Original Sin (37 page)

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Dear Gerard,

This is to tell you that I want to end our engagement. I suppose I ought to say that I'm sorry to hurt you, but I don't think you will be hurt except in your pride. I shall mind more than you, but not very much and not for long. Mummy thinks that we ought to put a notice in The Times since we did announce the engagement, but that doesn't seem very impor-tant at present. Look after yourself. It was fun while it lasted, but not as much fun as it could have been.

Lucinda

Underneath there was a postscript: Let me know if you want me to return the ring.'

Daniel thought that it was as well the letter had been found unopened. If Etienne had received it, it could have been used by a defence counsel to show a motive for suicide. As it was, it was of small importance to their inquiry.

Kate said o Claudia: 'Had your brother any idea that Lady Lucinda was about to break their engagement?'

'Not as far as I know. She's probably regretting that she wrote that letter. She can hardly pose now as the broken-hearted fiance.'

The desk was modern, plain and outwardly unpretentious, but with an interior cleverly designed with numerous drawers and cubbyholes. It was all in immaculate order: bills paid, a few bills still outstanding, chequebooks for the previous two years bound together with a rubber band, a drawer with a portfolio of his investments. It was obvious that Etienne kept only what was necessary, clearing his life as it went along, shedding inessentials, conducting his social life, such as it was, by telephone not by letter. They had been at the task for only a few minutes when Claudia Etienne returned carrying a tray with a cafetire and three mugs. She placed the tray on the low table and they came over to take up their mugs. They were still standing, Claudia Etienne with her mug in her hand, when there was the sound of a key in the lock.

Claudia gave an extraordinary sound - something between a gasp and a moan - and Daniel saw that her face had become a mask of terror. The coffee mug dropped from her hands and the brown stain spread over the carpet. She bent down to pick it up, her hands scrabbling over the soft surface and shaking so violently that she

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couldn't replace the mug on the tray. It seemed to Daniel that her terror infected him and Kate so that they, too, gazed with horrified eyes at the closed door.

It was slowly opened and the original of the photograph came into the room. She said: 'I'm Lucinda Norrington. Who are you?' Her voice was high and clear, a child's voice.

Instinctively Kate had moved to steady Claudia, and it was Daniel who answered. 'Police. Detective Inspector Miskin, and I'm Detective Inspector Aaron.'

Claudia had quickly managed to control herself. Clumsily, refusing Kate's help, she got to her feet. Lucinda's letter lay beside the tray on the coffee table. It seemed to Daniel that every eye was on it.

Claudia's voice was harshly guttural. 'Why did you come here?' Lady Lucinda moved further into the room. 'I came for that letter. I didn't want people to think Gerard had killed himself because of me. After all he didn't, did he? Kill himself I mean.'

Kate said quietly: 'How can you be sure of that?'

Lady Lucinda turned on her her immense blue eyes. 'Because he liked himself too much. People who like themselves don't commit suicide. Anyway he wouldn't kill himself because I chucked him. He didn't love me, he only loved an idea of me.'

Claudia Etienne had found her normal voice. She said: 'I told him that the engagement was foolish, that you were a selfish, over-bred and rather silly girl, but I think I may have been unfair. You're not as silly as I thought. Actually, Gerard never received your letter. I found it here unopened.'

q'hen why did you open it? It isn't addressed to you.'

'Someone had to open it. I could have returned it to you but I

didn't know who had sent it. I'd never seen your handwriting before.' Lady Lucinda said: 'May I have my letter?'

Kate replied: 'We should like to keep it for the time being, if we may.'

Lady Lucinda seemed to regard this as a statement rather than a request. She said: 'But it belongs to me. I wrote it.'

'We may only need to keep it for a little time and we don't intend to publish it.'

Daniel, uncertain what the law said about ownership of a letter, wondered whether they had, in fact, any right to take it, and what

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Kate would do if Lady Lucinda pressed the matter. He wondered, too, why Kate was so anxious to have it. It wasn't as if Etienne had received it. But what proof had they of that? They had only his sister's word that she had found it on the mat unopened. Lady Lucinda made no further objection. She shrugged and turned to Claudia.

