Barbara Cleverly (12 page)

‘What were his plans for you?’

‘He was prepared to let me continue in an executive position, though with forty-nine per cent of control to his fifty-one per cent. He had no intention of settling here, his health was too fragile. So, in effect, I would have continued to work eighteen hours a day in the heat of India for the good of the firm though lacking the ultimate authority to steer the company in the direction I wished.’ Her tone was bitter and Joe could appreciate the strength and justice of her grievance.

‘And Mr Sharpe, your husband by this time

?’

‘Would have been totally dispossessed. No, he was not happy about that and was preparing to fight the case through the courts.’ She shuddered. ‘It would have been a very distressing and unprofitable time for everyone. What a jolly scandal! Nothing like a family row to blossom into a cause célčbre! It doesn’t bear thinking of!’

‘So both you and your husband would have had a great deal to gain financially from your brother’s death?’

‘Of course. And there have been many to whom that thought has occurred. And many, doubtless, who must have noticed that my grief was not particularly deep.’

‘You were not fond of your brother?’

‘It was devastating to lose my only close living relative and for what seemed to be a second time. A very cruel twist, that. But Lionel and I were never close. He was a good deal older than I and hardly noticed me when we were growing up. I did not admire him. I knew I was

’ she hesitated, searching for a word, ‘more worthy than he was although I was constantly reminded by our parents that I was only a girl and that the family’s fortunes rested on Lionel. I resented the assumption that little sisters were there to be seldom seen and never heard. Then we were divided by school and the war. He was a stranger to me. But I didn’t kill him.’

‘I understand you were in the view of a hundred people when he was assassinated?’

‘Yes. But that means nothing, you’ll find. If I wanted someone to die, Mr Sandilands, I would merely mention the matter to Rheza Khan. He would mention it to someone else who would in turn make suitable arrangements. The true killer will in all likelihood have paid to have the trigger pulled. There is no lack, you’ll find, in Simla of obliging retired military types with the skill and the inclination to perform such a service for a fee. I could suggest a few names myself

Some, indeed, I know to be drinking companions of my husband

But you can be sure that the instigator of the act will almost certainly have taken the precaution of being engaged in a very public activity at the moment the shot rang out.’

Joe was silent for a moment. She was trying to tell him something without putting it into words herself. Without naming names.

‘And your husband Reginald was very much in the public eye at that time?’

She shivered. With fear?

‘Reggie. Yes. He was handing a plate of cucumber sandwiches to Her Excellency, Lady Reading. He could not have been more flamboyantly well positioned.’

Ť ^ ť

Joe pondered this with disbelief, not able for a moment to react to her suggestion, so blandly delivered, saying at last, ‘You’re telling me that you think your husband may have procured your brother’s murder?’

Alice nodded, unwilling still, it seemed, to put her suspicions into words.

‘And that the instrument,’ Joe continued, ‘the actual assassin, could well be Edgar Troop? Is that what you’re saying?’

After a quick flash of surprise she nodded again.

‘And you’re saying that same Edgar Troop who has, shall we say, an executive position of some significant but dubious sort chez Madame Flora?’

Low-voiced, ‘Yes, that Edgar Troop!’

Joe took another turn about the room. He had imagined working tactfully and circuitously round the stark realities. He had even prepared a series of careful questions, but here was the surprising Alice firmly and unequivocally at the heart of the matter and, unlike Meg Carter, having no delusion as to the true nature of Madame Flora’s establishment and seemingly with more than a suspicion as to Reggie Sharpe’s true relationship with the as yet unseen but sinister Edgar Troop.

‘Oh, do stop pacing about!’ she said abruptly. ‘Sit down and listen to me!’

Joe took a seat opposite and waited.

‘I know all about Madame Flora’s brothel. I know it is the source of much vice and crime in Simla and I am aware that my husband is heavily involved with it – a valued and loyal customer, you could say,’ she added in a curiously flat, expressionless voice. She might have been discussing his golf handicap.

‘You must find that very distressing,’ was Joe’s inadequate reply. Brothels formed a part of his London life but he had never held such a conversation with a lady before. He had never heard a lady pronounce the word ‘brothel’ and he found that it shocked him.

