James Benn - The Rest Is Silence

“They said you’d been killed,” Meredith exclaimed. “I didn’t know. I didn’t mean it, not any of it!

“It’s close enough, Yank. Except she wanted him dead. She had the inheritance laws all figured out. If Wiley got the house when Sir Rupert died, and then he bit the dust, the estate would go to the two surviving sisters. Alive, he’d’ve beat them out of their precious Ashcroft. Dead, he was worth the whole lot. She begged me to kill him.”

“What about Helen?” David said, hoping for something decent about his wife to come out.

“She ran off. Said she couldn’t watch,” Crawford said, sneering. “Not like our dear Meredith. She saw her opportunity there and then. Sir Rupert had told her the Yank was in his new will just before he died.”

“You frightened me, Captain Boyle, bringing this man back from the dead,” Meredith said, fear putting a quiver in her voice. “I did mean everything I said. Can’t you see he’s nothing but a common criminal trying to save himself?”

“You drugged me,” Lady Pemberton said, her eyes fixed on Meredith. “I thought I was losing my mind, thinking I saw a body in the foyer that night. But I did. It was Peter Wiley.”

“Of course I didn’t, Great Aunt Sylvia,” Meredith said. “Why would I do that?” Her hands clutched at the fabric of her skirt, bunching it up, all her fear on display in those two hands while her face remained impassive.

“Because you knew that I had seen,” Lady Pemberton said. “I went to look for you in your room, but you weren’t there. By the time I got back to the top of the stairs, the body was gone. But I was certain I had seen it.”

“You were dreaming, Great Aunt Sylvia,” Meredith said, still clinging to this part of her story. “I told you so.”

“You were so solicitous, Meredith,” she replied. “Bringing my tea every morning after that until I didn’t know what time of day it was. A confused old lady. Inspector, I suggest a search of Meredith’s room. You may find sleeping pills or some such thing.” Lady Pemberton’s mouth was set in a grimace, which might have had as much to do with addressing a policeman as with Meredith’s gaslighting her. I’d been wrong about where Great Aunt Sylvia had seen something. It wasn’t from her window; it was from the staircase, minutes after Peter had been pushed down the stairs.

“Yes, I have sleeping pills,” Meredith said. “It’s not uncommon, not against the law.”

“I want to go to my room,” Helen said. “I have a terrible headache.”

“You stay put, Madam,” Inspector Grange said. “We haven’t finished here yet. Lady Pemberton, you are willing to swear to having seen a body at the bottom of the stairs the night Peter Wiley went missing?”

“Yes,” she said, with a firm nod.

“Crawford has already given his statement as to what occurred that night,” the Inspector said. “It matches the version given by Meredith Shipton, except of course in regard to his forcing the decision on the ladies.”

“This can’t be true,” David said. “Helen?” She turned away. There was nothing she could say. She wasn’t a very good liar.

“This is all Father’s fault,” Meredith said to no one in particular. “If he hadn’t gone and got Julia Greenshaw pregnant, none of this would have happened. He drove mother to an early grave with his duplicity and left us with this intolerable situation. I hate him more than I ever did.”

“You stupid, stupid girl,” Great Aunt Sylvia said, shaking her head wearily. “You directed all your venom and hate at your father, waving that letter like a knife in his face. But you never read it carefully, did you? Never gave him the slightest benefit of the doubt?”

“Whatever do you mean?” Meredith asked.

“Julia said the child would always remind her of their time together at Ashcroft House,” Great Aunt Sylvia said, her eyes clenched shut. Then she opened them. “Which was true enough. But she never said Peter was her child. Your hatred for your father clouded your judgment, not allowing you to read between the lines. Rupert was not the father. Ted Wiley was. Your own mother bore him.”

“What?” Helen said. “Impossible.” Meredith looked thunderstruck.

“Ted Wiley was the one who made his way through the hedge, right into the arms of Louise Pemberton. She didn’t leave Rupert because of his brief affair with Julia. She left him so that he would not know of her pregnancy, and returned to forgive him only after the birth. For all the love you profess for your dear mother, you murdered her only son.”

Meredith opened her mouth, ready to deny everything, but the certainty of Great Aunt Sylvia’s statement had hit her hard. Her shaking hand went to her mouth as tears welled up in her eyes.

“Meredith Shipton and Helen Martindale, I am arresting you for the murder of Peter Wiley,” Inspector Grange said with a glance at Constable Carraher. “Take them away.”

“I’ll call Farnsworth,” David said, standing as the women were led away by the arm. “He’ll know what to do.” As soon as Helen was gone, he stalked off without looking at anyone.

“I’ll be back to talk to the butler and Mrs. Dudley,” the Inspector said. “We need to determine what they may have known about this affair.” With that, the inspector and two constables drove off with their three suspects, leaving Kaz and me alone with Great Aunt Sylvia, Edgar, and three very nervous staff.

“Alice, please return to your duties, that’s a good girl,” Great Aunt Sylvia said. Alice skedaddled. “Now, Williams, what did the inspector mean?”

“I can only think, Lady Pemberton, that he refers to the night Miss Meredith came downstairs to tell us this would one day be a Pemberton household again. She had us fetch an excellent bottle, a 1934 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, in fact. She seemed very happy.” Williams had the look of a man who was glad to have a reasonable explanation.

“That was the night before Peter was killed,” I said. “Her happiness supports Crawford’s claim that she planned this all along. Maybe Helen’s push simply hurried things along.”

“Very well,” Great Aunt Sylvia said. “Please pass all of this along to Inspector Grange when he asks. You are dismissed.” Edgar took that as his own cue and bolted as well.

“We are very sorry, Lady Pemberton,” Kaz said, bowing. “It was not our intention to bring this pain down upon you.”

“The truth is painful,” she said. “But as I have discovered, no more or less painful for having been spoken. At least I spared them the final truth about their mother. It wasn’t illness that took her. It was suicide. There, the last family secret is now told.”

“Did she love Ted Wiley?” I asked.

“Yes. Or was infatuated, perhaps. But his love was not as strong. It only took a thousand pounds and steamship tickets to America to break his bonds with Louise.”

“What about Julia?” Kaz asked.

“She went along with the plan because she knew there was no future for her with Rupert. She did love him, and she played her part well. Although as you heard, she couldn’t bring herself to lie to him directly. She let him think the child was his. A kindness on her part, I suppose. The ring came from me. I thought that even a bastard Pemberton should have some acknowledgment of his birthright.”

“You let Meredith think it was Sir Rupert’s child,” Kaz said, as gently as he could.

“Yes, I did,” she said. “I had the Pemberton name to protect, and Louise was born a Pemberton. A sin of omission on my part, but a sin nevertheless. But who among us would not transgress to protect family honor?”

“But it comes at a high price, Lady Pemberton,” Kaz said. “If Peter was not Sir Rupert’s son, he did not inherit Ashcroft. Which means Meredith and Helen won’t either, correct? That leaves David and Edgar with nothing, and the property with the government.”