The Missing Diamond Murder Read online

  ‘And what did he mean? When he said that his nurse was looking at him in a funny way?’

  ‘Oh, heaven only knows! It was just his fancy, you know.’

  ‘But these things made you think that he might have become confused and pushed himself up the path and over the edge of the cliffs?’

  ‘Well, it seemed the obvious solution.’

  ‘Until someone realized that the diamond was missing?’

  ‘Oh, but I don’t see that makes any difference at all,’ Mellie said. ‘I think he’d just taken it out of the safe and then put it somewhere and forgotten about it. He may even have hidden it, thinking it was for safekeeping. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if it isn’t somewhere in the house.’

  ‘The house has been searched?’

  ‘Of course. But it’s a big house and a small stone. It could be anywhere. In the back of a cupboard, or behind some books or, heaven forefend, stuffed into the soil of a pot plant. Even in a modern house like this there are a thousand and one nooks and crannies.’

  TWELVE

  Roly was the next interviewee. Like Mellie, his recollections about everyone’s precise whereabouts on the afternoon of his grandfather’s demise were far from certain. ‘The thing I remember most clearly was the moment when Monica told me that she’d spotted Grandfather’s chair at the foot of the cliffs. The rest of the afternoon is a bit of a blur, but that stands out.’

  ‘Can you tell me about it?’

  ‘I remember Monica’s face. She was very calm, but I could see it was bad news. I went cold, even as she began to speak. We were on the terrace at the time. Everyone had split up to search, but Eddie and I had just got back when we saw Monica coming down the path from the east cliff. She told us what she’d seen and we both followed her back up there – I think Eddie has showed you the spot. I walked towards the edge and Eddie said, “Take care, old man!” After Eddie’s warning I dropped down on all fours and inched across the last bit to look over. It was easy to see where he’d gone over. The grass grows quite high just there, but it was pretty much flattened where Monica had already crawled over to take a look. It’s dangerous at the edge – bits have been known to drop off.’

  ‘Did it look as if there had been a recent fall? Could it have happened that your grandfather simply went too near the edge and the cliff crumbled under his weight?’

  ‘No. There was no evidence of that.’

  ‘So there’s no chance that the cliff gave way?’

  Roly shook his head. ‘After a fall there’s always quite a pile of earth and stuff sitting on the rocks until it gets washed away by the high tides.’

  ‘You said Monica was calm. Wasn’t she upset?’

  ‘I expect she was, but she didn’t show it. After all, she’s a trained nurse, isn’t she? She’s probably used to breaking bad news.’

  ‘Can you remember how everyone else reacted when they heard the news?’

  ‘I thought Mellie was going to faint. She went white, poor darling. Dolly had a fit of hysterics and had to be taken upstairs. Typical of that type – hardly knew my grandfather but made a great drama over how upset she was.’

  ‘Your brother mentioned that he thought Dolly had been behaving rather oddly that afternoon.’

  ‘Did he? I can’t say that I remember. I never take much notice of Dolly, to tell you the truth.’

  ‘He wondered if she and your uncle Charles had fallen out with one another.’ Fran pursued the point.

  ‘Well, I wouldn’t be at all surprised. It can’t be a success, a marriage like that. Dolly’s a gold-digger of the first order. She was working as a waitress or something of the sort when they met. The wedding was a hole-in-the-corner affair, somewhere abroad. Excuse my frankness, but she must be an embarrassment to him, wherever they go.’

  ‘Do you recall what your uncle Charles was doing that afternoon?’

  ‘I don’t. He wasn’t with Dolly on the tennis court. Maybe he’d stayed on the beach with Miss Billington and the kids.’

  Fran decided not to beat about the bush. ‘Can you tell me whether your uncle benefitted in any way under your grandfather’s will?’

  ‘Yes, I suppose he did to a degree. There were legacies for the whole family.’

  Fran noticed that although Roly answered readily enough, the colour had risen in his cheeks. Perhaps it was only natural, as he had benefitted most of all.

  ‘I trust you don’t find my question offensive?’

