Death of a Ghost (9 page)

The cold air of calamity had permeated the whole household. The very atmosphere of the hall was chill and yet curiously stuffy.

They would have to be warned of the Inspector's intention – he realized that – and there was the question of insanity too. The longer he considered his task the less he was attracted by it.

He pushed open the door of the drawing-room and went in.

They were all there save Linda and Rosa-Rosa. Belle sat in her usual chair by the fire just as she had done on the evening before when she had been chatting so happily to Campion. She was very grave now, but there was no sign of weakness on her face. Her hands were folded in her lap and she stared down into the fire, her mouth screwed into a small grimace of pity.

Lisa was crying softly, huddled up on a low chair by Belle's side. At least it seemed that she was crying, for she dabbed her little black eyes with a big white handkerchief from time to time.

On the opposite side of the hearth, Donna Beatrice, the only one of the party who had changed her dress, sat swathed in black georgette, a silver châtelaine hanging from her girdle and a great silver cross round her neck.

Max strode up and down the room impatiently. Like Donna Beatrice he had been quick to see the dramatic possibilities the affair, and whereas he did not actually ‘make copy' out of them, he obviously got a modicum of satisfaction out of the drama. At worst it seemed to mean that something else was happening on the little stage which he made his life. The vital question whether the scandal would affect Lafcadio's reputation advantageously or adversely confronted him also.

He glanced at Campion carelessly as the young man came in and made him a helpless gesture. If he had said, ‘It's too terribly trying, isn't it? But emergencies do occur,' he could not have conveyed his thought more clearly.

Donna Beatrice's greeting was more sensational and Campion remembered with sudden satisfaction that her real name was Harriet Pickering. She rose from her chair.

‘Your aura,' she said. ‘Your aura … You looked like a flame coming into the room, a vigorous cosmic flame.'

Lisa made some muttered protest in her own language, and Belle put out a hand to soothe her.

Donna Beatrice sank down again.

‘The vibrations in this house are terrible,' she continued. ‘The air is full of evil spirits crowding upon one another. I can feel them oppressing me, wearing me down. It's all very well for you, Lisa. They pass you by. But I'm attuned to the higher consciousness and I know we're all in danger. The evil act has set millions of vibrations going. We must be very strong. I must be very brave.'

Belle dragged her eyes from the fire and let her mild gaze rest upon the other woman.

‘Harriet,' she said, ‘don't enjoy it.'

It was the first ill-natured remark any of them had ever heard her make, and the rebuke was all the more effective.

Max permitted a smile to pass over his face, Lisa ceased to sniff, and Donna Beatrice herself made a noise like a startled hen. Then with tremendous conscious dignity she reasserted herself.

‘Belle, darling, you should lie down. This terrible thing is getting on all our nerves. I can stand it because I'm an old spirit. I've probably gone through this sort of experience in other incarnations many times before.'

Belle, who realized that for chronic hysteria there is no cure, ignored her and stretched out a hand to Campion.

‘Come and sit down, my dear,' she said. ‘Tell me, whom are they going to arrest?'

Campion looked at her sharply. Her shrewdness was always surprising him. He saw that they were all looking at him, waiting for his news. He realized that he was their only friend, their only personal link with that terrifying organ of justice, the Police.

Mr Campion had faced many dangers in his time and had come unscathed through many adventures, but at this moment he was desperately uncomfortable. He cleared his throat.

‘Look here, Belle,' he said, still holding her hand, ‘this is rather an awkward question, but do you know anyone who was at the reception or' – he hesitated – ‘anyone in the house who is liable to uncontrollable fits of fury? I mean, have there ever been violent incidents in the past? Not verbally violent, you know, but – well, has anybody ever done anything almost dangerous?'

Whatever reply he expected, the immediate results of his question were startling in the extreme. A wail of mingled anguish and terror sounded in his very ear, and Lisa, her face ashen, rose from her seat and stumbled blindly out of the room. There was a blast of chilly air as the door swung open and the little click which the catch made as it closed to echoed forlornly in the silent room.

