‘How she would have hated that conversation. Emily, I mean. She was so fastidious. So it was Michael who ... ?’
‘Yes. He stayed until she lost consciousness, then closed the sitting-room door so Benjy wouldn’t see his mistress and raise the alarm. He washed up Katherine’s glass but left Miss Simpson’s. Of course they both hoped that it would pass off as a natural death but in the unlikely event of an investigation a single glass with only her fingerprints and with a residue of poison would be found. Or rather would have been found ...’
Miss Bellringer blushed. ‘So the Shakespeare was just an added pointer? In case.’
‘Yes. There it was open. He was probably looking around whilst he was waiting. The speech must have caught his eye and seemed propitious. Out with the 6B pencil. Which one of them climbed through the larder window is something they don’t mention. What did become clear as I read the letter was that the Lessiter girl had a very lucky escape.’
‘Judy? I don’t understand.’
‘She went to the cottage whilst Katherine was with your friend. She actually saw Michael through the window. What she couldn’t have known was that he had a dog with him. If she’d knocked and the dog had barked ...’
‘Poor child. I’m afraid she was born for unhappiness. Some people are, you know.’
‘Yes.’ Barnaby nodded. ‘She was made use of by the Laceys as was anyone else who came into their orbit. It was important for instance that Michael spent the afternoon of the Rainbird murder with her. I remember my sergeant remarking at the time, “Lucky he had an alibi”. On the contrary - luck had nothing to do with it. It was a crucial part of the plan that he should have an alibi. The knife was planted at Holly Cottage not, as I first thought, to incriminate Lacey, but to direct suspicion away from the guilty party on to someone whom the murderer knew to be innocent. And who could be proved to be innocent.
‘Even if Judy hadn’t contacted Michael Lacey he would have been in touch with her, as his first words “I was just going to ring you” imply. And of course he had to work at the Lessiters’ so that the cottage would be empty for the knife to be planted. Then, according again to the letter, there was to be an anonymous tip-off suggesting we search the cottage. But Mrs Quine beat them to it.’
‘What a chance to take. Walking round in her brother’s clothes in broad daylight.’
‘Well, of course she came straight from the cottage through the wood and into the spinney. I’ve no doubt that if she’d met someone face to face the whole plan would have been abandoned but, seen from a distance, hair piled up under her cap, she would simply be mistaken for Michael.’
‘Who had an unbreakable alibi?’
‘Precisely. There was a fair amount of risk involved but Mrs Rainbird had only given them till the wedding to come up with the first payment.’
‘Before she blew the gaff?’
Barnaby smiled. He was going to miss Lucy Bellringer. ‘More or less.’
‘But surely Dennis wouldn’t have kept quiet? Especially after what happened to his mother. What were they going to do about him?’
‘Michael was to dispose of Dennis. In fact his life was saved only because he came home half an hour earlier than usual. We met Lacey in the spinney behind the bungalow. He pretended he was on his way to the pub but we now know that his real intention was to make sure the Rainbird boy did not survive his mother.’
‘They must have been frantic.’
‘Yes indeed. If they hadn’t been they would have realized that if Katherine was spotted, even from a distance, it would give the game away. Who else amongst our small ring of suspects was of a build and height to be mistaken for Michael Lacey?’
‘But surely she took care to have an alibi?’
‘Of a sort. She said she’d been picking mushrooms. There was a basket of them on the kitchen table with some in. And they were fresh. I sniffed them. Certainly she would not have had time to pick them, commit the murder, shower, change clothes and so on. But if they had been gathered earlier that day by Michael and left at Holly Cottage ready ...’
‘Ahhhh.’ Miss Bellringer nodded. ‘That must be the explanation.’
‘After cleaning herself up’ (in a flash of memory Barnaby saw the girl, dazzlingly, ironically pure in her snow-white dress) ‘she slipped out of the bungalow, no doubt checking the road carefully first, by the front door and then knocked, quite loudly, to draw attention to herself. Mrs Sweeney, hearing the knock and seeing her put the mushrooms on the step and walk away, naturally assumed, as anyone would, that she had also walked up the path.’
‘But the clothes ... the cap and everything. And you said something about a rug. Do you know what happened to that?’
‘Oh yes ... the rug was rolled up by the back garden hedge. Michael collected it after he left the Lessiters’ and returned it to the pond. The clothes were simply taken away in the mushroom basket. It was a very large basket and, when I saw it in the kitchen, barely half full, so there was plenty of room to spare. She then walked down to Holly Cottage, hid the murder weapon, rather too successfully as things turned out, dumped the bloodstained clothing temporarily in the woods, and returned to Tye House.’
‘What does that mean? Your remark about the murder weapon?’
‘Well, we had a warrant to search the house. Now, if she had planted the knife in the kitchen drawer or in his bedroom we might not have entered the studio, a room that proved to be crucial, until later.’
‘Surely they thought you would search everywhere, Chief Inspector? As a matter of course?’
‘Normally yes, but Lacey made a bolt for it simply, as I realized later, to get us out of the house. And I’d had a quick look around the studio. It seemed perfectly in order. But as we drove away from the village Katherine saw the car. When her brother made a square around his face and shouted “I’ve been framed” I took this as a mere gesture of bravado. In fact it was a message that couldn’t have been clearer. What does a frame enclose but a painting? And why, when the cottage held so much that was valuable to him, namely all his work to date, did he leave the door open? Why did he pretend it was never locked? Because something in the studio had to be removed and if this was done when the place was locked up the culprit, as the only other person to have a key, would have to be Katherine. Unlocked, it could have been anyone.’
‘Yes ... I can see that. But what had to be removed? Was it a picture? Why was it so important?’
Barnaby drained his Teachers and sat back in his chair, wondering how best to word his reply. He saw the painting again, heard Troy cry - ‘But who is it?’ Felt once more the almost physical blow to his solar plexus that had struck as he gazed at the easel. He understood fully Troy’s bewilderment. For Katherine Lacey was practically unrecognizable. It was the most erotic nude he had ever seen. She was sprawled on the double bed and although there was something post-coital about the positioning of her limbs there was nothing relaxed or reflective in the work. It was riven with power. Her skin was pearly with sweat; her legs and arms throbbed with energy, seeming almost to move on the canvas. There was something rapacious about them. And something faintly sinister. Barnaby was reminded of a praying mantis, alluring and deadly. She looked bigger in every way than the woman he had known. Her neck was thick and powerful, her breasts large, her belly richly curved.