was that she herself was already awake, having been unable to sleep and having taken herself to the kitchen for a cuppa, probably laced with Scotch, again reading between the lines. But she testified plainly enough that she heard scuffling sounds and shouts. When asked if she went to investigate she replied”-and here Ruthven adopted a passable Scottish accent-“ ‘It ware jest th’ ghostie so no a reason fare me to stir.’ This produced some laughter, according to the reporter, at which Agnes took umbrage. ‘I seen him meself many a time, I have. Headless, he is. ’Tis the fairst Laird Botwin, we think, him as were kilt by the Catlicks. He main us no harm so I let him gae on aboot his business, like mare folk should do.’”
“Anyway,” Ruthven went on in a normal voice, “more in this vein, but then she testified she heard a loud crash, followed by the sound of someone running.”
“‘He ne’er doon that afore,’ she said. ‘It scairt me, like, so I thought I’d best go have a look, me in me robe an’ all, but I dinna like the soond of it.’”
“The ghost didn’t scare her but a ghost acting out of character did. Good for Agnes,” said Albert.
“Wait for it. Apparently the coroner also was caught up in the ghost-as-suspect possibility.” Ruthven read again from the newspaper account: “Asked what it was the ghost had never done before- caused a loud crash or run away-Mrs. Grant replied, ‘A ghost dunna run in high heels.’”
“A headless Lord in high heels,” mused Albert. “Not impossible, granted a public school education. Still, I don’t see where Lady Winthrop comes into it. Unless she was the only woman in the house who owned a pair of heels. Not likely.”
“Agnes gets to that. All the women visiting the house-it was one of those ‘play cards and shoot whatever moves’ weekend parties such as Violet described yesterday-were lodged in the West wing that night. Agnes Grant was adamant she heard the high heels clicking their way toward the family quarters on the East side of the house, where Lord and Lady Winthrop resided in solitary splendor. Agnes gives it as her further opinion that only Violet of all those present would caper about at three AM in high-heeled slippers, ‘her bein’ a real clues-hearse as she is,’ but the coroner ignored that, of course, and rightly so.”
“What makes me think Agnes would soon find herself out of a job?” said Albert.
“She gave her opinion on that, as well: ‘I’ll not stay another night ’neath that roof to be mairdered in me sleep, even by her ladyship, who has always traited me fair.”
“So much for the fealty-not to say the discretion-of old retainers. Well, if that’s all the coroner had to go on I’m not surprised at the hazy verdict.”
“Oh, there was more. What is evident from the testimony, wrenched as it had to be from the guests, who had clearly decided it was an occasion for all titled hands to the pumps, was that Lord and Lady Winthrop were not getting along.”
“Well, how very rare an occurrence amongst married couples. I’m surprised they didn’t clap her in irons on the spot.”
“Wait for it, will you? Agnes wasn’t the most sensational witness, not by a long shot. That came later, a witness who testified that Violet Winthrop was with him-
Albert perked up at this. At least, his eyebrows did, until he realized even that small movement made his head throb. Carefully, he narrowed his eyes again against the light, and said:
“At three AM?”
“Precisely. In high heels or no high heels, she was with him, so he said. Precisely what the gentleman was doing with Violet is not spelled out, but the implications were-and are-obvious. That must have sent the press in a virtual stampede out of the room to telephone in their stories. It’s the classic tale-older man, younger woman. All anyone had to do was fill in the blanks. Winthrop was”-and here Ruthven flipped back through the pages-“about forty years her senior.”
“Hmm,” said Albert. “A fact she failed to mention on first meeting, although one would hardly expect her to. Who was this Lothario of the wee hours, anyway?”
“One John Davies, who, having provided Violet with an alibi, seems promptly and handily to have disappeared without a trace. He may be long dead by now, of course, but I have my men on it. If he’s around, they’ll find him.”
“You sound like the head of Scotland Yard, with all the resources of Interpol at your fingertips.”
“Not too far from the truth,” said Ruthven complacently. “As I say, they’ll find him if he’s out there. Doesn’t help, of course, his having a common name like Davies. But if not him, someone else staying at the house that weekend, whose tongue may have been loosened by the passage of time.”
He set aside his glasses and folded his hands on top of the pile of faxed clippings in a “getting down to business” manner.
“Now the question is, what do we do with this information?” asked Ruthven.
“Surely you mean, what do you do? I haven’t a clue.”
“Really? I should think you’d have several.”
“Go to Father with these clippings, you mean? Perhaps shove them under the door of his study and then scarper like hell? Do you seriously think that wily fat fox is unaware of all this-hasn’t, perhaps, done his own digging, himself? You forget the man’s stock in trade is murder-fictionalized, with preposterous plots and methods and motives, granted, but murder, just the same. He probably has a rehashing of the case in one of those collections of unsolved crimes he has sitting on his bookshelves. We agreed, I thought, that part of the attraction he feels toward Violet may in fact be her bullet-riddled past.”
“She bludgeoned her elderly husband to death; she didn’t shoot him.”
“According to the coroner, she did neither. Also, according to her lover.”
“If he was telling the truth. You’re forgetting the times in which this happened: the mid-fifties. This wasn’t a case of
“You mean that a real gentleman of the Empire would have lied under oath to protect Violet with a phony alibi, while only a scoundrel would have kissed and told the truth, even to save Violet from hanging?”
His headache, he noticed now, was blessedly beginning to recede as he focused on the implications of Ruthven’s tale. He thought he might just manage some toast, if he were careful.
“Something like that. Either way, she was in disgrace, especially for the times. Being a murderess was probably considered not much worse than sleeping around. The two things may have tied in a dead heat in the minds of the reading public. Certainly, had it come to a trial, a jury might not have made the distinction. Luckily for her, it never came to that. But that’s where we come in.”
Again, Albert raised an eyebrow at the “we” but held his tongue.
“As you say, all this may not come as news to Father, although I’d be willing to bet any version he’s heard from Violet has been highly sanitized.” Ruthven, recalling the look of besotted infatuation he’d seen on his father’s face the day before, added, “I doubt he cares what the truth of it is. It’s obvious he’s mad about her.”
“Yes, so I think you’ve mentioned before. Sickening, isn’t it?” Struck by a new thought, he said: “I wonder where they met?”
“At one of his book signings, according to George. Apparently he got that information out of her last night at dinner. Love at first sight, it was, so she says.”
“That I don’t believe. I can see what Adrian sees in her-even given her age, she’s quite lovely-but what in God’s name does she want with a bad-tempered monster like Adrian?”
“Perhaps the same thing we want with him.”
“Money? Surely not. To all appearances-”
“I know what you’re going to say. Certainly, she looks like she’s led a pampered life. Still, appearances mean nothing-as an actor, you know that better than I do. She’s had plenty of time to run through her husband’s fortune. Besides, his scattered family may have kicked up a fuss over the will, given the circumstances. My men-”
