Charles Todd - The red door

Hamish said, "You mustna' let him finish."

But Rutledge refused to halt the flow of this man's confession. He could see how the soul of the man had been scoured to the bone.

"In China we used the opium traders. They carried messages where no one else would, and sometimes were the only protection a traveling man of God had from bandits we found on the road. So we lived with the devil-quietly, mind you-while we preached that opium was evil and led to madness and death. Double standards, Rutledge. We preached and didn't live a word that came out of our mouths. Sanctimonious, self-righteous prigs, that's what we were, and I was ashamed of all of us in the end."

"Do you think you were the only missionary who felt that way?"

"I hoped I was." He laughed harshly. "I wasn't like the rest of them. I had no calling, you see. I became what my father told me to become. And Peter hated the Army as much as I hated my own work. I'd have liked being a soldier, I think. But who knows? I might have hated that too."

Which, Hamish was remarking to Rutledge, explained why he had told Florence Marshall that he was a soldier. Living a lie because it made him feel better about his lack of choice in the matter, made him appear to be dashing and romantic in the eyes of a young woman who had never seen the world beyond where she lived. And yet, cowardly enough that he used his brother's name, for fear his father would somehow learn of his rebellion.

They could hear Mr. Stedley, the vicar, coming down the stairs.

Teller shook himself, as if awakening from a reverie, as if he'd been talking more to himself than Rutledge.

"She's very peaceful," Mr. Stedley said, coming into the room.

"Yes."

"Is there any comfort I could offer you, Walter?"

"Thank you, Rector, for coming. You might wish to speak to the rest of the family. We've been overwhelmed by events. I'll be in touch about the service. I think Jenny would have liked you to conduct it."

"Yes, of course." He looked from Teller to Rutledge and back again. "If you need me, you've only to send for me."

And he was gone. Walter Teller sighed. "Next it will be the police cornering me, asking questions. And then Mary will be at me again, or Leticia. And then my brother. I'd like to lock the door and pretend I'm not here."

Rutledge rose. "I've brought Timmy's photograph from the cottage."

Walter Teller was very still. Then he said, "Perhaps his mother would have preferred to have it buried with her."

He lost his temper. "What did Timmy do? Fail his father by dying when it wasn't convenient to come home and pray for him?"

Teller's face went so white Rutledge thought for an instant his heart had stopped. And then catching his breath almost on a gasp, he said only, "Peter would be grateful to you."

Rutledge went outside to walk off his anger. The rain had moved on, black clouds toward the east, the sky overhead still roiling as the weather fought for stability. He went to the other side of the house, unwilling to pass the roses, and instead crossed the lawn toward the little stream, swollen with rain and threatening to overflow into the grassy water meadows on either side. He could feel the soles of his boots sinking into the soft earth, and moved a little above the soaked banks.

Jenny Teller was well out of it, he told himself. And then he found himself thinking that she would have managed, as she had done in London, whatever she had discovered about her husband's past. She could have been married again to regularize her union, and she would have said nothing that would endanger her son's future. Whether she could bear to live with Walter Teller again was another matter. He might have had to accept the Alcock Society's next posting to the field until he and his wife could come to terms with the ghost of Florence Teller and her son, Timmy.

Hamish said, "Perhaps that's why she had to die?"

"Don't be a fool," Rutledge told him harshly.

"Ye're looking at black and white. It's a man's way of thinking, no' a woman's."

In the distance, he could hear someone calling his name. Looking up, he realized that Leticia Teller was trying to attract his attention.

He turned back toward the house, and she waited by the French doors for him. When he was within hearing, she said, "There have been two telephone calls for you. One appears to be urgent. Scotland Yard."

He thanked her and took the message she was holding out to him.

Inside, he looked at the first. From Inspector Jessup in Waddington, it read, "Mrs. Susannah Teller wishes to know when her husband's body can be released for burial."

He called the police station and left a message for Jessup: At your earliest convenience.

Murder, accident, or suicide-it didn't matter. The police had no reason to hold Peter Teller's remains any longer.

Next he put in a call to the Yard. When Sergeant Gibson came to the telephone, Rutledge could hear the tension in his voice.

"Sir? There have been developments. In the inquiry concerning Billy."

Bowles was growing restive.

"Go on."

"Inspector Cummins took your place last night."

"I thought you told me that the constables had tried again, with no luck."

"That's true, yes, sir. But Inspector Cummins decided he'd try his chances. Without notifying the Yard. He gave as good as he got, the Inspector did, but he's in hospital, and they're stitching him up."

"And Billy?"

"Got away, sir. There was no one posted on either end of the bridge to stop him."

Rutledge swore under his breath. "All right. What does the Chief Superintendent want?"

"You on the bridge tonight. He said to tell you that unless what you're doing is a matter of life and death, you're to be here. No later than nine this evening."

"I'll be there. I'm coming from Essex."

"Yes, sir."

Rutledge put up the receiver, then stood there for a moment thinking.

He asked himself how he would have viewed the death of Peter Teller and the death of Jenny Teller if he hadn't known the background of events in Hobson. If he'd come here as Inspector Jessup had done with nothing to color his perspective but a man with a bad leg who'd had too much to drink and simply fallen down the stairs. Or a woman distressed by a death almost literally on her doorstep and very tired but unable to sleep, miscounting the drops from a bottle of medicine that she expected to give her some relief.

Hamish said, "But ye ken, it isna' sae simple!"

Rutledge went to find Leticia.

"I'll have to leave for London later in the afternoon."

"There's a cold luncheon in the dining room. I need to speak to you."

He followed her there, and as she filled a plate and handed it to him, she asked, "What did you say to Walter?"

"What is it you think I said?" he asked.

She shook her head irritably. "He's gone up to his room and locked himself in. The dressing room door, as well. They've come to collect Jenny's body. Shall I tell them to wait?" She began putting food on her own plate with scarcely a glance at what she was choosing.

"Let them go ahead. What about Harry?"

"Mary has decided it would be too upsetting for him to see his mother's body. She's staying with him at the rectory."

"If his father finds that acceptable, the police will have no objection."

"It wouldn't matter if you did."

He smiled. "What do you really want me to say, Miss Teller? Very well. The inquiry is closed in Hobson, with the arrest of Florence Teller's killer. It was someone who knew her. And while the evidence was unequivocally pointing to your brother-Captain Teller-he was not the cause of her death."

He could hear the hiss of breath as she released it. "Then Peter was never guilty. Even though he died expecting to be arrested at any moment. Dear God. That breaks my heart."