Spider's Web - Agatha Christie [53]
Miss Peake looked blank. ‘Haven’t the foggiest idea,’ she admitted.
‘He said, didn’t he, “I came to see Mrs Brown”?’ Clarissa reminded her.
Miss Peake thought for a moment, and then answered, ‘I believe he did. Yes. Why?’
‘But it wasn’t me he came to see,’ Clarissa insisted.
‘Well, if it wasn’t you, then I don’t know who it could have been,’ Miss Peake replied with another of her jovial laughs.
Clarissa spoke with emphasis. ‘It was you,’ she said to the gardener. ‘You are Mrs Brown, aren’t you?’
Chapter 21
Miss Peake, looking extremely startled at Clarissa’s accusation, seemed for a moment unsure how to act. When she did reply, her manner had changed. Dropping her usual jolly, hearty tone, she spoke gravely. ‘That’s very bright of you,’ she said. ‘Yes, I’m Mrs Brown.’
Clarissa had been doing some quick thinking. ‘You’re Mr Sellon’s partner,’ she said. ‘You own this house. You inherited it from Sellon with the business. For some reason, you had the idea of finding a tenant for it whose name was Brown. In fact, you were determined to have a Mrs Brown in residence here. You thought that wouldn’t be too difficult, since it’s such a common name. But in the end you had to compromise on Hailsham-Brown. I don’t know exactly why you wanted me to be in the limelight whilst you watched. I don’t understand the ins and outs–’
Mrs Brown, alias Miss Peake, interrupted her. ‘Charles Sellon was murdered,’ she told Clarissa. ‘There’s no doubt of that. He’d got hold of something that was very valuable. I don’t know how–I don’t even know what it was. He wasn’t always very–’ she hesitated ‘–scrupulous.’
‘So we have heard,’ Sir Rowland observed drily.
‘Whatever it was,’ Mrs Brown continued, ‘he was killed for it. And whoever killed him didn’t find the thing. That was probably because it wasn’t in the shop, it was here. I thought that whoever it was who killed him would come here sooner or later, looking for it. I wanted to be on the watch, therefore I needed a dummy Mrs Brown. A substitute.’
Sir Rowland made an exclamation of annoyance. ‘It didn’t worry you,’ he asked the gardener, speaking with feeling, ‘that Mrs Hailsham-Brown, a perfectly innocent woman who had done you no harm, would be in danger?’
‘I’ve kept an eye on her, haven’t I?’ Mrs Brown replied defensively. ‘So much so that it annoyed you all sometimes. The other day, when a man came along and offered her a ridiculous price for that desk, I was sure I was on the right track. Yet I’ll swear there was nothing in that desk that meant anything at all.’
‘Did you examine the secret drawer?’ Sir Rowland asked her.
Mrs Brown looked surprised. ‘A secret drawer, is there?’ she exclaimed, moving towards the desk.
Clarissa intercepted her. ‘There’s nothing there now,’ she assured her. ‘Pippa found the drawer, but there were only some old autographs in it.’
‘Clarissa, I’d rather like to see those autographs again,’ Sir Rowland requested.
Clarissa went to the sofa. ‘Pippa,’ she called, ‘where did you put–? Oh, she’s asleep.’
Mrs Brown moved to the sofa and looked down at the child. ‘Fast asleep,’ she confirmed. ‘It’s all the excitement that’s done that.’ She looked at Clarissa. ‘I’ll tell you what,’ she said, ‘I’ll carry her up and dump her on her bed.’
‘No,’ said Sir Rowland, sharply.
Everyone looked at him. ‘She’s no weight at all,’ Mrs Brown pointed out. ‘Not a quarter as heavy as the late Mr Costello.’
‘All the same,’ Sir Rowland insisted, ‘I think she’ll be safer here.’
The others now all looked at Miss Peake/Mrs Brown, who took a step backwards, looked around her, and exclaimed indignantly, ‘Safer?’
‘That’s what I said,’ Sir Rowland told her. He glanced around the room, and continued, ‘That child said a very significant thing just now.’
He sat down at the bridge table, watched by all. There was a pause, and then Hugo, moving to sit opposite Sir Rowland at the bridge table, asked, ‘What did she say, Roly?’
‘If you all think back,’ Sir Rowland suggested, ‘perhaps you’ll realize what it was.