‘She-’ Antonia bit her lip. She didn’t quite know how to put it. Why was sex always such a ticklish subject? Why was she such a prude? But there was no way round it. Sex after all was at the very heart of this affair.
‘Stella was a bit concerned about your lack of ardour. She found your attitude towards her a little too “decent”, a little too “gentlemanly”.’ How idiotic this sounded! ‘She feared she might be abandoned at the altar. I found myself wondering about the true nature of your relationship with her. You left Melisande for Stella. You asked Stella and her daughter to move in with you. You were planning to marry Stella. You were at great pains to convey the impression that you were smitten with her-’
‘I was smitten with her.’
‘I am inclined to doubt that,’ said Antonia. ‘So, I asked myself, why would you want to play the impetuous lover if you didn’t really care about Stella? Why were you so keen on marrying her? I puzzled about the urgency in particular. The only explanation that presented itself was that it wasn’t Stella you were after, but her daughter.’ Antonia’s eyes were once more on Morland’s hands. ‘You were mad about Stella’s daughter.’
‘You are a raving lunatic,’ said Morland.
‘Her fifteen-year-old daughter.’
‘You told me she was sixteen and a half, Morland. With hindsight, I believe you felt uncomfortable revealing her real age to me,’ said Major Payne. ‘That can be interpreted as guilty conscience, you know.’
‘You wanted to marry the mother, so that you could have permanent easy access to the underage daughter,’ Antonia went on relentlessly. ‘A difficult, troubled, somewhat delinquent girl. You had already started an affair with her – while making everybody believe that you disliked each other… I assume your trysts were held at various hotels?’
‘You had no business to pry into my affairs. It’s scandalous that you should have eavesdropped on Julia’s telephone conversations. It’s an absolute outrage. I have a good mind to report you to the police.’
Antonia shrugged. ‘There was only one telephone conversation and I didn’t eavesdrop. I just happened to be there when Julia answered the call.’
‘You – you actually set a trap for me. Who do you think you are? Haven’t you got anything better to do? You went to the Corrida Hotel and paid my bill. They told me it was my sister, but it was your name – Antonia Darcy – that was on their computer. You introduced yourself as my sister! You had the gall to impersonate my sister. Don’t you know that that’s a criminal offence punishable by law?’
‘I expected a reaction from you, which I have now got.’
‘You don’t have a scrap of evidence,’ said Morland. ‘It’s all a theory. Nothing but a wild hypothesis. Parlour games. Red Bull and champagne!’ Morland laughed but it wasn’t a particularly convincing performance. ‘Complete and utter bull!’
‘I spoke to a chambermaid at the Corrida Hotel. She told me you arrived with a dark-haired girl wearing a long black coat that didn’t look too clean. You booked a room-’
‘Those foreign girls would do anything for money! They’d say exactly what you want them to say! How much did you give her? I am sure you bribed her. Lies, all lies! Moon was not-’ He broke off.
‘She wasn’t wearing the chinel?’ Antonia gave a little smile.
‘Watch out, Morland. You keep giving yourself away, you know,’ Major Payne said.
‘As a matter of fact, you were captured on camera. You and Moon. There are security cameras in the hotel lounge. The manager let me see the recordings,’ Antonia went on bluffing boldly. ‘The police saw them too.’
‘The police? You mean you’ve contrived to get the police involved in this nonsense? You don’t honestly expect me to believe the hotel manager allowed you any access to their security cameras? I think you are the greatest liar who ever lived. D’you often play games with people’s lives?’ His hand went up to his chest. Antonia hoped he wouldn’t have a heart attack and die in their drawing room. ‘Even if it is as you say and we were caught on camera, what proof is there that any “impropriety” ever took place? It’s not as though we’ve been caught in flagrante, is it?’
He was no fool, Antonia thought. There was another pause.
‘I am planning to adopt Moon,’ Morland said in a thoughtful voice. He sounded almost calm now. ‘Poor girl, she’s got no one in the world. I was very much in love with Stella. I adored Stella. I was devastated when she died. I propose to take good care of Moon. I feel it’s my duty.’
So that was going to be his line. A good lawyer, if it ever came to that, would be able to get him off without any particular difficulty, Antonia reflected.
‘I needed to talk to her in private. She can be difficult, she doesn’t really like me, so I thought a change of location might be conducive to a constructive discussion about the future, hence the hotel,’ Morland went on. ‘Moon’s never been anywhere near the Villa Byzantine. That handkerchief was not hers. She has nothing to do with any of this lunacy… I don’t know what I’m doing here. I really don’t. Wasting my time. I’m going. I’ve had enough.’ Somewhat shakily Morland rose to his feet.
Antonia said, ‘Stella’s death was a direct consequence of your affair with Moon.’
‘There are very strict libel laws in this country, Miss Darcy, as I’m sure you are aware,’ he said with a ghastly smile.
‘Stella died minutes after she tumbled to the fact that you and her daughter were having an affair. There were letters. Stella found them. She read them.’
Morland had started walking towards the door. He halted and turned round. ‘What letters?’ There was a harsh, even ragged, edge to his voice.
‘Highly compromising letters written by Moon to you. Letters that made it obvious to Stella that her daughter and you were lovers. The letters were in the car.’
This was an audacious guess, but Antonia couldn’t resist it. She remembered Moon telling them how she’d got in trouble at school for writing letters to teachers she ‘liked’. Something did happen in the car, Antonia was certain of it. She didn’t believe Moon had simply chosen that particular time to regale her mother with details of her affair with James Morland.
‘What car are you talking about?’
‘Your car. Your second car.’
‘The uncool one,’ Major Payne put in. ‘The one you keep in the garage. Moon’s been driving it, hasn’t she?’
‘I believe you are both mad. You are a danger to civilized society. You shouldn’t be at large. You need psychiatric help,’ Morland said, but the bluster had gone.
His expression had changed at the mention of the letters. He was making a visible effort to pull himself together.
‘How did Winifred die?’ Morland asked after a pause. ‘Was she beheaded too?’
‘No. Her head was bashed in. It was a ferocious attack.’ Payne produced his pipe. ‘Somebody took a crack at her skull. Three cracks, to be precise. The blows were dealt with the doorstop from Tancred Vane’s study. A genuine Victorian article in the shape of an owl.’
‘You certainly had a good motive for wanting to be rid of Stella,’ began Antonia. ‘However-’
‘You are wrong if you think you can pin either murder on me,’ Morland said. ‘I killed no one. I am not a killer.’
‘We know you are not,’ said Payne. He started filling his pipe with tobacco from the tobacco jar. ‘On the morning Stella’s murder took place you were attending a board meeting. The police checked. You have an unbreakable alibi. And we don’t think it was you who followed Winifred to the Villa Byzantine either. Yours was not the hand that picked up the owl.’
Morland gazed glassily at him. He looked puzzled and oddly disturbed by Payne’s last words. ‘The owl?’
It was at that point that his mobile rang.
Once more Antonia bit her lip. One could always trust a mobile to add drama and suspense to an already fraught situation!
Morland took his mobile out of his pocket with a mechanical gesture.
‘Yes? Yes, it’s me-’ He swallowed. He didn’t make any effort to disguise his feelings. His expression changed.
Extreme tenderness mingled with fear.
It was Stella’s daughter, Antonia knew at once.
