Страница 33 из 51
“And is she?”
“No, she isn’t-or if she is she doesn’t show it. She has the most admirable self-control. She is easy, charming, and extremely efficient. A
“If she is A
“We’re all going to say worse things than that,” said Philip with an odd intonation. “As a matter of fact you’ve only said what I did. Well, all that’s gone. She can look like A
Garth lifted a frowning gaze to Philip’s face and said,
“Then you don’t believe she is A
Philip said, “Last night I’d have said, ‘I don’t know.’ ”
“And today?”
“At the moment I’m inclined to think I’ve been planted with A
CHAPTER 25
On the same afternoon A
“It’s A
Janice said, “What is it? What can I do?”
“Well, Lyn was here yesterday. You had her to tea last week. She was talking about someone she met then, and I stupidly forgot to ask her the name. I’ve been wondering whether this woman was related to some people I met in France. Lyn’s out, and it’s teasing me-you know the way things do.”
“Would it have been Miss Silver? She was talking to Lyn, and I think I caught your name.”
“Does she live at Blackheath?”
“Oh, no, she lives in Montague Mansions-15 Montague Mansions.” Then, after a little pause, “She has a niece at Blackheath.”
“Who is she?”
“She’s a pet-straight out of the last century. She wears beaded slippers and a boxed-up fringe, but she’s a marvel at her job.”
“What is her job?”
“She’s a private detective.”
A
“No, she isn’t the person I thought of. I don’t know why I got it into my head she might be-it was just one of those things… By the way, don’t tell her I asked-she might think it odd.”
“Oh, no, I won’t.”
A
Later on she kept her appointment. When she came to the shop with the bright blue curtains and the name of Félise over the door she walked straight in. With a murmured “I have an appointment with Mr. Felix,” she passed the girl at the counter, went down the passage between the cubicles, and opened the looking-glass door. She stood for a moment in the dark as Lyndall had stood, and then moved towards the line of light which showed at the edge of the door that faced her. She pushed it open and went in, putting up her hand to shield her eyes.
The light came from a reading-lamp with a dark opaque shade tilted so as to leave the farther side of the room in shadow and to direct a dazzling cone of light upon the door and upon anyone coming in that way. As she turned to get it out of her eyes and to make sure that the latch had caught, she thought, “What a stupid trick! That’s what happened last time-I was dazzled, and I didn’t make sure the door was shut. I’d like to tell him that.”
She turned back to the room, her hand up again, and said in an exasperated voice,
“Turn the light off me, can’t you!”
The room was sparsely furnished-a square of carpet on the floor, a writing-table roughly cutting the space in half, a plain upright chair on the far side, a plain upright chair on the near side, and the electric lamp standing on the table. In the farther chair, and in the deepest of the shadow, Mr. Felix. He lifted a gloved hand and turned the lamp a little. The beam now lay between them. If anyone with a fancy for metaphor had been present, it might have been compared to a fiery sword.
From the nearer chair A
She leaned back from the beam and heard him say,
“Why have you come? I did not send for you.”
The voice was a husky whisper. There was nothing that could be called an accent, only every now and then an intonation which suggested familiarity with some language other than English. She had her own ideas about this, but she was perfectly well aware that it was wise not to formulate them, even for her own private consideration. Better to accept what you were given, do what you were told, and ask no questions. Only there were some things… She said,
“Why did you do it? I told you she was harmless.”
“Is that why you have come here-to ask questions about what is not your business?”
She ought to have stopped there and let it go. Something boiled up in her. For a moment she didn’t care. She had been hating him hard for nearly forty-eight hours-hating him because the police had come down on her, because Joan Tallent had dropped out of the blue to tattle in front of Philip, because of Nellie Collins who had never done anyone any harm. The middle reason was of course quite illogical, because he didn’t know that Joan existed. But logic has very little to do with the primitive instincts. The hating stuff boiled over, and she said,
“I suppose it isn’t my business if you’ve brought the police down on me!”
The toneless voice came back.
“You will explain what you mean by that.”
“She talked about coming up to see me.”
“She promised-”
A
“She talked to a woman in the train! Told her all about bringing up A
“How do you know?”