Behold Here's Poison Read online

  ‘No, thanks. What were you looking for?’

  He raised his brows. ‘Did I say I was looking for something?’

  ‘I know you were.’

  ‘Well, whatever it was I was disappointed,’ said Randall. ‘Someone has been busy.’

  ‘Aunt Harriet turned everything out the day uncle died,’ Stella said shortly.

  Randall lit a cigarette, and said in a meditative tone: ‘I often wonder whether Aunt Harriet is the fool she appears to be, or not.’

  ‘Good heavens, you don’t think she did it to destroy evidence, do you?’ exclaimed Stella, unable to believe in such forethought.

  ‘I am quite unable to make up my mind on that point,’ Randall replied. ‘Cast your little feather-weight of a brain backward, my sweet. What did our dear Aunt Harriet take out of uncle’s medicine-chest?’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know! All sorts of things. Corn-plaster, and iodine, and Eno’s Fruit Salts.’

  ‘And uncle’s tonic, of course,’ said Randall, watching the blue smoke rise up from the end of his cigarette.

  ‘No, that was broken. New bottle, too.’

  He raised his eyes rather quickly. ‘Broken,’ he repeated. ‘Was it indeed? Well, well! and who broke it, my little one?’

  ‘No one. Uncle must have left it on the shelf over the washbasin, and the wind blew it over.’

  ‘Any questions asked about it?’ inquired Randall.

  ‘Do you mean by the police? Yes, I think so. Not to me.’

  Randall sighed. ‘I wonder who regrets Aunt Gertrude’s officiousness most,’ he said. ‘The Matthews family, or Superintendent Hannasyde?’

  ‘I don’t know, but talking of Aunt Gertrude, what on earth have you been saying to her? She says she’s never been so insulted in her life.’

  ‘I shouldn’t think she has,’ said Randall.

  ‘What did you say?’ persisted Stella.

  ‘Merely that if I were married to her I should keep several mistresses,’ Randall replied.

  She could not help giving a gurgle of laughter, but she said: ‘Well, really, I do think that’s about the limit! It’s about the rudest thing you could say.’

  ‘I couldn’t think of anything ruder at the time,’ acknowledged Randall. ‘It got rid of her most successfully.’

  ‘You can’t go about being filthily rude to people just to get rid of them!’

  ‘I can and do,’ he replied imperturbably.

  ‘You do, yes,’ Stella said hotly. ‘You’re the most poisonous-tongued person I know!’

  ‘So you have often informed me,’ bowed Randall. He regarded her with a curious smile. ‘You can’t bear me, can you, little Stella? What have I done?’

  ‘Nothing. You don’t,’ Stella said contemptuously. ‘You just say spiteful things, and drift about like a lounge-lizard. I used to hate you when we first came to live with uncle.’

  ‘My darling, you still do.’

  ‘I don’t think twice about you,’ said Stella. ‘You were horrid to me when I was a kid –’

  ‘A gawky, clumsy flapper,’ murmured Randall, closing his eyes. ‘I remember.’

  ‘I wasn’t!’

  ‘Also callow, ignorant, and without grace.’

  She reddened. ‘All girls are at that age!’

  ‘Possibly, but I see no reason why I should be kind to them.’

  ‘You’re not kind to anyone. You were beastly to Guy, and you still are.’

  ‘I am but human, my love. If he will rise to my bait, bait he shall have.’

  ‘I wouldn’t mind betting you used to pull flies’ wings off when you were a boy,’ said Stella with deep loathing.

  ‘One of my favourite pastimes.’

  ‘And – if it interests you – I very much object to your habit of sneering at my mother!’

  His eyelids drooped. ‘At my clever Aunt Zoë? How you misjudge me! I am quite her most appreciative admirer.’

  ‘That’ll do, thanks!’

  He raised his brows. ‘There’s no pleasing you, sweetheart. What can I find to say about the boy-friend?’

  ‘You can leave Deryk alone! He and I are engaged to be married.’

  A malicious glint came into his eyes. ‘Oh, is that still on?’

  She reddened, hesitated for a moment, and then said bluntly: ‘Now look here, Randall! If you think you’re getting a rise out of me you’re mistaken. I suppose you’ve got hold of some silly, exaggerated story about Deryk and the Fosters. You would! It’s perfectly true that he partnered Maisie Foster to the Hopes’ dance, but considering I couldn’t go, and he’s known Maisie quite as long as he’s known me, I’m not – strangely enough – jealous about it.’

  Randall’s smile broadened. ‘I seem to have got a better rise out of you than I had hoped for, darling. This is all news to me.’

  She bit her lip. ‘Then what were you hinting at?’

  ‘Oh, nothing, nothing!’ said Randall airily. ‘Tell me more of this rival. Where does she live?’

  ‘She lives on Park Terrace, and she is not a rival.’

  He opened his eyes. ‘It sounds very promising. An extremely well-to-do locality. I hope she’s an only child?’

  She was spared the necessity of answering by the arrival of her brother, who at this moment came along the landing from his own room. Randall promptly transferred his attention to him, and said with an assumption of artless surprise: ‘Well, well! Can it really be my little cousin? Are you now a gentleman of leisure, Guy, or has the firm of Brooke and Matthews gone into liquidation?’

  Guy, who was looking worn, and rather pale, scowled at him. ‘No, it hasn’t. You’re not the only one who has a right to be here!’

  ‘A little out of spirits?’ murmured Randall. ‘Not quite our bright self today?’

  ‘I don’t see how anyone can be bright with a thing like this hanging over us all,’ said Guy jerkily.

  ‘I contrive to maintain my usual equanimity,’ said Randall. ‘Have a cigarette: very soothing to the nerves.’

  Guy took one mechanically, but stood with it between his fingers until Randall, his brows lifting, produced his lighter, and snapped it open. Guy gave a start. ‘Oh, thanks!’ he said awkwardly, and bent to light the cigarette. As he straightened his back again, he said: ‘Have they finished downstairs?’

  ‘Do you mean the police?’ inquired Randall. ‘Should I otherwise be here?’

  Guy glanced at him and away again. ‘They didn’t find anything, did they? There wasn’t anything to find.’ He paused interrogatively, but as Randall made no remark said angrily: ‘You can answer, can’t you?’

  ‘I thought you had spared me the trouble,’ said Randall blandly. ‘You said there was nothing to find. I expect you know.’

  ‘Damn you, I haven’t been tampering with uncle’s papers!’

  ‘Guy!’ said his sister sharply. ‘Don’t be such a fool! Can’t you see he’s only trying to get a rise out of you?’

  Guy gave a short laugh, and said: ‘It’s what he thinks, all the same.’ He hesitated, and looked at Randall again. ‘What line are they taking? What does that Superintendent-fellow make of it?’

  ‘My poor child, do you imagine that I am in his confidence?’ said Randall.

  ‘I thought you might have gathered something. They’re baffled, aren’t they? I don’t see how they can be anything else. There’s nothing to show who did it. Anybody might have, but how are they going to prove which it was?’

  ‘I haven’t the slightest idea,’ replied Randall. ‘I imagine it might be helpful if they discover how the nicotine was administered, but I gather they haven’t yet arrived at that. There may, of course, be some startling disclosures at the inquest tomorrow. I hope you’ve learned your piece, by the way?’

  ‘Oh, you’re thinking of that blasted whiskey-and-soda, are you?’ said Guy. ‘So easy for me to doctor it with the whole family sitting round!’

  ‘Well, I don’t know,’ said Randall pensively. ‘I think I could have done it.’

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