Mingled With Venom

Chapter 17

Gamaliel’s Law

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‘Why do you call it wolfsbane?’ asked Parsifal, avoiding an answer.

‘Because Mrs Leyden’s name was Romula.’

‘Ah, yes, you saw the significance of that.’ His attempt at belligerence had faded away completely. ‘But you can’t prove anything, can you?’

‘My arguments and the conclusions I have drawn from them are on their way by post to the police.’

‘But it’s all theory.’

‘Not quite all. Let us apply the rules. First comes the rule of Means.’

‘Anybody round here could have found the means of poisoning that poisonous old woman.’

‘Opportunity?’

‘The same applies. On a Friday anybody could have sneaked into that kitchen and changed over the jars.’

‘But only one person could be pretty sure that his antics would not be known. It seems to me significant that the poison was prepared at a time when the rest of your household were absent. That stuck me right at the beginning.’

‘Somebody else could have realised that and thought it might implicate me, don’t you think?’

‘Perhaps we have not explored sufficiently the question of means.’

‘But there isn’t any question about those. Whoever did it used the roots of monkshood from the garden where that girl was living.’

‘I was not thinking of the wolfsbane. I refer to the cream.’

‘But that wasn’t poisonous!’

‘No, but it had to be purchased. Enquiries have been made of the dairyman who supplied milk to Headlands, Campions and Seawards. Headlands put in a regular order for fresh cream. The other two houses did not. The cream, on the Friday before Mrs Leyden died on the Sunday, was delivered to Headlands as usual and was added to the innocent condiment fabricated by Mrs Plack, who tasted the result and passed it as being up to standard. That accounts for the cream which was delivered by the milkman. But the murderer also needed cream. He had sufficient perspicacity not to order it direct from the milkman, but he had to get hold of it somehow. I am sure he took a long walk on the Thursday before he called at Headlands to ask Mrs Leyden for money to meet some outstanding bills, went over to Polyarn—not a particularly daunting objective for a practised walker such as yourself—and bought the cream over the counter. He counted upon not being recognised, as the counter hand would not have been familiar with his appearance, whereas the milkman might have been.’

‘I never heard anything so specious in my life!’

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Dame Beatrice. ‘When a description of you reaches the shop and is recognised, will it not require some explanation?’

‘Forewarned is forearmed. One would plead a sudden desire for fresh cream, I suppose. People do have sudden desires for things, don’t they?’

‘You had a desire—although I do not think it was a sudden one—for a share of Mrs Leyden’s fortune.’

‘But surely you were told I stood no chance of that?—and now it is known to everyone that I did not.’

‘No, but after the first of the two dinner parties you knew that Mrs Leyden had become interested in Gamaliel, and after the second that, although the actual amount had not been mentioned, your wife would benefit. I think it was after the second dinner that you began to formulate your plans. What I think perhaps you do not know is how nearly you came to killing the wrong person.’

‘Nobody else liked horseradish.’

‘The cook was fond of it. It was her habit, in any case, to taste her condiment before it went to table to make certain that the cream had not turned sour. Owing to two factors which could not have been foreseen, she ate a quantity of her innocent mixture as soon as she had made it on the Friday and was prevented from tasting your lethal mixture on the Sunday because lunch was late and was rushed to the table at a peremptory summons from Mrs Leyden.’

‘If you’re only relying on a purchase of fresh cream to prove your otherwise unfounded allegations, I don’t think you’ll get away with them,’ said Parsifal, with a slight smile on his long, camel-like lips. ‘It was clever of you to spot the Romula-Romulus angle, though. Poetic justice I thought it. Those suckled by the she-wolf deserve to die of the wolfsbane. That thought gave me a great deal of satisfaction.’

‘I am sure it did.’

‘You see, it would have been so much simpler to have pushed her over the cliff, as Diana tried to do.’

‘You know that Mrs Bosse-Leyden did that?’

‘Oh, yes, the same as I know that Rupert did the same to Diana. But their attempts were half-hearted. It took me, the poet, to carry my plans to their logical conclusion. All my life, you know, Dame Beatrice, I have been an underdog, despised, neglected, overlooked and poor, but little did that arrogant old woman know that I held her life in my hands.’

‘And elected to destroy it. Yes, I see. Oh, well, I will take my leave, Mr Leek.’ She rose from the basket chair.

‘Thank you for calling,’ said Parsifal politely. Neither of them realised that the swimmers had left the water, although Dame Beatrice had seen Laura, some few minutes earlier, walk up the garden and disappear round the side of the house, presumably to return to the car. As Dame Beatrice descended the wooden steps which led down from the balcony, however, she was slightly startled to meet Gamaliel who, still in his bathing-trunks, was standing just in shadow outside the back door. He opened it and drew her into the house.

‘So it would have been simpler to have pushed my other dear old lady over the cliff, would it?’ he said. ‘What shall we do, my present dear old lady?’

‘Leave everything to the police, my dear young man. How much did you hear?’

‘Enough. I guessed the truth a long time ago, but he is my mother’s husband. He cannot go to prison.’

