“Leander swam the Hellespont, and Hero wasn’t half as good looking as you,” I said lightly.
“You mean you really climbed it?” She came back with a long tumbler full of whisky and ice. It looked a lot more tempting than she did; but I didn’t tell her so.
“I climbed it,” I said, and took the glass. “To your dark and lovely eyes, and the figure I haven’t seen—yet.”
She stood by and watched me drink a third of it. Then she lit a cigarette with a hand that was as steady as the cliff we were talking about, took it from her red, sensual mouth and gave it to me.
Our fingers touched. Her skin felt feverish.
“Is your sister here?” I asked, and set the whisky carefully on the coffee table at my side.
She inspected her thumb again thoughtfully, then looked at me out of the corners of her eyes.
“Janet’s dead. She died two years ago,” she said.
“I’ve made a lot of discoveries since you told me that,” I said. “I know the girl your mother kept a prisoner in the sanatorium for something like two years is your sister, Janet. Shall I tell you just how much I do know?”
She made a little grimace and sat down.
“You can if you want to,” she said.
“Some of it is guess-work. Perhaps you’ll help me as I go along?” I said, settling farther down in the chair. “Janet was your father’s favourite. Both you and your mother knew he was going to leave her the bulk of his money. Janet fell in love with Sherrill, who also knew she was coming into the money. Sherrill was quite a dashing type, and dashing types appeal to you. You and he had an affair on the side, but Janet found out and broke the engagement.
There was a quarrel between you two. One of you grabbed a shot-gun. Your father came in at the wrong moment. Did you shoot him or was it Janet?”
She lit a cigarette, dropped the match into an ashtray before saying, “Does it matter? I did if you must know.”
“There was a nurse staying in the house at the time: Anona Freedlander. Why was she there?”
“My mother wasn’t quite right in the head,” she said casually. “She didn’t think I was, either. She persuaded father I wanted looking after, and she sent Nurse Freedlander to spy on me.”
“Nurse Freedlander wanted to call the police when you shot your father?”
She nodded and smiled. The smile didn’t reach the expressionless, coal-black eyes.
“Mother said they would put me away in a home if it came out I had shot him. Nurse Freedlander made herself a nuisance. Mother got her back to the sanatorium and locked her up. It was the only way to keep her quiet. Then Janet insisted on me being locked up, too, and mother had to agree. She sent me here. This is her house. Janet thought I was in the sanatorium. She found out I wasn’t, but she didn’t know where I was. I think that’s why she wrote to you. She was going to ask you to find me. Then Nurse Freedlander had a heart attack and died. This was too good a chance to miss. Mother and Douglas carried her body to Crestways. Mother told Janet I wanted to see her, and she went over to the sanatorium. She was locked up in Nurse Freedlander’s room, and Nurse Freedlander was put in Janet’s bed. It was quite a bright idea, wasn’t it? I called Dr. Bewley who lived near by. It didn’t occur to him that the dead woman wasn’t Janet, and he signed the death certificate. It was easy after that. The Trustees didn’t suspect anything, and I came into all the money.” She leaned forward to tap cigarette-ash into the ashtray, went on in the same flat, disinterested voice, “It was true what I told you about Douglas. The little rat turned on me and tried to blackmail me and made me buy the Dream Skip. Janet’s maid blackmailed me, too. She knew Janet hadn’t died. Then you came along. I thought if I told you some of the story it might scare Douglas off, but it didn’t. He wanted to kill you, but I wouldn’t let him. It was my idea you should go to the sanatorium. I didn’t think you would get Janet away. As soon as I found out where she was I got Sherrill’s men to bring her here.”
“Was it your idea to shoot Nurse Freedlander’s father?”
She made a little grimace of disgust.
“What else could I do? If he told you she had a bad heart I knew you would guess what had happened. I got in a panic. I thought if we could silence him and get her papers from the police we might be able to carry on. But it does seem rather hopeless.”
“Janet’s here then?”
She shrugged.
“Yes, she’s here.”
“And you’re trying to make up your mind what to do with her?”
“Yes.”
“Any ideas?”
“Perhaps.”
I finished my drink. I needed it.
“You shot Sherrill, didn’t you, and set fire to the ship?”
“You have found out a lot.”
“Didn’t you?”
“Oh, yes. I knew he would let me down if the police caught him. He was a nuisance, anyway. It was quite fun to set fire to the ship. I’ve always hated it. Did it burn well?”
I said it burned very well.
We sat for some moments looking at each other.
“I’m wondering about you,” she said suddenly. “Couldn’t we team up together? It seems so senseless to give all that money to a lot of stuffy old scientists. There must be nearly two million left.”
“How should we team up?”
She bit her thumb while she thought about how we should team up.
“You see, she’s my sister. I can’t keep her here for long. If they find out she’s alive I shall lose the money. It would be better if she died.”
I didn’t say anything to that.
“I’ve been in there three or four times with a gun,” she said, after a long pause. “But every time I start to pull the trigger something stops me.” She stared at me, said, “I would give you half the money.”
I stubbed out my cigarette.
“Are you suggesting I should do it?”
This time the meaningless smile did reach her eyes.
“Think what you could do with all that money.”
“I’m thinking, but I haven’t got it yet.”
“Oh, I’d give it to you. I’ll give you a cheque now.”
“You could always stop the cheque when I had done it, couldn’t you? You could shoot me as you shot Sherrill,” I said, and gave her one of my dumb looks.
“When I say a thing I mean it, and when I make a promise I keep it,” she said patiently.
“And besides, you can have me, too.”
“Can I?” I tried not to sound as unenthusiastic as I felt. “That’s fine.” I stood up. “Where is she?”
She stared at me; her face still expressionless, but far up on her left cheek a nerve began to jump.
“Are you going to do it?”
“I don’t see why not. Give me the gun and tell me where she is.”
“Don’t you want me to write the cheque first?”
I shook my head.
“I trust you,” I said, and hoped I wasn’t over-working the dumb look.
She pointed to a door opposite the casement windows at the far end of the room.
“She’s in there.”
I stood up.
“Then give me the gun. It must be made to look like suicide.”
She nodded.
“Yes; I thought of that. You—you won’t hurt her?”
There was a blank look in her eyes now. Her mind seemed to have wandered off into space.
“The gun,” I said, and snapped my fingers at her.
“Oh, yes.” She shivered, frowned, looked vaguely around the room. “I had it somewhere.”
The nerve was jumping like a frog under her skin. “I think it must be in my bag.”
The bag was lying in one of the armchairs. She moved towards it, but I beat her to it.
“It’s all right,” I said. “I’ll get it. You sit down and take it easy.”