. She certainly seemed embarrassed and on the defensive—but on the whole he put it down to a natural fear of the police.

When he finally dismissed her, she asked:

“It's really true, is it. He's dead?”

“Yes, he's dead.”

“Very sudden, wasn't it? They said when they rang up from the office that he'd had a kind of fit.”

“Yes—it was a kind of fit.”

Gladys said: “A girl I used to know had fits. Come on anytime, they did. Used to scare me.”

For the moment this reminiscence seemed to overcome her suspicions.

Inspector Neele made his way to the kitchen.

His reception was immediate and alarming. A woman of vast proportions, with a red face armed with a rolling pin stepped towards him in a menacing fashion.

“Police, indeed,” she said. “Coming here and saying things like that! Nothing of the kind, I'd have you know. Anything I've sent in the dining room has been just what it should be. Coming here and saying I poisoned the master. I'll have the law on you, police or no police. No bad food's ever been served in this house.”

It was sometime before Inspector Neele could appease the irate artist. Sergeant Hay looked in grinning from the pantry and Inspector Neele gathered that he had already run the gauntlet of Mrs. Crump's wrath.

The scene was terminated by the ringing of the telephone.

Neele went out into the hall to find Mary Dove taking the call. She was writing down a message on a pad. Turning her head over her shoulder she said: “It's a telegram.”

The call concluded, she replaced the receiver and handed the pad on which she had been writing to the inspector. The place of origin was Paris and the message ran as follows:

Fortescue Yewtree Lodge Baydon Heath Surrey. Sorry your letter delayed. Will be with you tomorrow about teatime. Shall expect roast veal for dinner. Lance.

Inspector Neele raised his eyebrows.

“So the Prodigal Son had been summoned home,” he said.

A
t the moment when Rex Fortescue had been drinking his last cup of tea, Lance Fortescue and his wife had been sitting under the trees on the Champs Elysées watching the people walking past.

“It's all very well to say ‘describe him,' Pat. I'm a rotten hand at descriptions. What do you want to know? The Guvnor's a bit of an old crook, you know. But you won't mind that? You must be used to that more or less.”

“Oh, yes,” said Pat. “Yes—as you say—I'm acclimatized.”

She tried to keep a certain forlornness out of her voice. Perhaps, she reflected, the whole world was really crooked—or was it just that she herself had been unfortunate?

She was a tall, long-legged girl, not beautiful but with a charm that was made-up of vitality and a warm-hearted personality. She moved well, and had lovely gleaming chestnut brown hair. Perhaps from a long association with horses, she had acquired the look of a thoroughbred filly.

Crookedness in the racing world she knew about—now, it seemed, she was to encounter crookedness in the financial world. Though for all that, it seemed that her father-in-law, whom she had not yet met, was, as far as the law was concerned, a pillar of rectitude. All these people who went about boasting of “smart work” were the same—technically they always managed to be within the law. Yet it seemed to her that her Lance, whom she loved, and who had admittedly strayed outside the ringed fence in earlier days, had an honesty that these successful practitioners of the crooked lacked.

“I don't mean,” said Lance, “that he's a swindler—not anything like that. But he knows how to put over a fast one.”

“Sometimes,” said Pat, “I feel I hate people who put over fast ones.” She added: “You're fond of him.” It was a statement, not a question.

Lance considered it for a moment, and then said in a surprised kind of voice:

“Do you know, darling, I believe I am.”

Pat laughed. He turned his head to look at her. His eyes narrowed. What a darling she was! He loved her. The whole thing was worth it for her sake.

“In a way, you know,” he said, “it's hell going back. City life. Home on the 5:18. It's not my kind of life. I'm far more at home among the down and outs. But one's got to settle down sometime, I suppose. And with you to hold my hand the process may even be quite a pleasant one. And since the old boy has come round, one ought to take advantage of it. I must say I was surprised when I got his letter . . . Percival, of all people, blotting his copybook. Percival, the good little boy. Mind you, Percy was always sly. Yes, he was always sly.”

