A Door Closed Softly: A Golden Age Mystery

CHAPTER ONE

MISTAKES WILL HAPPEN

There was a thickish mist over Hampstead. Oh, not a real fog—as Alison was careful to explain.

Wait, she scoffed, till you’ve had a whole year of London, as I have. You’ll see.

David Beddoes grunted. After the hot murk of the Tube the clammy white haze went through him as no American cold had ever done. Taking longer strides and turning up his collar to protect his dress-shirt front from the damp, he let his cousin brag airily about the pea-soupers she had known.

Last time, she informed him, her cheeks more than ever like an Indian peach as she manfully led the way to heights masked in mystery, my taxi-driver got lost, and had to keep borrowing my matches to read the street-signs. He and I got so chummy I asked him in at the finish and filled him with hot rum. Of course first thing in the morning that landlady of mine had me on the mat!

Well, living in sin as you do, you know darned well what to expect! The look that female gave me tonight was an eye-opener. Cousin, forsooth, it said, I’ve heard that yarn too many times. . . . Say, where’s this benighted house you’re carting me to?

Oh, close! Hold on a minute. Isn’t this marvellous?

Before them lay the Heath, a soft blur, with faint skeletons of trees thrusting up out of amorphous blobs of shadow and remote lights, like stars, sifting through the pale gauze. David approved.

Whistler stuff. He flicked away his cigarette in a shower of red sparks. Very swell.

Turner, you moron! That is, when it’s day and you can get the long, sandy slides. Down here’s a hollow. They hold fairs in it, with merry-go-rounds. Over there’s Jack Straw’s Castle—and The Spaniards. Pickwick, you know. Don’t fall in the pond. Now, then, shake your feet!

They skirted the Heath, bearing left.

And just who, asked David, is this good woman who’s throwing the party?

"I told you—Lady Wibbe. Cynthia—wrote Caravans. She’s a good seller. We’re bringing out her next three books over our side. I’ve been to her only once before—sherry-party, in September—but when she heard I had a cousin staying with me she said to bring you along. Now, which house is it?"

Alison halted before a dark, curving road abutting on the Heath. In this obscurity all houses looked much of a muchness, but her real thoughts were occupied with the someone who on the former occasion had driven her home from Lady Wibbe’s. It had been her first meeting with him—oddly exciting, making the otherwise dull sherry-party stand out. Too bad he couldn’t be here to-night. Still, there was to-morrow. . . .

It had a big garden, she meditated aloud, and a sort of turret. Would it be that one? She pointed to the second house, like its wide-spaced neighbours well retired from the road. I want my glasses for this. How are your eyes?

Well, there’s your turret, anyhow.

They crossed, and got a better view of what was certainly a tower, empty-eyed and black against the blankness of mist. It looked a suitable home for bats, part and parcel of the hideous mid-Victorian architecture stamping the whole edifice, which was large and erupted all over in cramped balconies and pseudo-Gothic pinnacles.

Sure you’ve got the right date? David accused. Hand on the gate, Alison frowned. To be sure most houses were at their worst in a shrouding of cold mist, but this one, crouched amongst sooty laurels, seemed quite dismally decayed. Almost repellent in its gloom.

Rot, you saw me look at the card. Curtains drawn, that’s all. The English don’t blazon their doings to the world the way we do.

She pushed the sagging gates inward and saw a vaguely-familiar drive curving to a columned portico also recognisable. This old-fashioned bell-pull, though! Still it produced a competent jangle, and before the dead stillness inside had grown too oppressive the door opened to frame an aged manservant, definitely shabby, but conventionally clad. A substitute, perhaps. Shuffling and doddering, with watery, peering eyes and an ill-shaven chin that like the gate sagged on its hinges. His dubious manner and the unlit hall made her want to settle a tenuous doubt.

Lady Wibbe—? she ventured.

Instant alacrity as the butler stood aside for them to enter. Nervous, though, unless the trembling was palsy? As if mastering his duties he asked whether they would care to leave their wraps.

Here? Alison blinked round.

