A Testament to Murder

by Vivian Conroy

  “This is all wild guesswork. You’ll never turn this into a solid case.” Howard backed away from him. “You know about Provence now. I have nothing more to say.”

  Jasper waited until he was at the door to speak. “I know about more than Provence. Theodora Cummings was very thorough. She kept notes about things she had done. Way in the past. Things to help the firm. Help Malcolm. Even help you. Dear Theodora Cummings. Always wanting to help.”

  Jasper could feel the other man flinch as he stood there. Could almost hear his panicking thoughts: what notes? What does he know? What did that bitch write down?

  “Good night,” he said quietly. “Sleep well.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Did you lie to me or did you tell me the truth?” Patty asked Koning as they were alone in the breakfast room the next morning. “About the bougainvillea?”

  Koning held her gaze as he stirred his coffee. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  Patty huffed. “I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing. But I’m not dumb. I know Uncle Malcolm is still changing the will. I saw you the other night.”

  “Malcolm was only making sure that the document ended up holding the name of the one person he had always wanted to get it all,” Koning said quietly. “The murders ended his scheme prematurely, so he had to settle for the second-best solution.”

  Patty’s mind was whirling. Did that mean she still stood a chance? Upon arrival Malcolm had told her he wanted her to have it all. Hadn’t he?

  Koning said, “The heat here must be a lot like California. California is where you come from, isn’t it? Or was it Nevada?”

  Patty’s heart skipped a beat. How did he suddenly come to think of Nevada? She was certain she had never mentioned it herself. “California,” she said in a croak and drank her tea.

  Koning said, “Oh. Then Hugh must have told me something about Nevada.”

  Yes, she bet that he had. The time of his life, he had called it. Drinking and gambling all night long. Then home, not in a cab like sane people but in his open sports car. The one with the huge bumper. That would never show a scratch. He had even told her about it, on the SS Sunrise. Like it was something to brag about.

  Well, he’d never brag about it anymore. That she had achieved, be it in a different way than she had ever thought. Leo would have been proud of her.

  She got up to get more tea.

  Koning said, “How did you end up in New York anyway? It’s a long way from California. Aren’t there families in need of nannies there?”

  “I always wanted to see New York,” Patty said with a charming little smile. She could hardly tell him she had followed Hugh there right after the funeral. Had made her plan. Had worked hard to find the family who would take her on and help her get onto the SS Sunrise. It had been lucky that the agency where she had just entered her information had written to say they had a family for her. That she had to go see them and tell them Van Klopp had recommended her. No idea who he was. But it had worked. Yes, Leo would have been very proud of her.

  The door opened, and Cecily came in. “How is Kenneth?” Patty asked at once.

  “Like you care.”

  “Of course I do. He was in a terrible state last night.”

  Cecily elbowed her out of the way to get to the tea. “Next thing you will be telling the inspector he cut the brake lines because he wanted you to die.”

  “Kenneth? The thought would never have crossed my mind.” Patty sat down again and crossed her legs, batting her lashes at Koning. “Mr Koning and I were just discussing the latest about the will. Aren’t you curious to know who is in it today?”

  “Absolutely not. It’s caused us enough misery. I told the inspector I want to leave and I trust he will let us.”

  “Us? You want to leave, and then Howard and Kenneth have to go as well?”

  “We are a family.” Cecily sat down as well, her dressing gown flying about her. There were dark circles under her eyes. “I bet you can’t understand that. You’re now free again to find a husband with an even better name and more money.”

  “How mean,” Patty said and burst into tears.

  Koning got up and put a hand on her shoulder in passing. “It’s getting stuffy in here. Outside the bougainvillea is blossoming in such lovely purple shades.”

  Patty shocked upright. Did he mean… Could it be…

  Could she actually have lost her obnoxious husband and be close to a huge fortune? Horses, cars, the plane…

  She rose with renewed energy. “Mr Koning is right. It got stuffy in here the moment you came in. I’m going outside.”

