Ordeal by Innocence

Chapter 14
"Don't suppose you got anything?" said the Chief Constable.

"Nothing definite, sir," said Huish. "And yet - the time wasn't altogether wasted."

"Let's hear about it all."

"Well, our main times and premises are the same. Mrs. Argyle was alive just before seven, talked with her husband and Gwenda Vaughan, was seen afterwards downstairs by Hester Argyle. Three people can't

be in cahoots. Jacko Argyle is now accounted for, so it means that she could have been killed by her husband, any time between five past seven and half past, by Gwenda Vaughan at five minutes past seven on her way out, by Hester just before that, by Kirsten Lindstrom when she came in later - just before half past seven, say. Durrant's paralysis gives him an alibi, but his wife's alibi depends on his word. She could have gone down and killed her mother if she wanted to between seven

and half past if her husband was prepared to back her up. Don't see why she should, though. In fact, as far as I can see, only two people have got a real motive for the crime. Leo Argyle and Gwenda Vaughan."

"You think it's one of them - or both of them together?"

"I don't think they were in it together. As I see it, it was an impulsive crime - not a premeditated one. Mrs. Argyle comes into the library, tells them both about Jacko's threats and demands for money. Put it that, later, Leo Argyle goes down to speak to her about Jacko, or about something else. The house is quiet, nobody about. He goes into her sitting-room. There she is, her back to him, sitting at the desk. And there's the poker, still perhaps where Jacko threw it down after threatening her with it. Those quiet, repressed men do break out sometimes. A handkerchief over his hand so as not to leave prints, up with the poker, down with it on her head and it's done. Pull out a drawer or two to suggest a search for money. Then upstairs again till someone finds her. Or put it that Gwenda Vaughan on her way out looks into the room, and the urge comes over her. Jacko will be the perfect scapegoat, and the way to marriage with Leo Argyle is open."

Major Finney nodded thoughtfully.

"Yes. Could be. And of course they were careful not to announce an engagement too soon. Not till that poor little devil Jacko was safely convicted of murder. Yes, that seems fair enough. Crimes are very monotonous. Husband and third party, or wife and third party - always the same old pattern. But what can we do about it, Huish, eh? What can we do about it?"

"I don't see, sir," said Huish slowly, "what we can do about it. We may be sure but where's the evidence? Nothing to stand up in court."

"No - no. But you are sure, Huish? Sure in your own mind?"

"Not as sure as I'd like to be," said Superintendent Huish, sadly.

"Ah! Why not?"

"The kind of man he is - Mr. Argyle, I mean."

"Not the kind to do murder?"

"It's not that so much - not the murder part of it. It's the boy. I don't see him deliberately framing the boy."

"It wasn't his own son, remember. He may not have cared much for the boy - he may even have been resentful - of the affection his wife lavished on him."

"That may be so. Yet he seems to have been fond of all the children. He looks fond of them."

"Of course," said Finney, thoughtfully. "He knew the boy wouldn't be hanged. That might make a difference."

Ah, you may have something there, sir. He may have thought that ten years in prison which is what a life sentence amounts to, might have done the boy no harm."

"What about the young woman - Gwenda Vaughan?"

"Ifshedidit," said Huish, "I don't suppose she'd have any qualms about Jacko. Women are ruthless."

"Anyway, you're reasonably satisfied it's between those two?"

"Reasonably satisfied, yes."

"But no more?" the Chief Constable pressed him.

"No. There's something going on. Undercurrents, as you might say."

"Explain yourself, Huish."

"What I'd really like to know is what they think themselves. About each other."

"Oh, I see, I get you now. You're wondering if they themselves know who it was?"

"Yes. I can't make up my mind about it. Do they all know? And are they all agreed to keep it dark? I don't think so. I think it's even possible that they may all have different ideas. There's the Swedish woman - she's a mass of nerves. Right on edge. That may be because she did it herself. She's the age when women go slightly off their rocker in one way or another. She may be frightened for herself or for somebody else. I've the impression, I may be wrong, it's for somebody else."

"Leo?"

"No, I don't think it's Leo she's upset about. I think it's the young one - Hester."

"Hester, h'm? Any chance that it might have been Hester?"

"No ostensible motive. But she's a passionate, perhaps slightly unbalanced type."

"And Lindstrom probably knows a good deal more about the girl than we do."