  ‘Not in the least,’ said Roly. ‘Money is usually the motive, isn’t it? Let me see … I’m the number one suspect in this respect, because I got the house and the major part of the estate. Eddie and Hen both got modest lump sums. Grandfather had already set them up for life – all in trust funds, of course, so income, rather than capital, they could actually get at.’

  Fran wondered what represented a ‘modest lump sum’ to someone like Roland Edgerton, but before she had time to speculate Roly helped her out, explaining, ‘Grandfather had seen to it that we were all well provided for. The only reason anyone might have wanted to get their hands on a legacy any sooner was if they happened to be temporarily embarrassed, but even then, the old man was notoriously generous. I – I once ran up some gambling debts, but Grandfather settled them for me when I went to him and confessed. So you see, even if any one of us had been in a bit of bother, we needn’t have bumped the old fellow off.’

  ‘Did anyone else receive anything?’

  Again, there was a moment’s hesitation. ‘All our aunts got a few hundred pounds and Uncle Charles did slightly better. The other grandchildren were treated pretty well and several of the staff were remembered. I’m sure I can obtain a copy of the will, if you think it would be helpful.’

  ‘I think you’ve probably told me all I need to know,’ Fran said, thinking that a list of recipients would be very little use without also being able to see their bank statements in order to ascertain how much they had actually needed a legacy. Just then she was struck by another idea. ‘How about your grandfather’s nurse, Monica? Did she benefit?’

  ‘I don’t believe so. She’d only been with us about eighteen months. It was people like Jamieson and Mrs Remington, those who’d served the family over a number of years, you know? There wasn’t anything for Billie or Monica.’

  ‘What happened to her after your grandfather’s death?’

  ‘Monica?’ For a moment Roly seemed surprised by the question. ‘Oh, well, she obtained another post, I expect. Obviously there was nothing more for her to do here. I expect Mother would know more about it. No doubt she would have wanted references and so forth. Technically, of course, Mellie is the lady of the house, but she’s more than happy to leave all that kind of thing to Mother.’

  Lady Louisa was the next interviewee, but she could give no more assistance than Roland when it came to everyone else’s whereabouts on the critical afternoon.

  ‘You see, after lunch I felt one of my heads coming on, so I went up to my room to lie down. I drew the curtains to darken the room and I must have fallen asleep, because I remember waking up briefly and hearing someone laugh on the landing, and someone else shushing them. They must have been right outside my door, because the house is very well made, so one is hardly ever disturbed by noise. The next time I woke, I glanced at the clock and realized that it was past teatime. I straightened my dress, brushed my hair and went straight down on to the terrace. I took my book, but I hardly had time to open it before the first of the family arrived for tea. I’m afraid I can’t quite recall in what order they got there, though Roly and Eddie were most definitely among the first. Henrietta and the Trenchard girls arrived soon after them, I think.’

  ‘And did everyone seem … perfectly ordinary?’

  ‘I’m not sure that I understand quite what you mean, my dear.’

  ‘Did anyone seem a bit preoccupied or out of sorts?’

  Lady Louisa took a moment to consider. ‘Not that I noticed,’ she said. ‘But then I wasn’t paying much attention.
I had just spotted that the symphytum variegatum was drooping and I made a mental note to remind Marshall – he is our head gardener – that it would need regular watering if the spell of hot dry weather continued.’

  The conversation proved more fruitful when Fran turned the subject to Monica.

  ‘She was splendid with my father-in-law. Endlessly patient. And she was no trouble at all. It can be such a trial to the other staff, having a nurse in residence. One hears of them creating absolute ructions in some households, making extra demands on the servants and causing no end of tiresome rows … which of course the mistress of the house then has to sort out and smooth over. These days it is so hard to keep good servants, even in country districts like this where employment prospects are generally so poor. Of course, Monica came with excellent references. She had been with old Lady Aberlithney up until she died and there had been a spell with a family in the south of France before that. The other thing is that she was a rather hefty sort of woman, which meant that she had no difficulties when it came to helping my father-in-law to move about, pushing him in his wheelchair and so forth.’

  ‘Do you know where she is working now?’

  ‘I do not. Naturally I provided a reference when she left, but no one has contacted me to take it up.’

