The Case of William Smith

Chapter Twenty-four

There was rather a long silence. Then Katharine leaned forward and said,

‘He didn’t know me, but – he fell in love with me. He didn’t remember me, but he remembered loving me.’

Miss Silver looked across her knitting and smiled the smile which had won her many confidences, many friends. The dowdy little governess wasn’t there any more. Intelligence, understanding, a sustaining and comprehensive sympathy, just blotted her out. It was rather like seeing the light come through a stained-glass window.

Katharine experienced a sense of release. It wasn’t going to be difficult any more. She could say anything, and what she said would be understood – she could let go and say just what came into her mind. Everything in her was quieted. She said,

‘Miss Cole was horrified because William engaged me on the spot. She couldn’t help seeing that he had fallen for me, and she thought I was a vamp. I went to work next day. William and I painted toys together. We were frightfully happy.’

‘Yes?’

‘I gave my real name, Katharine Eversley. Cyril and Brett are – distant cousins. Even the name didn’t mean anything to William – things that happened before ’42 just don’t exist. But he fell in love with me all over again.’

Miss Silver looked at her.

‘Why did you not tell him?’

The bright colour came up.

‘How could I? He’d forgotten me. I couldn’t say, “You loved me – you’ve forgotten.” That was at first. Then when I knew that he was loving me again, I thought if he remembered that, he would remember me. Every time he kissed me I thought he would remember. And then I didn’t care. I only wanted us to have this time together. You see, when he knows who he is there will be a lot of business, a lot of worry. It’s going to be a shock to the people who thought he was dead, and who won’t be particularly glad to find that he is alive – ’ She broke off with that startled glance. ‘I oughtn’t to have said that – I don’t know that it would be like that. Things come into your mind – you can’t help it. If you put them into words it makes too much of them. You see, I haven’t anything to go on. I don’t know that they wouldn’t be glad, so I oughtn’t to say so.’

Miss Silver gave her slight cough.

‘You are speaking of Mr. Cyril and Mr. Brett Eversley?’

‘Yes.’

‘Mrs. Smith – who is your husband?’

The startled look was intensified. Katharine coloured vividly, but she answered at once and with complete simplicity.

‘He is William Eversley. He is their first cousin.’

Miss Silver smiled.

‘I thought so. Pray continue.’

‘His father was the eldest of the three brothers who built up the firm. He was the senior partner and the driving force, and he owned sixty per cent of the shares. He didn’t marry till he was fifty, which is why William is so much younger than Cyril and Brett. He died in ’38, when William was twenty-three and had been a partner for a couple of years. William joined up in ’39, and was missing in ’42. The firm turned over to Government work during the war, and I don’t think they’ve been very successful in getting back to ordinary conditions. Cyril isn’t a business man. He likes a quiet, pleasant life without too much to do. He paints in watercolour rather well, he collects eighteenth-century miniatures and snuff-boxes, he fancies himself at interior decoration. His house at Evendon is really very charming. He has always given me the impression that business bores him to tears.’ She paused, frowned, and went on again. ‘Brett’s different – younger – plenty of vitality, but-’ she laughed a little – ‘I should say he thought the business was there to provide him with an income. He enjoys himself a lot – has a great many friends, gets asked everywhere. He is very goodlooking, very charming, very good company.‘

Miss Silver coughed.

‘You have quite a gift for description.’

Katharine took a quick breath.

‘Have I? I’ve known them all my life. My father was an Eversley too, quite a distant cousin. But he and my mother were killed in a train smash when I was a baby, and William’s father and mother brought me up. I’m two years younger.’

Miss Silver got up and went over to the writing-table, a massive block with pedestal drawers and leather top. From a drawer on the left she extracted an exercise-book with a bright blue cover, spread it out flat upon the blotting-pad, and wrote. Presently she looked up.

‘It is as well to fix facts firmly whilst they are fresh in the mind. Perhaps you will now give me some particulars about Miss Jones.’

