Patricia Wentworth - The Case of William Smith

‘My sister-in-law knows nothing at all about cars. And she was laid up all last week with an attack of influenza.’

‘So Mr. Tattlecombe informed me. I do not attribute the attack on your brother or the attempt on the car to Miss Emily Salt. I believe that the other two attempts can be attributed to her. You will see of course, as I have done from the first, that two people are involved. Miss Emily Salt is one of them. I have come to you to find out who is the other, and what is the connection between them.’

Abigail Salt sat there in her handsome dress, the grey curls of her hair neatly ordered, her eyes as round and blue as her brother’s, her cheeks rosy, her lips unnaturally compressed. She opened them to say,

‘I can’t help you.’

Miss Silver looked at her very steadily.

‘I think you can. I do not wish to be misleading. When I say I have come to you to find out who is the second person concerned in this affair, I mean that I have come to you to discover the link between this person and Miss Emily Salt. The person’s identity is known. Where you can help me is – ’

‘Miss Silver, I can’t help you.’

‘I believe you can.’

‘I know of no such person.’

Miss Silver put up a hand in its black woollen glove.

‘Mrs. Salt, I only ask that you will answer a few questions. If I do not ask them, the police will do so.’

The colour deepened in Abigail’s cheeks.

‘You can ask your questions. I can’t say whether I can answer them.’

Miss Silver smiled gravely.

‘I feel sure that you will endeavour to do so. Pray do not think that I do not appreciate the difficulty of your position. You have had a heavy charge in the care of Miss Emily Salt. You cannot have fulfilled it without being aware of certain things. Will you tell me whether she has ever shown any tendency to violence before?’

There was a silence. When it had lasted some time Miss Silver said gently,

‘I see.’

Abigail looked away.

‘It was a long time ago. She was jealous. I don’t want you to think it was worse than it was. I had a maid in the house then – a very nice, superior girl. She came to me and said that Emily had tried to push her down the stairs. I have thought it best not to have a resident maid since then. Emily gets jealous.’

‘And she was jealous of William Smith?’

‘My brother had made a will in his favour. She was vexed on my account.’

Miss Silver inclined her head.

‘I can see that she has been an anxious charge. These unstable temperaments are easily moved to jealousy and passion. They fall readily under the domination of a stronger will. I am seeking for evidence of such a domination. This is where I feel that you can help me.’

Abigail said, ‘No.’

She got another of those grave smiles.

‘I hope you can, and that if you can you will. Come, Mrs. Salt – when you look back, is there no one in the family, no friend or connection, with such an influence as I have described? If you can think of anyone of the sort, pray do not hesitate to tell me. You will not harm any innocent person, and you may be protecting your sister-in-law as well as William Smith. If, as I suspect, her peculiarities have been worked upon and she has been used as a tool, she may be in very grave danger. A tool which is no longer needed is quickly discarded by the criminal who has used it, and the discard is apt to be final.’

The gravity of Miss Silver’s voice and expression shook Abigail Salt. Her immobility was gone. She said in a different voice,

‘That sounds dreadful.’

The answer came back with an added gravity.

‘It might be even more dreadful than it sounds. Mrs. Salt, what associates, what friends, what connections has your sister-in-law had?’

‘Very few. She doesn’t make friends. As long as my mother-in-law lived she treated Emily as if she was a child. She was very stern with her – she directed everything she did. She would never admit that there was anything wrong. I think sometimes that if she had been differently treated she might have been different. She wasn’t allowed to do the same as other girls did. She hardly ever saw anyone outside the family – unless you count going to chapel.’

Miss Silver shook her head.

‘As you say, Mrs. Salt, most unwise treatment. But if there were no outside connections, was there perhaps anyone inside the family circle?’

‘There’s no one – ’ She broke off and then went on again. ‘There was a niece of hers – it’s some years ago now – Emily took one of her violent fancies for her. She gets them sometimes – they make her very tiresome. I was very glad when it faded.’

‘You say a niece?’

Abigail hesitated.

‘Well, in a way. That fact is I don’t know much about her. There was one of my husband’s sisters made a runaway marriage and the quarrel was never made up. I never met her, and the family never spoke about it. Then just before the war Emily met a cousin who said that a daughter of Mary’s had turned up. I forget how she’d come across her. She said she recognized her from her likeness to my mother-in-law.’ Abigail half turned and indicated the grim enlargement on the wall. ‘That’s how she was when I knew her, but she was considered very good-looking when she was young. You’d never think it, would you? Those enlargements don’t flatter anyone, but I’ve got a photograph in that album over there that shows you what she was like. I think her father was partly Italian. He had a restaurant in Bristol and he’d an Italian name, but her mother was English. Mary, the daughter who ran away, was like her, and by all accounts her daughter was too.’

‘Yes, Mrs. Salt?’

‘Well, there isn’t much more. Emily went to see this May, and she took one of her crazes about her. It was very tiresome indeed. Always running round with pots out of my jam-cupboard, or half a chicken, or the best part of a tongue, and no sooner any money in her pocket than it was out of it again – gloves for May – stockings for May – handbags. I put up with it because there wasn’t anything I could do and I hoped it would come to an end of itself, because presents or no presents, I didn’t think anyone would go on putting up with Emily for long – not unless they had to.’

The silence maintained through all the years of her life with Emily had been forcibly broken. Through the breach there came flooding in the realization of just what that association had cost Abigail Salt in friendship, in service, in constant daily effort.

Miss Silver answered words which had not been spoken.

‘It must have been a great strain.’

Abigail said, ‘Yes.’ A fleeting expression of surprise crossed her face. It may have been caused by her own recognition of what the strain had been, or she may have been wondering how Miss Silver came to know about it. After a moment she went on speaking.

‘May got tired of it – anyone would. There must have been a scene. Emily came home in the worst state I’ve ever seen her in. I couldn’t do anything with her. In the end I had to get the doctor, a thing I hadn’t had to do since my husband died.’

‘What did he say, Mrs. Salt?’

Words which she had never repeated came from Abigail now.

‘He said she might do herself or someone else a mischief. ’ Her colour changed, the surprised look came back. She said, ‘I’ve never told anyone before.’

‘Did he say anything else?’

‘He said she ought to be in a home. But she quieted down again and got back to her usual.’

‘That was before the war?’

‘Just before – that July or August.’

‘And was that all? Was there no recurrence of the friendship?’

Abigail hesitated.

‘Well, that’s just what I can’t say. I’ve thought sometimes – ’