‘The girl must not suffer for something she did not do. The law must take its course. You see that, don’t you?’

‘There is more than one law.’

‘We must not take the law into our own hands.’

‘So my mother and I and my best friend Garnie are to live our lives under the shadow of this murderer serving a life sentence? That seems to me unfair.’

‘Of course it is unfair.’

‘As unfair as that Margaret Denham should go to prison for something she did not do?’

‘Quite as unfair.’

‘Ah!’ said Gamaliel in a tone of satisfaction. ‘I am pleased to hear you admit that.’ He glanced down at his naked limbs. ‘I am cold. I must get dressed. Do you think the discovery of the truth is an end in itself, even if it benefits nobody and damages three innocent people?’

‘Yes, I believe it is, but, in this case, it will benefit Margaret Denham.’ She walked with him through the basement of the house and he let her out by the front door.

‘Do you remember, in a story of King Solomon’s Mines, a terrible old person called Gagool?’ he asked as he opened it.

‘Dimly but sufficiently. Why?’

‘She smelt people out. I think you smell people out, dear old lady.’

‘I have been reading my mother’s diary,’ said Maria to Fiona. ‘It seems that she was in the habit of disbursing sums of money to Parsifal Leek. She told me about it once, I remember.’

‘I knew,’ said Fiona. ‘As her secretary, there were very few, if any, secrets that she kept from me.’

‘You never mentioned anything of her giving money to Parsifal. I should have known nothing of it had she not mentioned it on that one solitary occasion.’

‘It was nobody’s business but her own.’

‘It was the business of us all if it diminished our patrimony.’

‘I suppose one ought to say matrimony, except that that means something quite different.’

‘Are you still thinking of marriage?’

‘No. My only hope would be Garnet, your son, and I would rather be your friend than your daughter-in-law. I have never seen that as my relationship to you. Besides, Blue would not want me as a sister, even if Garnet wanted me for his wife.’

‘It is a pity she married Parsifal. He is not worthy of her. No wonder she wanted to adopt a son.’

‘He is more like Garnet’s son than Parsifal’s.’

‘He has always despised Parsifal, I think, and little wonder.’

‘No, I think he has always had a protective feeling towards him, as I feel Blue has. She must often regret her marriage. In fact, she confessed as much when I was staying with them after I had quarrelled with madre.’

‘What are we to do about that poor girl Denham? She is continually on my mind. I am sure—more sure than ever, as time passes—that she is not the guilty party.’

‘I had hoped that Dame Beatrice, who has such a reputation for finding out the truth of these matters, would have come up with something by now. As she has not, I think we must conclude that Denham is guilty.’

‘I wish I could come to that conclusion. The trouble is, as we’ve said before, if it wasn’t Denham it must have been one of us, and that’s unthinkable.’

‘But is it so unthinkable? The charge against the girl rests only on two things: she had been dismissed from this house and the poison plant was dug up in her sister’s garden. I could make out an equally viable case against Diana, Rupert, Gamaliel and Parsifal.’

‘Gamaliel?’ said Maria, surprised.

‘He knew he had found favour with madre and he must have heard a great deal of speculation about the terms of her Will. He may have thought he would be mentioned in it and decided to benefit himself sooner rather than later.’

‘He would not have hit upon the method used. He would simply have set about her and killed her.’

‘What about the other three, then?’

‘Neither Diana nor Rupert had any expectations from her. Rupert’s only motive would have been revenge for her unkindness with regard to his parentage, and I simply do not believe that would have carried him as far as murder. Rupert is not a man of strong passions. If he were, he would have divorced Diana long ago and married you.’

‘Well, that leaves Diana and Parsifal.’

‘Oh, my dear Fiona, if that is the choice, there can be no doubt which of them it would be. Diana had nothing to gain. Parsifal had every expectation, now realised, that both Blue and Gamaliel—oh, and, of course, Garnet— would come in for something. He had everything to gain from my mother’s death. He was like the woman in Tagore’s story. He had his coffer and his store in all of their houses.’

‘Well, I suppose there is nothing we can do about it.’

‘No, it must be left as it is. We have nothing but suspicion to go on and there is the family to consider.’

Bluebell was packing up her painting things when Dame Beatrice and Laura got back to the hotel. They were chatting with her—Dame Beatrice meanwhile turning over in her mind the various ways in which the impulsive Gamaliel would break the news of Parsifal’s confessed guilt to his mother—when the youth himself, damp-haired but now wearing a track-suit, came cantering across the courtyard.

‘Ah’ he said to Bluebell, ‘you must come home at once. There is to be a great contest of gladiators, two against one. I am the one. This great spectacle is to be staged on our small beach while the tide is going out. I am taking on Parsifal and Garnie. You shall see how well I have learned to defend myself. It will be two men against a sixteen-year-old youth. I shall be giving away many stones in weight, not to speak of fighting against four arms and two bodies.’

‘I don’t like the idea of it,’ said Bluebell, ‘but if the men have agreed I suppose there is nothing I can do. Incidentally, it is not respectful to refer to your father as Parsifal.’

