[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Papa, you re a wonder. You must have read my mind. Jonty took a huge draught of beer and
beamed. Lovely stuff.
Have you had a good afternoon? Mr. Stewart hoped he d implied enough in his tone, if not his
words, for Jonty to get his drift.
Oh yes, excellent in every way. We ll tell you all about the round no doubt Ralph will want to
relive all of his magnificent drives and rather skim over his encounters with the sand, but it s a story worth
telling.
The conversation, appropriately for the surroundings, drifted off into stories of putts that lipped out,
bunkers like the great north wall of the Eiger, and a very inquisitive rabbit which had tried to make off with
Ralph s ball at the twelfth.
&ð
34 www.samhainpublishing.com
Lessons in Seduction
You go first. Jonty had hardly got through the door before he began. He was bursting with his own
news but wanted to be polite and let his father have the honour, to keep up the golfing theme.
Do I start with the information or the threat? An idiot grin, the sort that Orlando always vowed
Jonty wore, graced Mr. Stewart s face.
Threat? Blimey. Jonty took the note and turned it in his hand. I don t think we ve ever had
anything as dramatic as this, Papa. Good sign, though, I d have thought someone has something to hide.
I ll get Orlando to look at this and see if he can recognise the writing. Is your information as exciting?
Mr. Stewart brought out a little book. I thought if I was playing sleuths I need the proper equipment.
He consulted his notes then related the events of lunchtime.
I think it s a splendid idea, you making the initial investigations with Lady Jennifer s next of kin. But
I m itching to know about the funeral did anything show up there? Jonty had got it into his mind that
some momentous thing was bound to have happened on this occasion, a totally illogical thought and not
one he d ever admit to Orlando. He desperately wanted to be proved right.
I m sorry to disappoint you& Mr. Stewart waited a moment, his love of a prank to the fore. No,
actually there was something. Although I don t know how, if at all, it fits in. I saw a chap there I recognised
yet couldn t put a name to. I made discreet enquiries but no one else I spoke to could name him either, so
I m not sure he was a recent friend of the family. I did wonder whether he was part of the crowd I used to
hang around with when Larry Johnson and I were younger he d have been the right age and he seemed
incredibly upset at the service. He was openly weeping at one point. He didn t come back to the house
afterwards, he just arrived at the church, paid his respects, then departed on his own as he had come.
Perhaps he was someone to whom Jennifer had been kind, or that awful thing beloved of romantic novels, a
secret admirer. It s the fact I recognised the man which is annoying me and until I have his name I won t
know whether there s any significance in his being present.
And the family the son and the daughter-in-law? Were your first impressions like those of Mrs.
Allender?
Not in the case of the son. He just struck me, what little I saw of him which was really just a bit of
conversation and the excellent speech he gave as being a normal, decent chap. Perhaps I m not as
perceptive as Janet, though she saw him under different circumstances. She could be right about the wife,
though, she appeared to be a timid thing. Mr. Stewart considered. I believe they re due to visit here for a
few days, to collect his mother s belongings and see how investigations are proceeding. He s certainly keen
to find the person who took his mother s life, or so I was told by that companion woman.
That s an odd way to describe Miss Jordan, not that I ve seen her yet Cohen says she s due to come
back here tomorrow. She seems to have made an impression on you.
www.samhainpublishing.com 35
Charlie Cochrane
I don t know what to make of her. Not the typical companion type would be the best way to describe
her. I think you might be able to get her to talk, though. A brisk walk or two along the front and I m sure
she d be confiding her secrets. Mr. Stewart was really enjoying himself now.
Now, what about young Laurence Johnson s wife? Shall I whisk her along the promenade?
Mr. Stewart narrowed his eyes in thought. I don t suppose it would be done for the girl to be dancing
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]