Mingled With Venom

‘So what can be done?’ asked Bluebell. ‘Of course, Margaret Denham may be guilty, but I think the police have gone too far in arresting her so soon. As it’s a charge of murder, the poor thing can’t even get bail.’

She was speaking to Dame Beatrice, having walked down to the hotel immediately after breakfast to seek an interview. She was accompanied by Gamaliel, who had his own views and expressed them freely.

‘They have arrested this girl because she is poor and obscure and frightened. The person to arrest is this girl we have to call Antonia. It was easy to see that she was more upset than anybody over my great grandmother’s Will. The one most upset is the guilty party. That is my opinion.’

‘Don’t be silly, Gammy,’ said Bluebell. ‘You are putting the cart before the horse and talking from hindsight. Antonia did not know the contents of the Will before your great grandmother died. Nobody did. Somebody may have thought she did, but even if she had been right (and we know now that she was not right) she had nothing to gain by the death. She would get her training whether she was to be left the money for it or whether one of us legatees was to pay for it, as has turned out to be the case. You must not talk so wildly and unfairly.’

‘He is right about one thing,’ said Dame Beatrice, gazing with benign admiration at the beautiful youth. ‘If Margaret Denham is to be exonerated, another culprit must be found, for of one other thing we can be sure; Mrs Leyden undoubtedly was poisoned and, on the face of it, by somebody’s wilful act. The charge, however, may turn out to be one of manslaughter.’

‘Not murder?’ asked Gamaliel, not at all put out of countenance by Bluebell’s censure. ‘But that is not so interesting, is it?’

‘No, it is not,’ Dame Beatrice agreed. ‘Nevertheless, the accused person may well prefer it.’

‘Would it help this girl if I went to the police and confessed to a practical joke?’

Bluebell gazed at him with horror and told him, with some abruptness, not to show off. Dame Beatrice surveyed him with kindly interest.

‘I hardly think it would help matters at all,’ she said. ‘You base your suggestion, no doubt, on the theory that, at your age, not only could you plead that a practical joke went wrong and was followed by circumstances which you did not intend, but also that you would get off far more lightly if you were convicted than this unfortunate girl may find is the case.’

‘You are talking sense, my dear old lady,’ said Gamaliel cordially. ‘That is the way I see it.’

‘If you followed out your idiotic suggestion,’ said Bluebell, recovering herself, ‘you would fail to qualify for election as head boy next term. The school would hardly choose one who was a candidate for a reformatory. I think you had better return home and leave me to consult Dame Beatrice in private.’

‘Is that your opinion, too, dear old lady?’ asked Gamaliel, favouring Dame Beatrice with his wide smile.

‘Yes, dear young man, I rather think it is,’ she replied, ‘so off you go.’

Gamaliel took himself off quite cheerfully and Dame Beatrice led the way through the empty bar to its narrow balcony, where she and Bluebell seated themselves. For some moments they gazed out over the beautiful little cove in silence.

Then Bluebell said: ‘If this girl didn’t do it, then one of us did, and although I rebuked Gamaliel for suggesting it, Antonia is as good a candidate as any other except that, as I pointed out, even if she did think she had seen a draft which left her money, it made no essential difference to her future. Even five thousand pounds would not be too much to pay for another few years’ training, keep her in rent, food and clothes and maintain her until she could get a sufficient number of engagements to allow her to fend for herself. The path of the artist is hard and stony.’

‘Is there any chance whatever that the police would take your son’s suggestion seriously, were he rash enough to go to them with it?’

‘I suppose they would consider it. Gamaliel, like all the rest of us, is perfectly capable of murder if the motive were strong enough. However, he would not have committed this particular murder. It would have been much more effective, from his point of view, to have followed my grandmother on one of her cliff walks and pushed her over the edge, and that is what he would have done.’

‘There is much in what you say. You feel sure that this particular murder was committed by a woman, I think.’

‘I cannot be sure, but it seems likely because of the means employed.’

‘It could be a crime committed by a man astute enough to make it look like the action of a woman, don’t you think?’

‘I had not thought of that. But, you know, Dame Beatrice, if Margaret Denham is not the guilty party, then, as I said, one of us must be, and that is a thought I find hard to face.’

‘There are the Lunns, of course.’

‘Mattie and Redruth? Oh, but they have been in my grandmother’s service for years and years.’

‘That is hardly a valid defence. Circumstances change. Grievances arise, and so on.’

‘I suppose so. Now that I come to remember, I was told that Mattie’s employment as groom had been terminated,’ said Bluebell thoughtfully, ‘and she did not know that she was to be given the horses. But, is summary dismissal an adequate motive for so serious a crime as murder?’

‘As I always contend, who can say what is or is not an adequate motive?’

‘You have seen Margaret Denham and heard her speak. Do you think she is guilty? As a psychiatrist you must have formed an opinion.’

‘The only opinion I have formed is too trite to be worth repeating. However, here it is, and it coincides with your own, so we are going round in circles. If Margaret Denham did not do it, somebody else did, but to take the matter a little further, as the police have arrested the girl they will not look for that somebody until or unless the magistrates dismiss the charge.’

‘They are not likely to do that, unless something more comes to light than is known at present. Failing a more obvious suspect, there is a prima facie case against Margaret, as any unbiased person is bound to admit.’