Evidently. He was opening a door just inside the entrance. It gave on a totally dark coat cupboard in which she could just make out a few dangling garments. David had peeled off his overcoat and was settling his black tie. (Thank goodness she hadn’t made him wear tails!) As he stood there stalwart and foursquare the rather uncompromising cut of his jaw and the heavy bar of his jet brows seemed to be registering disapproval. The old man hung her broad-tail coat on a peg in the dank cavern, fumbling and pottering; but now with more assurance he was shuffling past a long flight of stairs towards a room on the left.

Odd she had not noticed the depressing state of this hall! Brown-papered walls, stained with ancient damp, revolting lincrusta and oil-paintings no self-respecting person in these days would give house room. The very parquet, nearly rugless, gritty from lack of polish. . . . She remembered that Sir Francis Wibbe was a prosperous K.C., that Cynthia’s royalties had been pouring in. Of course crowds of people dress a place. It would explain her failure to be struck by this appalling taste; not, though, the penetrating cold, as of a house untenanted. A good thing she’d put on her long-sleeved velvet . . .

Suddenly, up above, someone opened a door, and into the musty chill surged a wave of warm, exotic fragrance. Alison Young knew that scent—Fortnum and Mason’s bath essence, a guinea a bottle. A silken rustle on high suggested that the someone had paused by the balustrade to listen. What a time for a hostess to be just finishing her bath! Nine striking now from some wheezy, unseen clock.

The room into which their guide shut them had a stale, conserved warmth. They stared round ruefully. A dining-room?

And what a dining-room! Certainly Alison hadn’t been in here before. She would never have forgotten this huge atrocity of a sideboard, this scratched, bulbous-legged table hogging most of the space with satellite chairs drawn up to it in long stiff rows. Not a flower anywhere; and why this funereal gloom? The colossal chandelier, all tarnished metal squirls and fitted unbelievably for gas, had only one burner emitting a choked, bluish flame.

David’s eye was on her. She shrugged defensively.

Don’t ask me, she murmured. Some domestic muddle, I suppose. Drawing-room not ready. It was a lovely big place, I remember, giving on a garden and . . . What’s up?

He pointed down at the table. Holy snakes! he grunted.

She saw a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, fully a yard square, showing a squadron of ships against a sickly blue sky.

All fitted together to the last squiggly bit, representing hours upon hours of patient toil. Funny for it to be here; but then so much was funny and—queer.

Lady Wibbe’s got a little girl, she whispered, and caught sight of her cousin’s face. Oh, David, don’t look so glum! This is a party, not a visit of condolence. Though I must say they might have made up the fire. She chafed her hands over the almost dead embers.

Littered hearth; hideous black marble clock flanked by imitation bronze figures, horsemen spearing boars. The stillness! One would have expected some bustle somewhere. David, after swaying awkwardly from one patent-leather foot to the other, had picked up an old Tauchnitz book from the sideboard. A clinker rattled from the grate. Alison bottled her laughter. And then, soft steps descended the long, bare stairway just outside. At last! But how pattering, how indeterminate a tread for the corpulent, expansive Cynthia!

It wasn’t Cynthia at all. A tall, flat-chested person was sidling in on them with a nervous, propitiatory smile; and she was certainly not dressed for a party. . . . Of course! The companion-secretary who on the former occasion had merged into the background. Some accident had happened, she was come to explain.

How do you do? With a flat giggle from sheer lack of ease the woman extended a hand like a dead sole, sent a flurried glance at David, and murmured, I—I’m afraid I’ve kept you waiting.

Oh, no! I expect we are early. Alison was dealing with this as best she could. May I introduce my cousin Mr. Beddoes, from New York? (She couldn’t possibly recall the woman’s name.)

Americans?

Yes, didn’t you know? Alison was puzzled by the flicker of question and the almost palpitating agitation. I’ve been here some time, but my cousin’s just come over. Meeting only the same wavering and inane smile, she added, Do tell me, have we come at the wrong time?

Oh, dear, no, not in the least!