‘Lisa also appears to be a recipient of the higher consciousness,' Max drawled, nettled into impoliteness, while Donna Beatrice caught her breath sharply and Belle's hand tightened over Mr Campion's.

Donna Beatrice shrugged her shoulders.

‘So it's come out at last,' she said. ‘When I first saw the scissors I knew there was something strange about them. Something repelled me slightly when I touched them. I might have known – I might have known!'

Campion looked at Belle. His eyes were sharp behind his spectacles and his manner had authority.

‘I think you ought to tell me,' he said. ‘What is it?'

Belle seemed loth to speak, but Donna Beatrice sailed in with an eagerness that was frankly uncharitable.

‘Some years ago,' she said, ‘Lisa made a wholly unwarrantable attack on me down in the studio. It was the outcome of ungovernable fury.'

‘Beatrice!'

Belle stretched out her hand.

‘Oh, nonsense. You can't hide things like that. Mr Campion's asked for the truth and now he shall have it. After all, it's only fair to ourselves. If you get a young, unbalanced soul to deal with, you must protect yourself in a practical manner.'

Mr Campion was listening patiently, and even Max had paused in his perambulations and now stood behind Belle's chair watching Donna Beatrice's placid face wearing its smug expression. She was very conscious of her audience and told her story with a pretty simulation of hesitancy which they found unbearably irritating.

‘It was when the Master was alive,' she began, dropping her eyes as usual on the name. ‘Lisa was just beginning to lose her beauty – all traces of beauty, I mean. She confided to me that she was worried about it, and I tried to help her by telling her of the beauty of the spirit. Of course, I was inexperienced then or I should have recognized her as the young soul she is, incapable of benefiting in that way. Anyhow, the poor creature lost her temper and made an attack upon me. I've had to remind her of it since, several times. I made no complaint at the time because the Master was anxious that I shouldn't, but I've never forgotten it. I put up my arms to shield my face and I had a cut quite a quarter of an inch deep right across both my forearms. I can show you the scar on my left arm now. She was trying to disfigure me, you see.'

Mr Campion looked at her in amazement. It seemed impossible that she could realize the full gravity of the accusation she made.

‘That's what she was thinking of when she ran out of the room,' the woman continued. ‘It's understandable, isn't it?'

Belle peered at Mr Campion anxiously.

‘It's twenty-five years ago,' she said. ‘Quite twenty-five years ago. I thought we'd all forgotten it. Johnnie was so upset at the time and poor Lisa was so penitent. Need it all be brought up again now?'

Mr Campion looked reassuring. ‘I don't think so,' he said. ‘After all, it is rather different, isn't it?'

Donna Beatrice pointed a long white finger at him.

‘I know we must be charitable,' she said. ‘And I realize that we must do the right thing. But there's something Belle hasn't told you, something that I consider very significant. You see, Lisa happened to have attacked me with a pair of scissors. She had them in her hand at the time.'

‘Oh, Beatrice!' The reproach in Belle's voice was bitter. ‘How could you?'

Mr Campion remained unimpressed. He thought he could imagine almost any woman in the situation which Donna Beatrice had described being moved to stop that excruciatingly stupid voice with whatever weapon came to hand. He shook his head decidedly.

‘No,' he said. ‘Inspector Oates is not particularly interested in Lisa.'

‘Of course he's not,' said Donna Beatrice. ‘He's not interested in anyone, I hope. It's perfectly obvious that poor misguided Dacre committed suicide. I told the Inspector there were angry dull brown and indigo rays round the boy's head last night. Read what all the authorities say about dull brown and indigo rays. I don't suppose even the Inspector is going to question the authority of men like Kunst and Higgins. Dull brown and indigo rays mean violence, depression, and a lowering of the cosmic tone. A perfectly simple case of suicide. After all, that's the only charitable way to look at it.'

‘You saw the rays?' said Max, fixing her with a dark unwavering eye. ‘Are you prepared to swear in court that you actually saw coloured rays of light encircling young Dacre's head any time in your life?'

Donna Beatrice's gaze wavered for an instant, but not for long.

‘Yes,' she said exasperatingly. ‘I can see rays round all your heads now. There are too many dark colours in your own aura, Max.'

