So Much Blood (15 page)

Anna looked disappointed, which did not make the deception any easier. Then she grinned. ‘I could do with some sleep, anyway.'

He grinned too. She was beautiful and the navy blue eyes looked so open and honest, he wished the script of the last few days could be rewritten and all the promptings of suspicion cut out. He felt confident that it would be all right. Probably they would even be able to laugh about it afterwards.

‘But tomorrow . . .' he hazarded, ‘be O.K. if I come round after the revue as per usual?'

‘As per usual. Of course.' There was a lot of warmth in her voice. But she was still discreet and did not want them to be seen together. ‘Better get back.'

As she turned to go, he took her hand and leant forward to kiss her. Their lips came together.

A creak on the stairs from the basement made Charles recoil guiltily. Anna as usual kept her cool and glanced towards the person who was staring at them. She looked back at Charles. ‘See you then, then.' With unruffled poise she went back to the dining-room. Martin Warburton stood aside to let her pass, looked at Charles, gave one of his abrupt laughs and hurried out of the front door, slamming it behind him.

It didn't matter. Anna was the one who wanted to keep the affair quiet, and somebody was bound to twig sooner or later.

Charles remembered that he had left his toothbrush in the first-floor bathroom. On the landing he met James Milne hurrying angrily downstairs. ‘Oh hello, Charles. I've spoken to them before about slamming that door. Not only is it bad for the actual door, it also disturbs the neighbours and I get complaints. Did you see who it was?'

‘It was Martin Warburton.'

‘Ah.' The Laird's tone changed from angry to confidential. ‘Actually I wanted to talk to you about Martin Warburton. Come upstairs and have a drink.'

‘Have to be quick. I've got to go out to dinner.' It was important to maintain the lie.

‘Won't take long.'

More malt in the leather-bound library. The Laird stood by his marble mantlepiece to give drama to his pronouncement. ‘Further to our discussion about Martin's disguise, I followed him this morning.'

‘From here?'

‘Yes, all the way to Nicholson Street as you described. I waited and he came out with the beard and what have you, and then I followed him again. Guess where he went this time?'

‘Not a clue.' Charles found it difficult to get excited about Martin's bizarre doings. He had decided that they were irrelevant to the investigation.

‘The Palace of Holyroodhouse,' said James Milne dramatically. ‘Now why should he go to the National Portrait Gallery and Holyrood in disguise?'

‘I don't know. Maybe he's embarrassed about being a tourist.'

This flippant answer was not well received by the Laird who thought that Martin was definitely the murderer. Charles wished he could share that simple faith; it would be a relief from the forbidding tangle of thoughts that filled his head. But he did not feel inclined to tell his confidant what he knew. It would be better to play along with this Martin theory.

James Milne elaborated. ‘I think there's some strange tie-up in his mind. It's all connected with the Mary, Queen of Scots story, I'm sure. Rizzio was only the first of a sequence of murders of people close to that particular lady.'

‘I'm a bit hazy about the details of her life. I just remember that she was very tall and when they executed her they lifted the head up and her wig came off.'

‘What unusual details you pick on, Charles. I'm sure one of your psychologists would have something to say about the selective processes of your mind. But let me tell you, there's quite a lot more significant stuff in the unfortunate queen's story. I know it fairly well—as a schoolboy I spent one long wet holiday at Glenloan reading everything available on the subject. As you probably know, Mary was the daughter of James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise—'

Charles was in no mood for a schoolmaster's lecture. Worry made him less tolerant than usual. ‘James, I'm sorry. I do have to go.

‘Well, let me lend you a book on the subject. I won't give you one of my heavy schoolboy tomes. But there's Antonia Fraser's biography. Popular, but none the worse for that.' His mental catalogue took him straight to the right volume on the shelf.

Charles was eager to leave now. He reached out for the book with muttered thanks, but James Milne kept hold of it and said with a twinkle, ‘If I might quote from the Great Unknown, Sir Walter Scott, “Please return this book; I find that though many of my friends are poor arithmeticians, they are nearly all good bookkeepers.” Not a bad joke, considering the source.'