She turned back to the exercise-book to write the name, adding the words: ‘Secretary – 15 years’ service – efficient. Interviews William Smith December 6th.’

When she had finished she read them aloud.

‘Is there anything you would care to add?’

Katharine had come over to the table. She leaned upon it lightly with one hand and said in a troubled voice,

‘Care? Oh, yes. I don’t like her – I never have. It’s always easy to say things about people you don’t like.’

Miss Silver sat with the pencil in her hand.

‘Pray sit down, Mrs. Eversley.’ Then, as Katharine took the chair which so many clients had occupied, ‘Why do you not like Miss Jones?’

She got a sudden flash of humour.

‘She doesn’t like me – she never has. I’ll tell you about her as fairly as I can. I don’t how how old she is, but she doesn’t look it. She’s very – handsome. She’s Cyril’s secretary and she runs him. I shouldn’t think there’s anything about the business she doesn’t know, and of course that gives her a pull. She’s efficient. Cyril never could be, and Brett doesn’t bother. The result is you are apt to get the impression that she runs the firm. In a secretary it’s irritating. You must allow for that, because if someone irritates you, it just isn’t possible to be quite fair.’

‘Miss Jones irritates you?’

Katharine nodded.

‘Intensely. She has always treated me as if I was an illiterate black beetle, if you know what I mean. It doesn’t encourage a friendly feeling.’

Miss Silver coughed.

‘What are her relations with Mr. Cyril and Mr. Brett?’

Katharine lifted her hand from the table and let it fall again.

‘I don’t know. There was some talk about her and Brett a year or two ago. He took her about a bit. I ran into them at a road-house once. Stupid, because that sort of thing always gets out. I don’t suppose there was anything in it. And he’s a bachelor – it would be nobody’s business. Cyril’s wife died five years ago. His daughter married last year. He isn’t the flirtatious kind, but he depends on Miss Jones a good deal.’

‘Will you give me her Christian name?’

‘Mavis.’

Miss Silver wrote it down.

‘And now, Mrs. Eversley, will you continue. What makes you think that Mr. William Eversley’s return would inconvenience the firm?’

‘He inherited the controlling interest – sixty per cent of the shares.’

‘Yes. What happened to them when his death was presumed?’

‘Half of them were divided between Cyril and Brett – half of them came to me in trust. There was also government stock.’

‘Who were the trustees?’

‘Cyril, Brett, and Admiral Holden, who is a very old friend of the family.’

‘And have you been getting your dividends?’

‘There was a hold-up in the autumn. It left me rather short of money. Admiral Holden had been ill for nearly two years – nobody thought he was going to live. Then he made a marvellous recovery. When I heard I wrote to him about my affairs, and he came bumbling up to town to see the Eversleys. That was about ten days ago. The first thing that happened was that my dividends were paid in – the whole lot of them. Cyril asked me to lunch with Brett and Bunny Holden at his club. Everyone was charming. Afterwards Bunny and I went off in a taxi together, and he told me he thought there had been a bit of a mix-up, but it would be all right now. He told me he gathered that Mr. Davies had muddled the accounts – that he’d been getting past his work for some time, and that his death had left things in a state of confusion.’

Miss Silver coughed.

‘That was the elderly clerk who encountered Mr. William E versley after his visit to the firm on the sixth of December?’

‘Yes. I was very much upset. I didn’t know that he was dead. After I wrote and told him not to say anything about seeing William I had no communication with him. I didn’t want anyone to know where I was or what I was doing. But he never got my letter.’

Miss Silver looked at her searchingly.

‘How do you know that, Mrs. Eversley?’

‘It wouldn’t be delivered until the evening of the seventh. He never got it. I ought to have told him not to tell anyone when he rang up, but I didn’t think about it. I didn’t think about anything except William.’

‘When did Mr. Davies die?’