He continued to look at her with gloomy irritation. Then he bowed ironically.

‘Dear lady, you are superb,' he murmured, and turned away with an exaggerated gesture of exasperation.

But Donna Beatrice was equal to any treatment of this sort.

‘Don't flounce, Max,' she said.

Belle seemed to be oblivious of the exchange. Her old brown eyes had grown introspective and her lips moved ruminatively. Suddenly she turned to Campion.

‘My dear,' she said, ‘I've got to be told some time or other, haven't I? What is it? Whom do they suspect? Linda?'

Mr Campion squeezed the hand which still rested in his own.

‘It's only some batty idea Stanislaus has,' he said lamely. ‘There's nothing to worry about, of course.'

Belle nodded. She was not listening to him. ‘Oh, dear,' she said piteously. ‘Oh, dear.'

Both Max and Donna Beatrice were startled out of their respective poses by this development.

‘Linda?' ejaculated Lafcadio's Inspiration. ‘Oh, how wicked! How dreadful! Oh, Belle, we must do something. Oh, oh, how wicked!'

Max confronted Campion. He looked less affected and more human than the young man ever remembered seeing him before.

‘Another Scotland Yard blunder?' he enquired bitterly.

Having plunged into the trouble, Mr Campion struck out.

‘Well,' he said, ‘there's the motive, you know. It's ridiculous, of course, but Dacre having married Rosa-Rosa like that did suggest to the Inspector –' He paused without finishing the sentence.

‘Dacre married to the little model?' exploded Donna Beatrice. ‘Oh, how dreadful! Oh, poor Linda! I understand how she felt. Poor girl! Ought I to go to her?'

Both Max and Campion seemed to be moved by a single thought, for they started simultaneously as though they would detain the good woman by force if necessary.

Belle allowed a stern expression to creep into the lines of her face.

‘Don't be a fool, Harriet,' she said. ‘We must all pull ourselves together and think what's best to be done. Of course, there's no question that the poor child is innocent, but not everyone knows her as well as we do. Albert, my dear, what shall we do?'

Donna Beatrice began to sob. The refined sniffing which is perhaps the most irritating sound in the world heightened the tension in the room until it was unbearable. Belle was trembling. Campion could see her struggling to keep back her tears and forcing herself to think consecutively.

Max had been temporarily forgotten, so that when he spoke his exaggerated drawl startled them all.

‘My dear people,' he said, ‘don't disturb yourselves. I see this matter must be cleared up immediately, and if you'll permit me to use the phone, Belle, I think everything will be satisfactorily arranged.'

He moved over to the instrument, an extension from the hall, with all his old self-conscious swagger, and sitting down before it, dialled a number.

They listened to him as people always do listen to telephone conversations, that half-permitted eavesdropping which is irresistible.

‘Hullo, is that you, Mrs Levy? This is Max Fustian. Could I have just a word with Isadore?'

He paused and glanced back at them with a reassuring smile.

Campion recollected that Isadore Levy was the astute, thickset gentleman who assisted in the management of Max Fustian's Bond Street business.

‘Hullo, is that you, my dear boy? Listen. I haven't much time. You must send Miss Fischer to the Picasso show. She knows my views. She must do my article this week. Now listen …'

He went on, evidently ignoring some muffled question from the other end of the wire.

‘The American – you know whom I mean – will probably come in tomorrow. Show him the Degas only. You understand? Nothing else. Only the Degas. You must attend the Leamington Castle sale without me. Our top price is fifteen thousand; not a penny more. We shouldn't get it back – don't argue – we shouldn't get it back.'

He paused, listening, and when he spoke again his tone was so casual that the words were barely formed, and it occurred to Campion that the man was labouring under some tremendous excitement.

‘Yes,' said Max Fustian into the telephone. ‘Yes, I shall be away. For two or three days; perhaps longer. What? Something important? Yes, in a way. I suppose so.'

He lifted the phone and looked over it at the puzzled group round the fire. When he was satisfied that he held their attention he devoted himself once more to the instrument. His hand was shaking and his little dark eyes danced.