Snobbery With Violence - M. C. Beaton [70]
He unlocked the safe and knelt down in front of it, the lantern on the floor beside him.
There were various items of jewellery in a box: a gold half hunter, dress studs, a gold Albert and a gold toothpick. Another box contained, to his surprise, an opium pipe and a small quantity of opium. Was Dr. Perriman an opium smoker? Or had that vice been one of the late Dr. Jenner’s? There were various title deeds and business papers, and a cash box containing a few hundred pounds.
There was one thick file which he took out and laid on the floor and opened. In it was Lord Hedley’s medical file and also correspondence between Dr. Jenner and a Dr. Palverston in London. Harry let out a soundless whistle. The correspondence between the two men discussed the use of arsenic to counteract the effects of syphilis. And in Lord Hedley’s file, he found Dr. Jenner had started to treat Lord Hedley for syphilis last summer.
He carefully replaced everything and locked the safe. In order to give Kerridge this information, he would need to cover up the fact that he had broken into the surgery.
He went downstairs and put the keys back in the drawer, being careful to lay them back in the order he had found them.
He breathed a sigh of relief when he locked the kitchen door behind him and hurried off towards where he had left the others in the car.
Daisy and Becket were excited at his news, but Rose seemed a trifle disappointed.
“It all seems so easy,” she complained. “I had imagined you having to behave like a real burglar.”
Harry had carried that bright image of Rose singing in his car. It popped like a balloon and disappeared. She was really a very silly little girl.
Harry called on Kerridge first thing in the morning with his new information.
“Where did you get this?” demanded the superintendent.
“I can’t really tell you.”
“You must.”
“Superintendent, I know you pay informers and you do not demand where they got their information from and drag them into court.”
Kerridge drummed his fingers on the desk. “I can confront Hedley. Even if he admits he has syphilis, he will deny having anything to do with Mary Gore-Desmond. We will then need to approach her parents for further proof—was she sleeping with anyone else?—and that will shake them rigid. But it shows Hedley has arsenic at his disposal.
“Still, I’ll need to interview him. You may yet be forced to tell me how you came by this information.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” said Harry.
ELEVEN
I had grown weary of him; of his breath And hands and features I was sick to death. Each day I heard the same dull voice and tread; I did not hate him: but I wished him dead.
-G. K. CHESTERTON
Rose had to endure a row from her furious mother. Why had she sent her guard away? Was she misbehaving herself with one of the gentlemen?
Rose protested that the policeman must have misunderstood her. Lady Polly said that they had all been told that they could leave on the following morning.
“I am glad of it. Hedley is not what we had been led to believe. I do not like this extremely vulgar castle and I do not like his guests. That Fairfax woman is atrocious. None of the young men are suitable. We are opening up the town house and the servants have been told to get it ready for our arrival. There will be a few balls and parties before Christmas and, with any luck, you will meet someone suitable there.”
“I have decided I do not wish to get married,” said Rose.
“What else is there for you to do?”
“I can type. I could get a job.”
“Are you out of your mind? Work? YOU would be a laughingstock. We do not work!”
And with that, Lady Polly slammed out of her daughter’s room in a fury.
Rose felt tears welling up in her eyes and brushed them angrily away. The attempt on her Ufe on the roof was at last beginning to affect her with a bout of delayed shock. She felt weak and useless. Tomorrow they would leave and she would never know what really happened.
Daisy came into the room. “I couldn’t help hearing Lady Polly going on at you. So we’re going to London.”
“It looks like that,” said Rose.