‘I haven’t been able to find any information about Peter Quin’s personal life. Nothing about family or friends or emotional attachments. He never seemed to have stayed in one place for long. According to something I read his agent had met him only once. No one seems to have known him at all well on a personal level.’
‘Which was perfect for Lord Remnant’s plan …’
‘Perfect is the word. Well, Remnants have the reputation for concocting schemes that are at once lunatic and logical. Shakespeare is said to have invented the phrase “method in his madness” with a Remnant in mind.’
Antonia picked up the coffee pot. ‘Let’s sum up, shall we? Lord Remnant manages to antagonize most of the population of Grenadin and in consequence starts receiving death threats. He finds a rattlesnake crazed by amphetamines in his bathroom. He pretends not to be affected, but the incident has left him shaken up. He thinks of a plan. He will make his enemies believe he is dead. He will stage his own death, after which he will disappear — or rather become somebody else.’
‘He will become Peter Quin. It is Peter Quin who will die in his place.’ Payne started filling his pipe with tobacco from his tobacco jar. ‘The murder will be pinned on his stepson, who has already made his murderous intentions clear enough — in front of witnesses.’
‘Lord Remnant makes all the necessary preparations for the takeover. He contacts his solicitors and adds a codicil to his will, leaving five million pounds to Peter Quin.’ Antonia’s eyes narrowed. ‘Perhaps he lets Quin know about it, which makes it difficult for him to refuse the commission? He tells Quin he will need his services again. This time for a more intimate, more domestic kind of show.’
‘He explains he intends to play a prank on his house guests. They are staging The Murder of Gonzago at his Grenadin retreat. It is going to be a dumbshow. He wants Quin to switch places with him-’
‘Lord Remnant will take part in the rehearsals, but it is Quin who will appear in the performance itself … Lord Remnant says he wants to see if his guests will be able to tell the difference, something on those lines.’ Antonia frowned. ‘Quin doesn’t suspect a trap, does he?’
‘Not for a moment. Why should he? He has already worked for Lord Remnant. He is used to Lord Remnant’s eccentricities. Well, Quin accepts the commission and thus signs his death warrant.’ Payne struck a match and put it to his pipe.
‘The instructions are that he arrives at La Sorciere earlier in the afternoon concealed inside a coffin.’
‘A rococo embellishment which, again, is entirely in keeping with Remnant’s histrionic nature,’ said Payne. ‘No one will see Quin actually enter the Remnant estate. If something goes wrong, Quin will emerge and be greeted as the grisly Grimaud, with which Lord Remnant has already been threatened. The whole thing will then be laughed off as a joke.’
‘But nothing goes wrong-’
‘No. Quin is smuggled into the house. He hides in Lord Remnant’s dressing room. Later in the evening he makes his appearance in the drawing room, disguised as Gonzago. Meanwhile-’
‘Meanwhile Lord Remnant has his revolver ready,’ said Antonia. ‘He has fixed a silencer to it. The guards have been given the evening off. Stephan is the only one lurking outside the house, but he is already under the influence of some drug.’
‘Lord Remnant stands on the terrace beside the french windows. He takes aim through the gap in the curtains. He pulls the trigger. He is a good shot. The bullet gets Quin in the back of the head. Lord Remnant wipes the gun clean of fingerprints, drops it and quickly re-enters the house through a side door.’
‘He sneaks up to his dressing room-’
‘He conceals himself in the bathroom. It was his laugh that Basil Hunter heard later on. Lord Remnant seems to have suddenly found the whole thing irresistibly comical.’
‘How much does Clarissa know?’ Antonia asked after a pause.
‘I think she knows about the switch but no more. Lord Remnant tells her he is planning a prank. He enrols her assistance. He must have done. Without her he can’t do it. He doesn’t tell her that he intends to kill Quin of course. Nor that he plans to assume Quin’s identity. I am sure she knows nothing about his real plan.’
‘He wants her to think it was her son who did the shooting …’
‘Yes. Lord R. knows that it would help his cause if his wife were to be emotionally involved … Well, Dr Sylvester-Sale discovers the hole in the dead man’s skull. There seems to be little doubt in everybody’s mind that it was Stephan who committed the murder. They had seen him lurking outside the window disguised as Bottom.’
‘And of course they remember the incident in Lord Remnant’s study when Stephan tried to shoot his stepfather with that very same gun,’ said Antonia.
‘Clarissa is convinced Stephan is the culprit. She doesn’t want her son to be arrested and interrogated by the police.’
‘Perhaps there are drugs in the house. Perhaps she takes drugs too? No, she doesn’t want the police inside the house, conducting an investigation. She decides on concealment. But she must talk to her husband first. You said that she went upstairs immediately after the murder?’
‘That’s what Sylvester-Sale told me, yes.’ Payne held up his pipe. ‘Well, I believe she went to see her husband and tell him what had happened. She needed to know what they should do next. After all, the whole thing had been Lord Remnant’s idea.’
‘It was quite an extraordinary situation …’
‘You can say that again. Everybody believes the dead man is Lord Remnant. Only Clarissa knows that it is Peter Quin. I can imagine her whispering frantically. Do we tell them that the dead man is not you? Well, the answer of course is, No, we don’t. We let them continue believing it is me.’
‘He pretends he has thought of something?’
Payne cleared his throat theatrically. ‘I’ve got an idea. It isn’t as outlandish as you may think, Clarissa. Let everybody continue thinking I am dead. You see, no one knows Quin’s been here. I specifically asked him to keep mum about it. I will take Quin’s place.’
‘What do you mean, Roderick? Have you gone mad?’ Antonia asked.
‘Pas du tout. This is my chance to cheat death. Don’t you see?’
‘What about the death certificate?’
‘Your medico chums will have to fix that. Have Quin cremated, not buried. No chance of complications that way.’
‘It won’t work!’
‘Of course it will work, Clarissa. Lord Remnant is no more. He has passed into Higher Service. He was Gently Translated. He Fell Asleep. I want everybody on this bloody island to know that. Then there’ll be no more death threats and so on. Let the whole bloody world believe I am no more. Natural causes, don’t forget. That will also be the way out for Stephan. Stephan doesn’t need to come into the picture at all.’
Payne resumed his normal voice. ‘Well, that’s what she did. She let the world know her husband died of a heart attack … So you think Clarissa speaks in a breathless Marilyn Monroe voice?’
Antonia shrugged. ‘That’s how it came out.’
‘Damned attractive. Is it possible for you to speak in that voice always?’
‘Do you really want me to? Wouldn’t it drive you mad, eventually? It’s interesting that neither Dr Sylvester-Sale nor Basil Hunter realized the dead man was not their host … I mean they took him to his room, didn’t they?’
‘Well, Peter Quin was grotesquely made up. People always look different when they die anyhow — they shrink — the mouth goes slack — the nose gets sharper — the eyes glaze over … Besides, they were working under tremendous pressure, remember.’
‘They knew very well they shouldn’t be moving the body …’