The Wellington Bureau: A Quartermain Mystery
Page 25
the circumstances, I might not be too pleased to see him again.”
“Well...” said Anna.
“I knew all along!” exclaimed the blonde woman with some spirit. “That is the silly thing. Poor Warren paying out all that money to save my feelings – the foolish boy paid thousands of pounds. And I knew all along. You may not understand why I chose to accept the fact that my husband was having an affair with my sister. Well,” Amanda Parry started to fiddle with her ring, as was her habit when she was nervous or over-excited, “I had simply ceased to care. Perhaps you cannot imagine what it feels like to run out of emotion, to feel empty, numb. I suffered so much when I first discovered that he was having affairs – oh, it wasn’t just one – and after...after I had tried to kill myself, I just ceased to care. I would have given him a divorce if he had ever asked for one. But he never did, and I couldn’t summon up enough emotion or energy to demand one myself. And so it went on.” She shrugged her shoulders in hopeless resignation.
“I’m sorry,” said Anna quietly.
“Oh, don’t be sorry. I don’t hate him enough to want him to go to prison for a murder he didn’t commit. The thought that he had killed Harold was just too horrible. I must admit, though, that I never really believed that he had. I know him too well. Evelyn is an indolent man. He is thoughtless, shallow and lazy. That is why he took his secretary and his sister-in-law as lovers. They were close at hand. But he wouldn’t have killed a man. He has not got the courage. Harold was always the dominant personality of the two. No, I could not quite believe that he had killed him.”
“Perhaps if I had known him better I would have realised from the start that it couldn’t have been him,” said Anna a bit guiltily.
“But who would have thought such a charming young man as Percy Blyth was really such a villain?”
“I should have known it, if I’d thought about it. He was arrogant. He assumed things were his by right. But never mind about him now.” She took the scarf from her head with an impatient movement.
“Well, you must permit me to give you a small gift. Please do.”
Anna thought of how much she had to pay the twins. And it wasn’t cheap to run the car. The money that Andrew had so unexpectedly and thoughtfully left her would not last long at the rate she was spending it. But she would only ever charge her well-off customers.
“Perhaps...” she began.
“Good!” said Lady Parry. “Remember, it is a gift, no need to worry about awkward things like tax returns.” She had pulled out her cheque book and was scribbling away with a little gold pen. Anna found that she was smiling. She had not earned a single penny by her own efforts before. It was only because Andrew had taken it into his head to re-write his will shortly before he was killed that she had felt happy to accept the portion of the Quartermain fortune which he had specifically left to her, the bulk of the estate having, of course, gone to Toby. In other circumstances, she would have had to earn her own living. She noted that the amount on the cheque consisted of four figures but she took it without examining the nature of those figures, thanking her visitor politely.
“Would you like some coffee?” she enquired.
“Thank you.”
Anna asked Bill to make some, and then sat and chatted to Lady Parry about Susan Furnival, her jewels and her children until the coffee arrived.
“There is something I’d dearly love to know about,” Anna was saying. “But perhaps it is unwise or unfair of me to enquire.”
“About Susan?”
“Well, about Andrew and Susan,” Anna was a little uncomfortable about asking such a question, but curiosity has a way of overpowering the finer feelings at times. “I have met Susan and she is quite charming. I like her very much. But there is one thing I can’t quite understand; how did she ever come to marry someone like Andrew? I mean, you knew him, he was probably the person least suited to someone with Susan’s open, easy-going, sociable temperament.”
Amanda Parry laughed. “I quite understand your curiosity. There are no secrets about Andrew and Susan’s relationship. They were always quite unsuited, right from the start. And they were both very young when they got married and very much in love. I can tell you the whole story if you like?”
“Please do.”
“Well, Susan, as you know, was always very beautiful, very popular, very much in demand. Her father was a colonel, an army man. That is how she met Harris.”
“The Brigadier? I always thought that he was Andrew’s friend.”