  “Please do,” Cecily snapped back at her. “Then I can eat in peace.”

  Patty rushed into the hallway eager to see the lawyer and read the confirmation of all her happy expectations in his eyes. But he was nowhere to be seen.

  Patty stared at the front door. The car had been taken away for the police to look at. She couldn’t go anywhere. Just into the garden for a walk, to the steps perhaps to stare out across the sea.

  But she hadn’t forgotten the crash as the wheelchair had come down. Or the sound of the car’s metal deforming.

  Danger was everywhere around her. And right now Patty had more reasons than ever to want to stay alive.

  * * *

  Jasper smoothed the telegram he had just received in reply to his inquiries about Patty Bryce-Rutherford or rather Patricia Mason as she had been called before her marriage. The family she had accompanied across the Atlantic on the SS Sunrise said that she had come to them recommended by an agency but at the agency they could only say they had her name on file but had never given her a position. So who was the mysterious Von Klopp at whose recommendation Patty had been hired?

  Jasper put the telegram alongside the other documents he had put in front of him to try and make sense of them all.

  The car accident Malcolm’s wife had been the victim of. The blonde hairs in the car. The lack of an eye witness as the street had been fairly quiet. Then Howard’s testimony with such conspicuous details. A hat, a brooch. Almost too much. But why would Howard claim Theodora had killed Malcolm’s first wife? How did that help him? Or was it meant to help Kenneth?

  Jasper reread the information about the incident in Provence, the payment Howard had made to the family of the beaten boy. He had tried to find out about other incidents involving Kenneth, for instance at the boarding school he attended, but the headmaster there had been very positive about him, saying he was bright and had a great future ahead of him.

  The pocket knife was proof, but of what?

  And the handkerchief? He had asked Anna Cane if she had cut herself while cutting roses and she had confirmed it and also that Kenneth had lent her his handkerchief.

  Anna Cane. Malcolm’s daughter?

  It seemed far-fetched.

  But there was a note among Theodora’s little collection of a lido girl in Brighton. About payments made to an account in a certain name. To keep a secret baby hidden?

  Had Malcolm known or at least suspected when he had taken Anna in?

  Had he decided to give her a chance of becoming his heir, same as the others, because she was actually related to him?

  But Theodora’s notes had also contained information about other women Malcolm had had brief affairs with. Even a ballerina from Austria whom he had met when she was performing in London. Elisabeth Kaiser. Jasper had sent a telegram to Vienna to learn more about her, but so far it seemed to be a dead end.

  He sat back. This case was far more complicated than any he had ever handled. A potential murder all those years ago and now two people dead here and two injured, though they had recovered soon enough. Everybody keeping something back. Nothing being what it had first seemed.

  Still, Malcolm had told him that easier was often better. What did the old fox know? They all knew things they wouldn’t tell him. They all lied and twisted the truth. They all believed they were protecting themselves or others, but in the end they wer
e just hurting themselves. Because the truth had to come out sooner or later.

  There was something nagging at the back of his mind. Something he should see but didn’t. He decided to go through the paperwork one more time. Trying to connect a girl from California getting on a boat to England and meeting and marrying a starving artist with a double name who was the nephew to a shrewd old man dying on the Riviera where he assembled old friends or foes to determine his heir.

  It all seemed so random. Still there had to be some kind of a connection. Something that could help him see the pattern. The reason why.

  Why had Theodora died? Why Hugh? Why not Howard or Anna Cane or indeed Kenneth? Jasper didn’t want the boy to die, but if he looked at things objectively, Kenneth was an heir too and just as much a target as…

  Unless…

  He stared at the table, at the paperwork. Thoughts flashed through his head, pieces of memories, snippets of conversation, things he had read and seen. His mind started to combine them into a whole new framework. Something he hadn’t considered before.

  Was it possible that he had been looking at this case from the wrong angle all along?