"Yes. Then there's the little dark one who works in the County Library."

"She wasn't in the house that night, was she?"

"No. But I think she knows something. Knows who did it, maybe."

"Guesses? Or knows?"

"She's worried. I don't think it's only guessing."

He went on: "And there's the other boy. Micky. He wasn't there, either, but he was out in a car, nobody with him. He says he was testing the car up towards the moor and Minchin Hill. We've only his word for it. He could have driven over, gone into the house, killed her and driven away again. Gwenda Vaughan said something that wasn't in her original statement. She said a car passed her, just at the entrance to the private road. There are fourteen houses in the road, so it might have been going to any one of them and nobody will remember after two years - but it means there's just a possibility that the car was Micky's."

"Why should he want to kill his adopted mother?"

"No reason that we know about - but there might be one."

"Who would know?"

"They'd all know," said Huish. "But they wouldn't tell us. Not if they knew they were telling us, that is."

"I perceive your devilish intention," said Major Finney. "Who are you going to work on?"

"Lindstrom, I think. If I can break down her defences. I also hope to find out if she herself had a grudge against Mrs. Argyle."

"And there's the paralysed chap," he added. Philip Durrant." "What about him?"

"Well, I think he's beginning to have a few ideas about it all. I don't suppose he'll want to share them with me, but I may be able to get an inkling of the way his mind is working. He's an intelligent fellow, and I should say pretty observant. He may have noticed one or two rather interesting things."

"Come out, Tina, and let's get some air."

"Air?" Tina looked up at Micky doubtfully. "But it's so cold, Micky." She shivered a little.

"I believe you hate fresh air, Tina. That's why you're able to stand being cooped up in that library all day long."

Tina smiled.

"I do not mind being cooped up in winter. It is very nice and warm in the library."

Micky looked down on her.

"And there you sit, all cuddled up like a cosy little kitten in front of the fire. But it'll do you good to get out, all the same. Come on, Tina. I want to talk to you. I want to - oh, to get some air into my lungs, forget all this bloody police business."

Tina got up from her chair with a lazy, graceful movement not unlike that of the kitten to which Micky had just compared her.

In the hall she wrapped a fur-collared tweed coat round her and they went out together.

"Aren't you even going to put a coat on, Micky?" "No. I never feel the cold."

"Brrr," said Tina gently. "How I hate this country in the winter. I would like to go abroad. I would like to be somewhere where the sun was always shining and the air was moist and soft and warm."

"I've just been offered a job out in the Persian Gulf," said Micky, "with one of the oil companies. The job's looking after motor transport."

"Are you going?"

"No, I don't think so... What's the good?"

They walked round to the back of the house and started down a zig- zag path through trees which led finally to the beach on the river below. Half-way down there was a small summer-house sheltered from

the wind. They did not at once sit down but stood in front of it, gazing out over the river.

"It's beautiful here, isn't it?" said Micky. Tina looked at the view with incurious eyes. "Yes," she said, "yes, perhaps it is."

"But you don't really know, do you?" said Micky, looking at her affectionately, "you don't realise the beauty, Tina, you never have."

"I do not remember," said Tina, "in all the years we lived here that you ever enjoyed the beauty of this place. You were always fretting, longing to go back to London."

"That was different," said Micky shortly. "I didn't belong here."

"That is what is the matter, isn't it?" said Tina, "you do not belong anywhere."

"I don't belong anywhere," said Micky in a dazed voice. "Perhaps that's true. My goodness, Tina, what a frightening thought. Do you remember that old song? Kirsten used to sing it to us, I believe. Something about a dove. 0 dear dove, 0 sweet dove, 0 dove with the white, white breast. Do you remember?"

Tina shook her head.

"Perhaps she sang it to you, but - no, I do not remember."

Micky went on, half speaking, half humming.

"0 maid most dear, I am not here. I have no place, no part, No dwelling more by sea nor shore, But on in thy heart." He looked at Tina. "I suppose that could be true."

Tina put a small hand on his arm.

"Come, Micky, sit down here. It is out of the wind. It is not so cold."

As he obeyed her she went on: "Must you be so unhappy always?"

"My dear girl, you don't begin to understand the first thing about it."

"I understand a good deal," said Tina. "Why can't you forget about her, Micky?"

"Forget about her? Who are you talking about?"

"Your mother," said Tina.

