Inspector Alleyn 3-Book Collection 8: Death at the Dolphin, Hand in Glove, Dead Water. Ngaio Marsh

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      ‘But I distinctly remember –’ Mr Period began. ‘Well,’ never mind. Your telephone call, child.’

      Nicola went into the hall.

      Andrew Bantling said: ‘Oh, there you are at last! What goes on in the lay-by? P.P. sounded most peculiar.’

      ‘He’s awfully busy.’

      ‘You’re being discreet and trustworthy. Never mind, I shall gimlet it out of you on the train. You couldn’t make the three thirty, I suppose?’

      ‘Not possibly.’

      ‘Then I shall simply have to lurk in the lane like a follower. There’s nowhere for me to be in this district. Baynesholme has become uninhabitable on account –’ he lowered his voice and evidently put his mouth very close to the receiver, so that consonants popped and sibilants hissed in Nicola’s eardrum.

      ‘What did you say?’

      ‘I said the Moppett and her Leonard have arrived in a smashing Scorpion under the pretence of wanting to see the family portraits. What’s the matter?’

      ‘I’ve got to go. Sorry. Goodbye,’ Nicola said, and rushed to the library.

      Mr Cartell and Mr Period broke off their conversation as she entered. Sergeant Raikes was dialling a number.

      She said, ‘I thought I should tell you at once. They’re at Baynesholme. They’ve driven there in the Scorpion.’

      Mr Cartell went into action.

      ‘Raikes,’ he said, ‘tell Copper I want him here immediately in the car.’

      ‘Which car, sir?’ Raikes asked, startled, the receiver at his ear.

      ‘The Bloodbath,’ Mr Period said impatiently. ‘What else? Really, Raikes!’

      ‘He’s to drive me to Baynesholme as fast as the thing will go. At once, Raikes.’

      Sergeant Raikes began talking into the telephone.

      ‘Be quick,’ Mr Cartell said, ‘and you’d better come too.’

      ‘– yes, George,’ said Sergeant Raikes into the telephone. ‘That’s correct. Now.’

      ‘Come along, Raikes. My hat and coat!’ Mr Cartell went out. ‘Alfred! My top-coat.’

      ‘And you might ask them, Harold, while you’re about it,’ Mr Period quite shouted after him, ‘what they did with my cigarette-case.’

      ‘What?’ the retreating voice asked.

      ‘Lady Barsington’s card case. Cigarettes.’

      There was a shocked pause. Mr Cartell returned, half in and half out of an overcoat, and a tweed hat cocked over one eye.

      ‘What do you mean, P.P.? Surely you don’t suggest …’

      ‘God knows! But ask them. Ask!’

      IV

      Desirée, Lady Bantling (ex-Cartell, factually Dodds), sat smiling to herself in her drawing-room. She smoked incessantly and listened to Moppett Ralston and Leonard Leiss and it would have been impossible for anyone to say what she thought of them. Her ravaged face, with its extravagant make-up, and her mop of orange hair made a flagrant statement against the green background of her chair. She was possibly not unamused.

      Moppett was explaining how interested Leonard was in art and what a lot he knew about the great portrait painters.

      ‘So I do hope,’ Moppett was saying, ‘you don’t think it too boring and bold of us to ask if we may look. Leonard said you would, but I said we’d risk it and if we might just see the pictures and creep away again –?’

      ‘Yes, do,’ Desirée said. ‘They’re all Bantling ancestors. Gentlemen in skin-tight breeches, and ladies with high foreheads and smashing bosoms. Andrew could tell you all about them, but he seems to have disappeared. I’m afraid I’ve got to help poor Bimbo make up pieces of poetry for a treasure hunt and in any case I don’t know anything about them. I want my pictures to be modern and gay and, if possible, rude.’

      ‘And of course, you’re so right, Lady Bantling,’ Leonard said eagerly. He leant forward with his head on one side sending little waves of hair-oil towards her. Desirée watched him and accepted everything he said without comment. When he had talked himself to an ingratiating standstill, she remarked that, after all, she didn’t really think she was all that interested in painting.

      ‘Andrew has done a portrait of me which I do quite fancy,’ she said. ‘I look like the third witch in Macbeth before she gave up trying to make the best of herself. Hallo, my darling, how’s your Muse?’

      Bimbo had come in. He threw an extremely cold glance at Leonard.

      ‘My Muse,’ he said, ‘is bitching on me. You must help me, Desirée; there ought to be at least seven clues and it’s more amusing if they rhyme.’

      ‘Can we help?’ Moppett suggested. ‘Leonard’s quite good at really improper ones. What are they for?’

      ‘A treasure hunt,’ he said, without looking at her.

      ‘Treasure hunts are my vintage,’ Desirée said. ‘I thought it might be fun to revive them. So we’re having one tonight.’

      Moppett and Leonard cried out excitedly. ‘But I’m utterly sold on them,’ Moppett said. ‘They’re quite the gayest way of having parties. How exactly are you working it?’ she asked Bimbo. He said shortly that they were doing it the usual way.

      Desirée stood up. ‘Bimbo’s planting a bottle of champagne somewhere and the leading-up clues will be dotted about the landscape. If you don’t mind just going on your picture crawl under your own steam we’d better begin racking our brains for rhymes. Please do look wherever you like.’ She held out her hand to Moppett. ‘I’m sorry not to be more hospitable, but we are, as you see, in a taking-on. Goodbye.’ She looked at Leonard. ‘Goodbye.’

      ‘My God!’ Bimbo said. ‘The food from Magnums! It’ll be at the station.’

      Moppett and Leonard stopped short and looked passionately concerned.

      ‘Can’t you pick it up,’ Desirée asked, ‘when you lay your trail of clues?’

      ‘I can’t start before we’ve done the clues, can I?’

      ‘They’re too busy to send anyone from the kitchen and they want the stuff. Madly. We’d better get the Bloodbath to collect it.’

      ‘Look!’ Moppett and Leonard said together and then gaily laughed at each other. ‘“Two minds with butter –”’ Moppett quoted. ‘But please – please do let us collect the things from Magnums. We’d adore to.’

      Desirée СКАЧАТЬ