  Chapter Fourteen

  “I don’t like it,” Howard said to Cecily as they were about to go down. Jasper would arrive in a few moments to give them what he called the solution to the case. Case singular, like it was just one little thing. This whole web of deceit, manipulation, lies, murder and attempted murder. Two people were dead, and it could easily have been four.

  Cecily said, “I don’t see why he asked us to wear what we were wearing on the day the wheelchair went over the edge. It’s almost like a little play and I don’t like plays.”

  Howard shared her sentiment but didn’t say it. He only muttered, “I told you we should not have come here,” before opening the bedroom door and going into the corridor.

  Kenneth stepped out of his own bedroom. He had slept for fourteen hours after the doctor had sedated him and he now looked fresh and eager to hear the latest. Howard wanted to hug him but resisted and walked down ahead, the leader of the family.

  In the sitting room the others were already assembled, Patty in red, the nurse in her long dress with everything covered up, the butler by the tea table and even the chauffeur uncomfortable in a chair. Koning with a sealed envelope in his hand. The will?

  Despite all the misery the stupid thing had caused, Howard couldn’t deny a ripple of excitement at the idea he could inherit all of Malcolm’s fortune. Malcolm wasn’t dead of course, but perhaps this whole situation had made him see reason and he would now leave his fortune to someone who could handle it.

  Malcolm entered, leaning on his walking cane. He took the seat in the centre of the room, immediately dominating it with his presence.

  Jasper came in. “I came round back,” he announced. His dog was with him and went straight for Kenneth, licking his hand.

  Howard wondered if they should get Kenneth a dog once they were back in Provence. It might help him.

  Jasper said, “In my time at the Yard I never got to do it this way. The grand finale to a case is usually not that grand. You arrest someone and you can only wait until the court case to find out if he will even be convicted. Here it will be different. For I know for sure that I am right. And I’m certain that if I explain my reasoning to you, you will all agree.”

  He looked around, and the silence was suddenly deafening and oppressive.

  Kenneth fumbled with the dog’s ears.

  Jasper said, “I must admit I was slightly bewildered when Malcolm shared his plan about his will. It seemed to me that it was rather risky to attempt something like that. In the closest families money always causes problems and here was a family who wasn’t exactly close.”

  He looked at Cecily. “The ex-wife who hadn’t seen her former husband in years. The ex-business partner with whom the testator had parted in…”

  “Anger?” Malcolm cut across him. “Not exactly. Our split was amiable. As amiable as it can be when your partner walks away with your wife.”

  “Exactly,” Jasper said quietly. “Then there was the former secretary who had always upheld the facade of loyalty but who must have had her own thoughts about her boss’s behaviour.”

  “What behaviour?” Malcolm protested as if he had never been at fault.

  Howard dug his fingernails into the armrests of the chair he sat on. Poor Theodora with her silly infatuation with Malcolm. It had ruined her entire life. It had driven her to commit murder.

  Jasper said, “Then there was the nurse and the butler, the chauffeur and the lawyer. All bystanders it seemed. But I don’t have to recall the old adage the butler did it, to remind you all that staff members are very good at conniving. They know things and they can use them.”

  “You’ve forgotten to mention us,” Patty said. She leaned back where she sat, crossing her elegant legs. She was smiling as if this was some little game, a play in which they each had a part to perform.

  Jasper smiled back at her. “I have far from forgotten you,” he said in an ominous tone.

  Howard studied Patty in her red dress. Did that mean something after all? Had Patty pushed Malcolm’s empty wheelchair over the edge?

  But why?

  Jasper said, “I didn’t feel at ease with the idea that Malcolm was going to provoke his own murder. But as he was obviously dead set on doing it and there is nothing illegal about changing one’s will, I decided to ensure I was a part of it. I came here to meet you all and figure out how things stood between you.”

  “So our meeting on the beach was far from coincidental?” Howard asked. His voice sounded strange to his own ears, but he hoped the others wouldn’t notice.

  Jasper shook his head. “I was genuinely walking my dog when I found Kenneth.” He focused on the boy and the Labrador, who seemed perfectly happy together. “At first when Red stood there barking at something, I thought it would be another dead animal. Then as I closed in and recognized a human form, I thought it was a corpse.”

