Lonesome Road

by Patricia Wentworth

  Rachel bit her lip.

  “Miss Silver, I hardly think-”

  Miss Silver’s eyes brightened.

  “An attempt has been made on your life. I suspect no one-yet. But until I suspect someone it is my business to check up on everyone. If they are innocent, no harm is done. If one of them is guilty-are you a religious woman, Miss Treherne?”

  Rachel said, “Yes.”

  Miss Silver nodded approvingly.

  “Then you will agree with me that the best thing that can happen to anyone who is doing wrong is to be found out. If he is not found out he will do more wrong and earn a heavier punishment. And now-those particulars if you please.”

  Rachel gave them.

  Chapter Eighteen

  When Miss Silver reached her own room she sat down on a small upright chair and plunged into thought for the space of about ten minutes. Then she glanced at her own little clock, a loudly ticking contraption of Swiss origin in a wooden case freely decorated with carved edelweiss, which she had placed in the exact center of the mantelpiece, and observing that it was still not quite ten o’clock, rose up and rang the bell.

  She was just thinking of ringing it again, when a plump, rosy-faced girl arrived in a hurry.

  “Now I wonder,” said Miss Silver, “whether I might speak to Louisa. That is her name, is it not-Miss Treherne’s maid?”

  “Oh, yes, miss. But if there’s anything I can do-”

  “Not at the moment, thank you. Was it you who unpacked for me?… And your name?… Ivy? Thank you very much, Ivy. Now if you will just ask Louisa to look in for a few moments on her way upstairs. I suppose her room is somewhere near Miss Treherne’s… Oh, the door beyond Miss Treherne’s sitting-room? Then I shall only be taking her a step out of her way.”

  When Ivy had departed, Miss Silver retraced her steps. She passed the doors of Rachel Treherne’s bedroom and sitting-room, and then stood listening for a moment before tapping lightly on what she now knew to be Louisa Barnet’s door. Receiving no answer, she turned the handle and went in.

  About ten minutes later she was back in her own room saying, “Come in!” to Louisa’s knock. But Louisa was by no means anxious to enter. She remained upon the threshold.

  “Were you wanting anything, miss?”

  Miss Silver said, “Yes,” and added in a tone of authority,

  “Please come in and shut the door.”

  Louisa complied ungraciously. Her manner made it plain that it was not her place to wait upon the bedrooms.

  Miss Silver indicated a chair at a slight distance from her own.

  “Will you sit down. I want to talk to you.”

  “It’s getting late, miss.”

  “Sit down please. I am a private enquiry agent, and I am here in that capacity. I want to talk to you about your mistress-about the attempts which are being made upon her life.”

  Louisa took the chair and sat down upon it. After a moment she said in a stumbling voice,

  “Miss Rachel has told you-”

  “She told me about a number of attempts, and I would like to go over them with you, because I am sure there is no one who can help me as much as you can.”

  Louisa’s eyes dwelt on her. They were dark with feeling.

  “If you can help Miss Rachel, I’ll help you. It’s time someone did.”

  Miss Silver nodded.

  “Very well put. You shall help me, and together we will help Miss Treherne.” She produced a shiny exercisebook. “Now, Louisa-this first attempt-the slippery stairs. Do you remember that?”

  Louisa nodded.

  “I shan’t never forget it. She might have been killed.”

  “Well, Louisa, I don’t want to worry Miss Treherne, but I would like to know who else was in the house, and what rooms they were occupying.”

  “Same as they always do. And they was all here, the whole lot of them. Mr. and Mrs. Wadlow, they have Mr. Treherne’s suite on the ground floor because of Miss Mabel having palpitations. Bedroom, dressing-room, bathroom and sitting-room they’ve got, and right underneath Miss Rachel-the same rooms as you might say, only on the ground floor. Then Mr. Frith and Mr. Maurice, they’re in the bachelors’ quarters when they’re here-on the ground floor too, and their own entrance next the garage. Miss Caroline, she has the room opposite Miss Rachel, and Miss Cherry Wadlow next door. And Miss Comperton is next door to you here. And Mr. Richard, he’s got the two over Mr. Frith and Mr. Maurice because of having a lot of office work to do with his architecting.”