"Forget about her!" said Micky bitterly. "Is there much chance of forgetting after this morning - after the questions! If anyone's been murdered, they don't let you 'forget about her'!"

"I did not mean that," said Tina. "I meant your real mother."

"Why should I think about her? I never saw her after I was six years old."

"But, Micky, you did think about her. All the time." 138

"Did I ever tell you so?"

"Sometimes one knows about these things," said Tina.

Micky turned and looked at her.

"You're such a quiet, soft little creature, Tina. Like a little black cat. I want to stroke your fur the right way. Nice p-ssy! Pretty little p-ssy!" His hand stroked the sleeve of her coat.

Tina, sitting very still, smiled at him as he did so.

Micky said: "You didn't hate her, did you, Tina? All the rest of us did."

"That was very unkind," said Tina. She shook her head at him and went on with some energy: "Look what she gave you, all of you. A home, warmth, kindness, good food, toys to play with, people to look after you and keep you safe -"

"Yes, yes," said Micky, impatiently. "Saucers of cream and lots of fur- stroking. That was all you wanted, was it, little p-ssy cat?"

"I was grateful for it," said Tina. "None of you were grateful."

"Don't you understand, Tina, that one can't be grateful when one ought to be? In some ways it makes it worse, feeling the obligation of gratitude. I didn't want to be brought here. I didn't want to be given luxurious surroundings. I didn't want to be taken away from my own home."

"You might have been bombed," Tina pointed out. "You might have been killed."

"What would it matter? I wouldn't mind being killed. I'd have been killed in my own place, with my own people about me. Where I belonged. There you are, you see. We're back to it again. There's nothing so bad as not belonging. But you, little p-ssy cat, you only care for material things."

"Perhaps that is true in a way," said Tina. "Perhaps that is why I do not feel like the rest of you. I do not feel that odd resentment that you all seem to feel - you most of all, Micky. It is easy for me to be grateful because, you see, I did not want to be myself. I did not want to be where I was. I wanted to escape from myself. I wanted to be someone

else. And she made me into someone else. She made me into Christina

Argyle with a home and with affection. Secure. Safe. I loved Mother because she gave me all those things."

"What about your own mother? Don't you ever think of her?"

"Why should I? I hardly remember her. I was only three years old, remember, when I came here. I was always frightened - terrified - with her. All those noisy quarrels with seamen, and she herself-1 suppose, now that I am old enough to remember properly, that she must have been drunk most of the time." Tina spoke in a detached, wondering voice. "No, I do not think about her, or remember her. Mrs. Argyle was my mother. This is my home."

"It's so easy for you, Tina," said Micky.

"And why is it hard for you? Because you make it so! It was not Mrs. Argyle you hated, Micky, it was your own mother. Yes, I know that what I am saying is true. And if you killed Mrs. Argyle, as you may have done, then it was your own mother you wanted to kill."

"Tina! What the hell are you talking about?"

"And now," went on Tina, talking calmly, "you have nobody to hate any longer. And that makes you quite lonely, doesn't it? But you've got to learn to live without hate, Micky. It may be difficult, but it can be done."

"I don't know what you're talking about. What did you mean by saying that I may have killed her? You know perfectly well I was nowhere near here that day. I was testing out a customer's car up on the Moor Road, by Minchin Hill."

"Were you?" said Tina.

She got up and stepped forward till she stood at the Look-out Point from where you could look down to the river below.

"What are you getting at, Tina?" Micky came up behind her.

Tina pointed down to the beach.

"Who are those two people down there?"

Micky gave a quick cursory glance.

"Hester and her doctor pal, I think," he said. "But Tina, what did you mean? For God's sake don't stand there right at the edge."

"Why - do you want to push me over? You could. I'm very small, you know."

Micky said hoarsely: "Why do you say I may have been here that evening?"

Tina did not answer. She turned and began walking back up the path to the house.

"Tina!"

Tina said in her, quiet, soft voice: "I'm worried, Micky. I'm very worried about Hester and Don Craig."

"Never mind about Hester and her boy friend."

"But I do mind about them. I am afraid that Hester is very unhappy."

"We're not talking about them."

"I am talking about them. They matter, you see."

"Have you believed all along, Tina, that I was here the night Mother was killed?"

Tina did not reply.

"You didn't say anything at the time."