‘It is not respectful, no. The question is whether I respect him. I search my heart and I find that I do not.’

‘Why not?’ demanded Bluebell, with an edge to her voice which was the result of anxiety and not indignation.

Gamaliel shrugged his wide shoulders. ‘You do not respect him, either,’ he said. He turned to Dame Beatrice. ‘And you, dear old lady, must come along, too, and help to judge the contest.’

‘No,’ said Dame Beatrice decidedly. ‘On this occasion the four of you at Seawards must form your own jury, but I am prepared to come and watch.’

Gamaliel looked thoughtful. ‘You are right,’ he said. ‘The four of us must be our own jury. It is a trial, of course; a trial of strength. The others are waiting. Shall we go?’

The three of them took the smugglers’ old trackway along the back of the hotel. Laura, who had given Dame Beatrice a questioning look and had received an emphatic shake of the head in answer to it, had gone into the hotel. At the top of the smugglers’ steps Gamaliel leapt ahead and by the time Dame Beatrice and Bluebell reached the stepping-stones they saw that the three contestants were already on the scrap of beach left by the retreating tide.

Gamaliel was in his track-suit trousers, Parsifal was wearing the khaki shorts he kept for his exploration of the countryside and Garnet had on a pair of grey flannel trousers. All three were bare-chested and bare-foot and Gamaliel was dancing back and forth around the other two in imitation of his hero’s tactics in the ring.

Bluebell crossed the stream on the stepping stones and turned to offer a hand to Dame Beatrice, but it was not needed, so she led the way along the side of the garden to the steps which led up to the lower of the two terraces.

‘I suppose Gamaliel knows,’ she said abruptly, as they seated themselves. Dame Beatrice liked and respected her too much to hedge by asking what it was that Gamaliel was supposed to know.

‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘He knows now. I take it that you yourself have known for some time.’

‘Guessed, at any rate. If that poor girl is convicted, I shall have to speak out. They cannot compel me in court to testify against my husband, but if I speak to the police they will find some evidence they can use.’

‘He has confessed; my evidence is in the post.’

‘It will be hard for the rest of us to sustain the agony of having Parsifal in prison, and hard for him, too. He was not intended to be shut away.’

‘I doubt whether anybody is.’

‘It is not as though he would ever do such a thing again. He hated her, you know, because she was so wealthy and we are poor. She never was reconciled to his marrying me and he resented that, too. I cannot forgive him though, for the manner of her death. It would have been better—even kinder, perhaps—to have pushed her over the cliff, as Diana rather half-heartedly tried to do.’

‘Oh, you knew about that, did you?’

‘The kind of life I lead gives me plenty of time to think. Besides, families as close-knit as we are know, without being told, what goes on.’

‘The three-sided contest has begun,’ said Dame Beatrice, indicating the strip of grey beach with its out-croppings of rock.

‘It is hardly three-sided,’ said Bluebell, following her gaze. ‘The two men have taken sides against Gamaliel. I don’t care for the spot they have hit upon to stage the contest. If one of them were to fall, he might injure himself quite seriously on a sharp rock.’

The two men were standing back to back while Gamaliel skirmished around them, jabbing at their faces and bodies with his bare hands as he danced and circled. Suddenly he gripped Garnet, of whom he was both taller and heavier, and wrestled with him, urging him nearer and nearer the water.

Soon they were ankle-deep and then knee-deep in the sea. The combat lasted less than a minute. Gamaliel, with a throw, a beautifully executed ‘flying mare’, catapulted Garnet into the deep water beyond the shelving fringe of the beach. Garnet, falling spread-eagled, was completely submerged. He came up, spluttering and spitting out sea-water and the retreating tide carried him a little further out to sea before he could recover his breath and begin to swim ashore.

As he stood at the brink and began to wring the water out of his trousers, Gamaliel, who had been sparring, apparently playfully, with Parsifal, suddenly shouted, ‘Now!’ On the word he hit him with all his force over the heart, leapt forward, clutched him as Parsifal staggered back, and flung him down on to an outcrop of rock.

‘Oh, yes,’ said Dame Beatrice, in answer to a query from Laura. ‘It will be brought in as accidental death. There were three witnesses, if you count Mr Porthcawl, who was certainly on the spot, although I doubt very much whether he saw exactly what happened.’

‘And Gamaliel intended to kill Parsifal?’

‘Oh, I am sure he did. It was a mercy killing according to Gamaliel’s logic. The magistrates, at their last remand interview with Margaret Denham, have declared that she has no case to answer. Parsifal Leek could never have endured life imprisonment. Bluebell will now move house, accompanied by Gamaliel and their well-beloved Garnet, and the incident and Mrs Leyden’s death will soon be forgotten except, perhaps, in this small village.’

‘And that young thug will go on and prosper?’

‘Why not? He has proved that he possesses the ruthlessness which, in this life, is said to be the hallmark of success.’

‘I’d rather be a failure!’

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Dame Beatrice mildly. ‘I can be ruthless myself on occasion.’

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[A 3S Release— v1, html]

[April 10, 2007]