  Miss Silver nodded.

  “And where were all these people when Miss Treherne was washing her dog?”

  Louisa tossed her head.

  “I know where one of them was,” she said, “for she was coming out of her room as I went by, and that was Miss Caroline Ponsonby. She shut the door quick, but I’ll take my Bible oath I saw her-and she’d been crying too.”

  “Did you see anyone else in the neighborhood of the stairs that afternoon?”

  “Mr. Richard come up a half hour later, and he was knocking at Miss Caroline’s door wanting her to come out, but she wouldn’t, and maybe she’d her own reasons.”

  “You didn’t see anyone else?” inquired Miss Silver.

  She got a look.

  “No, I didn’t. I’d something else to do than watch the stairs.”

  Miss Silver turned a page in the shiny notebook.

  “In the matter of the burning curtains-what time of day was it, and who discovered them to be alight?”

  “Round about seven o’clock in the evening, and I found them myself. All alight they were and blazing. I come up to put out Miss Rachel’s things, and who should come out of the sitting-room but Miss Caroline and Mr. Richard? And when I went through into the bedroom, there were the curtains all alight and blazing.”

  “Very suspicious indeed,” said Miss Silver. “Fortunately Miss Treherne was in no real danger. I am sure you were most prompt.” She turned another leaf. “And now we come to something a good deal more serious-the affair of the chocolates.”

  Louisa’s mouth twitched.

  “If I hadn’t been here-” she said. Her hand went to her lips. “Miss Rachel that’s so good to them-”

  “You were with her when she bought the chocolates?”

  “Yes, I was. And so was Miss Caroline. Did she tell you that?”

  Miss Silver gazed mildly.

  “I do not think so. Now can you tell me about how long the box was in the house before dinner, and where it was during that time?”

  “It was in Miss Rachel’s sitting-room from five till half past seven, and that’s when it was got at. Miss Rachel, she was in her bedroom, and the chocolates were in the sitting-room. Anyone could have got at them, and someone did.”

  “Do you know who it was, Louisa?”

  “I’ve got my own ideas, miss-how can I help having them? But Miss Rachel, she won’t listen to a word. She won’t let herself believe-that’s what it is.”

  “Ah, yes, there are none so blind as those who will not see. Well, that is very helpfull.” She turned another page. “We now come to the very curious affair of the snakes.” She gazed with an air of prim intelligence. “What put such an idea into your head, Louisa?”

  There was just a moment when nothing happened. Then a faintly startled look touched Louisa Barnet’s eyes, to be immediately displaced by a flash of almost insane anger. She said on a rising note,

  “What’s that you said?”

  Miss Silver did not raise her voice at all.

  “I asked you what made you think of putting those snakes in your mistress’s bed.”

  Louisa half got up out of her chair and dropped back again with a hand at her side. She choked and said thickly,

  “Me? Why, I’d die for Miss Rachel. She knows it, and you know it!”

  “But you put the snakes in her bed, didn’t you? Please don’t think you can lie to me, because I know you did. I can even tell you why. You wanted to make Miss Treherne believe that on
e of the relations was trying to injure her. You would like to make her believe that it was Miss Caroline, so when you heard that a lot of adders had been found in Mr. Tollage’s hedge you took Miss Caroline’s green scarf out of her room and you went off up in the dusk to see whether you could get hold of one of those snakes. And you had very good luck, because you were able to buy two live ones in a shrimping-net from some boys who didn’t know you. You paid them half-a-crown, and they remembered the green scarf, as you hoped they would. It was very foolish of you to keep the shrimping-net in your room. I found it in the wardrobe, hanging behind your coat. People who are trying to commit murder have to be a great deal more careful than that, Louisa Barnet-if they don’t want to be found out.”

  Louisa gave a dreadful gasp. Her head went back against the wall and her eyes stared. For a moment Miss Silver thought that she was going to faint, but she recovered herself. She said in a high, shaking voice,

  “You come here prying, and you think you’ve found something out, and you think how clever you’ve been, but it’s not you nor no one else’ll make my Miss Rachel believe I’d harm her! She knows right enough I’d die for her and willing Miss Rachel does! So you’re not so clever after all!”