'I'm sorry about Gerard. It was an accident, wasn't it? That's the impression you gave Mummy on the telephone. But this morning some of the papers are hinting it could be more complicated. He wasn't murdered, was he?'

Kate said: 'He could have been.'

Again the blue eyes were turned consideringly on her. 'How bizarre. I don't think I've ever known anyone who was murdered, known them personally, I mean.'

She walked over to her photograph and took it in her hands, studying it closely as if she hadn't seen it before and was none too pleased with what the photographer had made of her features. Then she said: 'I'll take this. After all, you won't want it, Claudia.'

Claudia said: 'Strictly speaking none of his possessions should be moved except by his executors or the police.'

'Well the police won't want it either. I don't want it to be here in the empty flat, not if Gerard was murdered.'

So she was not without superstition. The discovery intrigued Daniel. It sat oddly with her cool self-possession. He watched as she studied the photograph and ran a long pink nailed finger caressingly over the glass as if testing it for dust. Then she turned and said to Claudia: 'I suppose there's something I can use to wrap this?'

qere may be a plastic bag in the kitchen drawer, you'd better look. And if there's anything else which belongs to you, now might be a good time to take it.'

Lady Lucinda didn't even trouble to cast her eyes round the room. She said: 'There's nothing else.'

'If you want a coffee bring in another mug. It's freshly made.'

'I don't want coffee, thank you.'

They waited in silence until, in less than a minute, she returned carrying the photograph in a Harrods plastic bag. She was walking to the door when Kate said: 'Lady Lucinda, I wonder if we could ask you a few questions? We would in any case have asked to see you, but now that you're here it will save time for both of us.'

'How much time? I mean, how long is it going to take?'

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'Not very long.' Kate turned to Claudia. 'You don't mind if we use this flat for the interview?' 'I don't see how I can prevent you I suppose you dor't expect me to retire to the kitchen?' 'That won't be necessary.' 'Or to the bedroom? That might be more comfortable.' She was looking fixedly at Lady Lucinda who said calmly: 'I can't tell you. I've never been in Gerard's bedroom.' She sat in the nearer of the two armchairs and Kate seated herself opposite. Daniel and Claudia sat between them on the sofa. Kate said: q/Vhen did you last see your fiance?' 'He isn't my fiance. He was at the time, though. I saw him last Saturday.' 'Saturday ninth October?' 'I suppose so, if last Saturday was the ninth. We were going to Bradwell-on-Sea to visit his father but the day was wet and Gerard said his father's house was gloomy enough without arriving in the rain and we'd go another time. Instead we went to the Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery in the afternoon because Gerard wanted to look again at the Wilton Diptych, and then on to the Ritz for tea. I didn't see him that evening because Mummy wanted me to drive down to Wiltshire with her to spend the night and Sunday with my brother. She wanted to talk about marriage settlements before we saw the lawyers.' 'And how was Mr Etienne when you met him on the Saturday, apart from being depressed about the weather?' 'He wasn't depressed about the weather. There wasn't any hurry to see his father. Gerard didn't get depressed about things he couldn't change.' Daniel said: 'And the things he could change, he changed?' She turned and looked at him, and suddenly smiled, qhat's right.' She added, qhat was the last time I saw him but it wasn't the last time I spoke to him. We talked on the telephone on Thursday night.' Kate's voice was carefully controlled: 'You spoke to him two days ago, on the night he died?' 'I don't know when he died. He was found dead yesterday morning, wasn't he? I spoke to him on his private line on the previous evening.' 'At what time, Lady Lucinda?'

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'At about twenty past seven, I suppose. It rmght have been a little later but it was certainly before half past seven because Mummy and I were supposed to leave the house at seven-thirty to go to dinner with my godmother and I was already dressed. I thought I would just have time to ring Gerard. I wanted an excuse to make it a short conversation. That's how I can be so sure of the time.'

'What about? You'd already written to break off the engagement.' 'I know. I thought he would have got the letter that morning. I wanted to ask him whether he agreed with Mummy that we ought to put a notice in The Times or whether he preferred for us to write to our personal friends and just let the news get around. Of course Mummy now wants me to destroy my letter to Gerard and say nothing. I shan't do that. I can't anyway now you've seen it. But at least she doesn't have to worry about the notice in The Times. That will save her a few pounds.'

