Sylvester-Sale passed a weary hand across his face. ‘What is it you actually want from me?’
‘A simple answer to a simple question — is the place safe? I mean Grenadin. Is Grenadin safe?’
There was a pause. ‘You want me to tell you — if Grenadin is safe? Is that all you want to know? Is that why — why you came to see me?’
‘That is all I want to know, yes.’ Payne smiled pleasantly. ‘Lady Remnant — Felicity Fenwick, as she once was — is anxious to ascertain exactly how safe the island of Grenadin is. She and her husband — the thirteenth earl — are considering building property on Grenadin.’
‘I thought the Fenwicks couldn’t stand the place. Not their kind of scene at all.’
Payne had prepared his answer.
‘Neither Lady Remnant nor her husband proposes to live on Grenadin. Their intention is to have several holiday villas built and then to let them. Lady Remnant believes it was one or more of the locals who brought about her brother-in-law’s death. She has heard about the death threats Lord Remnant had been receiving.’
There was another pause. ‘Very well. It’s true. Lord Remnant did receive a number of anonymous death threats. I am afraid his popularity ratings among the people of Grenadin were rather low … No, he wasn’t perturbed, at least that was the impression he gave. He amused himself by sticking the death threats in a scrapbook.’
‘Did he ever show them to you?’
‘He did. He showed them to all of us one evening after dinner. He read aloud three or four of the more lurid ones. He put on an exaggerated Grenadin accent, which was actually quite funny … He was warned that he’d have his left arm chopped off, then his right, then his right ear, then his nose — you get the idea. There were some silly ones as well, like threatening to unleash the Grimaud on him.’
Payne feigned ignorance. ‘What’s that? A dog?’
‘No. A demon. The Grimaud is conjured up by a curse. It is one of the most popular superstitions on the island. Lord Remnant said he longed to meet the Grimaud.’
‘He wasn’t at all frightened?’
‘I don’t think he was. He said once emotionalism was for the lower orders and that he was bound by his blue blood code. In his own mad way he was quite brave. A rattlesnake appeared in his bathroom one night, but he managed to spear it with his swordstick and then carried it down to the incinerator in the basement. We saw him as he came down the stairs. He was holding the swordstick aloft, with the snake dangling from it, dripping blood. It made the women scream. That seemed to please him.’
‘He liked striking attitudes?’
‘Oh, very much so. He told us what happened in some detail. Apparently the snake went for him the moment he opened the bathroom door. It is my belief it had been injected with amphetamines — that would explain why it was so aggressive.’
‘Are amphetamines easy to obtain on Grenadin?’
‘I believe they are. Drugs, generally, are a big industry on Grenadin. According to some statistics, one in every three islanders is involved in the drug trade,’ Sylvester-Sale drawled. He appeared to have regained his composure completely.
‘When did the snake incident take place?’
‘About a fortnight before he died, I think. Lord Remnant suspected it was one or more of the locals who’d doctored the snake and put it in his bathroom.’
‘Do you have to be a doctor to be able to doctor a snake?’
‘No, not necessarily. You need to have the stomach for it, though. Oh and a syringe … Lord Remnant said it was the work of his “enemies”, but he refused to report the incident to the police. Guards? Yes, Lord Remnant had guards, but, as it happened, they were far from reliable.’
‘I suppose Clarissa left the room in the immediate aftermath of her husband’s murder?’ Payne spoke casually.
‘I don’t see what that’s got to do with anything. Why do you want to know?’ Suddenly Sylvester-Sale looked extremely suspicious. ‘You are wasting your time if you are trying to pin the murder on Clarissa.’
‘That, I assure you, is not my intention.’
‘Well, as it happens, she did leave the room,’ Sylvester-Sale said. ‘She needed to go to the bathroom. Nothing odd in that. I believe she needed to collect her thoughts.’
‘How long was she out of the room?’
‘No more than five or ten minutes.’
A consultation, thought Payne; Clarissa had needed an urgent consultation. It all fitted in. The situation had been extremely complicated. Clarissa had been out of her depth and unable to make a decision. She had needed to know what her next move should be …
‘Did you like Lord Remnant, doctor?’
‘You do ask some very strange questions, Major Payne.’
‘Absolute monsters are rare, but the late Lord Remnant doesn’t seem to have had a single redeeming feature. Not a single one. Is that possible? I find it very hard to believe.’ Payne shook his head.
‘Did I like Lord Remnant? No, not particularly. In fact, if you must know,’ Dr Sylvester-Sale said, ‘not at all. No one did.’
‘No one? Not even Clarissa?’
‘Least of all Clarissa. Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.’
‘That’s terribly sad,’ said Payne. ‘Can one live without love?’
‘Lord Remnant clearly could.’
‘Mad, bad and dangerous to know … That’s how he emerges from all the stories I’ve heard so far. I must admit this whole case exercises a peculiar fascination over me. The protagonists and their foibles have got me firmly in their grip.’ Payne clenched his hand into a fist. ‘I understand Clarissa’s son has a serious drug problem?’
‘That’s been taken care of.’
‘What’s the likelihood of Lord Remnant having been involved in the drug trade on the island?’
‘If, for argument’s sake, he was involved, it couldn’t have been for the money. At the time of his death he was an extremely rich man, you know.’
‘Couldn’t he have done it for the thrill of it? To escape boredom? Isn’t that possible?’
Sylvester-Sale shrugged. ‘I suppose it’s possible. Anything was possible where Lord Remnant was concerned. He was prey to ennui. He referred to it as “my pathological condition”. He would do anything to escape boredom, yes. He said that danger stimulated him … He did some very silly things. In many ways he was quite mad. I don’t think he had a safety valve … So, yes, it’s perfectly possible.’
‘Was Lord Remnant a clever man, doctor?’
‘Depends on how one defines “clever”. He certainly thought of himself as clever, which is not quite the same thing. He considered himself a genius … I suppose he was clever — in a highly idiosyncratic kind of way. He seemed to identify with criminal masterminds like Dr No and Goldfinger.’
‘Did he now?’
‘Yes. He loved watching those awful James Bond films.’
‘Would you say Lord Remnant was capable of planning and executing a murder?’ Major Payne asked.
Dr Sylvester-Sale looked at him curiously. ‘I would. Yes. Perfectly capable.’
It was only after his visitor had taken his leave that Dr Sylvester-Sale remembered that Grenadin had been left to Clarissa and that it was highly unlikely that the Fenwicks should be planning to have holiday villas built on the island. Clarissa would have told him had that indeed been the case. What exactly had Major Payne been after?
28
Renee broke down and dissolved into sobs. Gerard Fenwick put a slightly awkward avuncular arm around her shoulders.
‘There, there. What is the matter? I knew there was something wrong.’
‘Everything’s wrong — everything!’
‘That’s not possible, my dear. Not everything. I don’t believe the end of the world has come yet, has it?’
‘No. No. I am sorry,’ Renee said indistinctly, her face pressed against the lapel of his tweed jacket. ‘I am so sorry.’