LITMIR.BIZ

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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 as a rabbit on skates and not come within the meaning of the act. “It is quite impossible,” as Mr Taylor says, “to define the term insanity with any precision.”’

      ‘In this case,’ said Kantripp, ‘you needn’t try. It doesn’t arise.’

      ‘If,’ said Fox in his stolid way, ‘she’d killed her husband?’

      ‘Yes,’ agreed Alleyn, ‘if she had done that.’

      Dr Kantripp put his hands in his trouser pockets, took them out again, and walked restlessly round the room.

      ‘If she had done that,’ Alleyn repeated, ‘the question of her sanity or degree of insanity would be of the very first importance.’

      ‘Yes, yes, that’s obvious. As a matter of fact I understand that she has paid visits to some sort of nursing home. You can find out where and what it is, no doubt. Frid seemed to suggest there had been a bit of mental trouble at some time but – see here, Alleyn, do you suspect her of murder? Have you any reason to suppose there’s a motive?’

      ‘No more reason, perhaps, than I have for suspecting motive with the Lampreys.’

      ‘But, damn it all,’ Dr Kantripp burst out, ‘you can’t possibly think any one of those delightful lunatics is capable – to my mind it’s absolutely grotesque to imagine for one moment – I mean, look at them.’

      ‘Look at the field if it comes to that,’ said Alleyn. ‘The Lampreys, Lady Katherine Lobe. Lady Wutherwood –’

      ‘And the servants.’

      ‘And the servants. The nurse, the butler, the cook, and the housemaids belonging to this flat; and the chauffeur and lady’s maid belonging to the Wutherwoods. Oh, and a bailiff’s man at present in possession here.’

      ‘Good Lord!’

      ‘Yes. I expect when Messrs Lane and Eagle learn in the morning’s paper that Lord Charles has come in for the peerage, they will slacken the pressure. But in the meantime there is Mr Grumball, the bum-bailiff, to be added to the list of possibles. A fanciful speculation might suggest that Mr Grumball fell for the Lamprey charm and, moved by remorse and distaste for his job, altruistically decided to murder Lord Wutherwood; or, if you like, that Mr Grumball dispatched Lord Wutherwood as an indirect but certain method of collecting the debt.’

      ‘I’d believe that,’ said Dr Kantripp rather defiantly, ‘before I’d believe one of the Lampreys did it.’

      ‘How would you describe the Lampreys?’ asked Alleyn abruptly.

      ‘You’ve met them.’

      ‘I know. But to someone who hadn’t met them. Suppose you had to find a string of appropriate adjectives for the Lampreys, what would they be? Charming, of course. What else?’

      ‘What the devil does it matter how I describe them?’

      ‘I should like to hear, however.’

      ‘Good Lord! Well, amusing, and ah – well ah –’

      ‘Upright?’ suggested Alleyn. ‘Business-like? Scrupulous? Reliable? Any of those jump to the mind?’

      ‘They’re kind,’ said Dr Kantripp turning rather red. ‘They’re extremely good-natured. They wouldn’t hurt a fly.’

      ‘Never do anybody any sort of injury?’

      ‘Never, wittingly, I’m sure.’

      ‘Scrupulous over money matters?’

      ‘Very generous. Look here, Alleyn, I

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