An Old Habit
BLAZEWASSTILLin the hall when Bony descended. He was dressed in his working clothes, and to look at him was to think it midsummer. His old face was like a long-stored apple, but his brown eyes were keen and anxious.
“End of the track, Inspector?” he asked.
“Yes, the end of the track,” agreed Bony. “You know, in the days to come I’d like to think of you being in charge of this place, and keeping a general eye on Morris Answerth. I would like to see him playing with dogs, or a lamb or two, out in the sunshine. If you would stay on here, I would work to that objective.”
“Suits me,” Blaze said, quietly adding: “It’s the sort of picture Mrs Answerth would like to see, too.”
Bony nodded, and turned to Mawson and the doctor, who appeared from the kitchen passage.
“You were correct, Inspector, about the odour,” Dr Lofty told him.“Neck broken. Almost shaken off the trunk. We transferred the body to an empty room.”
“Then, you permitting, we will accompany you on your visit to Miss Answerth. There are a few points to be cleared up. Won’t take long.”
Mawson and Blaze stopped just inside the lounge doorway. The doctor went to his patient, and Bony stood in the background.
“Well, Miss Mary! How are you this morning?” asked the doctor brightly. The dark eyes blinked, and the daylight left much to be desired by the waiting Bonaparte.
“Not as good as I’m going to be, Lofty,” replied the patient. “And I’m not paying for this visit, ’cos you didn’t come to Venom House just to see me. That right Janet’s dead?”
“It’s true enough, Miss Answerth. That she was murdered cannot be denied. H’m! Didn’t sleep well. Increase the tablets, Mrs Leeper.”
“Better leave a pot-full for Morris, Lofty. Having killed Janet, he’ll want calming down for a day or two. Anyway, now that little bitch is dead, we’ll have peace in this house at last, andme and Mrs Leeper can look after him properly.”
The doctor was drawn aside to permit Bony to sit at the foot of the bed.
“I am compelled, Miss Answerth, to charge you with the murder of your sister, and to warn you that anything you say may be taken down by Constable Mawson and used in evidence against you.”
The woman attempted to sit up, groaned and pressed her hands to her neck.
“Is that so?” she sneered. “Well, I’m tellin’ you I didn’t kill Janet. And I’m tellin’ you I would have made her sick for a month or more if I had met her in the dark like I met Leeper. Morris fixed her, because Janet let him out to murder me. You bring him down here, and I’ll make him admit it.”
“Perhaps you can explain…”
“I’m explainin’ nothing, Inspector. Exceptin’ that I know Janet had murder in her heart. I knew it when she came in here after I’d had me dinner, and she sneaked the box of matches from the mantel, took it while she soft-soaped me about me neck. It was her who tried to strangle me. She guessed that I knew it was her. So when she took the matches I knew she’d come back when I was asleep and bring Morris down to do her murder for her. You can’t touch Morris, him being what he is, and Janet knew that.”
“So you turned out your lamp as though it starved for oil, and waited in the dark?”
“Yes. Until I lost me patience and went upstairs to satisfy meself about Janet’s little plan. Morris was out all right. So was Janet. Her bed was empty.”
“And then you came back here and waited?”
“You know damn well I didn’t. You know I met Leeper and she put one of herholts on me and I passed out. You know quite well that you and her came in and she undid me feet and wrists.”
“H’m!” soothed Bony. “Let us try to make all clear. You won’t mind?”
“Not from you, I’m beginning to like you.”
Bony almost stood up to bow acknowledgement of the compliment.
“I’ll begin from the beginning, Miss Answerth,” he said. “From that moment when, in your wool shed, you worked it out that you had been robbed of wool equal to two bales.”
“Ah!” Mary said. “OldHarston been tellin’ you my business, eh?”
“Me and the Inspector worked it all out before we seen your figuring on the shed wall,” interrupted Blaze, and the flashing eyes glared past Bony at the little cook.
“Having worked out the approximate amount of wool stolen,” Bony proceeded, “you reached the natural conclusion that the presser, with perhaps an accomplice, engineered the theft. You tackled the presser about it, and from him learned that Carlow, the butcher, received the wool and was to pay the thief, or thieves, half the proceeds.
“Instead of reporting this matter to Constable Mawson, you saw the handle you could turn to spite your sister. You were aware that Miss Janet devoted time and money to good works. You were aware that Miss Janet had greatly assisted Edward Carlow and his mother and brother, after you had compelled them to vacate the farm. And, Miss Answerth, you were aware that Miss Janet wanted Edward Carlow.
“Theman for whom she cared, the man for whom she had done so much, robbed her… and you. And you twisted the handle of the dagger in her heart. You scoffed at her, and sneered, and when Carlow was found forcibly drowned, you knew who did it.”
“You’re not tellin’ me that little doll Janet drowned a big hefty man like Carlow,” objected Mary.
“Oh no. I am telling you, Miss Answerth, that your sister took your stepbrother over the causeway to meet Carlow, with whom she had arranged a meeting. As she was physically incapable of murdering Carlow, so was Morris mentally incapable of trying to make the crime look like accidental drowning. He had to be directed. Don’t you agree?”
“Go on with your yarns, Inspector. You tell ’em good.”
“When Janet and Morris returned over the causeway, they were met by Mrs Answerth. Doubtless, Janet offered an explanation, but she knew, when the body was found by Blaze, that Mrs Answerth was bound to connect Morris andherself with the tragedy. Till then, she had been putting her foot down against visits to Morris by his mother. From then on, she stopped the visits altogether.