  Howard shivered. “Don’t say that,” he muttered.

  Jasper continued, “I was surprised to see it was a washed-up boy and I longed to know the story behind it. Then I found out that it was connected to this villa and the mysterious affair of the will.”

  “It had nothing to do with the will,” Kenneth said. “I was just boating and the thing overturned.”

  Jasper shook his head, “Not quite. You were not boating alone, Kenneth. And what was said during that trip had everything to do with the will.”

  Kenneth hung his head. His hand kept brushing across the Lab’s body.

  Jasper said, “You had asked nurse Cane to go boating with you. I assume you asked her out because she is a very pretty young woman and it can’t be hard to spend some time with her. Besides, you two are the youngest here and you wanted some like-minded company. It was perfectly natural and harmless. Unfortunately, the boat trip ended in disaster. And not because Kenneth was a little… too friendly with you, nurse Cane, like you suggested to me when we talked about it. No. You told him something. Something you would have been better off not telling him. I don’t know why you did. I can hardly imagine you wanted him to attack you. Or perhaps you did want that. I’m not sure.”

  Howard swallowed with difficulty. Was Jasper trying to clear Kenneth or accuse him?

  Jasper focused on Kenneth again. “What nurse Cane told you provoked a deep dark anger inside of you. The same deep dark anger that has taken hold of you before. In Provence, in a terrible thunderstorm when you grabbed a local boy and almost beat him to death.”

  “It was a fight between boys,” Howard rushed to say. “I settled everything with the family.”

  “Yes, you gave them a lot of money to make them shut up about what happened. But you should have asked someone to take a look at Kenneth. Help him control his anger.”

  Kenneth patted the dog with a faraway look on his face. Howard knew that look only too well. Kenneth could simply lock himself
away, not hear anything of what was said to him or about him. It was his way of protecting himself.

  “Now we may ask ourselves,” Jasper said, “what nurse Cane told Kenneth that made him so angry. Angry enough to overturn the boat, grab the nurse and shake her. Perhaps even try to drown her? That’s what nurse Cane says. But none of us was there and saw it happen.”

  Jasper locked eyes with Howard. “Or was there? I think Hugh Bryce-Rutherford claimed that he had seen the incident? But he is dead now. So he can’t talk anymore about what he knew.”

  Confusion seemed to rule as people looked at each other and whispered things.

  Jasper said, “Hugh is dead. Murdered. Is it possible that Kenneth killed him to keep the truth about the boating incident hidden? Admittedly, nurse Cane knew what had happened, so why not kill her? But then there had been an attack on her life, with the facial cream. A failed attack, but still.”

  There was a deep silence.

  Jasper said, “I told you that when I met this washed-up boy on the beach I wanted to know the story behind his appearance. I wanted to know his secrets. Today, as I sit here, I ask myself if what I know now has made things any better, for him foremost.”

  “Kenneth is no killer,” Howard said. He leaned forward and stared at the former inspector. “You’re not going to drag my son into a murder case.”

  “Ah, Mr Jones…” Jasper sighed as if he was tired. “This is such a complicated thing. There were attempts on Malcolm’s life, on nurse Cane’s life, two people actually died. By accident? On purpose?”

  He held Howard’s gaze. “I can easily explain to you why Kenneth had a very good reason to be behind this all.”

  Nobody spoke. Nobody objected. Not even Howard, whose throat was so tight he couldn’t get a word out.

  Jasper said, “When Kenneth came here, it was just a little trip for him, a change of scenery, a chance to go swimming and see some nice places. But soon after he arrived, he noticed the tension among all of these people and then the announcement about the will was made. Kenneth is a very intelligent boy and I bet he asked himself why Malcolm had asked all of them to come, specifically also him. As he knew that his mother had been married to Malcolm before she married his father, he might have drawn the same conclusion that others obviously drew. That he could be Malcolm’s son.”