Inspector Alleyn 3-Book Collection 4: A Surfeit of Lampreys, Death and the Dancing Footman, Colour Scheme. Ngaio Marsh

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СКАЧАТЬ manner over her patient. Alleyn went to the sideboard, dipped a handkerchief in a jug of water, and looked on with distaste while Dr Kantripp slapped it across and across the screaming face. The screams were broken by gasps and the disgusting sound of gnashing teeth. Kantripp who had his fingers on her wrist said loudly: ‘You’ll have to bring me that jug of water, nurse, if you please.’

      Alleyn fetched the water. Curtis said: ‘Unfortunate for the carpet,’ and pulled a grimace. The nurse said in a firm, brightly genteel voice: ‘Now, Lady Wutherwood, I’m afraid we must pour this all over you. Isn’t that a shame?’ Lady Wutherwood scarcely seemed to be aware of this impending disaster yet her paroxysms began to abate and in a few minutes she was led away by Dr Kantripp and the nurse.

      III

      ‘Open the window again, Br’er Fox, if you please,’ said Alleyn. ‘Let’s get some air into the room. That was a singularly distasteful scene.’

      ‘I suppose you know what you were both talking about?’ said Dr Curtis, ‘but I’m damned if I did.’

      ‘What’s your opinion of her, Curtis? No sign of epilepsy, was there?’

      ‘None that I could see. Plain hysteria. That doesn’t say there’s nothing wrong mentally, of course.’

      ‘No. What about it? Think she’s ga-ga?’

      ‘Ah,’ said Dr Curtis, ‘you’re wondering if she’s the answer to the detective’s prayer for a nice homicidal lunatic.’

      ‘Well,’ said Alleyn, ‘what about it? Is she?’

      Dr Curtis pulled down his upper lip. ‘Well, my dear chap, you know how tricky it is. She seemed to speak very wildly, of course, although I must say you appeared to take an intelligent hand in the conversation.’

      ‘What was she getting at, Mr Alleyn?’ asked Fox. ‘All that stuff about having a powerful protector and it seemed to be one of the twins. You don’t seriously suggest anybody impersonated one of those young fellows?’

      ‘I don’t, Fox, but she does.’

      ‘Then she must be dotty. What was the big idea, anyway?’

      ‘It’s so damned preposterous that I hardly dare to think I’m on the right track. However, I’ll tell you what I imagine was the burden of her song.’

      Dr Kantripp returned. ‘The nurse and the maid are getting her to bed,’ he said. ‘The maid will come along as soon as she can.’

      ‘Right. Sit down, Dr Kantripp, and tell us what you know of this lady’s history.’

      ‘Very little,’ said Dr Kantripp instantly. ‘I never saw her until tonight. As far as I can gather from Lady Charles and the others, there’s a history of eccentricity. You’d better ask them about that.’

      ‘Yes, of course,’ agreed Alleyn with his air of polite apology, ‘but I thought that first of all I would just ask you. I suppose they didn’t happen to mention whether the lady was interested in black magic?’

      ‘Now, how the devil,’ asked Dr Kantripp, ‘did you get hold of that?’

      ‘I was just going to explain. You heard her saying something about Marguerite Loundman of Gebweiler and Anna Ruffa of Douzy?’

      ‘I’ve got them down in these notes,’ said Fox, ‘though I didn’t know how to spell them.’

      ‘Well, unless my extremely unreliable memory is letting me down, those two were a brace of medieval witches.’

      ‘Oh, Lor’,’ said Fox disgustedly.

      ‘Go on,’ said Curtis.

      ‘Taking them in conjunction with her suggestions that she had a powerful protector, that her husband had been punished, that she had warned him of his peril, that she recognized her lift conductor by a mark on his neck, that this was a sign from her Little Master, together with all the rest of her mumbo-jumbo, I came to the preposterous conclusion that Lady Wutherwood thinks her husband was destroyed by a demon.’

      ‘Oh, no, really!’ cried Dr Curtis. ‘It’s a little too much.’

      ‘Have you ever come across a book called Compendium Maleficorum?’

      ‘I have not. Why?’

      ‘I don’t mind betting Lady Wutherwood’s got a copy.’

      ‘You think she’s been mucking about with some sort of occultism and gone so far that she actually has hallucinations or illusions.’

      ‘Is it so very unusual among women of her age, restless by temperament, to become hag-ridden by the bogus-occult?’

      ‘You come across some funny things,’ said Fox, ‘in these fortune-telling cases. I suppose you might say this is only going a step further.’

      ‘That’s it, Br’er Fox. If it’s genuine.’

      ‘You surely don’t believe –’ began Dr Kantripp.

      ‘Of course not. I mean, if Lady Wutherwood’s apparent condition is genuine, she’s just another gullible woman with a taste for the occult. But is her condition genuine?’ Alleyn looked at Dr Kantripp. ‘What do you say?’

      ‘I should like to see more of her and hear more of her history before venturing on an opinion,’ said Dr Kantripp uneasily.

      ‘And also,’ murmured Alleyn, ‘you would like, I fancy, to consult with the family.’

      ‘My dear Alleyn!’

      ‘I’m not trying to be offensive. Please don’t think that. But as well as being the Lampreys’ family doctor you are, aren’t you, personally rather attached to them?’

      ‘I think everybody who gets involved with the Lampreys ends by falling for them,’ said Dr Kantripp. ‘They’ve got something. Charm, I suppose. You’ll fall for it yourself if you see much of them.’

      ‘Shall I?’ asked Alleyn vaguely. ‘That conjures up a lamentable picture, doesn’t it? The investigating officer who fell to doting on his suspects. Now, look here. You are two eminent medical gents. I should be extremely grateful for your opinion on the lady who has just made such a very dramatic exit. Without prejudice and all that – which way would you bet? Was the lady shamming or was she not? Come now, it won’t be used against you. Give me a snap judgement, do.’

      ‘Well,’ said Dr Curtis, ‘on sight I – it’s completely unorthodox to say so, of course – but on sight and signs I incline to think she was not shamming. There was no change in her eye. The characteristic look persisted. And when you turned away there were no sharp glances to see how you were taking it. If she was shamming it was a well-sustained effort.’

      ‘I thought so,’ said Alleyn. ‘There was no “see how mad I am” stuff. And there was, didn’t you think, that uncanny thread of logic that one finds in the mentally unsound? But of course she may be as eccentric СКАЧАТЬ