“I don't think,” said Patricia Fortescue, “that I'm going to like your brother Percival.”

“Don't let me put you against him. Percy and I never got on—that's all there is to it. I blued my pocket money, he saved his. I had disreputable but entertaining friends, Percy made what's called ‘worthwhile contacts.' Poles apart we were, he and I. I always thought him a poor fish, and he—sometimes, you know, I think he almost hated me. I don't know why exactly. . . .”

“I think I can see why.”

“Can you, darling? You're so brainy. You know I've always wondered—it's a fantastic thing to say—but—”

“Well? Say it.”

“I've wondered if it wasn't Percival who was behind that cheque business—you know, when the old man kicked me out—and was he mad that he'd given me a share in the firm and so he couldn't disinherit me! Because the queer thing was that I never forged that cheque—though of course nobody would believe that after that time I swiped funds out of the till and put it on a horse. I was dead sure I could put it back, and anyway it was my own cash in a manner of speaking. But that cheque business—no. I don't know why I've got the ridiculous idea that Percival did that—but I have, somehow.”

“But it wouldn't have done
him
any good? It was paid into your account.”

“I know. So it doesn't make sense, does it?”

Pat turned sharply towards him.

“You mean—he did it to get you chucked out of the firm?”

“I wondered. Oh well—it's a rotten thing to say. Forget it. I wonder what old Percy will say when he sees the Prodigal returned. Those pale, boiled-gooseberry eyes of his will pop right out of his head!”

“Does he know you are coming?”

“I shouldn't be surprised if he didn't know a damned thing! The old man's got rather a funny sense of humour, you know.”

“But what has your brother
done
to upset your father so much?”

“That's what
I'd
like to know. Something must have made the old man livid. Writing off to me the way he did.”

“When was it you got his first letter?”

“Must be four—no five months ago. A cagey letter, but a distinct holding out of the olive branch. ‘Your elder brother has proved himself unsatisfactory in many ways.' ‘You seem to have sown your wild oats and settled down.' ‘I can promise you that it will be well worth your while financially.' ‘Shall welcome you and your wife.' You know, darling, I think my marrying you had a lot to do with it. The old boy was impressed that I'd married into a class above me.”

Pat laughed.

“What? Into the aristocratic riff-raff?”

He grinned. “That's right. But riff-raff didn't register and aristocracy did. You should see Percival's wife. She's the kind who says ‘Pass the preserves, please' and talks about a postage stamp.”

Pat did not laugh. She was considering the women of the family into which she had married. It was a point of view which Lance had not taken into account.

“And your sister?” she asked.

“Elaine—? Oh she's all right. She was pretty young when I left home. Sort of an earnest girl—but probably she's grown out of that. Very intense over things.”

It did not sound very reassuring. Pat said:

“She never wrote to you—after you went away?”

“I didn't leave an address. But she wouldn't have, anyway. We're not a devoted family.”

“No.”

He shot a quick look at her.

“Got the wind up? About my family? You needn't. We're not going to live with them, or anything like that. We'll have our own little place, somewhere. Horses, dogs, anything you like.”

“But there will still be the 5:18.”

“For me, yes. To and fro to the city, all togged up. But don't worry, sweet—there are rural pockets, even round London. And lately I've felt the sap of financial affairs rising in me. After all, it's in my blood—from both sides of the family.”

“You hardly remember your mother, do you?”

“She always seemed to me incredibly old. She was old, of course. Nearly fifty when Elaine was born. She wore lots of clinking things and lay on a sofa and used to read me stories about knights and ladies which bored me stiff. Tennyson's ‘Idylls of the King.' I suppose I was fond of her . . . She was very—colourless, you know. I realize that, looking back.”

“You don't seem to have been particularly fond of anybody,” said Pat disapprovingly.

Lance grasped and squeezed her arm.

“I'm fond of you,” he said.