Arthur Upfield - Venom House

The Misses Answerth

THEMANWASof average height, raw-boned, of sandy colouring. His mouth was large, his nose prominently bridged. The steady eyes were granite-grey. The manner of his walk, as he advanced, and not the clothes he wore, betrayed the policeman. The woman was not noticeably tall, due to her cubic proportions. She was watchful, suspicious, her pose having something of the explosiveness of the rhinoceros and something of the ponderability of the elephant. With her fists punched against the belt about her cord breeches, she epitomized leashed force. Bony’s gaze merely flickered about the policeman: it was held by this woman with the brick-red complexion, the light grey eyes, the Roman nose, the great mop of black hair.

“Inspector Bonaparte?” the advancing manqueried, and Bony’s attention reverted to him. “I’m First Constable Mawson. Hope you understand, sir, not being able to meet you.”

Bony acknowledged the salute and nodded. Mike Falla called from his car:

“You comingon to Edison with me, Inspector? Can’t wait… long.”

Mawson accepted Bony’s cue and told Mike to go on. He moved stiffly, and the tint of his face wasn’t wholly due to wind and sun. Then the woman was confronting Bony, and her greeting reminded him of the horseman who had met the service car.

“Gud-dee, Mister…”

“Bonaparte… Inspector Bonaparte,” Bony returned suavely.

“I’m Mary Answerth,” she said, and would have edged Mawson behind her had he not stood his ground. Again the hands were clenched hard to the leather belt. The feet encased by riding boots were planted wide apart and like century-old trees, giving the impression that nothing human could topple her over. “I take it you’ve come from Brisbane to investigate my mother’s death?”

“That is why I am here, Miss Answerth,” Bony agreed, still suavely.

“Then I hope you do better than those fools who came down to find Carlow’s murderer,” she said challengingly. “No one here expects anything from Mawson. As he says himself, he’s a policeman, not a detective. I shall expect better from you. These killings must be stopped.”

The dark brows were met above the eyes no larger than farthings. The constable intervened:

“Now, Miss Answerth…”

“I tell you…”

What she intended to add was blanketed by the roar of Mike’s engine, and when speech was again possible, Mawson was ready to employ furtherplacation.

“Naturally, sir, Miss Answerth is much upset by last night’s tragedy. She insists that Mrs Answerth be buried tomorrow, and I have explained that the formalities may not be completed to permit that.”

“Now, look here, Inspector,” the woman snarled, for her large square teeth were bared. “They took the body to Edison early this morning, and Doc Lofty’s had it all day. There’s no sense in keeping it after the post mortem.”

“Please accept my assurance that the delay will not be protracted one minute longer than is necessary,” Bony said. “I have yet to examine the known facts governing the lamentable tragedy, receive the post mortem report and confer with the coroner.”

“Leave the coroner to me,” commanded Mary Answerth. Constable Mawson opened his mouth to speak, but was cut out by Bony’s voice, now low and yet metallic. The words were icily distinct.

“I have been assigned to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of the late Mrs Answerth. I will leave nothing, or anyone, to you, Miss Answerth. You will be notified by the coroner in due course. The matter is entirely in the hands of the police. I am the police. If you wish to make a statement concerning the death of Mrs Answerth, Constable Mawson will take it down in writing, when you can sign it.”

“I’ve already told Mawson what I know about that. Now look here…”

“Pardon me, Miss Answerth.”

The flat stomach sank inward as the vast bust expanded. The woman’s square chin jutted like a doorstep and her eyes flashed. She stared into the blue eyes of the slight man she confronted, tried to stare him out, slowly realized that in this she would never succeed. Abruptly she turned away and strode to the station wagon. It rocked when she entered it, and silently the two men watched it being driven swiftly away. Sighing with relief, Constable Mawson said:

“Quite a tartar, sir. Lives too late, in my opinion. Should have lived a couple of hundred years ago when the scum knuckled to their betters.”

“The body is at Edison?”

“Yes, sir. I had it conveyed to the morgue at 8.50 this morning. The doctor hadn’t completed the post mortem when I left the town at three o’clock this afternoon.”

“Then we had better run along and hurry him.” A minute later, when they were on the track, Bony said: “What accommodation does the local hotel offer?”

“Not so good, sir. I was thinking that perhaps you’d like to put up with my sister, who sometimes takes paying guests. She’s a good cook.”

“I’ll try her cooking. We must pick up my case from the service car. However, first things first, Mawson. Relate to me the happenings of today.”

“At 7.57 this morning I was called to the telephone by Miss Mary Answerth. She said that on her way to give her men their orders for the day she had found the body of her mother floating on the lake we call Answerth’s Folly. With one of the men, she had gone in the station boat and retrieved the body. There was no doubt that Mrs Answerth was dead.

“As Miss Answerth proceeded to give me orders, I cut her short by saying I would leave at once with Dr Lofty. I had to wait ten minutes for the doctor, but we reached Answerth’s Folly at 8.35. While the doctor was examining the body, I got Miss Answerth to tell me about her discovery of it.

“It appears that every work-day morning Miss Answerth leaves the house and wades over the causeway to the men’s quarters on the shore end. There’s a long story behind how the house came to be surrounded by water, and the rest. Anyway, Miss Answerth was nearly over the causeway when she saw something unusual floating on the Folly, and presently she saw it was her mother’s body. It was about twenty yards off-shore and half that distance from the causeway.

“The men were at breakfast when she reached the quarters, and she ordered the cook to fetch the boat and went with him to bring the body to land. She then went back to the house and telephoned me. The cook… feller by the name of Blaze… substantiated her story in part.

“This being the second drowning in Answerth’s Folly, and the first being medically proved to have been homicide, we thought that Mrs Answerth had been murdered the same way, that is, by being held under the surface and drowned, like Edward Carlow was murdered. On examining the body, Dr Lofty found a red mark about the neck indicating that the woman had been strangled with a light rope or a cord having distinctly bulging strands. However, he would not be definite about this until he had done the post mortem.”

“Was the body clothed?”

“Yes, fully dressed. The air imprisoned by the clothes kept the body floating. When subsequently I visited the house to interview the inmates, I learned that Mrs Answerth was last seen alive when going up to bed. There was no suggestion of suicide.”

“What was the reaction of Mary Answerth when you arrived with the doctor?”

“Nothing out of the ordinary, sir. I didn’t expect to find any difference in her front. She was very angry… and most times she’s angry… and demanded that I get going and arrest the murderer. You know, like being annoyed at having a steer lifted. She roared when we insisted on having the body brought to the morgue, but made no bones about bringing the body to the morgue in her station wagon, she herself driving it. At the morgue she bullied Dr Lofty to get on with his examination so’s she could hand the body over to the undertaker, and I’m thinking that Lofty has purposely delayed his report just to get his own back for what she said to him.”