Original Sin (32 page)

The heavy rain of the afternoon had abated to a thin continuous drizzle and with the window half open he tasted the salt tang of the Thames. The traffic lights on the Embankment smudged the air with

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crimson and, waiting for them to change, a police horse, its flanks gleaming, stamped its delicate hoofs on the shining tarmac. Darkness had come striding over the city, transforming it into a phantasma-goria of light in which the streets and squares shivered into moving necklaces of white, red and green. He opened his briefcase and drew out his papers for a quick reading of the salient arguments. It was time to shift the gears of his mind to a more immediate - and perhaps in the end more important - preoccupation. Usually he did not find this difficult, but now the earlier images of the mortuary persisted.

Something small, something sharp, had been wrenched out of Etienne's mouth after rigor had set in in the top part of the body. It was possible that object had been a cassette; the removal of the tape recorder certainly suggested that possibility. The inference was that Etienne had dictated the name of his murderer and the killer had later returned to remove the evidence. But his mind rejected this simple hypothesis. Etienne's murderer had taken care that nothing should remain in the room which would enable him to leave a message. The floor and the mantelpiece had been cleaned, all the papers had been removed, Etierme's diary with the gold pencil attached had been stolen the day before. The killer had thought even of that. Etienne hadn't even been able to scrawl his or her name on the bare wooden floor. Why then should the murderer have been so stupid as to leave a tape recorder ready for his victim's use?

There was, of course, another explanation. The tape recorder could have been there for a specific purpose, and if it had been then the case promised to be even more puzzling and more intriguing than it had at first appeared.

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It was after 2o.3o before Dalgliesh returned to the Wapping incident room and Robbins had been sent off duty. Kate and Daniel had bought sandwiches on their drive back from the mortuary and made do with them and coffee as the night wore on. They had already worked a twelve-hour day but it wasn't over yet. Dalgliesh would want to assess progress and have a clear idea where they were going before they entered on the next stage of the enquiry.

He sat for ten minutes studying the papers Daniel had brought from Gerard Etienne's study, then, closing the file without comment, looked at his watch then said: 'Right. So what tentative conclusions have you reached from the facts as far as we know them?'

Daniel broke in immediately as Kate had expected him to. That didn't worry her. They were of equal rank but she had seniority in service and felt no need to emphasize it. There was an advantage in going first; it prevented other people from taking credit for your ideas and showed keenness. On the other hand, there was a certain wisdom in biding one's time. Daniel was taking care over his spiel; probably, she thought, he had been mentally practising it since their return from the mortuary.

He said: 'Natural death, suicide, accident or murder? The first two are out. We don't need the laboratory reports to be sure that this was carbon monoxide poisoning, the post-mortem told us that. Told us too that, otherwise, he died healthy. There is absolutely nothing to indicate suicide, so I don't think we need waste time on that.

'So we come to accident. If this is an accidental death, what are we expected to believe? That Etienne decided for some reason to work up in the archives office, left his jacket on the chair downstairs and his keys in his desk drawer. That he felt cold, lit the fire with matches which we've no evidence he had on him, then got so engrossed in his work that he didn't realize that the fire had started to malfunction until too late. Apart from the obvious inconsistencies, if it happened that way, I suggest that he'd have been found slumped over the table, not lying half-naked on his back with his head towards the fire. At

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this stage I'm not taking account of the snake. I think we have to make a clear distinction between what happened at the time of death and what happened to the body afterwards. Obviously someone found him after rigor had set in to the top part of the body, but there's no evidence that the person who stuffed the snake in his mouth took off his shirt or moved him from the table to where he was found.'

Kate said: 'He must have taken off his own shirt. It was clutched in his fight hand. It looked as if he had taken it off with some idea of using it to put out the fire. I mean, look at the photograph. The right hand is still holding part of the shirt, the rest of it trails across the body. It looks to me as if he died on his face and his killer turned over the body, perhaps using his foot, and then prised open the mouth. Look at the position of the knees, slightly bent. He didn't die in that position. It's consistent with the post-mortem findings that he died on his face. He was crawling across the room towards the fire.'

'OK, I agree. But he couldn't have hoped to put it out, not that way. The shirt would have caught fire.'

'I know he couldn't, but that's what it looks like. Snuffing out the fire may have seemed possible to his confused mind.'