"Why should I? There was no need. I mean, it was so obvious that Jacko had killed her."

"And now it's equally obvious that Jacko didn't kill her."

Again Tina nodded.

"And so?" Micky asked. "And so?"

She did not answer him, but continued to walk up the Path to the house.

Ill

On the little beach by the point, Hester scuffled the sand with the point of her shoe.

"I don't see what there is to talk about," she said.

"You've got to talk about it," said Don Craig.

"I don't see why. Talking about a thing never does any good - it never makes it any better."

"You might at least tell me what happened this morning."

"Nothing," said Hester.

"What do you mean - nothing? The police came along, didn't they?"

"Oh yes, they came along."

"Well, then, did they question you all?"

"Yes," said Hester, "they questioned us."

"What sort of questions?"

"All the usual ones," said Hester. "Really just the same as before. Where we were and what we did, and when we last saw Mother alive. Really, Don, I don't want to talk about it any more. It's over now."

"But it isn't over, dearest. That's just the point."

"I don't see why you need to fuss," said Hester. "You're not mixed up in this."

"Darling, I want to help you. Don't you understand?"

"Well, talking about it doesn't help me. I just want to forget. If you'd help me to forget, that would be different."

"Hester, dearest, it's no good running away from things. You must face them."

"I've been facing them, as you call it, all the morning."

"Hester, I love you. You know that, don't you?"

"I suppose so," said Hester.

"What do you mean, you suppose so?"

"Going on and on about it all."

"But I have to do that."

"I don't see why. You're not a policeman."

"Who was the last person to see your mother alive?"

"I was," said Hester.

"I know. That was just before seven, wasn't it, just before you came out to meet me."

"Just before I came out to go to Drymouth - to the Playhouse," said Hester.

"Well, I was at the Playhouse, wasn't I?"

"Yes, of course you were."

"You did know then, didn't you, Hester, that I loved you?"

"I wasn't sure," said Hester. "I wasn't even sure then that I was beginning to love you."

"You'd no reason, had you, no earthly reason for doing away with your mother?" "No, not really," said Hester. "What do you mean by not really?"

"I often thought about killing her," said Hester in a matter-of-fact voice.

"I used to say 'I wish she was dead, I wish she was dead.' Sometimes," she added, "I used to dream that I killed her."

"In what way did you kill her in your dream?"

For a moment Don Craig was no longer the lover but the interested young doctor.

"Sometimes I shot her," said Hester cheerfully, "and sometimes I banged her on the head."

Dr. Craig groaned.

"That was just dreaming," said Hester. "I'm often very violent in dreams."

"Listen, Hester." The young man took her hand in his. "You've got to tell me the truth. You've got to trust me."

"I don't understand what you mean," said Hester.

"The truth, Hester. I want the truth. I love you - and I'll stand by you. If - if you killed her I -1 think I can find out the reasons why. I don't think it will have been exactly your fault. Do you understand? Certainly I'd never go to the police about it. It will be between you and me only. Nobody else will suffer. The whole thing will die down for want of evidence. But I've got to know." He stressed the last word strongly.

Hester was looking at him. Her eyes were wide, almost unfocused.

"What do you want me to say to you?" she said.

"I want you to tell me the truth."

"You think you know the truth already, don't you? You think -1 killed her."

"Hester, darling, don't look at me like that." He took her by the shoulders and shook her gently. "I'm a doctor. I know the reasons behind these things. I know that people can't always be held responsible for their actions. I know you for what you are - sweet and lovely and essentially all right. I'll help you. I'll look after you. We'll get married, then we'll be happy. You need never feel lost, unwanted, tyrannised over. The things we do often spring from reasons most people don't understand."

"That's very much what we all said about Jacko, isn't it?" said Hester.

"Never mind Jacko. It's you I'm thinking about. I love you so very much, Hester, but I've got to know the truth."

"The truth?" said Hester.

A very slow, mocking smile curved the corners of her mouth upwards.

"Please, darling."

Hester turned her head and looked up.

"There's Gwenda calling me. It must be lunch time."

"Hester!"

"Would you believe me if I told you I didn't kill her?"

"Of course I'd - I'd believe you."

"I don't think you would," said Hester.

She turned sharply away from him and began running up the path. He

made a movement to follow her, then abandoned it.

"Oh, hell," said Donald Craig. "Oh, hell!"