‘What else do you pay me for? I’m to let her know tomorrow the doctor’s report. I said he was still with you.’
‘What on earth are you talking about?’
‘You hover between life and death, dear. It was only by convincing her of that hardly self-evident fact that I could persuade her to leave. But that is not the reason for my being here and ministering unto you with my own delicate hands.’
‘Any excuse for a session with you is as good as any other. So to what am I indebted?‘ I asked.
‘Do you know what unpardonable liberties are?’
‘I ought to.’
‘Oh, you mean when you punched a man in the eye for attempting to put his arm round Hera. I heard about that. Well, I am about to tell you of an unpardonable liberty I took because, if I don’t confess it, Sandy will tell you that it was he who took it.’
‘He has told me already, I think. He checked on Hera’s visit to Paris.’
‘As a matter of fact,
‘So she didn’t go to Paris. She went to Scotland and did her damnedest to disable Sandy. I find that difficult to believe, you know.’
‘Suit yourself.’ She drank her tea. I pushed my cup aside.
‘It’s utterly ridiculous,’ I said, ‘and neither of you has any proof at all.’
‘With Sandy out of the way, she could have worked on you to take her into the partnership.’
‘What about you? Wouldn’t you have had something to say?’
‘I wasn’t a partner at that time. I should have chucked my job, of course. I could never work with Hera.’
‘Anyway,’ I said, ‘strong-arm stuff is not her line. Whoever clocked Sandy in those woods or wherever it was made a boss shot. That’s the only reason I’m prepared to admit it
‘Typical of a woman who was not used to what you call strong-arm stuff. A real mugger would have made a much better job of it.’
‘What did Luella Granville Waterman want to see me about?’ (I was anxious to change the subject.)
‘That’s right. When defeated in argument, always take a different line. What
‘But because old Timothy once had an affair with her mother, Timothy’s sons have been publishing that bilge of hers for years.’
‘They haven’t lost on it, you know. She’s got her following.’
‘Heaven help them! What do I say to her tomorrow?’
‘She isn’t coming tomorrow. I have promised to let her know when you are out of danger. I have also told her we’ll try Peregrines if she likes, but that they start new authors at only seven and a half on the first five thousand. That ought to shake her. Oh, and by the way, I’m going to marry Sandy.’
‘Not me?’ I spoke jokingly, but the news took me completely by surprise.
‘No, dear, not you. My union doesn’t allow me to accept other women’s leavings,’ she said, getting up from her chair.
‘You devil!’ I said. I caught her and kissed her. ‘I hope you will be very, very happy. Good old Sandy! I had no idea!’
‘Well, you don’t have many ideas, do you, dear?’ she said. ‘You should have got a line on your Hera months ago.’
16: The Rounding-Up
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So, all these extraneous details being settled, we were back to the murder. Hera was a late riser when she was not working, so at nine the next morning I went to her flat and pushed through her letter-box the package containing the ring. This meant that I arrived at the office earlier than usual, for Sandy and I did not show up usually until ten.
I found Elsa busy dealing with the morning’s correspondence.
‘My, my!’ she said. ‘Couldn’t we sleep? Was our conscience troubling us? That policeman has been here asking to see you. I told him to try again later.’
‘What does he want, I wonder? There is nothing I can tell him about myself that he doesn’t know already.’
A telephone call came through half an hour later. Polly answered it and put Bingley through to me. I said I would be charmed to see him whenever he wanted an interview and he replied to this that he would come round at once. Sandy had arrived before Bingley turned up, so, when I had congratulated him on his engagement to Elsa, I told him what was in the wind and prophesied (rightly, as it happened) that somebody under pressure had magnified the story of my punch-up with Carbridge at Crianiarich.
