‘Godfrey probably knows already,’ he said.
‘The only people who know about this are Charmian, Guy, and myself. Lisa Brooke knew, and in fact she blackmailed Charmian quite cruelly. That was when Charmian had her nervous breakdown. And in fact the main reason Guy married Lisa was to keep her quiet, and save Charmian from the threat of scandal. It was never a proper marriage, but, however, as I say, Guy did marry Lisa for Charmian’s sake. I will say that for him. Of course, Guy Leet did have charm.’
‘He still has charm,’ said Alec.
‘Has he? Well, I don’t doubt it. Now, Alec, write this down, will you?’
‘Jean, you would regret it.’
‘Alec, if you won’t give Godfrey this information I shall have to ask Dame Lettie to do so. She would make the matter far more unpleasant for Charmian. I see it is necessary that Godfrey Colston should stop being morally afraid of Charmian — at least it is worth trying. I think, if he knows of Charmian’s infidelity, he won’t fear any disclosures about his. Let him go and gloat over Charmian. Let him —’
‘Charmian will be shocked. She trusts you.’ He put the case for the opposition, but she knew he was stirred and excited by her suggestion. He had never, in the past, hesitated to make mischief if it served his curiosity: now he could serve her ends.
‘There is a time for loyalty and a time when loyalty comes to an end. Charmian should know that by now,’ she said.
He looked at her curiously as if to find in her face something that he had previously overlooked, some latent jealousy.
‘The more religious people are, the more perplexing I find them. And I think Charmian would be hurt by your action.
‘Charmian herself is a religious woman.
‘No, only a woman with a religion.’ He had always found it odd that Miss Taylor, having entered the Church only to please Charmian, should have become the more addicted of the two.
He made notes of the information Miss Taylor gave to him. ‘Make it clear,’ she said, ‘that this is a message from me. If my hands were in use I would write to him myself. Tell him from me he has nothing to fear from Mrs Pettigrew. Poor old man.’
‘Were you ever jealous of Charmian?’ he said.
‘Of course I was,’ she said, ‘from time to time.’
Alec was wondering as he wrote down the details of Charmian’s love-affair, if Godfrey Colston would be agreeable to taking his pulse and temperature before and after the telling. On the whole, he thought not. Guy Leet had been obliging in this respect, but then Guy was a sport. Still, one might try.
‘You know, Taylor,’ said Dame Lettie, ‘I do not feel I can continue to visit you. These creatures are too disturbing, and now that I am not getting my proper sleep my nerves are not up to these decrepit women here. One wonders, really, what is the purpose of keeping them alive at the country’s expense.
‘For my part,’ said Miss Taylor, ‘I would be glad to be let die in peace. But the doctors would be horrified to hear me say it. They are so proud of their new drugs and new methods of treatment — there is always something new. I sometimes fear, at the present rate of discovery, I shall never die.’
Dame Lettie considered this statement, uncertain whether it was frivolous or not. She shifted bulkily in her chair and considered the statement with a frown and a downward droop of her facial folds.
Miss Taylor supplied obligingly: ‘Of course the principle of keeping people alive is always a good one.’
Dame Lettie glanced along the ward at the geriatrics who were, at that moment, fairly docile. One old lady sat up in her cot singing a song or something; a few were being visited by relatives who spoke little but for the most part simply sat out the visiting time with their feeble forebears, occasionally breaking the silence with some piece of family news, spoken loudly into the half-comprehending faces, and accepting with blank calm the response, whether this were a cluck or a crow, or something more substantial. The rest of the geriatric patients were grouped at the television corner, watching and commenting. Really, there was nothing one could complain of in them.
But Lettie had been, in any case, jittery beyond the usual when she arrived. She had not answered Miss Taylor’s greeting, but had scraped the bedside chair closer to Miss Taylor and started talking immediately.
‘Taylor, we all went to see Mortimer. It was utterly futile —’
‘Oh, yes, Mr Warner told me yesterday —’
‘Quite useless. Mortimer is not to be trusted. The police are, of course, shielding him. He must have accomplices — one of them is apparently a young man, another a middle-aged man with a lisp, and then there is a foreigner, and also —’
‘Chief Inspector Mortimer,’ said Miss Taylor, ‘always used to seem to me rather sane.’
‘Sane, of course he’s sane. I am not saying he isn’t sane. I made the great mistake, Taylor, of letting him know I had remembered him in my will. He always appeared to be so helpful on the committees, so considerate. But I see now, he has been a schemer. He did not expect me to live so long, and he is using these methods to frighten me to death. Of course I have now taken him out of my will, and I took steps to make this fact known to him, hoping his persecution would then Cease. But now, in his rage, he has intensified his efforts. The others who receive the anonymous Calls are merely being used as a blind, a Cover, you see, Taylor, a blind. And Eric, I believe, is working in with him. I have written to Eric, but have received no reply, which alone is suspicious. I am their main objective and victim. Now, a further development. A few weeks ago, you remember I arranged to have my telephone disconnected.’
‘Oh yes,’ said Miss Taylor, closing her eyes to rest them.
‘Well, shortly after that, as I was going to bed, I could swear I heard a noise at my bedroom window. As you know, my window looks out on the…’
Dame Lettie had, in the past few weeks, got into the habit of searching the house every night before going to bed. One could not be too careful. She searched the house from top to bottom, behind sofas, in cupboards, under beds. And even then there were creaks and unaccountable noises springing up all over the place. This nightly