  ‘How long did she stay on after old Mr Edgerton died?’

  ‘Oh, a week or two, I think. We didn’t actually give her notice, you understand. She left of her own accord, so I assume that she either had a post to go to, or else that she had decided to take some time off before finding a position elsewhere.’

  ‘Do you have a forwarding address for her?’

  ‘I believe I do. It’s in my desk, with the household accounts. I will let you have it. I should have thought of it, because of course you will want to question her as well.’ Lady Louisa smiled. ‘You know,’ she said, ‘I think my father-in-law would have enjoyed this. He loved games and puzzles and treasure hunts and the like. If you are finished with me, Mrs Black, shall I ask Henrietta to come in?’

  Henrietta added very little to Fran’s knowledge of the afternoon. She recalled the picnic on the beach, the tennis which had followed, and that it had been ‘fearfully hot’. She did not particularly remember anything about Dolly Edgerton’s mood (‘she has the most hopeless backhand you’ve ever seen, and doesn’t even attempt to serve properly’) but she did recall that ‘Mabel Trenchard was in rather a sulk because Eddie offered to play with Dolly instead of her. Poor Mabel has a terrible pash for Eddie and I don’t believe he cares for her a bit.’

  She knew nothing of the discovery of the body. ‘I’d gone down the lane in the direction of the garages and the gardener’s cottages. We all split up, you see, going off in different directions. I asked at the cottages, but of course no one had seen anything of Grandfather that afternoon, and by the time I got back to the house Monica had reported what she’d found to Roly, and Roly had been to see for himself.’

  ‘Everyone must have been terribly shocked.’

  ‘Oh, yes. When I got back the boys were debating what to do. Whether we ought to call the police and how we could get hold of a boat to get round there. Someone said he might have survived the fall, but Roly just said, “Don’t be ridiculous.” Dolly was in hysterics – I remember wanting to slap her.’

  Poor Dolly, Fran thought. No one seemed to have any time for her at all, except Eddie, who had at least tried to be kind, by offering to partner her on the tennis court.

  THIRTEEN

  When Fran joined the family for lunch in the dining room, she was feeling somewhat dispirited. To be sure, there were some loose ends to be tied up – there was Mellie’s mysterious reference to ‘you know what’ which she had overheard in the hall. ‘Uncle Charles’ was definitely of interest, for he appeared to have spent at least some of the afternoon of his father’s death unaccounted for. She still needed to speak with Miss Billington, who might perhaps have seen something useful, when she had been forced to pursue Imogen after the latter fled from the beach. And then there was Imogen herself. Fran wondered whether it would be possible to keep her still long enough to get any sense out of her.

  As they tucked in to Scotch eggs and salad, Eddie said, ‘I do hope you are going to take some time off from sleuthing this afternoon. All work and no play makes Jill a dull girl – not that you could ever be dull of course,’ he added hastily. ‘But it’s shaping up to be a splendid day and I was going to take a walk up through the woods and across to the west cliff. Do say you’ll accompany me. It might be useful too, because it’s the way the Baddeley kids would have walked the day Grandfather died.’

  ‘That would be delightful,’ Fran said. ‘And as you say, it might be useful.’

  ‘And I promise not to pump you for information,’ Eddie added. ‘We are all agreed among ourselves that you must be left to get on with your investigation, without any interference or undue curiosity … though I for one am dying of curiosity, as you must know.’

  As a result of Eddie’s invitation, the two of them set out together about half an hour later, initially taking the main path which led through the garden to the shore, then striking off to the right after a few minutes to follow a much steeper, narrower path through the belt of trees which edged the western side of the valley. The branches were still bare, but Fran could imagine how dim and shady it would have been on a summer’s day. Pausing for a moment, to look back the way she had come, she realized that even when shorn of their canopy of leaves, the trees ensured that the house and garden were completely out of sight. It would have been most unlikely that the Baddeley children would have seen anyone or anything useful on their walk to and from Sunnyside’s garden.

  ‘Do these woods belong to your family?’ she asked.