‘On the seventh of December. Bunny didn’t know, but as soon as I got in I rang up Eversleys. I got Miss Jones. She said oh, yes, Mr. Davies was dead. She wasn’t very forthcoming, but I pressed her. I wanted to know what had happened, and when he died. When she saw I was going on until I got what I wanted she went away, and came back and said that the last day Mr. Davies was at the office would be the seventh of December. He was knocked down in the street on the way – home and died without recovering consciousness.’

Miss Silver coughed.

‘How extremely shocking!’

Katharine made an impulsive movement.

‘Miss Silver – all these accidents – I can’t believe in them! Can you? On the sixth of December William goes to Eversleys and Mr. Davies recognizes him. On the seventh Mr. Davies goes to the office as usual. We don’t know what he said or whom he said it to – Cyril – Brett – Miss Jones. On his way home he is knocked down and killed. At half-past ten that night Mr. Tattlecombe is “struck down” outside the Toy Bazaar. With the light the way it was, it would be easy to mistake him for William. Then William is attacked twice. And now there’s this business of the wheel on his car. I just can’t believe in a run of accidents like that.’

Miss Silver coughed.

‘Very succinct – very clearly put. But the last three can hardly be described as accidents. Do you want my advice?’

‘That is why I am here.’

The small nondescript-coloured eyes contemplated her gravely.

‘Tell your husband what you have just been telling me.’

Katharine caught her breath.

‘I know – I must. I wanted just a little longer. I thought – I hoped – he would remember.’

Miss Silver said, ‘How long have you been married?’

Katharine’s colour rose, pure and bright.

‘Last Saturday – ’

Miss Silver stopped her.

‘I do not allude to any ceremony you may have gone through then. I think you married Mr. William Eversley in ’39, did you not?’

Katharine said, ‘July. We had a month, and then one or two short leaves. He was missing in ’42. How did you know?’

Miss Silver smiled.

‘There were a number of indications. That party at the Luxe at which Frank Abbott remembers seeing your husband – he spoke of a girl in a gold dress. That was you, was it not?’

‘Yes. We got engaged that evening.’

‘A cousin of Frank Abbott’s was there – a Miss Mildred Abbott and her fiancé. She is now Mrs. Darcy. She has just come home from the East. She remembers the party, and Bill as they all seemed to call him, and you in your gold dress. She couldn’t remember his surname or your names, but she said an aunt of hers wrote afterwards and told her she had been at your wedding. She said she had given you a tea-set.’

Katharine nodded.

‘Old Mrs. Willoughby Abbott. It was a lovely set. And all that crowd called him Bill. I never did.’

‘When you spoke of Frank Abbott I knew that you must at least have been in contact with friends of his.’

‘Yes – it was a slip. I never really met him, but I knew a good many of his friends and relations. There was a lot of chaff and talk about his being a policeman. His grandmother, Lady Evelyn Abbott, was supposed to have cut him out of her will, but the young ones all thought it was a joke. Miss Silver, you say I ought to tell William, but don’t you see how difficult it’s going to be if the Eversleys just dig their toes in and say they don’t recognize him? They might, you know.’

Miss Silver coughed.

‘From that point of view the second marriage ceremony was unwise.’

Katharine gave a shaky little laugh.

‘William wouldn’t have felt married without it. And think how shocked Mr. Tattlecombe would have been.’

Miss Silver looked grave.

‘I quite see your point of view. But you have taken a good deal of responsibility, Mrs. Eversley. It was, in fact, this readiness to take responsibility on his behalf which convinced me that your marriage was no new thing.’

Katharine said slowly, ‘I thought when we were married he would remember that we had been married before. If he got his memory back it would be all quite easy. There’s just one more thing I can do. He has a recurrent dream – he’s had it all these years. It’s about a house in a village street – three steps up and into a panelled hall, and a staircase going up on the right, with the newel-posts carved with the four Evangelists – a lion and an ox at the bottom, and an eagle and a man at the top. I thought if I could take him down there and into the house, he might remember.’

‘It is a real house, with associations for him?’

