The Greatest Murder Mysteries - Dorothy Fielding Collection. Dorothy Fielding

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      CHAPTER 5

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      THE first name on the list which Pointer had drawn up before coming down to Twickenham was that of Mr. Stewart, the solicitor to the Tangyes, and also the Twickenham Coroner.

      The Chief Inspector was shown in without any delay on sending in his card, and at once explained that he was acting for Wilmot, who was unavoidably prevented from coming.

      Stewart put the tips of his thin white hands together and waited. He was a very punctilious, elderly man, who did not look over pleased at Wilmot's substitute.

      "Did Mrs. Tangye withdraw her will even temporarily from your keeping?" Pointer asked.

      "She did not, Chief Inspector."

      "Then I take it that she wrote to your firm suggesting altering her will, or at least asking for it back."

      "And why do you 'take it' that way?" Stewart asked bleakly.

      "Because of the character of the very searching questions you put at the inquest."

      Stewart was drumming on the table before him.

      "The point—about her having possibly asked for her will back—will have to be cleared up," Pointer spoke as though regretting the necessity. "Since Wilmot inclines to the belief that Mrs. Tangye's death was suicide. And you know his standing. The Company has given him carte blanche. He did think of applying formally for the handing over of any papers, or letters, in your possession, but I think we can arrange it between ourselves. After all, it's only just a matter of routine. She did write you on the point. We feel sure of that."

      Stewart pressed a bell, and a moment later handed Pointer a docketed letter.

      It was from Mrs. Tangye, and was dated the night before she died.

      Dear Mr. Stewart,

      Please send me my will at your earliest convenience for some alterations I wish to make. And please treat this request as strictly confidential.

      Sincerely yours,

      Mable Tangye.

      "Did you send her the will?"

      "It would have been posted to her Tuesday night, but for hearing of the terrible accident," Stewart stressed the word, "that happened to her."

      "I think Mr. Wilmot would like to keep this. I'll give you the usual receipt." Pointer folded the letter away in his pocket book. Stewart said nothing.

      "Had she ever asked for her will back before?"

      "Never."

      "Have you any idea as to the nature of the change she wished to make?"

      "None whatever. I doubt if she would have made any—perhaps a small bequest to Miss Saunders. A very faithful, conscientious woman that. Otherwise I feel sure that the principal beneficiary would have remained Mr. Tangye."

      "Yet you didn't mention the letter at the inquest."

      "Mentioning it, which means producing it, would have served no useful purpose except to arouse painful and most unfounded gossip. And would have been contrary to her own written request." Stewart looked sharply at the man in front of him. "I, too, take it that you are not satisfied with the finding of this morning?"

      Had Stewart asked before that verdict was given he would have had a full reply, but now he was a dethroned monarch. Pointer said briefly:

      "I am helping the Insurance Company, or rather Mr. Wilmot, to get a few facts together for his final judgment, and unfortunately I was not at the inquest myself. I've only read the reports."

      "To some purpose," Stewart said acidly.

      "You knew the dead woman for many years?" Pointer asked.

      "I drew up her first marriage settlement. Or rather Branscombe's. She had nothing to settle. Her father had a small annuity. Her mother left nothing."

      "What about her cousin Oliver?"

      Stewart looked an inquiry.

      "I understand that he is her only relative."

      Stewart smiled faintly.

      "I've had the pleasure of being on a case with you before, Mr. Chief Inspector. You understand a good deal more than that about Oliver Headly, I'll go bail. I shouldn't be surprised if you know where that unmitigated scallywag is at the present moment."

      Pointer assured him that as yet he only knew of his existence, and the most outstanding features of his murky career.

      Stewart added a few more. Among them that as he was a penniless orphan, his uncle, the Hampshire rector, had practically adopted him, had lavished a small income and a great love on the lad, and had died after a very painful interview with his bank manager. The parson, white and haggard, had told the only big lie of his life. He accepted as his a signature on a cheque which the cashier had refused to pay out to the nephew. The old man had collapsed before he reached his home. Dying from a literally broken heart. Greatly to the relief of all who knew Oliver, that young man had left England about twelve years ago, and since then, as far as Stewart knew, had not been heard of.

      Pointer asked if there had been anything of a love affair between the cousins.

      Stewart did not know. But in the early days the rector had hoped they would marry. Stewart went on to say that he doubted if the wish would have come to anything, even without Oliver's putting himself outside the pale, for he understood that Mrs. Tangye had always disliked her cousin intensely.

      Stewart was a man of scrupulous honesty. He would hold back what facts he could which would tell against his client, but nothing, not the wealth of Golconda, would have made him deviate from the truth. He now leant forward and tapped Pointer's knee with his glasses.

      "There never was a more respectable, creditable past than Mrs. Tangye's, I should say."

      He ran over the points of her uneventful life again, and of her first husband's settlements.

      "You never came upon any trace of any one who might have a claim on her? Who might bear a grudge against her?"

      Stewart made a gesture of definite negation.

      Pointer looked at his boot-tips.

      "She didn't also write about withdrawing her money from her husband's firm? She is bound to give him six months notice of any such action."

      Stewart looked at the dock.

      "Sorry to cut you short, Chief Inspector, but I have a client waiting."

      "I should like that letter too, please," Pointer said placidly. Stewart СКАЧАТЬ