  There was the slightest of taps upon the door, so faint a sound that it was strange to see how it halted Louisa.

  Miss Silver said, “Come in,” and the door was opened. It was Rachel Treherne who stood on the threshold in her maize-colored dressing-gown. She stood looking gravely in upon them. Then, as Louisa got to her feet, she came forward and shut the door.

  “What is happening?” she said in a cool and quiet voice.

  Louisa began to sob.

  “What’s brought you here out of your bed, which is where you ought to be? And you’ll only hear lies about me if you listen to her. Are you going to stand there and take a stranger’s word against me that’s loved you these twenty years?”

  “What does this mean?” said Rachel. She looked at Miss Silver, and it was Miss Silver who answered.

  “It is true that you ought to be in bed. Is it too late to suggest that you go back to your room and allow me to give you an explanation in the morning?”

  Rachel shook her head.

  “Much too late. There was something I wanted to say to you, but it doesn’t matter. I am afraid I must ask for your explanation now.”

  Miss Silver looked at her kindly.

  “I would rather have waited, but I see that you must know. Will you not sit down? I will be brief, but I feel obliged to explain myself.”

  “Are you going to listen to her lies?” said Louisa roughly.

  Rachel rested her hand on the back of the proffered chair.

  “I am certainly going to listen,” she said. “You will please not interrupt, Louisa.” She drew her wrap about her and sat down. “Now, Miss Silver.”

  Miss Silver sat down too. Louisa put out a hand and took hold of the brass rail at the head of the bed. She was a little behind Rachel and facing Miss Silver, at whom she stared with hard and angry eyes.

  Miss Silver addressed herself to Rachel sitting very composed and upright with her hands folded in her lap.

  “When you came to see me in London, Miss Treherne, I derived certain very definite impressions from what you told me. I could see that you believed yourself to have been the victim of three murderous attempts, but I did not feel entirely able to take that view myself-not on the evidence you then laid before me. To me it pointed, not necessarily to attempted murder, but rather to the presence in your household of some neurotic person who wished to make you believe that you were in danger, or who was actuated by what, I understand, is now termed exhibitionism. It used to be called showing off.”

  “The Lord’s my witness!” Louisa Barnet’s voice shook passionately.

  Rachel put up a hand without looking round.

  “If you want to stay, Louie, you must be quiet.”

  Miss Silver went on as if there had been no interruption.

  “It was the second attempt which made me suspect that we had a neurotic to deal with. I do not know why nervously disturbed persons should so commonly set fire to window curtains, but it is quite a constant occurrence. It makes a lot of show and does very little harm. When I discovered from Louisa herself that the fire in this instance occurred at a time when any member of the household would know that it was bound to be discovered by your maid, who would naturally be in attendance to help you dress for dinner-well, if I had needed convincing I should then have been convinced. But I had already made up my mind. I arrived down here to find in Louisa Barnet the very type I was looking for.”

  Louisa flung up her hand.

  “Miss Rachel-are you going to listen to this?”

  “I think we will both listen,” said Rachel.

  Miss Silver went on speaking.

  “After I had left you, Miss Treherne, I went to Louisa Barnet’s room, and there I found two things which I had expected to find. One of them was a shrimping-net.”

  Rachel became so pale that there was no color left in her face at all. She put out a hand is if to ward something off, and said in a whisper,

  “Oh, no, no-not Louie!”

  “Miss Rachel-”

  “It was Louisa Barnet who put the snakes in your bed, Miss Treherne.”

  Rachel turned. She moved her chair, and turned in it so that she could see Louisa’s face. She said,

  “Did you, Louie?”

  Louisa came with a rush and fell at her knees.

  “It wasn’t to do you no harm-oh, my dear, it wasn’t! They’ll make you think it was, but it wasn’t. No, she won’t make you think it, because you know my heart. You know-oh, my dear, you know!”

  “Why did you do it, Louie?”

  Louisa sat back on her heels with the tears running down her face.

  “You wouldn’t listen to nothing, and you wouldn’t believe nothing. What could I do?”

  “So you put adders in my bed. Get up, Louie, and sit down!” She turned to Miss Silver. “Did she do the other things too?”

