Donald Bain - Gin and Daggers

“That sword looked serious enough to me,” I said.

“He’s fruity, that’s all. I consider your friendship with Jimmy Biggers to pose a greater threat.”

“My friendship? I haven’t established a friendship with him. We’ve agreed to meet, that’s all. How did you know about that?”

“I have my sources. Keep your distance from him, Jessica. He’s nothing but trouble.”

I put my hands to my temples and said, “I know, I know, Lucas, and I promised I would heed your advice after what happened to me the other night on the street, but you can’t preclude me from making contact with people.”

“You’re willing to risk your life for that principle?”

“Risk my life? Lucas, I don’t wish to discuss this any further. I would like to attend some of the seminars and displays that are going on in the hotel. What are your plans?”

He sighed and huffed. “My plans were all carefully scheduled weeks ago, and on paper. The funeral has disrupted them. I might as well accompany you to whatever it is you decide to do. Damn, Jessica, things have gotten bloody wimpled. I detest complication.”

“Well, you don’t have any choice, do you? I need a hot bath to get rid of this chill. Shall we meet downstairs in an hour?”

“I suppose so. Why did you want to stop in that shop on Crumpsworth?”

“I was curious, that’s all.”

“I thought since you’d become so chummy with that Scotland Yard inspector, you’d be up on the latest through him.”

I was becoming increasingly annoyed with Lucas, and my face reflected it. He grinned sheepishly and said, “You have that good hot bath, Jessica. See you at the weapons display in Room 707 in an hour.”

I sank into the hot water foaming with bubbles and let out a long sigh, my tensions evaporating as the warm water worked its magic. My body felt instantly better, but I couldn’t shut off my mind. Most of all, I wished Frank were alive. I missed him every day of my life, but there were times when that desire became acute, and this was one of them.

The phone rang. I was glad I wasn’t in the living room to answer it. It rang again. And again. Someone was persistent in trying to reach me.

Fifteen minutes later, wrapped in a luxuriant terry-cloth robe provided by the hotel, I padded barefoot into the living room. The phone rang again.

“Mrs. Fletcher, it’s Maria Giacona.”

I hadn’t left Jason Harris’s flat with especially fond feelings for her, mitigated, of course, by having learned that he was known to have beaten her. “Yes, Ms. Giacona, what can I do for you?”

“Mrs. Fletcher, I’m terribly sorry for the way I acted at Jason’s flat. I was upset and…” Her voice lightened. “No excuses, I was simply rude, and I apologize.”

I sat on the bed. Her apology, sounding sincere, alleviated the annoyance I’d felt. I thanked her for her apology and asked whether she’d heard from Jason.

“No, I haven’t. I know you went to the funeral. He wasn’t there, was he?”

“No, he wasn’t. Are you at his flat now?”

“No, but I’m about to go there. I thought I’d tidy up in anticipation of his return.”

Apparently she’d brought her emotions under control. “You will call me if he comes home?” I said.

“Yes, of course. Mrs. Fletcher, when Jason does come home-and I know he will-I hope you and I can resurrect our plan to sit down together and discuss the work he did on Gin and Daggers.”

“Of course, provided I’m still here in London. I plan to be here only through this week.”

She laughed. “If he isn’t back by then, I will really worry.” Not that she hadn’t already. “Sorry to trouble you, Mrs. Fletcher. You are obviously a good person, and I appreciate the interest you’ve shown.”

“That’s quite all right, Ms. Giacona. Thank you for calling.”

The weapons display was fascinating, although I have always tended to look for less violent methods of doing away with victims in my books. Guns and knives certainly have their place in murder mystery fiction, and I’m sure there is a legion of readers who prefer some gore in their reading, but I’ve always been more comfortable with a more genteel approach. Very much like Marjorie Ainsworth, I thought. Still, there were times when a piece of destructive hardware was much needed, and I browsed the display with interest-and horror at what the real weapons could do to real people.

More interesting to me, however, was an array of methods to do away with someone that had nothing to do with triggers and bullets and blades. A London pharmacist who’d been a member of ISMW for many years, and who’d been a consultant to many British mystery writers, had not only created a remarkable display of poisons but, in conjunction with a leading cookbook author, had developed a series of recipes perfect for delivering these lethal chemicals to intended victims-only in books, of course.

I listened to a heated debate between a German psychologist turned mystery writer and a stout Canadian woman who’d written dozens of novels featuring a disgraced Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman, over the reasons that food often plays such a large role in mystery novels. She: “Having a fascination with, and skill at preparing food gives a hero or heroine a worldly sophistication.” He: “Unsinn! It all has to do with sex. There is no sex in murder mysteries. Food is the substitute. For each missing kiss or embrace, there will be an extra Brathandl!”

I noticed as the day wore on that fewer members of the press hung around the hotel, and I enjoyed an accompanying feeling of freedom. But, as when one jinxes a trip by commenting on how smoothly it’s gone just before a tire blows out, and the engine suddenly seizes, my pleasure was short-lived.

It happened at five o’clock as I sat in the lobby with other American writers attending the conference. I was in the process of retelling the German writer’s analysis of food and murder mysteries when Lucas came up to us. “Jessica, I must speak with you immediately.”

Lucas was always so dramatic, and most times it stemmed from his personality, rather than from an event he was about to report. Still, you never knew. I followed him to a corner.

“You haven’t heard?” he said.

“I suppose not. What haven’t I heard?”

“Marjorie’s last will and testament. It’s to be officially read and released tomorrow, but a few reporters were tipped off about its major provisions.”

“And?”

“She left a fortune, millions of pounds.”

“I don’t wonder.”

“The report didn’t mention specific numbers. Most of her estate, as I understand it, is to be used to establish Ainsworth Manor as an international research facility for mystery writers.”

“How wonderful,” I said.

“Her niece, Jane, gets some.”

“I would certainly hope so.”

“Household staff is in for a share.”

“I wouldn’t expect less of Marjorie than to reward them.”

“And, according to the report, she left a sizable portion to you.”

I was speechless.

“Did you hear me, Jessica?”

“Yes, I think so. Me?”

“You.”

“I can’t imagine why.”

“It doesn’t matter, Jessica. Do you realize what that means?”

“It means… I would never accept it. I don’t need money. I’ll simply donate my share to the study center that obviously meant so much to her.”

“Jessica.”

“What?”

“Her will. Motive. They’ll say you had a motive to kill her.”

I guffawed.

His face was dour. “I’m serious, Jessica.”

“Well, I’m certainly not, and I-”

Six reporters, followed by a camera crew from the BBC, entered the lobby and headed straight for me. “See you later, Lucas,” I said, walking quickly to the elevators while Lucas shouted for calm. Ten minutes after I’d reached my suite, Lucas arrived.