  ‘Oh, yes. The Edgerton land goes on for ages yet. We – or rather Roly – owns all this woodland and the grazing on top. The Baddeley estate doesn’t start until you get down into the Ave valley.’

  ‘It’s beautiful countryside round here. You’re very fortunate.’

  ‘Aren’t we, though? Spring and summer are the best times here. I blame Sunnyside for my own lack of industry. If it wasn’t for this glorious place, I might be earning a crust, playing piano in some club or other up in London.’

  ‘You could easily make a living as a pianist,’ Fran said. ‘You’re awfully good.’

  Eddie laughed. ‘I have thought of it,’ he said. ‘I know Mother wouldn’t be keen. It’s not quite the thing, is it? Being an entertainer? And it’s fearfully hard to get started. The other thing is …’ Eddie hesitated. They had come to the edge of the trees and as he turned to hold open a gate, which led into a broad green field, she saw that his expression was unusually serious. ‘It’s sort of … Oh, I don’t know … fraudulent, somehow. You see, I don’t need the money. Thanks to Grandfather, I have enough in the way of income that anything I earned wouldn’t matter, so I’d be nothing but a dilettante. And what’s more, I’d be taking work from someone who really needs it. I suppose you think I’m a bit of an idiot to even care? I mean, most fellows would just think that if one wanted to do a thing, one should just grab that chance.’

  ‘Oh, but you are so right,’ Fran said. ‘It does seem mean to take away a job from someone else who needs it more.’

  Eddie’s face broke into a much more characteristic grin. ‘I knew that you would see it,’ he said.

  ‘But in the meantime,’ Fran said, ‘I suppose that does leave you with a lot of unfulfilled ambitions.’

  ‘You overestimate me.’ Eddie gave another, self-deprecatory laugh. ‘Apart from my musical bent, I am very much suited to a life of indolence, supplemented by a private income. I’d like to travel, I suppose. I’ve always fancied one of those long sea voyages, where one sees something new and exotic every few days. The thing is that one needs the right companion to share it.’

  ‘My best friend, Mo, has just sailed out to visit her husband in Malaya. It sounds as if she has had tremendous fun on the voyage.
’

  ‘The company would be everything, of course.’

  ‘I believe she has fallen in with quite a lively crowd.’

  Eddie made no reply and they walked on across the field in silence, then climbed a stile to enter another grassy expanse, where the ground continued to rise gently. When they reached the highest point, Fran saw that the land ahead of them slid into a gentle fold, where a solitary house stood in a grove of newly planted trees. ‘Is that Baddeley Court?’ she asked.

  ‘Lord, no. Baddeley Court is a good half-mile further west. Grandfather had this built a couple of years after Sunnyside House was finished. He had a drive put in as well, so you can get to it via the road. It’s a jolly spot, isn’t it? Sea views from all the south-facing windows.’

  As they continued towards the house, Fran could see that it was relatively newly built, its garden not yet enclosed or laid out. ‘Who lives there?’ she asked, anticipating some family retainer, perhaps holding some fresh and as yet unexpected clue.

  ‘No one,’ Eddie said. ‘It was built for me.’

  ‘But you don’t live here?’

  ‘Oh, no. Roly and Mellie don’t seem to mind that Hen and I are perpetually playing gooseberry. We all rub along together pretty well, as you’ve probably realized. So Innominate House won’t be tenanted until I’ve persuaded the right woman to share it with me.’

  ‘Innominate House?’

  ‘The house with no name. Grandfather meant that I should name it myself, but I’ve no imagination to speak of, so it will be left up to my bride. Like to see around?’

  ‘Oh, I’d love to,’ said Fran, whose healthy curiosity extended to other people’s houses.

  ‘It’s not furnished,’ Eddie said, as he fished the front door keys from his pocket.

  ‘Is that to be left to the future Mrs Edgerton too?’ Fran asked, as he held the door open for her.

  ‘Absolutely. Women have far better taste than men.’

  It was an undeniably lovely house and Fran had no difficulty in finding complimentary things to say about it as Eddie showed her over the property. He seemed gratified by her enthusiasm. ‘And no one has ever stayed here?’ she asked, remembering that when it came to detection, one should always consider the unexpected.