It was a hurried babble carrying no reassurance. She had dropped David’s hand as though it were a live coal, and standing now in the circle of poor light was more clearly revealed. A spinster, undoubtedly, meagre and pinched in her brown uneven skirt all picked and snarled down the front, chocolate-brown spencer and shoes that had down-trodden heels. Hands damp from recent washing but still grubby. Of no definable age, though the lines in her unwholesomely pallid face might be premature. Eyes nearly lashless, pale green like gooseberries, one with a queer brown spot on the iris. Hair a frizzled, faded ginger, straggling in ineffectual wisps.

W-won’t you sit down?

Amazingly she was drawing out one of the stiff chairs. Painfully ill-at-ease she apologized for the dimness and, stretching up, began to fiddle with the single lit burner.

Let me, said David, but the flame refused to enlarge. They sat, Alison and David on one side the table, the woman facing them, and smiled at one another with mute expectancy across the vast jigsaw puzzle. To Alison the pieced-together ship seemed all at once quite sinister—which, of course, was ridiculous.

The woman spoke, desperately. Damp beads on her forehead.

It’s turned colder, hasn’t it? November’s such a trying month, I always think. I—I’m afraid you don’t find it very warm in here. Shall I—

Put on more coal, take them elsewhere? All she did was to glance dubiously at the dead fireplace, then towards the hall. Again ghastly silence, David clearing his throat. Oh, it was preposterous! Then in a blinding flash Alison got it.

Oh! Is it possible we’ve made some quite idiotic blunder? I mean, Lady Wibbe. . . . Is this her house?

Startled eyes goggled at her suddenly-scarlet cheeks.

"Lady Wibbe? Oh, I see! A thankful gasp such as a fish might give when thrown back into the sea. Oh, no, no! hysterically. Lady Wibbe’s house is next door. I— She giggled, I thought you were Lady Wibbe. That is, I’ve never seen her, so—"

How crashingly stupid! Alison rocketed from her chair, excuses tumbling out of her. That was my mistake. I said to your butler, ‘Lady Wibbe?’—like that, you know, and he very naturally supposed—

So he did—tee-hee! Poor creature, quite school-girlish in her relief. Parsons is getting on, and—

My fault entirely! What simpletons you must have thought us! I am ashamed, getting you downstairs like this!

They were stumbling over each other on their way out, a chaos of apologies.

Oh, not at all! chattered the woman in brown. Most understandable on a foggy night—oh, most!

I kept looking for a turret.

Yes, they have one too. So confusing. Can you see your way? This gas, very inconvenient. . . .

She was as eager to be rid of them as they to be gone, yet trying so hard in her futile way to conceal it. Why those furtive glances into the pitch blackness above? Alison would have felt sorry for her if her own mortification had been less grilling; and if about the woman’s spinelessness there hadn’t been something—well, rather clammy, detestable. Maybe it was the house itself which created this frantic longing to get outside. Was there only the one person living here? No! This one would never use guinea-a-bottle bath essence. She smelled musty like the hall. Dropping their coats now, giggling at her clumsiness, gibbering remarks about the failing faculties of old family servants.

No, no, we were to blame! Alison found her sleeve as David started cramming her into the wrong one. If I’d had an ounce of sense I’d have—

What was that shriek from upstairs?

It rang sharply out only to be chopped in two—exactly as though a hand had been clamped roughly on the screamer’s mouth. It was followed by brusque, striding footsteps and the soft closing of a door.

CHAPTER TWO

WE HAVE A PARROT

The thing could not be ignored. Wheeling, David fixed a scowling gaze on the staircase. Alison, following suit, caught a sudden panic in the ill-matched eyes beside her. The woman in brown had given a gulp, and her face had turned a pastier hue, revealing every reddish freckle.

We—we have a parrot, she explained with another vapid giggle. Rather noisy at times. . . . Oh, not at all! Goo—good-night.

Shut into darkness. Almost pushed out!

Together they groped past the sodden laurel bushes. At the gate they paused, looking back.

Was that a parrot? asked Alison, with a shaky laugh.

No answer. David was staring hard at the blind windows above.

Was it? she jogged him. I could have sworn—

Keep still!

It might have been a woman’s sob which had reached their ears. Now, however, the whole mist-blanketed house had fallen back into tomb-like silence.

