R Raichev - The Death of Corinne

‘Poor gel,’ Lady Grylls wheezed.

‘Corinne was volatile, manic, frequently hysterical. When she realized that Monique had been in touch with her father – she had seen the photo on the dressing table – she accused Monique of betraying her. She ranted and raved for an hour, apparently. And it was worse when Monique brought the kitten into the house – this time her mother accused her of trying to kill her!’

‘I suppose visitors were discouraged?’ Payne said.

‘They never had any visitors. Monique had to wear the Corinne make-up at all times even when there were only the two of them, and the make-up had to be flawless. Her mother checked it several times a day and always managed to find some fault with it. Monique was made to watch recordings of old Corinne Coreille programmes again and again in order to perfect her act… Corinne was becoming more and more paranoid… Only young people were employed for fear that anyone older might in some way recognize Corinne in Maginot or alternatively tumble to the fact that Monique was not Corinne. After the Emilie incident, Corinne started changing the maids every month. She mistrusted the maids and had rows with them, though, unaccountably, the latest maid, a Filipina called Imelda, was allowed to stay on, and Corinne had been showering her with gifts – bottles of scent, boxes of chocolate, sweet liqueurs and dresses -’

‘Did you say Imelda?’ Lady Grylls interrupted. ‘I heard Maginot phone someone called Imelda yesterday evening, soon after they arrived here. On her mobile phone. I remember the name because it made me think about the other one – the famous one – the Marcos woman. I read somewhere that she was down to her last billion. You know – the one with the shoes… Don’t suppose it’s the same one?’ Lady Grylls guffawed.

An accomplice, Antonia thought. Yes… Would she remember?

‘Monique gave Imelda as an example of her mother’s increasingly strange behaviour,’ Jonson went on. ‘Monique had started hating the whole thing. She felt trapped. Singing in these circumstances was no longer fun. She hated her mother – she was scared of her.’

‘Why didn’t you tell her to get out and go off with you?’ Lady Grylls asked.

‘I did. She said she’d think about it. She – she – needed time. She still felt some kind of obligation. She said she didn’t want to let her mother down. She had enjoyed the singing part of the arrangement and that she owed to her mother. We – we made tentative plans. Then – then something happened. A bolt out of the blue.’

Antonia said, ‘The death threats?’

‘Eleanor Merchant’s letters, followed by the death threats, yes.’ Jonson paused. ‘Monique was very upset. She contacted me at once – she threw all caution to the winds – she emailed me – phoned. But,’ Jonson went on, ‘something good seemed to come of it. I received a phone call from Paris, from Maitre Maginot. She said she wanted to employ my services once more urgently – as Corinne’s bodyguard and protector. It was going to be another commission. She sounded extremely pleasant and friendly and I did believe that she knew nothing about me and Monique. She said they’d be coming to England, to a place called Chalfont Park. She wanted me to join them. I couldn’t believe my luck. I was going to see Monique! That was all I could think about, that was all that seemed to matter. I was delighted – delirious.’

‘You were not worried about the death threats?’

‘No. Not really. I couldn’t see how Eleanor Merchant would possibly be able to find this place,’ Jonson said. ‘I thought it a virtual impossibility -’

‘Eleanor Merchant was meant to come here,’ Antonia interrupted. ‘She was given the Chalfont address and phone number.’ She looked at Jonson. ‘It was all part of the plan.’

‘Sorry, old thing, but I’ve got to ask my aunt a very important question.’ Major Payne leant towards Lady Grylls. ‘Aunt Nellie, did you hear exactly what Maitre Maginot – I mean Corinne – said to her maid when she phoned her?’

Lady Grylls blinked behind her glasses. ‘What Maginot said to her maid? I have absolutely no idea.’

‘I am sure you have. Your French is perfect.’

‘You aren’t suggesting I eavesdropped?’

‘You know you always do, darling, especially if you are curious about the person.’

‘It’s important,’ Antonia said. ‘Extremely important.’

‘Oh nonsense. It wasn’t in the least important.’ Lady Grylls stared. ‘Goodness, Antonia, you can’t possibly know what Hugh means, can you?’

‘I can – I was about to ask you the very same question.’

‘You were? Goodness. One of those telepathic thingies, eh? All right. Let me see… Maginot spoke in French. I had shown her to her room and I was back in the corridor. The door was ajar. I didn’t mean to listen, you understand, but I couldn’t help overhearing. It was something exceedingly trivial. Maginot said, Imelda, c’est toi? Then she asked whether there had been any phone calls for them. Then she said, When was that? And you gave her both? Good girl. Words to that effect. She said it all in French of course. She seemed jolly pleased with Imelda’s answers… Oh yes, she also said she would cover Imelda in gold, or words to that effect, which I took to be a jocular exaggeration. Well, that was it.’

‘Thank you, darling,’ Payne said. ‘You’ve just solved the conundrum for us.’

‘What conundrum?’

Antonia said, ‘Thanks to you we now know the identity not only of the killer but of the intended victim as well.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Lady Grylls frowned. ‘There’s no mystery over the victims’ identities. We know it was Maginot and the Merchant who got shot in my greenhouse. Or are you saying Maginot and the Merchant weren’t Maginot and the Merchant?’

Antonia turned slowly towards Jonson. ‘It was you, wasn’t it?’

He bowed his head. ‘Yes, it was me.’

‘What do you mean, it was you, Andrew?’ Lady Grylls boomed, her voice like the thunder of waters from a subterranean cave. ‘You aren’t confessing to being a double murderer after all, are you?’

Jonson said, ‘No. I am not the murderer. I was… the intended victim. It was I who was meant to die in the greenhouse last night.’

Appointment with Death

There was a silence. All eyes were on him.

‘You’d better explain,’ Lady Grylls said.

‘The phone call, which came last night, while we were having coffee -’ Jonson’s voice sounded very hoarse. ‘Maitre Maginot – Corinne Coreille – went to speak to the woman who had introduced herself as Tricia Swindon. Corinne suspected at once that it was Eleanor Merchant, so after the woman rang off, she dialled 1471 and obtained the number from which the call had been made. It was a mobile phone number. She wrote it down and later, after you’d all gone to bed, she asked me to ring it.’

‘She asked you to phone the Merchant?’ Payne said.

‘Yes. Corinne Coreille had a brainwave. She thought she could trick Eleanor into revealing her whereabouts. She knew I was a good mimic, so she asked me to put on an American accent, muffle my voice and pretend to be Eleanor’s dead son. Griff… She got the idea from one of Eleanor’s letters. Eleanor had written that she expected her dead son to appear to her.’

‘Of all the diabolical wheezes!’

Jonson passed his hand over his face. ‘I am not proud of what I did, but the trick worked. Eleanor did fall for it and revealed her whereabouts. She seemed to have no doubt I was Griff. She asked me where I was – was I in the greenhouse? Corinne Coreille was standing beside me, listening.’

‘That was how she knew where to find Eleanor,’ Antonia said.