Arthur Upfield: Venom House

“Pleasant prospect,” he drawled, and Bony decided that the accent had been cultivated. “You know, Inspector, another asphyxia case will bore me. Arrange that the next one is by bullet or bludgeon. Good night! Anything you want of me, don’t hesitate.”

Mawson accompanied him to the street gate. Bony studied the doctor’s excellent photographs of the cord mark round the dead woman’s neck. Voices drifted inward through the open doorway, and he looked up to see a tall, prosperous-looking man precede the constable into the office.

Venom House

MRHARSTONWASimposing and emphatically solid. To observe him was to regret that he wasn’t wearing morning clothes, complete with top hat and spats. Instead, he wore a pair of beautifully cut gabardine trousers and a sports jacket of extremely conservative hues. The hazel eyes were alive and friendly. The tint of the grey hair from which rose the bald dome, the crow’s-feet and the mouth combined to place his age in the late fifties.

“Sit down, Mr Harston,” Bony said affably. “I understand you are the deputy coroner. Happy to make your acquaintance. I am, of course, looking into the circumstances surrounding the death of Mrs Answerth.”

“So I’ve been given to understand by Miss Answerth… Miss Mary Answerth, Inspector.” Mr Harston carefully arranged the creases of his trousers. “Er, I can assure you that everyone here wishes you success in your investigations. It’s very late to call on you, but I wasprevailed on to do so by Miss Answerth, who telephoned me half an hour ago with reference to her mother’s body. They’d like to have it as soon as it can possibly be released.”

“That will depend now on you as coroner,” Bony stated. “I have the report of the post mortem conducted by Dr Lofty, and from it you will agree that an inquest is called for. The report definitely favours homicide. Perhaps you would glance through it.”

Mr Harston accepted the document with a faint: “Ha! Just too bad!” He produced black-rimmed spectacles attached to a thin black ribbon, and took his time to read the report.

“Yes, an inquest is certainly indicated, Inspector. Have you thought of a date convenient to you?”

“Well, no, Mr Harston. It would, I think, be best to defer the date… say for a week or ten days. I arrived only late this afternoon, and haven’t yet visited Answerth’s Folly. I intend doing so early tomorrow.”

“Oh! Yes, very well, Inspector. The body…”

“There’s no reason why the family cannot take charge of it tomorrow… tomorrow afternoon… after I have interviewed the members of the family and staff. You could, I think, decide to sign the release at one o’clock. You have known the family for some time, I understand.”

“For many years, Inspector. When I came to Edison I was but a youth, and old Jacob Answerth was almost my first client and became my most valued one. He was a strange man, full of inhibitions, and sometimes violent, in order, I think, to triumph temporarily over fear. There’s a name for it which I cannot recall. Anyway, he was generous to me, making me a beneficiary under his will, and in his will he commanded his daughters to have me continue as their business agent, general adviser and friend.” Mr Harston chuckled. “They obeyed the command to the extent that I have, since the old man’s death, been a sort of Grand Vizier.”

“He suicided, did he not?”

“Yes. Shothimself. No apparent reason. Financial position was pleasing and secure.”

“I understand there is a son. What of him?”

“By the second wife… the late Mrs Answerth. Mary and Janet are the children of the first wife. Morris Answerth would be about twenty-six or seven. Not quite normal. Harmless, of course, but needs supervision. He doesn’t enter the picture so far as I am concerned. I haven’t seen him for years. After old Jacob blew out his brains, the younger daughter, Janet, returned home and slipped into authority over the family. A quiet girl, artistic, universally liked. Mary manages the station and the stock and the employees. An Amazon. She offends my sense of what is right in a woman.”

“I met her,” Bony smilingly admitted.

“Rude, ignorant, violent and almost always objectionable,” Mr Harston proceeded. “Mary Answerth has shouted me down in my own office. She has called me every name used by rough working men. She has openly insulted me in the street. Because now and then I feel that her attitude is less deliberately intended than natural to her, and in view of her forebears, I’ve put up with it, and eventually found it best to give back as much as she gives. I have to admire her for her business acumen. Peculiarly enough, I get along better with her than with her sister. Yes, old Jacob Answerth didn’t leave behind him easy clients.”

“May I assume that Miss Mary Answerth is equally objectionable to other people?”

“That is so.”

“Would the Answerths, as a family, be likely to have enemies?”

“It’s likely that Mary Answerth has a hundred enemies. But Mrs Answerth, no. Mrs Answerth was entirely negative. From the time her husband died, she was never seen in Edison but once, and on that occasion she came to town to consult Dr Lofty.”

“Did you know the first wife?”

“Oh, yes! The first wife was a kind of hanger-on to a gang of travelling shearers. If you think of the last woman on earth to snare into marriage a wealthy pastoralist, you will see that woman. Mary is her very flesh and bone and mind. Janet takes after her father, or rather her father would have been more like her had he been more balanced. The second Mrs Answerth was the daughter of respectable and affluent pastoralists. She wasn’t happy with her husband.”

“Was she happy with her stepdaughters?”

Mr Harston blinked. His eyes hardened. Yet he spoke with seeming frankness.

“I cannot honestly say that she was particularly unhappy, Inspector. She was not a normally happy woman. Her only son, Morris, was ever a sore disappointment, and her husband never forgave her for that boy.”

“Who now benefits by her demise?”

“No one. Old Jacob left his entire fortune, save for the few bequests, to his daughters in equal shares. He didn’t leave a penny to his wife or son, and Mrs Answerth never took legal action. To murder Mrs Answerth doesn’t add up, does it?”

Bony rose to his feet and the coroner-business-agent followed suit.

“It will, Mr Harston. We’ll talk again, if you will spare me your time. Meanwhile, there’s no hurry for the inquest. I dislike adjourned inquests, you know. Much more interesting when the coroner is able to charge a person with murder, don’t you think?”

“Yes, I suppose it would be, Inspector. We’ll hold the inquest when you are ready.”

This time Bony accompanied the caller to the front gate, and there he asked his final question for the night.

“I heard someone refer to the Answerth house as Venom House. Is it widely known by that name?”

“I’m afraid it is. And by no other,” replied the business agent. “The Answerths have a wretched history. It’s quite a long story. The family began in evil times and evil has clung to it all the way down the years. When you are ready, I can give you the history of it.”

“Thank you. Good night, Mr Harston.”

Assuring Bony that he would delay signing the release of the body till one o’clock the next day, the deputy coroner crossed the street to his house and, pensively, Bony returned to the station office.

“Your opinion of Harston?” he asked, and Mawson smiled faintly.

“He thinks he’s a cut above the bank managers and the parsons,” replied the constable. “He’s chairman of the Bench and a stickler for court procedure. Makes quite a good coroner. Very well off, I believe. Owns property and a couple of farms. Has one son an officer in the Navy and another in business down in Melbourne. Wife’s president or secretary of women’s organizations.”