‘I had a Turkish bath, Grant,’ I said, just as she bent me over the side. ‘And it was wonderful. Quite delightful. My skin feels like silk and my-’
‘Your skin is under your clothes,’ she said. ‘Your hair feels like wool, same as it looks. Wild wool. On a fence. In the rain.’ She rubbed the hair soap hard between her hands and set to work on me. My teeth were still chattering when I was sitting, head wrapped in a towel, waiting for her to heat her irons.
‘I’m glad to hear you had time for a walk, Grant,’ I said. ‘This is by way of helping Pallister and Mrs Tilling convalesce and you recover from your extra exertions, you know. Coming here, I mean. And if you decide to use the Hydro’s facilities, I’m sure we can come to some arrangement.’
‘That’s very generous of you, madam,’ Grant said. ‘I’ll tell the others. And thank you.’
‘I meant as to times, actually,’ I said. ‘One wouldn’t want-’ to meet one’s cook and maid stark naked in the plunge pool, was what I was thinking.
‘Oh, I’m sure,’ said Grant. ‘But this house runs itself, more or less, the size that it is and all electric with it.’ She had misunderstood me, which was probably best, and I let it be.
Alec was most entertained by the notion when I mentioned the delicate matter later over the telephone.
‘You don’t mind total strangers, but close acquaintance is beyond the pale?’
‘Something like that,’ I agreed.
‘Mind you, Dorothea said she only goes at night when it’s empty.’
‘Dorothea?’ I asked. ‘Does her title stick in your throat a little, Alec? I never took you to be so old-fashioned as to baulk at a lady doctor.’
‘I’m not,’ he said. ‘I don’t. I just… Anyway, Miss Grant and Mrs Tilling would no more take off all their clothes and sit in a cloud of steam than they would-’
‘You’re probably right,’ I said. ‘I wonder about Pallister, though. If you meet him in the men’s Turkish, be a love and don’t tell me.’
‘I shan’t be in there either,’ Alec said. ‘I spent one rainy season in Nagpur as a child and the tummy bug I caught there is the stuff of legend amongst the Osborne clan. It put me off heat and humidity for life.’
‘Aren’t the germs in the drinking water?’ I said. ‘I don’t think they fly through the air.’
‘The power of association,’ said Alec. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve heard of Mr Pavlov and his salivating dogs.’
‘Don’t you?’ I retorted.
‘I was talking about that only this afternoon, in fact,’ said Alec. ‘And you’ll never guess to whom.’
‘Very likely not,’ I said. ‘Anyway, let me tell you about my chat with Sergeant Simpson.’
‘There’s more going on in this here Hydro than meets the eye,’ said Alec, talking over me. ‘I thought it was all mumbo-jumbo, I have to say, but the psychological angle is-’
‘I wonder if that’s what Hugh’s laughing up his sleeve over,’ I said. ‘Doesn’t seem all that likely.’
‘No, no, no,’ Alec said. ‘That’s quite another neck of the woods. Brother Laidlaw – can you believe they call him Tot? – has hit on a bit of a wheeze to keep the place afloat and lessen his boredom. No, I’m talking about Dr Laidlaw. She’s not that interested in hydropathy per se.’
‘I should say not.’ I laughed to remember it. ‘She seems to be in a world of her own.’
‘An ivory tower,’ Alec said. ‘She called me back for a second examination and we had a very interesting discussion instead. I don’t think she got as far as writing my name on the little card. So I’d be surprised if she’s even noticed what’s going on now.’
‘Tot’s latest wheeze?’ I said. ‘What is it?’
‘No, something else again,’ Alec said. ‘There are Dr Laidlaw Sr’s loyal patients who’ve been coming for years. Then there’s Tot’s crowd – rather a fast set, they are. But you will never guess who’s started arriving to make a third faction.’
I thought of my eavesdropping in the steam room, and the strange bunch who had turned up in the foyer as I was leaving. I thought of Simpson’s revelation too.
‘What’s the bet?’ I asked.
‘First pick of the next juicy bit the case offers,’ said Alec.
‘Does that include shirking the next dull bit?’ I said.
‘Of course.’
‘It’s a deal,’ I said. ‘I am spitting in my palm and holding it to the mouthpiece. I think the wave of new guests coming to the Hydro are… mediums.’ He was silent. ‘Spiritualists.’ Still nothing. ‘Ghost hunters, darling.’
‘Brava,’ said Alec, sounding about as pleased as someone who has just dropped his watch down a grating. ‘How did you know?’
‘And the next irksome task in this case,’ I said, ‘which I must say is beginning to get interesting, is to go back to Edinburgh to the Addies and delicately try to find out if their mother was the fanciful sort who would see a shadow, call it a ghost and drop dead from the shock of it. A ticklish business to carry it off without offending or alerting them, I must say. I’m glad that it falls to you.’
6
Tuesday, 22nd October 1929
Of course, I had to tell him how I knew, which rather diminished my glory.
‘Well, if you will send me off to interview policemen,’ I said, ‘you can’t complain if I turn up treasure.’
‘You really are being quite insufferable,’ Alec said. He recrossed his legs and took his pipe out of his pocket to stare at it in mourning. We were in the winter gardens, packed with the more solid sort of Hydro guests this morning as the rain fell steadily on the late summer gardens outside, and Alec had come a cropper on that very part of the Hydro’s organisation which had so pleased Hugh, namely that all the smoking rooms were gentlemen’s rooms and if one wanted to converse with ladies one had to lump it. He was particularly miffed because the ladies were allowed to smoke in the ladies’ drawing room, but not so the gentlemen who joined them there.
‘What’s the point of that?’ he said. ‘Hardly fair.’
‘I suppose if all the ladies were puffing away on briars and fat cigars, it would be a nonsense,’ I said, ‘but until they do, I for one think it’s perfectly just. Go and stink up the billiards room by all means and leave us be. Besides, no one’s allowed to smoke in here.’
I was thankful of it. The winter gardens had soaring glass ceilings and were easily eighty feet from end to end, but even with the little air vents cranked open and the doors propped ajar they had a slightly Turkish feel about them on such a clammy morning. I supposed some of the guests installed in the basket-work armchairs which were dotted in groups around the walls must have braved the weather for some sort of airing before retreating in here, and so their outdoor clothes were gently steaming. Add to that the fact that there were orchids and palms and yet other exotics of unknown name arranged on staging at all the windows and planted in great clumps in the corners, the sort of plants that zealous gardeners will mist with water and even nicotine potions out of a pump spray every day if given their head, and it was hardly surprising that the air in the winter gardens felt like a warm drink, if not a square meal followed by a cigar, as one breathed it. It did not feel at all like the sort of place sickly people should pack into all together, especially after a soaking and the possibility of a chill.
‘Anyway,’ Alec said. His appetite for squabbling had been diminished by the prospect before him. ‘How would you go about asking if Mrs Addie believed in ghosts then?’
‘Very carefully,’ I replied. ‘I agree with the sergeant – no point in upsetting them. On the other hand, if she was fanciful perhaps they knew. Perhaps if they’re told that their mother thought she saw a ghost they’ll believe in the heart failure after all.’