‘Did she ever spend her holidays, or part of them, with you?’
‘No. It wouldn’t have done, once I’d married my Tony.’
‘But you were sure that it would work when you agreed to having her join you in Italy?’
‘It seemed safe enough at the time. She told us she was engaged.’
‘To whom?’
‘She never said, and we didn’t press it. We didn’t think it could be to anybody very much, or else she’d have been the first one to crow about it. Putting two and two together, we reckoned it might be to a garage hand or a barman, or something of that—that is, if it was true, and not just a tale she’d made up.’
‘Did anything transpire during the holiday which caused you to think that she might be in any trouble, difficulty or danger?’
‘Not without it might have been the man who kept following us around. And, of course, she was a nuisance with Tony. But this man — ”
‘Indeed?’
‘Yes. We noticed him first when we went to visit Pompeii. I don’t understand these old ruins and things, but Tony was very proud of them and insisted on me seeing them all. I suppose it was because I wasn’t interested that I noticed this man and pointed him out to Tony. But Tony seemed to think he was only creeping in on our party to hear what the guide had to say. Personally, I thought the man was up to no good, but, as he behaved himself and even gave the guide a tip at the end, I couldn’t do anything, and tried to persuade myself it was just my fancy.’
‘Quite so. Did your daughter seem to notice the man particularly?’
‘No, I can’t say she did, but you couldn’t ever tell, with Carrie, from quite a little girl, what she noticed and what she didn’t. She never gave herself away.’
‘Except over Mr Biancini, I think you hinted.’
‘Even then, I’ll admit, I never noticed anything. I suppose it wouldn’t have occurred to me. It was Tony himself tipped me off and told me she was getting embarrassing, so, of course, I made a bit of a scene and turned her out.’
‘That, surely, was drastic treatment?’
‘You didn’t know Carrie. Half-measures didn’t mean a thing to her. I told her to get back to her boarding school and be quick about it. She got short shrift from me, I can tell you.’
‘Was it your first visit to Italy—this holiday?’
‘Yes. Tony and me had often talked about it, and then, quite suddenly, he said his relations had invited us over, and he’d like to go, and what about me. Well, I wasn’t all that keen, but I could see he was dead set on it. Of course, Italians are great family people, even if they do get excited and quarrel with each other, and I could tell I’d better say yes. But, oh, dear! When we got there! Well, really, Dame Beatrice, I couldn’t tell you! To begin with, there were dozens of them, all living (if you can call it that!) in one of those dreadful tenement houses in the back streets of Naples.’
Dame Beatrice made sympathetic noises and suggested that it depended upon what one was accustomed to in the way of living accommodation.
‘I packed it up at the end of the third day,’ Mrs Biancini continued. ‘I told Tony he’d got to find us a hotel. I will say for him that he did see it my way, and so we went to the Vittorio, and, my, what a nice change that was!’
‘He chose the Vittorio, I believe, because one of his relatives worked there.’
‘That’s quite right. It was out of the season, I suppose, and his brother Giovanni got us special terms, but, I must say, that didn’t seem to make any difference to the way we were treated. Always respect shown, and doors opened for you and a light for your cigarette, just as it might be the Ritz or anywhere else. I really enjoyed myself.’
‘And your daughter Carrie was with you all the time?’
‘Well, until I gave her her return tickets and sent her back to Naples until the boat sailed. Mind you, the noise and smells and dirt didn’t seem to get on her the way they did on me, but then, as she said, being used to crowds of kids, and the stink of everlasting cabbage, and not being able to get housemaids, it wasn’t so very different from the boarding school. She gave me plenty of cheek before she went.’
‘She preferred the Vittorio, I take it?’
‘I suppose so. Anyway, she paid her own bill. I insisted on that. “You can’t expect Tony to treat you. He isn’t made of money,” I said. She said Tony had invited her and that if we’d stayed with the relations, as was the first arrangement, it wouldn’t have cost her anything, because he’d paid her fare. First I’d known of that, I must say, although I ought to have known when he handed me three sets of tickets. Anyway, I thought I had to put a stop to her nonsense. “You can take it from me, my girl,” I said, “that, what with treating them to cigars and drinks, and taking them for outings and giving them parting presents, you spend quite as much staying with relations as you pay at a posh hotel. What’s more,” I said, “at the hotel you don’t have to help wash up and make the beds.” She saw it my way, in the end, I suppose, although I can’t see her doing much for her keep or giving presents, either!’
‘Yes, I see. So you all three travelled home together? She joined you on the boat at Naples?’
‘Yes, but we said good-bye at Victoria.’
‘Oh, yes? And did you see Carrie after that?’
‘No. I wasn’t having her in my house again! There was quite a bit of her school holiday still to run, and she’d got a job as temporary shop-girl, or so she said.’
‘Do you know where?’
‘Well, you couldn’t rely on her word, exactly, but she said it was the B. and T. shop in Canby New Town.’
‘The B. and T. shop?’
‘Babies and Toddlers. I don’t know it myself. She said it was a new shop in a nice district, and they were going to pay commission over and above her wages, and that the shop had been opened in response to a big demand for babies’ and toddlers’ clothes and toys and that.’
‘I see.’
‘They—they won’t dig Carrie up, will they? To know whether it is Carrie, I mean.’
‘Not at present. As things stand, your identification of the body as that of your younger daughter will not be challenged.’
‘Then…’
‘It is obvious, isn’t it, that if we find Norah, it will prove that Carrie is dead,’ said Dame Beatrice gently. ‘What can you tell me about that? Have you no idea at all where Norah might be?’
‘You’d better ask that young Coles. Do you think he really married her? He never seemed the marrying sort to me.’
‘It should not prove impossible to obtain a copy of the marriage certificate, if such a document exists. Just one more question, Mrs Biancini, if you won’t resent it. Do I understand that Carrie was left out of her father’s will?’
‘You do, and serve her right. “If she can lift the money off somebody else, she can do without mine,” he said. “It’s for you and little Norah,” he said. “You’ve been a good wife to me,” he said, “and if you can find a man to suit your fancy, that’s quite all right with me,” he said, “and it won’t make any difference to the way I leave my money.” Well, I waited seven years, Dame Beatrice, before I took up with Tony, so nobody can’t say I didn’t respect a good man’s memory.’
chapter thirteen
Nobody Asked for Bloodhounds
‘ “My dear,” said I, “I see so many things wanting to be done, that I know not to which to give the preference.”’
Ibid.
« ^ »
So I take Hamish with me to this B. and T. shop and set him up with a garment or so and a toy or two and generally snoop around collecting data on Carrie Palliser, do I?’ said Laura, who had listened with deep interest to the story of the Italian holiday.