A Letter of Mary - Laurie R. King [85]
"I should have thought a military man would have more self-control than that," Mycroft objected. "Surely he must be driven to the brink of murder every day in this town, if he's so infuriated by women of that sort."
"He probably wouldn't have done anything other than storm furiously out of the restaurant and send off his resignation to the Friends, but for one thing: point four. I believe Miss Ruskin told him about the manuscript. You've heard it; it is very powerful. How would it have affected him? That document, even if its authenticity were never finally proven, would still turn the Christian world on its head. Mary Magdalene, an apostle of Jesus? To many people, the only thing more shocking would be if someone produced evidence that Peter was a woman, or Jesus himself. The colonel couldn't help seeing that, couldn't help being driven nearly insane by this woman, casually producing a document that would turn everything he stands for into a farce.
"I can see you have something you want to put in here, Inspector, but I'm nearly through. Can it wait? Good. Finally, there's the son. A current and, I think, valid, psychological theory says that a child reflects the subconscious, or unconscious, attitudes of the parent and that repressed hostilities and drives of the adult are often acted out openly by the offspring. Stripped of the jargon, it is simply that children absorb what their parents actually feel about someone or something, not just how the adult acts on the surface. Holmes, I think you used a version of this theory thirty years ago with the Rucastle case, didn't you? Obviously, the older a child becomes, the more tenuous the link becomes, and at twenty-one, Gerald Edwards can hardly be thought of as a child. However, his attitude towards Mary Small, a sweet young thing if ever there was, is positively predatory. Or, I should say, it was until yesterday afternoon. Even more revealing was the attitude Edwards took concerning his son's actions: slightly amused, somewhat proud parent looking on, exasperated, but not taking it any more seriously, and seeing no more need to apologise, than if his dog had anointed a neighbour's tree."
I had kept my voice to a dry recitation of the surface events, pushing away the uneasiness I felt remembering the actions, not of the son, but of the father. I told myself that it was merely the unexpectedness of the man's sudden fury that had taken me aback, and I decided not to mention it. Holmes would not need much of an excuse to pull me out of the Edwards house, and although a part of me would appreciate the gesture, I knew I had to remain there until my job was done.
My distraction functioned admirably, and I found myself faced by three variously affronted and indignant males. Their chivalrous attitude was nearly funny, but I thought it well to remind them who and what I was.
"Remember, Inspector," I said gently, "I have certain skills when it comes to the rough-and-tumble of life." I waited until I saw the recollection dawn in a familiar male look of quizzical half disapproval, and then I did laugh. He looked abashed, then chuckled unwillingly.
"You're right, I was forgetting. That lad with the knife— two years ago was it? You broke his arm well and truly."
"It was his elbow, and I didn't break it; he did it himself."
"Still could have been dangerous," he said, referring to the more recent escapade. "I mean to say, what if young Edwards had been able to, you know ..."
"Meet me on my own ground? I was quite certain he could not. One can tell, something in the way a person walks." I dismissed the topic. "At any rate, now you have my story. Colonel Edwards had a motive to kill Dorothy Ruskin and the organisational skills and experience to seize an opportunity and carry it out. He had the means, with both a driver and a son available to him; he was in the area when she was killed; he has no firm alibi for the period after her death, when her room was searched, or for the following