Vorpal Blade (47 page)

'We know Holgate had been caught snooping in the files ACTIL kept. I think Marienetta thought he'd seen
her birth certificate which might have blown the case wide open. So she lures him out to Bray and
whop!
She has another head for her museum.'

'It's quite horrible.' Paula exclaimed. 'And she asked
me to join her in playing detective.'

'Because she feared you, had to know how close to the
truth you were getting.'

'That leaves Scale, Brucan and Black Jack,' Nield
remarked.

'Scale was a criminologist. Probably made the mistake of letting slip he suspected her sanity. Same reason for
Brucan, so sensitive to the presence of evil. As for Black
Jack, she had chosen him to give Paula the map showing
the way to the old house by the lake. When Paula evaded
the hole into the rats' cellar Marienetta hurried back to
eliminate Black Jack, who could have told Paula what had
happened. She must have bribed bankrupt Jack.'

'And Hank Foley, the caretaker back in Maine?'

'Like Holgate he was a snoop. We heard that from Millie, the asylum's cleaner. There would be a record
with Marienetta's name and treatment for an outbreak
of madness. Marienetta couldn't risk him knowing about
her, so when she left the asylum -
whop!
'

'I do wish you wouldn't keep using that word,' Paula
protested. 'It's so descriptive. My last query is: how did
she transport all the heads to Airolo?'

'Don't you remember? She caught an early train, a
stopper, I'm sure. She gets off, deposits her treasures in
the museum, catches a later train to Lugano which gets there after we've arrived. It all fits.'

'What doesn't fit is that Sam Snyder was sending an
earlier account to papers all over the place. Yet it hasn't
appeared.'

'That was me.' Newman chuckled. 'Snyder had played so many dirty tricks in the past I thought it was my turn.
I wired all the papers and magazines warning them they
were about to receive a sensationalist report before the
case was solved. Which it wasn't. Their lawyers would
order editors to hold off. They were later quite happy
with my report.'

'Now I know why I kept feeling jittery,' Paula said.
'It was always after spending time with Marienetta. My
subconscious was screaming warning signals. I think I'd
better get off home.'

'No, you don't,' Tweed rapped out. 'I've booked a
large table at Santorini's on their platform projecting
out over the Thames. They assured me they have plenty
of champagne. So everyone here on your feet. Including
you, Monica. You did build up that vital family tree of
the Arbogasts.'