Cars were crunching past, into the neighbouring drive. The dazzling headlamps had a steadying effect.

May have been a parrot. Alison was recovering. They do sound awfully human sometimes. Her face, though! Did you see it? She shivered again, thinking of the ghastly ten minutes just terminated. David, I don’t like this, you know. That woman gave me the creeps—and the house! There’s something horrible about it. Yes, all the time I was so busy rationalising, trying to make it seem the same place I was in before I . . . Oh, David, wasn’t it just like a loathsome nightmare?

David hadn’t heard.

What a fool! she upbraided herself. And yet, just supposing—

Supposing what?

Well, that something is wrong in there. Something they want to keep covered up?

Come along! He pulled roughly at her arm.

This time they were greeted by warmth, bright lights, comforting festivity.

Beet-red, of course! muttered Alison, taking stock of herself in the Empire mirror of the handsome bedroom into which she was shepherded.

Her swansdown hovered, but she returned it to her bag. Wasn’t hers the plain, out-of-door type, better left as it was? She did not value her bloomy tan, coffee-hazel eyes or chestnut hair, though the latter rejoiced in a natural wave and was still nicely gilded with the sunbleach left over from last summer. Treating it as a bad job she wore it almost as short as David’s, brushed it till it shone and left it at that. It was even a wrench to desert tailor-made and jumpers and get into evening-dress—though she had to admit this bronze velvet wasn’t so bad with her boyish hips and square shoulders. A pity someone wasn’t here to see her for once in a way all nicely dolled up.

Never mind, I’ll make a good story of to-night’s imbecility. He can jeer at me. That may give him a thrill.

Through a happily-buzzing throng surged her hostess, a gypsy-queen in rainbow chiffon and clanking bracelets.

Oh, Lady Wibbe, such an adventure! Let me tell you what—

Do! One moment, though. You’ve met my husband?

Firmly the authoress pounced on a small individual who formed the nucleus of a group. She gabbled a few introductions and swam off to welcome another guest.

Hot punch, sherry? Amiably vague, Sir Francis Wibbe cut short what Alison was dying to pour out. What’s that, got into the wrong house? Now that reminds me—

No one, it seemed, wanted to hear. Bottled up, Alison escaped to join David by the blazing logs. Lonely and taciturn, he was warming his back.

I haven’t told them, she shrugged. There’s not been a chance.

Moodily he handed her a Chesterfield. He had not, she noticed, tasted his sherry. Maybe it was a mistake bringing him along. Already he was looking bored.

Brave in blue taffeta, a small girl edged towards them. She was the daughter of the house, weedy like her father, but with her mother’s snapping black eyes. There was purpose in the descent. She made a bee-line for Alison.

Oh, Miss Young, I heard what you were saying! That awful house next door—what’s it like inside? You actually spoke to the people? Tell me—tell me everything!

Alison glanced at her cousin. He avoided her eyes and knocked off an ash.

Well! She laughed. Thank goodness someone’s interested. Here’s what happened—and she gave vent to her tale.

The Wibbe child sucked in every word.

Crickets! She gave a leap, clicking her flat silver heels. Now maybe they’ll believe me. Mums! Swooping on her mother she tried to chain her attention. You’ve got to listen to this, it’s miles worse than I thought. Next door, you know. Now, Miss Young, tell it again, and don’t leave out the parrot. That’s the juiciest part.

Parrot? Who’s got a parrot? Beastly birds!

Just the point, said Alison dryly. Have your neighbours got a parrot?

I really couldn’t say. We don’t know them, so—

"Mums! You know they haven’t. Wouldn’t we have heard it? No, it was the poor woman who gave this blood-curdling scream. The creature who sneaks out with a market-bag just made up the parrot to account for it. I’ve told you they had the other one shut up. We’ve got to do something. We must! Will you ring up Scotland Yard? Because if you don’t, I will!"

Cynthia Wibbe carolled gaily. See, Miss Young? Penelope will write thrillers. Do forgive me, I must rush off.

Oh, beast, can’t you see it’s serious?