Charles smiled politely and managed to leave. He was in no mood for swapping literary references. He found a pub in Dundas Street where he was unlikely to meet any of the D.U.D.S. and whiled away the time till Gerald's arrival with the co-operation of Bell's Whisky, Ltd.

The solicitor arrived at the terminal immaculate in a Prince of Wales check three-piece suit. He carried an overnight bag that looked like a giant pigskin wallet and obviously contained the neatly pressed shirt and pyjamas of a travel advertisement. ‘Hello, buddy. Wise me up on the gen.'

Charles cringed at the number of thrillers Gerald must have read, and suggested that they talk in a pub.

‘Why not in the hotel bar? Then I can check in and dump the bag.'

‘Which hotel?'

‘The North British.' It had to be. Typical of Gerald. Polly had managed to fix it, and somehow the client would manage to pay for it.

Posh hotels were not Charles' usual style, but whisky's whisky anywhere. They sat in a dark corner and Gerald leant towards him conspiratorially. ‘O.K. Spill the beans,' he whispered unsuitably.

‘Listen, is your firm engaged in any big film productions at the moment?'

‘We always are. Setting up a colossal Hudson movie out in Spain. Starts filming in September if we get the contracts sorted out.'

‘Have you got a stake in it?'

‘The firm has.' The answer was discreet. Gerald never admitted his dabbling in film production, though it was common knowledge that he doubled his already considerable income by judicious investment.

‘So it wouldn't be too difficult for you to pose as a film producer?'

‘It would hardly be a pose,' he replied smugly, and then realised that this was tantamount to an admission of financial interest in films. ‘That is, I'm sure I could manage.'

‘Right. What I want you to do is to go to a revue called
Brown Derby
at the Masonic Hall in Lauriston Place. It starts at eleven. Now there's a girl in that show called Anna Duncan. She's a good actress, but even if you don't think so, I want you to go round after the performance, introduce yourself as a film producer, say you'd like to talk to her about various ideas and would it be possible to meet for lunch tomorrow.' His treachery tasted foul on his tongue, but it was necessary. He had to know.

Gerald's eyes were sparkling with excitement. ‘And tomorrow?'

‘You take her out for lunch. I'll fill you in on what to ask her.'

‘O.K. And that's the conversation you want recorded?'

Charles nodded. ‘If it can be done.'

‘No sweat.' The colloquialism again seemed to run counter to the Prince of Wales check. ‘Do you think I should use a pseudonym?'

‘Don't see why you shouldn't use your own name. If you don't mind.'

‘No, of course not.' He was a little crestfallen at losing this dramatic element, but brightened again immediately. ‘Is this girl Anna Duncan your Number One Suspect?'

Charles could not bring himself to answer that question, even in his own mind. ‘I wouldn't say that. Just need some information from her, that's all. But it's difficult for me to get it myself.'

‘Aren't you going to give me all the details of the case so far?'

‘Tomorrow. There's no time now. You've got to get to the revue.'

They made a rendezvous for the next morning and Charles went back to the Aberdour Guest House. A half-bottle of Bell's did not go far enough and he spent a long miserable night with patches of sleep.

Daylight did not speed time up much, and Gerald's arrival at Dublin Street at half-past ten added another delay to the programme. Anna had a tight rehearsal schedule for Mary and would not have much of a break for lunch. The assignation had therefore become a dinner date, which extended the agony of waiting by eight hours. Apart from that, all had gone well the previous evening.

Charles then gave Gerald an edited version of the events surrounding Willy Mariello's death and indicated the information he required, with some hints as to what he considered the most effective way of doing it. He hoped that he was judging Anna's character right, and that she would respond in the way he anticipated. But all the time he felt increasingly despicable for the elaborate deception.

At one fifteen he did a performance of
So Much Comic, So Much Blood
without thinking about it. The audience had swelled to nearly eighty and seemed appreciative, but he hardly noticed. He even had a discussion with some dreary Welsh academic about whether Hood's work contained High Moral Seriousness, but only the reflexes of his mind were working. The rest of it was churning with guilt and anxiety.

