A Suitable Vengeance

she wore no uniform, merely a navy skirt, white blouse and flat-heeled shoes. She was snug and neat-looking, and she carried a tray which she used to gesture as she spoke.

'His lordship thought you'd want something before you leave for the train,' Caroline said, taking the food to a small tripod table that stood near the fireplace. 'He says you've just thirty minutes.'

'Does Lady Helen know that? Is she up?'

'Up, dressing, and having her breakfast as well.'

As if in affirmation of this, Lady Helen wandered into the room, simultaneously engaged in all three activities. She was in her stockinged feet, she was munching on a wedge of toast, and she was holding up two pairs of shoes at arm's length.

'I can't decide,' she said as she scrutinized them critically. 'The suede are more comfortable, but the green are rather sweet, aren't they? I've had them both on and off a dozen times this morning.'

'I should recommend the suede,' Caroline said.

'H'm.' Lady Helen dropped one suede shoe to the floor, stepped into it, dropped one of the other pair, stepped into that. 'Look closely, Caroline. Are you really quite sure?'

'Quite,' Caroline replied. 'The suede. And if you'll give me the other pair, I'll just pop them into your suitcase.'

Lady Helen waved her off for a moment. She studied her feet in the mirror that hung on the inside of the wardrobe door. 'I can see your point. But look at the green. Surely there's green in my skin as well. Or, if not, perhaps they'll provide a hint of contrast. Because I've the sweetest handbag that goes with these shoes and I've been dying to put them together somehow. One hates to admit that an impulsive purchase of shoes and bag has been wildly in vain. Deborah, what do you think?'

'The suede,' Deborah said. She pushed her suitcase towards the door and went to the dressing table.

Lady Helen sighed. 'Outvoted, I suppose.' She watched as Caroline left the room. 'I wonder if I can steal her from Tommy. Just one look at those shoes and she made up her mind. Heavens, Deborah, she'd save me hours every day. No more standing before the wardrobe, futilely trying to decide what to wear in the morning. I'd be positively liberated.'

Deborah made a vague sort of response, and stared, perplexed, at the empty spot next to the dressing table. She went to the wardrobe and peered inside, feeling neither panic nor dismay at first, but merely confusion. Lady Helen chatted on.

'I victimize myself. I hear the word sale in reference to Harrods, and I simply fall apart. Shoes, hats, pullovers, dresses. I even bought a pair of Wellingtons once, simply because they fitted. So fetching, I thought, just the thing for mucking around Mother's garden.' She inspected Deborah's breakfast tray. 'Will you be eating your grapefruit?'

'No. I'm not at all hungry.' Deborah went into the bathroom, came out again. She kneeled on the floor to look under the bed, trying to recall where she had left the case. Certainly it had been in the room all along. She'd seen it without seeing it last night as well as the night before, hadn't she? She thought about the question, admitted to herself that she couldn't remember. Yet it was inconceivable that she might have misplaced the case, even more inconceivable that it was missing altogether. Because if it was missing, and she hadn't misplaced it herself, that could only mean…

'Whatever are you doing?' Lady Helen asked, dipping happily into Deborah's grapefruit.

Dread was hitting her as she saw that nothing had been stored beneath the bed or hurriedly shoved there to get it out of the way. Deborah got to her feet. Her face felt cold.

Lady Helen's smile faded. 'What is it? What's wrong?'

In a last and utterly useless search, Deborah returned to the wardrobe and tossed the extra pillows and blankets to the floor. 'My cameras,' she said. 'Helen, my cameras. They're gone.'

'Cameras?' Lady Helen asked blankly. 'Gone? What do you mean?'

'Gone. Just what I said. Gone. They were in their case.

You've seen it. I brought it with me this weekend. It's gone.'

'But they can't be gone. They've just been misplaced. No doubt someone thought-'

'They're gone,' Deborah said. 'They were in a metal case. Cameras, lenses, filters. Everything.'

Lady Helen replaced the bowl of grapefruit on Deborah's tray. She looked round the room. 'Are you certain?'

'Of course I'm certain! Don't be so-' Deborah stopped herself and with an effort at calm said, 'They were in a case by the dressing table. Look. It's not there.'

'Let me ask Caroline,' Lady Helen said. 'Or Hodge. They may have already taken them down to the car. Or perhaps Tommy came in earlier and got them. Surely that's it. Because I can't think that anyone would actually…' Her voice refused to say the word steal. Nonetheless, the fact that it was foremost on Lady Helen's mind was obvious in the very omission.

'I haven't left the room since last night. I've only been in the bath. If Tommy came for the cameras, why wouldn't he have told me?'

'Let me ask,' Lady Helen said again. She left the room to do so.

Deborah sank on to the stool in front of the dressing table, staring at the floor. The pattern of flowers and leaves in the carpet blurred before her as she considered the loss. Three cameras, six lenses, dozens of filters, all purchased from the proceeds of her first successful show in America, state-of-the-art equipment that served as the hallmark of who she had managed to become at the end of three years on her own. A professional without ties, duties or obligations. A woman committed to the future.

Every decision she had made during those years in America had taken its legitimacy from the ultimate possession of that equipment. She could look back on every conclusion she had reached, the convictions she had developed, the deeds she had done, and feel neither guilt nor regret because she had emerged with a profession at which she was a bona fide success. That part of life -which might have been his to hold and love and nurture -had been mourned in secret made no difference. That she had filled her time with distractions to avoid acknowledging the worst of her loss – indeed, that she had revaluated all losses and defined each one as inconsequential – had no impact upon her. Everything was made acceptable and right and completely justifiable because she'd attained her goal. She was a success, possessing all the requisite signs and symbols of that achievement.

Lady Helen came back into the room. 'I spoke to both Caroline and Hodge,' she said. Regret made the statement hesitant. She had no need to say more. 'Deborah, listen. Tommy will-'

'I don't want Tommy to replace the cameras!' Deborah cried fiercely.

A quick flash of surprise passed across Lady Helen's face. It vanished in an instant, leaving in its place an expression of perfectly impartial repose.

'I was going to say that Tommy will want to know at once. I'll fetch him.'

She was gone only a few moments, returning with both Lynley and St James. The former went to Deborah. The latter remained by the door.

'Damn and blast,' Lynley muttered. 'What next?' He put his arm round Deborah's shoulders and hugged her to him briefly before he kneeled next to the stool and gazed into her face.

His own, she could see, was lined by fatigue. He looked as if he hadn't slept at all the previous night. She knew how worried he must be about John Penellin, and she felt a twinge of shame that she should be causing him additional distress.

'Deb, darling,' he said, 'I'm sorry.'

So he knew that the cameras had been stolen. Unlike Lady Helen, he didn't even offer the excuse that the equipment had somehow been misplaced.

'When did you last see them, Deborah?' St James asked.

Lynley touched her hair, smoothed it back from her face. Deborah could smell the clean, fresh scent of his skin. He hadn't smoked yet, and she liked the smell of him when he hadn't had his first cigarette. If she could concentrate on Tommy, everything else would go away.

'Did you see them last night when you went to bed?' St James persisted.

'They were here yesterday morning. I remember that because I replaced the camera I'd used at the play. Everything was here, right by the dressing table.'

'And you don't remember seeing them after that? You didn't use them during the day?'