Hush, Pen! Do you want your fortune told? Good! Then buzz off this minute to Daddy’s study, get it over and up to bed. Yes, Miss Young, I’ve got hold of rather a clever woman. Cards, you know. Pen first, I’ve let her stop up for it—then a man. What about you, Mr.—no, don’t remind me, Mr. Beddoes?

Wavering, Penelope hissed into Alison’s ear, "There’s no parrot! If you don’t believe me, ask Jinks—that’s Mums’ secretary, over there in the high-necked frock. She’ll tell you things."

She skated from the room.

Know what I think? Alison addressed David, now her sole audience. The woman we heard scream is a lunatic. She has to be restrained. Why, what’s wrong about that?

To her astonishment David had jerked away with sudden violence. There was no time to investigate, for bearing down on her was a callow author, hitherto dodged, whose gleaming spectacles proclaimed the fact that Miss Young, of Boxall’s, was his meat. Alison was captured. When she extricated herself David had disappeared.

American, aren’t you?

The old woman was seated at a green card-table in a small, book-lined room, a cone of light streaming down on her silver hair and the podgy fingers which were dexterously shuffling her stock in trade. David poised, vaguely antagonistic.

Sit down. The voice was brisk, commanding. Now, then, shuffle these yourself, and cut in three piles.

He obeyed, conscious of shrewd eyes. Rather unusual eyes they were, watchful under wrinkled lids.

No faith in this, have you? Never mind, you won’t be bored long. That’s the worst of these gatherings, no chance to give any one a proper reading Let’s see what you’ve done . . .

Sweeping up the piles she began laying out a sort of cartwheel. She clicked her tongue.

Dear me! Most curious. I hardly know what . . . Don’t tell me anything, please!

He had no intention of doing so. The fortune-teller knit her brow over the array and spoke with marked hesitation.

Yes. . . . You’re in business. Considering your age, you’ve made rather remarkable progress. That’s excellent, only don’t let it breed over-confidence. There are things you’ll have to be careful about, yes, in the immediate future. Those three cards coming together in a row. Very awkward, that. I wonder if we can change it?

With annoyance she stabbed at the knave of diamonds, king of clubs and queen of hearts juxtaposed near the centre. Doubtfully she continued:

You’re beginning a new venture. It promises well; but a false step will ruin it. I may as well tell you at once! You’re far too hot-headed. Inclined to rush things. And you’re too faithful for your own good. On the other hand, if you are too deliberate worse may happen. There’s this, you see. She tapped the red queen with a plump forefinger, adding to herself: It will just depend . . .

On what? blurted David.

I wish I knew! All these cards have a thick veil round them—like the fog outside here to-night. Have another try. She pushed him the pack.

When the new piles were cut, the old woman snatched them up greedily, spread them out and exclaimed irritably.

There! They’ve done it again. I’m afraid it’s no use.

Sure enough, here were the three fatal cards presenting the same order. With them was the diamond queen.

"Another one! Still, she’s only a poor, weak creature. I don’t think there’s much danger from her. It’s the club-king I distrust—well entrenched, you see; and the red knave, he’s your real problem. . . . Do you know him? I think not. In fact, I question whether . . . She stopped dead, a sort of convulsion agitating the grey lace over her bosom. This won’t do! I’m telling you nothing of the least use. I should help you. I must!"

Don’t bother, drawled David, getting up to go.

Sit still! It was a sharp command. Listen: Whatever this trouble is, would it sound utterly mad to say it’s cropped up since you left home this evening? That’s how I see it—and it’s very, very serious. Your fate and that of another person are balanced—like this. Her soft palms poised delicately in mid-air. And here—touching the heart-queen again—is the other person. See, she cried eagerly, how these evil cards press round her? She’s hemmed in—un-get-at-able. Is she a total stranger? I can’t make it out.

David leant forward, despising himself for his credulity.

Where’s this trouble? Here, in London, or—

Oh, decidedly! The water in your fortune’s already been crossed. Frowning, she scrutinised the cards, then impatiently swept them aside. They won’t tell me anything more. They’re like that sometimes. Oh, I could spin you a nice rigmarole! I won’t, because I’m honest—and there’s not time to read your hand. Quick, give me some object you’ve kept by you! Not your watch; I can see it’s too new. If only I can give you some word of warning, of guidance—?