In the afternoon he tried to pull himself together and entertain thoughts of the other possibilities of the case. What he should really do was to retrace Martin Warburton's visit to Holyrood and see if it prompted any ideas. But even as he thought of it, he knew he could not be bothered. All his thoughts centred on Anna.

As he meandered through the city, he met Frances sitting on a bench in Princes Street Gardens. She had managed to lose Candy and Jane on a sightseeing coach tour of Edinburgh, and was appreciating the break. Charles knew she could tell he was upset, but he refused to unburden himself to her. He knew she would be understanding and reassuring. That was her most infuriating quality, the way she understood him. It was an option he did not want to take. Guilt about Frances joined the mess of unpalatable thoughts in his head.

He hardly listened to what she said. Most of it was about Candy and Jane, the shows they had seen, how exhausting she was finding it, how she'd need a proper holiday after this, how she even thought of staying up in Scotland for a few days to recuperate after the girls had gone. Charles sat, half-hearing and restless. Suddenly he created an appointment and rose. They made vague plans to meet for dinner in the next couple of days when he was clearer about his movements, and he slouched off, not daring to look back at the pain in her eyes.

It was still a long time till the pubs. He approached a cinema, but when he got there changed his mind and continued his aimless perambulation.

At last five o'clock arrived. The whisky did not work. It was as if he had a heavy cold and was numb to its powers. Half past seven came and he thought painfully of Gerald and Anna meeting in the Cosmo Ristorante in North Castle Street. He felt powerless, as if he was watching an accident from too far away to prevent it.

It was nearly ten o'clock when Mrs Butt grudgingly admitted Gerald Venables to the Aberdour Guest House. He was flushed with excitement or wine and carrying a briefcase which contained his cassette recorder. ‘Got a specially long tape. I don't know what the quality will be like. I could only put the case on the table and hope for the best.'

Charles was not in the mood for talking. ‘Let's hear it.'

Gerald produced the recorder with all the pride of a schoolboy showing his Cycling Proficiency Certificate. He switched the machine on and wound the tape back. Then, as it started, he fiddled with the dials to get the optimum sound.

The quality was not bad. Gerald's own voice was distant because the microphone had been pointing away from him, but he filled in where his original questions were inaudible. There was a lot of interference from dishes being delivered and cutlery clattering, but most of Anna's answers were perfectly clear. Charles got a strange frisson from hearing her voice. It was not attraction exactly, and it was not guilt, but a mixture of emotions he had never encountered before.

The tape started with an amusing dialogue between Gerald and the waiter, who felt certain that Signor would prefer to put his case on the floor. This was followed by the detailed business of ordering. Gerald did not stint himself, and, encouraged by example, nor did Anna. The client in the Actors' Company was certainly going to pay for advice on his film contract.

After these preliminaries, Gerald started explaining why he was in Edinburgh. As a film producer, he was setting up a new movie, meeting some of the other backers, enjoying the Festival . . . and possibly even doing a bit of casting.

Anna's reaction to this was non-committal and Charles began to feel redoubled guilt. If she were innocent what he and Gerald were doing was unforgivable. No aspiring actress should have her hopes manipulated in such a way.

Gerald's distant voice then started to outline the plot of the film he was setting up, according to their plan. He dropped a few suitably substantial names and spoke airily of the locations in Spain and Finland. In fact, it was not all untrue; it was based closely on the film that he really was setting up. The only bit that was complete fabrication was that one part remained uncast. The part of a young girl, whose lover (a considerable film star was playing the part), a terrible lout, treats her cruelly and is stabbed to death halfway through the film. ‘Of course,' purred the distant voice, ‘that's going to be really difficult, that's the bit that'll call for real acting. The girl's got to express this complex emotion when he's killed. She knows he's a slob, but . . . tricky. I think they should go for Diana Rigg or someone of that stature, but the director's got this crazy idea about finding an unknown. He must've read too many film magazines.'