“Your sister was unaware that Mrs Answerth stole out at night to talk with Morris; as you were unaware that Morris sometimes slid down from his window to enjoy the night air. Miss Janet knew nothing of it till she heard you scolding Mrs Answerth for being out of the house for the purpose of talking to Morris. All her care to prevent mother and son meeting after the murder of Carlow was for nothing. She went to Morris, and he confessed to her he had told everything to his mother.
“Your sister persuaded Mrs Answerth to go outside with her later that night, and she strangled the old lady and dragged the body part-way over the causeway, that it might appear that Mrs Answerth had slipped into deep water. Again, Morris was incapable of understanding the processes of putrefaction, which Janet anticipated would conceal at least the outward signs of strangulation.
“That you guessed she killed your stepmother, I have no exact proof, Miss Answerth. Or if you taunted her with that crime. I think that you did, which is why she attempted to kill you. It’s a link in the chain. She was passionately fond of Morris, and her egotism demanded his complete subjugation to her will. She used him to kill Carlow, and she killed Carlow not only because he robbed her. The greater hurt was to her pride made to suffer by the realization that Carlow had used her affection for him to further his ambitions.
“When your sister nearly succeeded in killing you, you decided to kill her and subsequently throw suspicion on Morris, because Morris could be led to confess to the killing of Carlow. Morris of the undeveloped mind was easy.
“It was Janet who aroused you the night before last by tapping on the outside of your window with a wall broom manoeuvred from the next window. It was Morris you saw when you looked out, not an unknown man wishing to talk about stolen cattle. That was your story. You went down to investigate how and why Morris was between the porch and his corner of the house.
“When you unlocked the front door, Morris was stepping up to the porch. Hearing the door unlocked, he stepped backward off the porch, continued to walk backward for a dozen or so paces. He saw you come out, and he saw Janet make the attempt to kill you. For Janet, having roused you, followed you down the stairs, was right behind you when you went out to the porch, was standing on the step when you were off it, and thus had the advantage of elevation to toss the noose over your head. You were just in time to get your hand under the noose, and Janet knew she was then physically incapable of completing her design.
“As you have told others, so then did you decide you would exact your own justice in your owntime. Janet suspected you knew it was she who had tried to kill you, for she did not know Morris was able to climb down from his window, and thus must have thought him in bed.
“Her only real chance to beat you, Miss Answerth, was before you were well again. When she took your matches you suspected she would hide all the matches in the house, and you decided she would make the attempt again last night. You turned down your lamp to pretend it needed oil, in order to leave your room in the dark and go hunting for Janet in the dark. You caught Janet in the kitchen, and you snapped her neck like a carrot.”
“You don’t say?”sneered Mary. “I’ve heard that expression before… from Morris… about snapping necks like carrots. If I’d got me two hands on Janet last night, I would have given her plenty to keep her in hospital for six months. I say I didn’t break her neck like a carrot.”
“And we say that you did. Would you like to know how we know that you killed your sister?”
“Not particularly,” replied Mary, closing her eyes as though overwhelmed by weariness. “I’ll tell you something for a change. For years I’ve been fed to the back teeth by the lunatics surrounding me… a mealy-mouthed lisping slut and a strong man who couldn’t grow up. You mentioned good works. All she wanted was to be Lady Bountiful. Why, every time I went to Edison, people laughed at me behind me back. And me the only sane member of the lot of us Answerths, me who’s worked like a slave saving this place from ruination, holding on to what great-grandfather thieved off the blacks and grandfather built up in his day.
“Yes, I know, Inspector. I know all of it. And when these lunatics started to murder each other, I said to meself, Mary, that’s the way it’s going to go. I never killed Janet, and you can’t ever prove I did. With her out of the way, I’ll make Venom House so’s it stands for a thousand years. Now you can all get out and leave me in peace.”
“Regretfully, Miss Answerth, we cannot leave you in peace,” Bony said. “Having been charged with the murder of your sister, you will be conveyed to the lock-up at Edison as soon as Dr Lofty gives permission. You will be away from Venom House for perhaps a long time, and meanwhile please think of Morris. I suggest that Mrs Leeper could become his guardian now, and that Blaze could be promoted to manage the entire property.”
Mary opened her eyes. She looked steadily at Bony.
“Tell me how you come to think I killed Janet,” she said.
“You left your brand on her body, Miss Answerth.”
“Left me brand on the little bitch. I wish I had.”
“When you killed her, Miss Answerth, the odour of the salve applied to your neck and back was on your hands. The odour of oil of wintergreen is quite unmistakable. After Mrs Leeper left you last night, she washed her hands in the kitchen. I heard her. About the shoulders and the head of your sister’s body is the odour of wintergreen.”
The tension waned. Mary said:
“That’s a good idea about Morris being looked after by Mrs Leeper, and the place being managed by Blaze.”
It could be then that she understood the mind of this man who had proffered the “good idea” and, understanding, was able to thrust aside the life-long aggressiveness to reveal the woman she might have been had not the aborigines pointed the bone at her forebears, cursing them and their children’s children, slamming shut all avenues of escape for any Answerth down to the fourth generation.
She nodded as though agreeing with what she saw in Bony’s mind, recognizing and accepting the inevitable. It could have been to all those long-dead aborigines, as well as to Bony, that she admitted:
“You win.”
“But without pleasure, Miss Answerth,” Bony said. “I have won so often that I am not gratified by what has become a habit.”