Psychometry? More rubbish; but her fingers were clawing for the Phi Beta Kappa key he had half-drawn from under his coat. Changing his mind, he got out his wallet, and from it a worn and faded snapshot picture.

Have this, he said gruffly and with shame. It’s been in my pocket for three years.

She seized the dim little picture, not looking at it, and pressed it tightly over her bosom. As she sat with closed eyes, swaying slightly, her commonplace appearance became almost eerie; but this, David told himself, was because fog had seeped into the room and was weaving a shimmer of gauze in the light playing down on her.

Suddenly a spasm crossed her features.

Dead!

David’s brown hand gripped the table. Still with shut eyes, she seemed unaware of his movement. Her whisper went on, less certainly:

No, perhaps not dead. Not yet. Better think of her as dead, though, for she is for you. Safer to believe it—I think. Odd, this. She was crooning in a curious, muffled tone. I feel her near, very near. She can’t be in this house. And yet why is it I can hear her voice calling for help? An American voice, like yours. Near—but so far away. For practical purposes she might be in China. Can you save her? I doubt it.

Here! said David dryly. Aren’t you simply tuning in on my thoughts?

Am I? The eyes opened and stared anxiously into his. It’s quite possible, of course. In any case, I haven’t solved your riddle. I can only give you this parting advice: Think, think hard before you act. Not that you’ll remember, snapped the fortune-teller scornfully. That’s all, I’m afraid. And now, who’s next?

CHAPTER THREE

HEMMED IN

The girl in the bed stuffed the sheet in her mouth and gave way to long shudders. What was this new feeling that mingled with her incredulous rage? It couldn’t possibly be fear.

That was nonsense, of course. How be frightened of the person who was straining every nerve to get her well? True, the care bestowed on her had grown quite impersonal. Lately she was being treated as a combination of fractious child and public enemy; but that with her husband was inevitable.

Why blame Geoffrey for anything? Certainly she had disappointed him. Obviously, with his distaste for the unhealthy, he had become more and more detached. She, for that matter, had edged away from him, if for rather different reasons. As for his temper, flashing out like cold lightning, she had always known about that. It was much to his credit that he so rarely let fly at her. Her lying here week after week, getting whiter and more wasted, must be goading him to desperation. She was, in addition, no docile invalid. On the contrary, she was forever fighting against discipline. Just now must have been the last straw.

Though why was it so frightfully wrong of me? I only wanted to hear people’s voices after this age-long hell.

Tears sprang to her eyes. They could not know how she had pined for any outside contact, merely to restore touch with her lost world. And these people seemed to be American. Strangers—and now gone away.

Only a voice in the darkness . . . she quoted, and could not go on.

She was hearing again the eager, friendly tones—the first natural-sounding ones in . . . How long was it? She could hardly have said, time having become an immeasurable quantity. A moment ago she had forgotten she was ill, scuttled out of bed and, marvel of marvels, not stumbled once. Rushed into the dark hall, in only this chiffon rag of a nightgown. Would have plunged right into the visitors’ arms if Geoffrey hadn’t stopped her. It was that swift tiger’s pounce that brought back her terror, illogical, but shattering.

She saw her husband now, taut and fury-like, as he flung out of the bathroom. Hot, fragrant steam surrounded him. It might have been the aura created by his own passion. Young, vigorous, with pale, blazing eyes and moist hair standing crisply on end, throat naked between the folds of his plum-coloured dressing-gown, fingers of steel fastening on her shoulder. . . .

She had screamed, but only once. Geoffrey’s other hand had brutally silenced her. It was then her legs had crumpled. In the same moment, before she touched the floor, she had been bundled with rude force back inside her room, to be dumped, like a sack of potatoes, on to her bed.

You blasted bitch! Have you lost your wits?

Yes, Geoffrey had said those words—hurled them in her face, like vitriol.

It must have been her blank amazement which had checked him. Battening down his wrath, he had continued in a laboured fashion:

"Exertion, excitement—you know they’re ruinous. Now, of