‘Distressing?’ Alice laughed derisively. ‘Say rather appalling – not to be tolerated! Ours was never a happy marriage, Mr Sandilands, it was one of convenience but, initially, I did my best to pretend to the world that we had a normal married relationship. My fault, I wonder? Perhaps a bit my fault. When I arrived in India I had to fight. Fight to establish myself in a man’s world. It took a lot of careful work. It filled my days and nights. Reggie is not secure – he is easily threatened. He couldn’t keep his manhood intact with a woman who was his equal and was completely unmanned in the presence of a woman recognized by many to be his superior.

‘But then, at the end of our first season in Simla, I discovered that my husband had contracted – was in the first stages of – a venereal disease. At first I was stunned. I thought this was the sort of thing that only happened to other people – servants – soldiers’ wives – but I made him tell me who he’d got it from and where. Perhaps I was heavy-handed? Certainly I made it difficult for him. I insisted that he go and see a doctor. The MO here is very good; very cooperative and on my side. Between us we arranged for inspections – of the girls, I mean. Madame Flora didn’t like it, I’m told, but she jolly well knew if she wanted to stay open she’d have to do it my way. I kept it in the background but everybody knew that I’d caused the fuss and brought about the clean-up.’

‘And was the reaction favourable?’ Joe wanted to know.

‘Mixed,’ she replied candidly. ’You know Simla

well, you don’t yet, but you soon will. Plenty of Mrs Hawksbees around still to tittle tattle and remind one of a woman’s place. You know there are still many women who would totally deny the existence of brothels. They would not recognize a sexually transmitted disease if their husband’s tackle crumbled before their eyes. If you don’t notice it – it’s not really happening and a lady would never make reference to such matters. And then there are those who are truly women of the twentieth century. They may have been suffragettes, they may have driven an ambulance in the war

they know what goes on in the real world and they are with me all the way. A surprising number of them, Commander, roll their sleeves up and do a very messy job brilliantly and for no reward other than the satisfaction of knowing that they have improved things for their sisters. No matter what their colour or religion.’

‘I can believe it,’ said Joe simply. ‘I have known such a woman.’

Alice looked at him silently for a moment with speculation.

Before she could question him he asked, ‘And Reggie? How did he react to the strictures you imposed?’

‘Badly. It was very embarrassing for him on two counts – bossy wife who didn’t know her place and then, you know, naughty boy caught with his hand up a housemaid’s skirt!’ She laughed shortly and went on, ‘Don’t think he’s ever forgiven me. Showed him up in front of his gang! I don’t care! I made him use his influence with the madam and with Troop to have the girls medically examined and those suffering were to be sent to the hospital immediately for treatment. From then on regular checks were to be made and reports made to the hospital on a monthly basis.’ She gave a tight smile and added, ‘They think I’m a meddling nuisance but – too bad!’

Joe was stunned by what he was hearing. ‘Did you confront this Madame Flora?’

Joe would have been entertained to witness such an interview. Alice put an end to his speculation by saying, ‘I have never met the woman. She never appears in society, as my mother would have said. Her world and mine would never coincide were it not for the unfortunate Reggie. And I would never seek her out.’

‘I understand you have some personal contact with the hospital?’

‘I work there one day a week on the women’s ward. I interest myself in the women whose bodies have been ravaged by poor care – or no care – in childbirth, in the child brides who, after years of abuse by their husbands, are sent as a last resort to us for repair. And I raise money and I fund the care of the unfortunate creatures who risk their lives working for people such as Troop and Flora. I talk to the patients and I have managed to learn something of the way Troop operates though the girls are generally too frightened to speak to anyone outside the establishment.’

Her blue eyes blazed with indignation and rage. Joe was fast forming the opinion that Alice Sharpe was a formidable woman, a woman who must have made some implacable enemies in Simla and not least, perhaps, her own husband.

‘And Reggie accepts all this?’