“Oh, he was. But it was Harris who met Susan first. He had been courting her for about a year. Everyone thought him very lucky. Not that he wasn’t a nice looking young man, but he always had that reserve, that unapproachable quality. Andrew, meanwhile, had been abroad. When he came back Harris introduced him to Susan. Well, he was besotted from the start. He was a very witty, entertaining young man; a little eccentric even then, but he had character. But Susan stuck with Harris. They weren’t a very demonstrative couple, but they seemed to get on very well and they went everywhere together. It was Harris who stunned us all by suddenly running off with Helena Dennis. I don’t mean that he literally ran off with her. She had been courting another chap, but nothing came of it. When Harris saw his chance he took it. Everybody was astounded. To give up the beautiful Susan Dalton for plain little Helena Dennis! But Helena was a lovely girl, very down to earth and quiet, but quite self-assured. Obviously Harris found something in her that he hadn’t in Susan. Certainly they were always very happy together.”
“After that it was only a matter of time before Andrew and Susan got together. Now they were always a stormy couple. It was a very passionate relationship. They adored each other. But it was a relationship that was doomed from the start. They may have adored each other passionately, but I don’t think that they ever really liked each other. I have a feeling that it was all very sexual. Anyway, it couldn’t last and it didn’t. Once they had divorced, I don’t believe either bore any grudge, but once the passion had gone they had nothing in common. Except Toby, of course. He stayed with his mother, but she encouraged him to see his father as often as he wanted. And Harris, of course, remained friends with both of them.”
Lady Parry had finished her little account and she looked to Anna for some response or comment but none came.
“I hope I haven’t said anything to distress you?”
“No, not at all. I was just thinking. But do you want any more coffee?”
“No, thank you. I ought to be going. I had a word with Susan before I came to see you. The police have told her that they have her rings...they found the second ring in Percy’s flat when they searched it. But there is no sign of the necklace. She told me to thank you.”
In fact Susan phoned Anna shortly after Amanda Parry had left. Anna thought as she spoke to her: this woman was the love of Andrew’s life! But she found that she felt no jealousy. The fact did not devalue her own friendship with Andrew, whilst it explained a lot about him. Indeed, she had been more surprised by what had been said about Harris Butterworth. After she put down the receiver, she returned to her place on the settee, re-wrapping the damp scarf around her head with a sigh.
“I deserve to lose this game, if only as a punishment for underestimating my opponent.” Anna was surveying the board with growing dismay. “I s’pose I should have guessed that, being a military man, you are also a strategist.” She reviewed the situation with a final sweep of her eyes. “I think I’d better accept defeat with good grace.” She tipped her king over with her little finger in a gesture of surrender.
“I would feel more satisfied in my victory if I thought that you had given your full attention to the game.”
“I’m ashamed to say that I was guilty of complacency; the inevitable result of having played chess with Andrew so much. He was a good enough player to make me pleased when I beat him, but at the same time he could never keep his mind on the game. You would get him into a beautifully constructed trap and he would say – “Ah, it was th
ose barges that were his downfall..." and you would realise that half his brain was in another century. In the end I only half-concentrated, that way we got a better game out of it. But I should have realised that you would be a more formidable opponent. Another time I shall bring the whole of my armoury to bear and you will have more of a struggle on your hands.”
Harris Butterworth stretched out his long legs and sat back in his chair. “Was I promised dinner?” he asked hopefully.
“Oh,” said Anna. “I’m so sorry! It should be ready by now. Bill prepared it earlier and told me that all I had to do was to turn the oven on at the right time. I’ll go and have a sniff.” She disappeared into the kitchen. “It smells quite edible,” she called. “I’ll bring it in.”
There was Boeuf Bourguignonne, French bread, salad, and a bottle of a rather better Burgundy than that which had gone into the cooking. As they ate Anna informed him,
“Bill has also made a rather exotic chocolate mousse. It must be exotic because the better part of that brandy went into it; that is, if it didn’t go into the twins!”
“They are happy with the work they do?”
“Oh, yes. It has proved to be anything but routine...which reminds me, where do you work and who was the man with the gruff voice and the off-putting telephone manner? I’m