The Murder Of Gonzago

12

Their eyes were glued to the TV screen. Again they saw the french windows and the net curtains over them and once more the woman with the silver hair and the glasses – Clarissa’s aunt – was walking briskly towards the windows, but before she managed to draw the silk curtains, Payne held out the remote control and pressed the Pause button.

‘There it is.’ Payne pointed at the frozen image. ‘Do you see it?’

‘See what, Hughie?’

‘Do look carefully, darling.’

‘I am looking,’ Lady Grylls said a little peevishly. ‘Though I have no idea what I am supposed to see. There’s Roderick in the ghastly Gonzago beard lying on the divan – is that a divan?’

‘A chaise longue. What do you see behind the chaise longue?’

‘You make it sound like a game. What do I spy with my little eye? I see the french windows – the aunt – I have a feeling the aunt’s pretending to be scattier than she is. Beware of emotionally volatile women of a certain age – I wouldn’t trust the aunt.’

‘Never mind the aunt. What else do you see?’

‘I see a pedestal with what looks like a too perfect statuette of Pallas Athene. She has an annoyingly smug expression on her face. Am I the only one who finds classical figures forbidding?’

‘We’ll discuss art later,’ said Payne. ‘What else do you see?’

‘Nothing else. Only the net curtains.’

‘Concentrate on the net curtains… D’you notice anything?’

‘What is there to notice?’

‘Do you mean the shadow?’ Felicity Remnant said quietly.

‘I do mean the shadow. Eureka! You see it, Lady Remnant, don’t you?’

‘I do.’

‘Goodness, yes. You are absolutely right. There is some sort of shadow outlined against the net curtain. Someone is standing outside.’ Lady Grylls pushed her glasses up her nose. ‘Doesn’t look like a human shadow – too big. What are those things sticking out of it?’

‘Are those – ears?’ Felicity frowned.

‘I believe so.’

Lady Grylls screwed up her eyes. ‘What is it? Looks like a giant rabbit. Goodness, how gruesome.’

‘It’s a person dressed up as some kind of long-eared animal,’ Felicity said.

Payne fast-forwarded and paused again. The silk curtains were now drawn across the french windows.

‘Watch carefully,’ he said. ‘Do keep your eyes on the curtains. What do you see? Now.’

‘The curtains move – they part – oh, there’s someone standing there! Yes! Goodness!’ Lady Grylls’s hand was at her bosom. ‘Something’s protruding from between the curtains – oh, it’s gone! It caught the light for a moment, but it’s gone now. Something shiny. Something made of metal. There was a flash of sorts, but it happened awfully fast!’

‘Yes. It happened very fast.’ Payne leant back in his seat.

They watched the flailing Lord Remnant lift his head, gape and stare at the camera as though in tremendous surprise, then fall back and lie still.

There was a pause.

‘I believe that was a gun,’ Felicity said. ‘Wasn’t it?’

Payne nodded. ‘It was a gun, no bigger than a toy.’

‘So that’s what killed him,’ Lady Grylls said. ‘A gunshot to the head.’