Death of a Delft Blue

‘Yes,’ he admitted. ‘Even, let us say, an eighth share of grandpapa’s worldly goods would be well worth having. So you think Grand-aunt Binnen or Aunts Opal and Ruby, or, failing them, Uncle Derde and/or Uncle Sweyn, sent poor old Florian a lethal dose, do you?’

‘Such things have been known before,’ said Gavin. There was a longer pause this time. They cleared their plates.

‘Yes,’ said Bernardo, leaning back, ‘but there’s one thing you’ve left out of your calculations. I’ll have pheasant,’ he added to the waiter. ‘Same for you, Gavin?’

Gavin thanked him, and then said,

‘I think I know what you mean. You mean that the position of those members of the family you have mentioned would be exactly the same if you, and not Colwyn-Welch, were liquidated.’

‘That’s it.’

‘Which brings me to my next point. Have you ever had any reason to suppose that an attempt, however misdirected, has been made on your life?’

Bernardo inspected his portion of pheasant and pushed aside the game chips with which it was garnished. He poured out more wine.

‘No,’ he said. ‘For one thing, I’ve never thought about it, so, of course, I haven’t suspected anything. But I’m perfectly certain I’ve never been in the slightest danger. Apart from anything else, you see, to do me in would be to deprive poor little Binnie of the chance of becoming wife to a comparatively wealthy man. My parents and my very formidable grandmother are far from poor, and what with my expectations there, and a half-share in grandpapa’s leavings — if you see what I mean—’

‘Yes, I do see. What else do you deduce?’

‘Well,’ said Bernardo, ‘all I can see is that the money may have nothing to do with it. I suppose…’ he hesitated.

‘You’re going to suggest to me that perhaps the deaths of those two girls were not, after all, accidental, aren’t you? You’ve been wondering whether the poisoned chocolate-cream went where it was intended to go. But that would implicate Colwyn-Welch to the hilt. He admits he gave them the sweet-stuff.’

‘I’ve always thought Florian had nine lives,’ said Bernardo, with apparent irrelevance, ‘but I can’t see him doing in barmaids and such, unless he’d got them into trouble. He hadn’t, had he?’

‘Nobody had. The post-mortem settled that.’

‘Odd, in these indiscriminate, lax and experimental times. Well, where has the conversation got us?’ He polished off the last of the pheasant, again pushed the game chips aside and added, ‘Why will they serve up these nasty little bits of wooden potato? Does anybody bother to eat them?’

‘I don’t think the conversation has got us very far,’ said Gavin. ‘We can’t even be sure, beyond possibility of doubt, that the chocolate-cream wasn’t purchased over here. Plenty of Dutch chocolate is imported. We tried all the local shops about and around the area — a pretty wide area, too — but, of course, it could have been bought in London.’

‘London? I see. That could bring my immediate family into the picture, and, of course, myself.’

‘Or you could have bought the stuff in Amsterdam or Rotterdam and sent it to Colwyn-Welch in Derbyshire. You visit Holland pretty frequently in connection with your job?’

‘I do, yes.’ He looked politely interested and not at all apprehensive.

‘Did you — were you accustomed to visit Mrs Colwyn-Welch and her daughters when you were there?’

‘Oh, I usually looked in on them. They expected it, you know.’

‘Did you ever see a cylinder from a barrel-organ lying about in their apartment?’

‘A cylinder from a barrel-organ?’

‘Yes, one of those things with holes in them (I think) which makes the tunes when the fellow turns the handle, or, in this case (so my wife tells me), the big wheel.’

‘Oh, so that’s what it was!’

‘What what was?’

‘Why, the last time I was there, Aunt Ruby pushed a cardboard box on to me and asked me to throw it into the canal. She said she had broken something belonging to Aunt Opal (of whom, as I’ve always known, she’s scared stiff). She said that, if time elapsed before Aunt O. discovered her loss, it would be all right, but if the sad remains were left lying about waiting to be disposed of by the authorities, there might be the devil to pay. She mentioned a tigress bereft of her cubs, I remember — all this in Dutch, which my mamma has brought me up to speak and to understand, but the speed of Aunt R’s delivery made mostly nonsense of her arguments. Still, I got the main points.’

‘And where is the cylinder now? Did you throw it into the canal?’

‘I did not. I shouldn’t think the authorites encourage people to throw their rubbish into the canals. Anyway, I didn’t risk it. I left it under a seat at the airport. It may be there still, for all I know.’

‘And you didn’t know what was in the parcel?’

‘No. Aunt Opal’s household gods wouldn’t interest me. I walked out with the parcel under my arm and nobody asked any questions, so that was that. Why, is the cylinder important?’

‘I don’t know. My wife and Dame Beatrice seemed to think it had some kind of special significance, but I don’t pretend to guess what kind it would be, if any.’

‘Going back a bit—’ said Bernardo — ‘I’ll have cheese and celery, waiter. What for you, Gavin? A sweet or an ice or something?’