Dalgliesh didn't intervene but listened while they argued it out. Daniel said: lnat suggests he knew what was happening to him. But if he did, the obvious thing was to open the door and let in air, then turn off the gas.'

'But suppose the door had been locked on the outside and the tap removed from the gas fire. When he tried to open the high window the cord snapped because someone had frayed it to make damned sure it would as soon as it was tugged with any force. The murderer must have first moved out the chairs and table so that Etienne couldn't climb on them to reach the window and break the glass. The window was stuck fast. He couldn't have opened it if he had, not unless he had something to bash it with.'

Daniel said: 'The tape recorder perhaps?'

'1?oo small, too fragile. All the same, I agree he would have tried. He could have battered the glass with his hands, but there was no evidence of bruising of the knuckles. I think that the furniture must have been moved before he entered the room. We know from the

marks on the wall that the table was normally a few inches to the left.' 'That isn't proof. The cleaner could have moved it.'

'I didn't say that it was proof, but it is significant. Both Gabriel

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Dauntsey and Mrs Demery said that the table wasn't in the usual position.'

'That doesn't let them out as suspects.'

'I didn't say that it did. Dauntsey is an obvious suspect. No one had better opportunity than he. But if Dauntsey moved out the chairs and table, surely he would have taken trouble to place the table back precisely where it was. Unless, of course, he was in a hurry.' She broke off, then turned to Dalgliesh excitedly. 'And of course, sir, he

was in a hurry. He had to be back in the time it would take to bath.' Daniel said: 'We're going too fast. It's all conjecture.' 'I'd call it logical deduction.'

Dalgliesh spoke for the first time. 'Kate's theory is reasonable; it conforms with all the facts as we know them. But what we haven't got is a scintilla of hard evidence. And don't let's forget the snake. How far have you got with finding out who knew that it was in Miss Blackett's desk drawer, apart of course from Miss Blackett, Mandy Price, Dauntsey and the two Etiennes?'

It was Kate who replied. 'The news was round the office by the afternoon, sir. Mandy told Mrs Demery that Etienne had told Miss Blackett to get rid of it when they were making coffee together in the kitchen, shortly after eleven-thirty. Mrs Demery admits that she may have told one or two people when she took round the afternoon tea trolley. "One or two people" probably means every room in the building. Mrs Demery was a bit vague about what she actually said, but Maggie FitzGerald in publicity is quite certain that they were told that Mr Gerard had instructed Miss Blackett to get rid of the snake and that she'd put it in her desk drawer. Mr Sydney Bartrum in accounts claims that he didn't know. He said that he and his staff had no time to gossip with the office domestics and that they wouldn't have the opportunity anyway. Their department is in number ten and they make their own afternoon tea. De Witt and Miss Peverell have admitted that they knew. Miss Blackett's drawer was the natural place for anyone to look anyway. She had a sentimental affection for Hissing Sid and wouldn't have thrown it away.'

Daniel said: 'Why did Demery bother to pass on the news? It was hardly a major office scandal.'

'No, but it obviously caused a stir. Most of the staff knew or suspected that Gerard Etienne wouldn't be sorry to see the back of Miss Blackett. They were probably wondering how long she'd hold

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out, whether she'd chuck the job before she was sacked. Any fresh spat between those two was news.' Dalgliesh said: you see the importance of the snake. Either it was wound round Etienne's neck and stuffed into his mouth by the murderer, probably to explain the breaking of the rigor of the jaw, or the joker stumbled on the body and saw the chance of a particularly revolting piece of malice. If the murderer did it, is he or she also the joker? Were these pranks part of a carefully laid plan which goes back as far as the first incident? That would tie up with the frayed window cord. If that was deliberate it was done over a period of time. Or did the murderer realize the significance of the loose jaw and use the snake on impulse to conceal the fact that he'd actually removed some object from Etienne's mouth?' Daniel said: qhere's another possibility, sir. Suppose the joker finds the body, thinks it's a natural or accidental death, then decides to stir things up by making it look like murder. It could have been he or she who moved the table out of place as well as putting the snake round Etienne's neck.' Kate objected. 'He couldn't have weakened the window cord, that must have been done earlier. And why bother to shift the table? That could only confuse the issue and make the death look like murder if the joker already knew that Etienne had died from carbon monoxide poisoning.' 'He must have known. He turned off the gas fire.' Kate said: 'He'd have done that anyway. That small room must have been like a furnace.' She turned to Dalgliesh. 'Sir, I think there's only one theory that fits all the facts. This was intended to look like an accidental death from carbon monoxide poisoning. The murderer planned to be the one to find the body and to find it on his own. All he had to do then was to replace the tap and turn off the gas - a natural reaction anyway - then put back the table and chair, take away the tape and raise the alarm. But he couldn't find the tape, and when he did he couldn't get his hands on it without breaking the rigor in the jaw. He knew that this wouldn't be missed by a competent detective or the forensic pathologists, so he used the snake to suggest that this was an accidental death complicated by the malice of the office joker.' Daniel objected. 'Why take the tape recorder? I'm talking about the murderer now.' 'Why leave it? He had to remove the tape, he might as well take the

