Gavin Lyall - Blame The Dead

It didn't seem too unrespectable an hour when I got home, so I rang Kingscutt straight off. Of course, she might have turned it in and come to stay in London somewhere, or even gone back to America – no, hardly likely, with David still in school.

Then she answered. Her voice was cool, polite, composed.

1 said, 'I'm sorry to trouble you, Mrs Fenwick; it's James Card.'

'Oh? How nice to hear from you. How are you getting on?'

'Well… I'm not sure. Would you be in if I popped down to see you tomorrow?'

After only a moment's pause, she said calmly, 'Yes, of course. Please come for lunch.'

Thanks very much, I'll do that. About twelve, then.'

After that I mixed myself another Scotch and went back to Vegetius on Preparations for a General Engagement until it was past time to go out for dinner, so I opened a tin of chilli.

I was there at twelve precisely.

The Manor looked a little cold and lonely without the shiny mass of parked cars that had been there last time. Now there was just a scruffy old Morris Minor – so old it had the V-shaped windscreen – parked on the gravel beside the front door. I climbed the steps and pulled an old bellknob and heard it jangle.

The housekeeper-shaped woman who'd been shovelling round the food at the funeral opened the door, nodded a little dourly at me, and led the way in. Lois Fenwick was in the big drawing-room, now looking even bigger and emptier. She was sitting on the rug in front of a big log fire.

She smiled pleasantly and just reached up a long arm and I shook her hand. 'It's very nice of you to come all this way. We don't see many people these days, do we, Mrs Benson?'

The housekeeper made a noncommittal grunting noise. Mrs Fenwick looked at a neat little gold wristwatch and said, 'Time for our medicine, Mrs Benson.' Then, to me, 'What would you like to drink?'

'D'you have any beer?' I'd still got the drive back. But no beer, so I had to have a Scotch and soda anyway. Mrs Benson mixed them from a tray in the corner, it was obviously a daily ritual. She brought Mrs Fenwick a gin and tonic, me my Scotch, herself a glass of what looked like sweet sherry.

Lois said, 'Well, cheers.'

Mrs Benson gave another strangled grunt, sank her sherry in one lump, and went away. Far away, I heard a vacuum cleaner start up.

Lois laughed gaily. 'Dear Mrs Benson. I don't know what I'd do without her, but she doesn't really approve of me having men to visit. Now sit down and tell me what you've been doing.'

She was wearing a high-necked Victorian cream silk blouse and slim black trousers that really were slim, and leaning against a big brass-and-leather club fender. The nearest chair was a good six feet away, so I perched on one corner of the fender.

'I've been sort of trying to find out who killed your husband.' And she took that without blinking. 'But not getting very far. There's one thing, a ship's log-book, that was sent him from Norway. You wouldn't have any idea what happened to it, would you?'

She smiled prettily. 'It's probably at Lloyd's.'

'No. I'm quite sure it isn't. The only place I can think of is here.'

She sipped her gin and smiled. 'So now you want to search this house, do you? Won't that be a pretty long job?'

'It's a fairly big book, Mrs Fenwick. And I'm a fairly experienced searcher.'

'Are you really? How exciting. Where did you learn that?'

'Army Intelligence Corps. Mrs Fenwick-'

'Why don't you call me Lois? The Fenwick part's rather gone out of my life.'

'All right – Lois: I'm not the only one looking for this log. They haven't been here because they thought I had it. Now one lot know I haven't. And believe me, they aren't the sort to ask if they can have a look around. That might make it risky for you.'

If I was worrying her, I couldn't see any sign of it. She just sipped, raised her almost invisible eyebrows, and said, 'D'you mean Mr Mockby?'

'He's one of them.'

'Then you're wrong about him. He did ask, this morning.'

I got cold inside. 'And you told him…?'

'Oh, just that now Martin's dead and buried I don't even have topretend to like Paul Mockby.'

I grinned and relaxed. Everybody seemed to be picking on poor old Mockers, these days. Then I unrelaxed. 'I'm still only half wrong. Sometimes he might ask first, but after that he takes.'

She uncoiled herself and stood up in one perfectly balanced movement like a well-bred cat, and with the same sense of natural self-importance. 'Well, I don't imagine he'll try it until after lunch. Let's go see what Mrs Benson's found in the larder.'

Either Mrs Benson was very lucky or she'd looked very hard, because what she'd found was a smoked trout and a homemade quiche Lorraine with green salad to follow. But nothing to drink except water; maybe that was the residual American influence – though she ate European-style, fork always in her left hand.

I hardly said a word until I was most of the way through my quiche, and then asked, 'Did you make this yourself?'

She nodded.

'Lovely light pastry.'

'Thank you, kind sir.' But she seemed really pleased. 'I don't often get the chance to do much cooking.'

I'd guessed something like that. The table we were eating off – a round Georgian affair-was too small for the big dining-room, and had only six chairs with it. But that made it all of a piece with the rest of the house – good furniture, but rather sparse and with the formality of a house that is more arranged than lived in. Well, with Fenwick up in London and David away at school…

'Have you lived here long?'

'Since we were married. My family sort of gave it to us as a wedding present.'

Hadn't Oscar Underbill hinted at that? I nodded and asked, 'D'you know many people around here?'

'Well enough not to let most of them in the house,' she said calmly.

'They're a bit County, are they?'

'It's not them. The few real ones are rather sweet. It's the ones who pretend they've always lived in the country and buy damn great dogs they can't control and won't go out to post a letter except on horseback, even if they're facing the wrong end.' She helped herself to salad. 'Occasionally we got one of Martin's friends in for Sunday lunch, or David brings somebody to stay… But not those phony country women.' Then, abruptly, 'Are you married? You don't somehow sound it.'

'I was for a time.'

She didn't quite ask what had happened. Not directly. 'Did you have any children?'

'No.'

'I suppose that's lucky. You didn't want them?'

I shrugged. 'We never got round to deciding wewanted them, anyway. I was moving around a fair bit in the Army… we never got a chance to dig in anywhere…'

She went on looking at me with a bland but interested smile. 'And you don't feel dynastic about it – that the name of Card shall not vanish from this earth?'

'Good God, no.'

'What happened to your wife?'

'Oh, she married again. A nice solid foundry executive.'

'Family?'

'Yes. Two, by now.'

And that seemed to satisfy her for the moment. I asked, 'What are you planning to do now? Going back to the States?'

'I haven't figured it out. I don't fancy I'd too much like to live over there, now, and David's very happy at school here, so… I guess I need a little time to see.' She got up and poured us coffee from a pot sitting on a sideboard hotplate.

'Did David go with you to the States when you visited?' I asked casually.

She glanced at me quickly, but I was stirring my cup. 'No, not for a few years.' She sat down again. 'Martin and my father didn't get on too well. So -1 guess I didn't want David to hear my father sounding off abouthis father. Dad doesn't exactly watch his language. But it's a shame David can't see America as well. Harrow's… well, it is rather English.'