‘Yes. It belonged to his grandmother. We used to go there a lot when we were children. She left it to William, and he left it to me. It’s at Ledstow. It’s called the Cedar House. We spent our honeymoon there. Mr. Tattlecombe has given us Saturday afternoon off. I want to take William down there this weekend and see if he remembers.’ She stopped, her eyes shining, her look intent. ‘I think it’s a real chance. He wouldn’t have that dream about it if it didn’t mean something to him – something special. It’s as if it was the one sensitive spot. I’ve got a sort of feeling that his memory might come back to him there.’

Miss Silver said, ‘Yes. These cases of loss of memory are strange. Sometimes a mental or a physical shock will bring the lost faculty back. Your plan is, I think, worth trying. But pray do not be too much disappointed if it does not succeed. In that case I must urge you most strongly to lose no more time. Your husband has a right to decide for himself what is best for him to do. His own family and his own firm are involved. You cannot continue to take the sole responsibility.’

Katharine said ‘No – ’ on a long sigh. It turned into a laugh. ‘I shan’t have much choice about telling him. Everybody in Ledstow will know him at sight. William Smith will be an exploded myth from the moment my Mrs. Perkins sets eyes on him. She lives next door and comes in and does for me when I’m there, and she has known William since he was five years old. But you’re quite right – he has got to know. Only it would be so much better if he hadn’t got to be told.’

Miss Silver gave a short, brisk cough.

‘Very true. Meanwhile there is something he should do without delay. He should inform the local police of the fact that the wheel of his car had been loosened. They will make the usual routine enquiries. It is possible that the person who tampered with the wheel was observed. In what kind of street is the garage?’

‘It isn’t a garage at all, only a shed where a local builder keeps odds and ends – ladders amongst other things. And you can’t call it a street. It’s just a narrow cut running along the back yards of the houses fronting on Ellery Street.’

Miss Silver looked attentive.

‘Not the kind of place which a stranger would frequent. The person we are looking for may have attracted attention. By all means get your husband to notify the police. In the second place, I would like your permission to talk the whole matter over with Frank Abbott.’

‘Oh, no!’

Miss Silver held up her pencil in a hortatory manner.

‘Pray think again, Mrs. Eversley. There have been three attempts on your husband’s life, an attempt on Mr. Tattlecombe of which your husband may have been the real object, and a fatal accident to Mr. Davies – the day after he had recognised him as William Eversley. I am not saying from what quarter these attacks have come. By changing your address you may have obscured your own connection with William Smith for a time, but it must be clear to you that anyone who is taking a serious interest in his identity with William Eversley cannot remain long in ignorance of the part you have undertaken to play. As soon as that is known, and as soon as it is known that you have gone through a form of marriage with him and are living as his wife, it will be evident to the person or persons who have been attempting his life that the time remaining to them is short. He, or they, must know that you will not remain silent. As soon as you speak and William Smith comes forward as William Eversley they cannot any longer hope to act in the dark. Attention will be focused upon anyone who has an interest in resisting his claim. Do you not see that the sooner that claim is made, the harder it will be to make any fresh attempt upon his life? Where a common street accident to William Smith could very well pass unsuspected of being anything more than an accident, his sudden death immediately after he has claimed to be William Eversley whose return from the dead was likely to involve his relatives in a good deal of financial embarrassment could hardly fail to attract the attention of the police.’

Katharine said, ‘Yes.’

Miss Silver laid down her pencil with an air of finality.

‘It will, I think, be quite a good plan for you to leave town tomorrow for the weekend. Pray do not tell anyone where you are going. Meanwhile I should like to talk the matter over with Frank Abbott. I do not care to accept the responsibility alone. I think you may rest assured that no action will be taken without reference to your husband and yourself. If Frank thinks as I do he may discuss the matter with Chief Inspector Lamb, a most worthy and dependable officer. He has great experience, and I feel sure that you need not be afraid that he will authorise any precipitate action. Routine procedure may, however, produce some interesting evidence. Have I your permission?’

Katharine looked at her for a full long minute. Then she said,

‘Yes.’