‘He has no choice in the matter. I control the finances of ICTC. I effectively pay him a salary and I have threatened to cut it drastically if he steps out of line. To show him that I was in earnest I cut two months of his pay and gave it directly to the women’s hospital. He was angry but there was little he could do about it. But I may have pushed him too far. He’s a weak man and I despise him but even weak men may seek help from stronger men. I fear Reggie may have used the services of Edgar Troop to shoot my brother in order to protect his share of the company.’

And Alice Conyers’ share also, incidentally, Joe thought.

Alice glared at him, resenting his silence. ‘You don’t believe me, do you?’

‘Why do you say so?’ said Joe in surprise.

‘You were looking at me with the supercilious, suspicious, sceptical, cynical air that men assume so easily. Even nice men,’ she added with an irritation she did not quite disguise with a spurt of humour.

‘You are deceived,’ said Joe. ‘Many are deceived by this badly stitched eyebrow.’ He raised his hand to his left eyebrow which hasty and belated surgery on the battlefield had left permanently tilted. ‘In the interview room, I can tell you it has its uses but it can work against me when I’m trying to charm and impress.’

‘Were you trying to charm and impress? But a wound! Of course, I see it now.’ She raised a hand and for a heart-stopping moment Joe thought she was about to touch with gentle fingers the scar on his face but she hesitated, looked away and turned her hand to her own cheek. ‘I too

’ She traced the silvery scar trail down her face. ‘But I was fortunate. I had the services of the best surgeon in the south of France.’

‘Whereas my face was held together with a clothes peg,’ said Joe, feeling, for the first time, that he was in tune with Alice Conyers. Wishing to hold on to this fragile rapport he said, ‘It must have felt like surviving on a battlefield, surviving the rail crash.’

‘Perhaps worse,’ she said, ‘because we were so totally unprepared for it and we were not young fighting men prepared to make a sacrifice of our lives. We were ordinary people looking forward to the south of France, to spring, to sunshine, to the rest of our lives.

‘But you’re right – it was like a battlefield. The blood, the severed limbs, the bodies lying like rag dolls. I was unconscious at first. I don’t know for how long. When I came to and looked around all I could see was destruction and death. I’d never seen a dead body before and suddenly there I was surrounded by dozens of them. The smoke and stench of burning flesh was thick about me but even worse was the silence. And suddenly I heard a child crying. It went on and on. I tried to get up but I couldn’t get my limbs to work. That was an awful moment. Mr Sandilands, I thought I was dead! I thought I was a ghost in some sort of dreadful limbo. My spirit was still there at this scene of desolation, anchored by a thread of consciousness. I’ve always believed in the survival of the soul and I had no doubt that I had died and was caught up between two worlds. Blackness descended again and when I woke up the child had stopped crying. I don’t know how long I was lying there unconscious and bleeding

they say it was over an hour before the rescue train arrived.

‘I was unaware of it because the next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital in Beaune with the kindly face of Marie-Jeanne Pitiot smiling at me.’

Joe sensed that she had said enough about the past but felt flattered that she had entrusted him with her sad story.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I really wasn’t trying to put you off your questioning. We’re both trying to discover the truth. I need to know who killed my brother. I desperately need to know. Do go on with your questions.’

‘It might be important to know how the company stands at the moment. I mean, did Lionel leave a will? Or have the lawyers reverted to the situation as it was before he died? Who really owns the company?’

‘I wish I knew! The matter is still under consideration by the firm’s lawyers in London. One opinion is that as he died intestate and without progeniture all reverts to his only living relation – me. Others maintain that grandfather’s wishes and provisions come into play and that the status quo obtains. I think that Reggie would remain quite content with the latter scenario but

’

‘Should you be declared the sole heir, then

?’

She looked at him seriously for a moment. ‘Then I would think I was at risk. Don’t you think so too, Mr Sandilands?’

Soft-footed, Rheza Khan re-entered the room and stood by the door, appointment book in hand, formally signalling that the interview was at an end. Joe rose to his feet and thanked Alice Sharpe for her cooperation, the professional courtesies rolling easily from his tongue. She held out a hand and took his, looking earnestly into his face.