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recorder. Look, the natural thing would be to chuck it in the Thames.' She turned to Dalgliesh. 'Do you think there's any chance an underwater search could find it, sir?' Dalgliesh said: 'Extremely unlikely. And if it did the tape wouldn't be intact. The murderer would certainly have erased any messages. I doubt whether the expense of a search would be justified, but you'd better have a word with the people here. Find out what the bottOmof the river is like at Innocent House.' Daniel said: 'There's something else, sir. If the killer wanted to leave a message for his victim, why use the tape? Why not write it? He had to recover it anyway. It would have been as easy to recover a piece of paper, perhaps easier.' Dalgliesh said: 'But not as safe. If Etienne had time enough before unconsciousness supervened, he could tear up the paper and hide the separate pieces. But if he didn't tear it, paper is easier to conceal than a tape. The murderer knew that he might not have much time. He needed to retrieve that message and find it quickly. And there's another point: a speaking voice can't be ignored, a written message can. The interesting thing about this whole case is why he needed to leave a message at all.' Daniel said: "Fo gloat. To have the last word. To show how'clever he was.' Dalgliesh said: 'Or to explain to someone why he had to die. If that was the reason then the motive for this murder may not be obvious. It may lie in the past, even in the distant past.' 'But if so, why wait until now? If the murderer is here at Innocent House, Etienne could have been killed any time during the last twenty years or so. He's been part of the firm since he left Cambridge. What has happened recently to make this death necessary?' Dalgliesh said: 'Etienne took over as chairman and MD, he proposed to force the sale of Innocent House, and he became engaged.' 'Do you think the engagement could be relevant, sir?' 'Anything could be, Kate. I'm going to see Etienne's father tomorrow morning. Claudia Etienne drove down to Bradwellon-Sea early this evening to break the news to him and to ask him to agree to a meeting. She won't be staying the night. I've asked her to meet you at Etienne's flat in the Barbican tomorrow. But the first priority is to check all the alibis, starting with the partners and staff at Innocent

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House. Daniel, you and Robbins had better see Esm Carling. Find out where she went when she left Better Books at Cambridge. There was Gerard Etienne's engagement party on the tenth of July. We need to check the guest list and interview people who were there. You're going to need tact. The line to take is whether they did wander through the house and whether they saw anything odd or suspicious. But we concentrate on the partners. Did anyone see Claudia Etienne and her companion on the river, and at what time? Check with St Thomas's Hospital what time Gabriel Dauntsey was brought in and when he left, and of course on his alibi. I'll be leaving early for Bradwell-on-Sea but I should be back by early afternoon. For the present I think we'd better call it a day.'

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The partners spent Friday night apart. Standing at her kitchen table, trying to summon the energy to decide what to eat, Frances reflected that this wasn't surprising. They led separate lives away from Innocent House and it sometimes seemed to her that they made a deliberate attempt to distance themselves outside the office, almost as if they wanted to demonstrate that all they had in common was work. They seldom discussed their social engagements and she would occasionally be a guest at the party of another publisher and be surprised to see Claudia's sleek head momentarily appearing in a gap of yelling faces, or be at the theatre with a friend from her convent schooldays and see Dauntsey painfully edging his way along the row ahead. Then they would greet each other as politely as acquaintances. Tonight she sensed that something stronger than habit was holding them apart, that they had grown increasingly reluctant to discuss Gerard's death as the day progressed, and that the frankness of that hour closeted together in the boardroom had been displaced by a wary distrust of intimacy.