John Carr - Till Death Do Us Part

'Yes. Very easily.'

' The girl, I judge, is highly strung..." Lesley! Lesley! Lesley!

' ... and it was something of a shock when she settled down here and found out what family was living just opposite.'

‘She didn't know?'

'No. When she was a small girl, my brother had been known officially as "Mr Converse" or "Uncle Frank" rather than by his title. The name of Ashe meant nothing to her. It was customary in my day' - Lord Ashe spoke dryly -' to suppress names.'

' Then by pure chance... ?'

' Oh, no. A spiteful friend.'

' How do you mean ?'

'A spiteful friend suggested that, if she left the Continent and settled down in England, she would probably find it pleasant to live in a village called Six Ashes. She came here. She liked the place. She saw a suitable house. She had been living here for several weeks before she properly noticed the design on the gates opposite.' Lord Ashe reached out to touch the necklace. 'And compared it,' he added.

'I see.'

'She could have left, of course. But she liked the people. She liked' - he looked at Dick - 'one in particular. And I gather that this, our humdrum little life, was what she wanted. Desperately wanted. And wouldn't give up.

'What really maddened her, I gather also, was a morbid sense of guilt. Guilt towards us. Guilt towards any of my family. I'm sure I can't say why. As I told her this morning, she had no concern with her mother's affairs.'

Lord Ashe hesitated.

He picked up first the collar, then the bracelet, and then the necklace, weighing each in his hand and putting it down as though his fingers loved it.

'But it's also true that there was some question, at the time, as to whether my brother had any right to give these things to Lily Jewell. Whether they were not, in fact, part of an entailed estate. This girl, in addition to her fear of what the village-ladies would say if they learned she was the daughter of Lily Jewell, even had cloudy visions of the police coming to arrest her.

'She was desperately afraid somebody would see these things and recognize the Ashe arms: as, of course, everybody would have. But she wouldn't part with them, wouldn't keep them at a bank. Hence the wall-safe. Which showed at least some sense of reality, considering how valuable the articles are.'

Superintendent Hadley threw in a question.

'How valuable?'

'My dear Superintendent!' said Lord Ashe, and again showed signs of running down like a clock. 'Their historic interest...'

'In cash, I mean?'

' I can't appraise them, I'm afraid. Very many thousands, as you can judge for yourself.'

Lord Ashe again addressed himself to Dick Markham.

'When I first set eyes on - er - Miss Grant, some six months ago, I noticed her resemblance to Lily Jewell. It puzzled me. It bothered me. But, on my word of honour, I never actually connected her with Mrs Jewell I They seemed so utterly different, so - !' Lord Ashe waved his fingers in the air. 'Well, my dear fellow! If you had ever been acquainted with Lily Jewell, you would understand what I mean.'

'But Lesley thought...?'

'She thought, I'm afraid, I might have guessed who she was. This small foolish fear, the dread of being talked about, had grown and grown. She was already in a somewhat morbid state of mind. And you well recollect the events of yesterday.'

Superintendent Hadley uttered a short, sharp laugh.

' Sam De Villa,' Hadley said.

Line by line, image by image, with colour where only shadow had lain before, Dick saw the picture take form. Each inconsistency was fitting into place now.

'De Villa, alias Sir Harvey Gilman,' he asked, 'was after that load of jewellery ?'

'What else do you think he was after?' inquired a sardonic but admiring Hadley. He jingled coins in his pocket. 'And, by George, Sam never played a part better! When I first got to that cottage down there with your local P.O. - what's his name - ?'

'Bert Miller?'

‘Miller, yes. I gave Dr Fell a little sketch of Sam De Villa's life and achievements.'

' You did,' agreed Dr Fell very thoughtfully.

'Sam was a confidence-man. He wasn't a burglar. He could never in the world have cracked a Florida Bulldog safe, and wouldn't have tried. But he could coax the stuff out of that safe, as slick as a whistle. There was only one way to get at jewels which Miss Grant wouldn't even admit were there. That was to get the help of Mr Markham. And Sam did it. He was an artist.'

'He's an artist', Dick said viciously, 'who - I hope -is burning in hell at this minute. Go on '

Hadley lifted his shoulders.

'Simple as simple. Sam usually worked the Continent, you understand. He traced Lily Jewell's daughter to Six Ashes, and decided on the best way. First of all he carefully cased the district...'

' Cased it?' repeated Lord Ashe.

' Studied, it. Got as much information as he could about everybody concerned. One of his devices was first to go about in some inconspicuous role, like a salesman...'

' Bibles!' exclaimed Lord Ashe.

They all stared at him.

' I beg your pardon, gentlemen,' said Lord Ashe, shifting in the creaky chair, 'but I told our young friend this morning that the fellow reminded me of a man who was here long ago selling Bibles. You mean this was the - er -criminal figure you call Sam ?'

Hadley nodded.

'Always a good device, Bibles,' he declared. 'It gives the salesman access to the family Bible and to family history, if anybody's willing to talk.'

Dr Fell, whose several chins were propped over his collar while he stared at the floor, appeared vaguely disturbed. Internal rumblings disturbed his bandit's moustache.

'I say, Hadley,' he muttered, 'I'm rather curious to know, in fact I want very much to know, whether he visited any other house at Six Ashes except this one.'

' I imagine he had a good thorough round of it,' the Superintendent said grimly. 'It accounts for his great success as a fortune-teller. Naturally he consented to do that. Sam had what he called a sense of humour -'

'God damn his sense of humour,' said Dick Markham, with quiet sincerity.

There was an uncomfortable silence.

Hadley's voice grew quiet

'I know, Mr Markham. I know!' Hadley smiled as though he had gone a trifle too far. 'But you've got to understand that these gentry will use anything, any weapon at all, when they think they can bring off a good haul. The garden-party gave him a heaven-sent opportunity to upset Miss Grant, and, consequently, upset you in preparation for his plan.'

' What did he actually say to her, by the way ?'

Hadley grunted, continuing his wry friendly smile.

' Can't you guess, Mr Markham ?'

'References,' said Dick, 'to the fact that he, the great fortune-teller, knew all about her past life? And her mother's past life?'

'That's it. With the practical certainty, you see, that she wouldn't tell you: at least, not yet. He was a great psychologist, Sam was.' 'A great psychologist. Yes.'

'Which,' Hadley pointed out, 'put you in the position to be upset by the hint of even more sinister secrets. Oh, yes. He couldn't know an accident would play into his hands when that rifle went off. But he used that too, with smacking good effect.

' I don't think there's much more to tell you, Mr Markham. His whole game, the story about the terrible poisoner and the diary or poison or something locked up in a safe, was to get that safe open. And how to do that? Easy! He told you, if I've got the story straight from Dr Fell, that he wanted to be present unseen while you had dinner with Miss Grant? And that he was very anxious to see what was in the safe?'

'Yes.'

'And that he would give you his "final instructions" about it next morning ?'

'Yes. Those were the exact words.'