Behold Here's Poison Read online

  Lupton glanced unhappily at it. ‘Yes. That is – yes, I wrote it. We – my brother-in-law and I – had a slight disagreement over a – a personal matter. Such things will happen in the best regulated families, you know. I thought it would be best if we met and talked it over. Without prejudice, you know.’

  ‘Did you meet him?’ Hannasyde asked.

  ‘No. Oh, no! You see, he died before there was really time.’

  ‘Did he answer your letter, Mr Lupton?’

  ‘Only by telephone. Just to let me know that he couldn’t manage an appointment.’ He gave a nervous laugh. ‘I was very much annoyed at the time – well, my brother-in-law had a sort of manner that rather put one’s back up, if you know what I mean.’

  Hannasyde said in his measured way: ‘Mr Lupton, I want you to realise one thing. Except in so far as they may have a bearing on this case I am not concerned with your private affairs. Nor, I can assure you, have I any desire to make wanton trouble in your family circle. But when I went through the late Mr Matthews’ papers at his office, with Mr Carrington here, I found the name and address of a lady calling herself Gladys Smith. You will understand that I had of course to follow this up. I called on Mrs Smith at her flat yesterday, and what I saw and heard there were sufficient to convince me that you are – intimately acquainted with her.’

  Henry Lupton looked towards Giles for support, and getting none said in a blustering voice: ‘Well, and what if I am? I should like to know what bearing it can have on this case?’

  ‘That is what I also want to know, Mr Lupton.’ Hannasyde left a pause, but Henry Lupton said nothing, and after a minute he continued: ‘You had an appointment to see your brother-in-law on Monday, 13th May.’

  Lupton moved uneasily in his chair. ‘Yes, certainly I had. But this is – is quite ridiculous! There is no reason why you should drag in Mrs Smith’s name.’

  ‘Are you going to tell me, Mr Lupton, that your appointment with the late Mr Matthews had no bearing on Mrs Smith – whose name and address I found in his diary?’

  It was evident that Henry Lupton hardly knew what to reply. He mumbled something about consulting his solicitor, seemed to think better of it, and chancing to catch sight of his own letter to Gregory Matthews, said with a good deal of agitation: ‘I didn’t poison him, if that’s what you suspect! Yes, yes, I know very well what’s in your mind, and I admit I was a fool to write that letter. That ought to convince you – for I never dreamed that anything like this would happen.’

  ‘I don’t suspect anything,’ said Hannasyde calmly. ‘But it is obvious to me that at the time of his death you were on bad terms with Gregory Matthews; equally obvious that the existence of Mrs Smith had something to do with that. I think Mr Carrington, in the absence of your own solicitor, would advise you to be frank with me.’

  Giles said nothing, but Henry Lupton, dropping his head into his hands, groaned, and answered: ‘Of course I’ve no desire to obstruct the police. Naturally I – I appreciate your position, Superintendent, but my own is – is extremely equivocal. My wife has no suspicion – I have my daughters to consider, and my whole object is to – is to –’

  ‘Please understand, Mr Lupton, that I am not here to investigate public morals,’ said Hannasyde coldly. ‘I can only tell you in all honesty that your relations with Mrs Smith are more likely to become known through a refusal on your part to be frank with me than through a voluntary statement made to me now.’

  ‘Yes,’ agreed Lupton unhappily. ‘I see that, of course. I suppose you’ll make inquiries, and it’ll get round.’ He gave a shudder, and lifted his head. ‘I have – known Mrs Smith for a number of years,’ he said, not meeting Hannasyde’s gaze. ‘I needn’t go into all that, need I? My work takes me about the country a good deal. I – there has always been plenty of opportunity without creating suspicion. I’ve been very careful. I don’t know how my brother-in-law found out. It’s a mystery to me. But he did find out. He asked me to call at his office. I’d no idea – I thought it odd, but he was a strange man, and it didn’t cross my mind … anyway, I went, and he taxed me with – with my connection with Mrs Smith.’ His face twitched. He clasped his hands tightly on his knee, and said in a constricted voice: ‘He knew all about it. He even knew when I’d last been with her, and how they thought – the other people in the block, I mean – that I was a commercial traveller. He must have made the most minute inquiries. It was no use denying it. He knew everything – oh, things one wouldn’t have thought he could know! He – was very unpleasant about it.’ He broke off, and turned with a kind of appeal towards Giles. ‘You knew him, Carrington. It’s no good trying to explain to the Superintendent. No one who was unacquainted with Gregory would understand.’

  ‘I didn’t know him well,’ Giles answered.

  ‘You must have seen the type of man he was. Power! That’s what he liked! He didn’t care about my wife, you know. Not enough to make him threaten me with exposure. That wasn’t it. It was – a cruel streak in his nature. They’re all of them like that, the Matthews, in a way. He wanted to pull the strings and see the puppets dance. Well, I told him he couldn’t do that with me. I – I have danced, often, in – in minor things, but this was different. I don’t want you to think of it as a mere sordid intrigue, because I swear it’s not like that. Mrs Smith – well, she’s just the same as a wife to me. I’d marry her if I could, but, you see, it’s all so impossible. There are my daughters, for one thing, and my position, and – and my wife, of course. I’ve even got a grandson. One can’t, you know. But that’s what I meant when I wrote that.’ He pointed to the letter, lying on the desk before Hannasyde.

  Hannasyde picked it up. ‘The phrase, you will have cause to regret it if you drive me to take desperate action – that meant that you were seriously contemplating divorce, Mr Lupton?’

  ‘Yes, I think I meant that. I don’t know. I was terribly worried. I couldn’t see my way out of the trouble. I wrote that to try and frighten him. I thought he might hesitate to push me too far if he knew I was prepared to stand by Gladys, and let everything else go to the devil. After all he wouldn’t want an open scandal in the family, and it wasn’t as though my wife suffered in any way through Mrs Smith.’

  ‘I quite understand that,’ said Hannasyde. ‘You asked him for a second interview, but he refused it, didn’t he?’

  Henry Lupton nodded, and gulped. ‘Yes, he refused it. That was the last time I spoke to him. On the morning of the day he died, just over the telephone. He rang me up from his office. I never saw him again.’

  ‘At what time did he ring you up, Mr Lupton?’

  ‘Oh, quite early! Not later than eleven.’

  ‘I see. And what did you do then?’

  Lupton stared at him. ‘Nothing. That is, I was at my office, you see. I had my work. I couldn’t do anything.’

  ‘You didn’t make any attempt to see Mr Matthews – during lunch-time, for instance?’

  ‘No. It wouldn’t have been any use. I knew Gregory. I had lunch by myself. I wanted time to think.’

  ‘Where did you lunch, Mr Lupton?’

  ‘At my usual place. It’s a quiet little restaurant called the Vine. They know me there. I’m sure they’ll be able to bear me out.’

  ‘And after lunch?’

  ‘I went back to the office, of course. As a matter of fact, I left earlier than I generally do. Well, before tea.’

  ‘Where did you go?’

  ‘To Golders Green. I wanted to see Mrs Smith.’

  ‘Ah, yes,’ Hannasyde said suavely. ‘You naturally wished to discuss the matter with her.’

  ‘Well, no. No, actually I didn’t speak of it. I meant to, but – but I still hoped there might be some way of getting round it, and – you see, we never spoke of my – my home-life. And I didn’t want to upset Gladys. I haven’t told her anything about what’s happened. Just that we have had a death in the family.’

  ‘Oh!’ said Hannasyde. ‘At what hour did you leave Mrs Smith?’