The pin-prick of venom was so sudden and so quickly withdrawn that Daniel could almost believe he'd missed it. As if she hadn't heard, Kate asked: 'What did he say about the notice, about your broken engagement? Didn't you ask him if he'd received your letter?'

'I didn't ask him anything. We didn't talk at all. He said he

couldn't speak then because he had a visitor with him.'

q(ou're sure of that?'

The high bell-like voice was almost expressionless. 'I'm not sure that he had a visitor. I mean, how could I be? I didn't hear anyone or speak to anyone except Gerard. Perhaps that was just an excuse for not talking to me, but I'm sure that's what he told me.'

'And in those precise words? I want to be absolutely clear about this, Lady Lucinda. He didn't say he wasn't alone or that he had someone with him? He used the word visitor?'

'I've told you. He said he had a visitor with him.'

'And that was between, say, seven-twenty and seven-thirty?'

'Nearer seven-thirty. The car came round for Mummy and me at half past seven.'

A visitor. By an effort of will Daniel prevented himself from glancing at Kate but he knew that their thoughts were in harness. If Etienne had indeed used that word - and the girl seemed positive about it - it surely implied that Etienne was with someone from outside the firm. He would hardly have used the word for a partner or a member of staff. Wouldn't it then be more natural to say 'I'm tied

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up', or 'In a meeting', or 'I'm busy with a colleague'? And if someone had called on him that night, invited or uninvited, he or she hadn't yet come forward. Why not, if the visit had been innocent,if he'd left Etienne alive and well? There had been no note of any arranged meeting in Etienne's office diary, but that wasn't conclusive. The visitor could have rung him on his private line any time during the day or early evening, or come uninvited and unexpected. But the evidence, such as it was, was circumstantial, like so much evidence in this increasingly baffling case.

But Kate was pressing on, asking Lady Lucinda when she had last been at Innocent House.

'Not since the party on the tenth of July. It was partly for my birthday- I was twenty - and partly as an engagement party.'

Kate said: qfi/e have the list of guests. I suppose they were free to wander all over the house if they wanted?'

'Some of them did, I think. You know how couples are at parties, they like to get away on their own. I don't think any of the rooms were locked although Gerard said that the staff had been told to put away all their papers safely.'

'You didn't happen to see anyone going to the top of the house, towards the archives room?'

'Well I did actually. It was rather funny. I needed to go to the loo but the one on the first floor which was being used for the women guests was occupied, and then I remembered there was a small one on the top floor and I decided to use that. I went up by the stairs and I saw two people coming down. Not at all the people you'd expect.

They looked so guilty, too. It really was weird.'

'Who were they, Lady Lucinda?'

'George, the old man who works on the switchboard in reception and that dull little woman who's married to the accountant, I forget his name, Sydney Bernard or something like that. Gerard introduced

me to all the staff and their wives. It was a terrible bore.' 'Sydney Bartrum?' qnat's right, his wife. She was wearing an extraordinary dress in pale blue taffeta with a pink sash.' She turned to Claudia Etienne. 'You remember, don't you, Claudia? A very full skirt covered with

pink net and puffed sleeves. Gruesome!'

Claudia said shortly: 'I remember.'

'Did either of them say what they were doing on the top floor?'

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ae same as I was, 1 suppose. She went scarlet and muttered something about using the toilet. They looked extraordinarily alike, the same round faces, the same embarrassment. George looked as if' I'd discovered them pilfering the petty cash. It was odd, though, wasn't it? Those two together I mean. George wasn't a guest, of course. He was only there to help with the men's coats and repel gatecrashers. And if Mrs Bartrum wanted the loo, why didn't she ask Claudia or one of the women staff?'

Kate asked: 'Did you mention this to anyone afterwards, to Mr Etienne, for example?'

'No, it wasn't that important, just odd. I'd almost forgotten about it until now. Look, is there anything else you want to know? I think I've been here long enough. If you want to speak to me again you'd better write and I'll try to arrange a meeting.'