  “Yes, Miss Treherne, but I do not think she meant you to be hurt. She wanted to frighten you-about your relations, to make you believe they were trying to injure you. She began by writing you anonymous letters. Then she made the stairs slippery, but she was there to warn you not to step on them. She set your curtains on fire, but she put them out again. She made you believe that your chocolates had been poisoned, but I think it was only ammoniated quinine-I found the bottle on the washstand. It is a great pity that you did not have the chocolates analysed, but she was, of course, quite sure that you would not do so.”

  “Ammoniated quinine-was that the second thing you found?”

  “Yes, Miss Treherne. I had expected it. A very bitter taste, and quite harmless. Louisa did not wish to poison your body-she merely wished to poison your mind. Against your relations. Chiefly, I think, against Miss Caroline, of whom she is jealous.”

  There was a silence. Then Rachel said in a mere ghost of a voice,

  “Oh, Louie!”

  Louisa stood up. She stood up, tall and fierce, and said in a hard even voice,

  “You don’t ask me if it’s true.”

  “Is it true, Louie?”

  She threw up her head.

  “I’m going to tell you what’s true.” She turned as if she was looking for something and snatched up a square old-fashioned Bible from the table beside the bed. “I’ll tell you the truth, and the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God-and I’ll swear it on that woman’s Bible. But I can’t make you believe me if so be she’ve stopped your ears with her lies.”

  “Are they lies, Louie?”

  “It’s a lie for anyone to say I’d hurt you! I’ve never wanted nothing but to see you happy, and I’ve never done nothing but to keep you safe. But I couldn’t get you to believe me.”

  “Tell me what you did and why you did it, Louie.”

  Louisa sat down on the side of the bed again. She
clasped her hands over the Bible and said,

  “If she can read anyone like a book, then she’ll know I’m speaking true. I’ve heard of such, but how she does it passes me. And if she can read everyone so clever, why don’t she tell you who it is doing the devil’s work in this house? For this is what I’ll tell you, and it’s true. There was someone polished the step before ever I did it. And it wasn’t that day-it was the Sunday evening, and Miss Rachel come in late. Everyone knew it, and knew she was bound to be late for dinner. So there they all were, waiting for Miss Rachel to come hurrying down so as not to keep them. And one of them knew that when she come hurrying she’d be bound to fall because the top step was polished like glass. But, Miss Rachel, you sent me down to tell them not to wait, and I wasn’t hurrying myself for them, so I’d time to take hold of the banisters and save myself. And I took hot water and washed the stuff off and never said nothing because it wasn’t no use. But in the night it come to me that I’d got to show you. I thought if you saw it with your own eyes, maybe you’d believe me, so I did the three stairs when you were washing Noisy the next Saturday, but you wouldn’t take no heed. And I did the curtains like she says, and the chocolates, and the adders. But don’t you never think I’d have let you step into that there bed, my dear. Adders is stupid in the winter, and I reckoned they’d stay in the warmth by the hot water bottle. And what I was going to do was turn the bed right back and see something. And call out, like I did, and strip the bed. But I got a fright, for I didn’t reckon on their being so lively. It must have been the heat. They were like dead things when I bought them.”

  Rachel leaned her head on her hand.

  “Noisy killed them clever enough, and I put them on the fire with a good heart. I thought now you’d believe there was someone trying to do you a mischief.”

  “And it was you all the time! Only you, Louie!”

  Louisa leaned forward, gripping the Bible.

  “You’re not going to believe that, my dear!” She turned to Miss Silver. “Are you going to let her believe that? If you can’t tell lies from truth, what’s the good of you? I’m telling you the truth. I didn’t mean to do nothing to those chocolates-it never came into my head. But whilst Miss Rachel was in her bath I went in and had a look at them. The soft ones was in a bag separate, and I thought I’d see if I couldn’t get them into the box. I’d about finished, when one of them rolled over, and there, underneath, you could see it had been meddled with. I put it straight in the fire before I stopped to think, and then it come to me I’d thrown away my chance to make Miss Rachel believe. So I looked to see if that was the only one, and it was. I looked quick and careful, but there wasn’t any more. So then I thought what I could do, and I done it with the ammoniated quinine, like she says.”