Free The Mystery at Underwood House (An Angela Marchmont Mystery) by Clara Benson Page B

sink. After a while she shook herself, nodded firmly and bent to her task, scribbling rapidly for several minutes. Occasionally she paused to collect her thoughts or cross something out. Finally she threw down her pencil, picked up the paper and read through what she had written. It was as follows:
    John Haynes
    Motive: did not want to sell house. Deaths of his sisters and brother made it easier for him to keep same.
    Opportunity: ? not known in case of P and E (was he really in his study when W fell?).
    Ursula Haynes
    Motive: claims to have none, although she inherits E’s money.
    Opportunity: none in case of W, as was in drawing-room when she fell.
    Robin Haynes
    Motive: see above. Financial scandal? (see Inspector J).
    Opportunity: claims to have arrived on scene of W’s fall after DH.
    Susan Dennison
    Motive: none known (did she want her mother out of the way so she could come to an arrangement with John about selling Underwood House?).
    Opportunity: only person known to have been in the right place to kill W.
    Donald Haynes
    Motive: ?
    Opportunity: according to Robin, was first on the scene when W died.
    Mr Faulkner
    Motive: money, and lots of it! Inherits five thousand pounds outright from each of the three.
    Opportunity: none, apparently. Has an alibi for each occasion (see Inspector J to be sure).
    1) Find out more about what everyone was doing when P and E died. Furthermore:
    - How was the soup served on the night of P’s death? Did they have coffee?
    - Who can swim?
    2) Speak to Donald and Susan.
    3) Look at the will.
    Angela regarded her work mournfully.
    ‘ Is this really the sum of all I have discovered in the past few days?’ she said to herself. ‘For shame, Angela! You must do better than that. Ah yes, I almost forgot.’
    She picked up the pencil and appended a note in large letters: ‘WHO IS THE WOMAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPH?’
    ‘ And perhaps I should also add, “Why did John say he didn’t recognize it?”’ she said.
    She stood up and crossed the room to where she had left her handbag. The picture had seemed familiar to her the first time she looked at it. Perhaps it would come to her now. She opened the bag and felt inside, but could not find the photograph. She frowned and pulled everything out, then straightened up in puzzlement and summoned Marthe.
    ‘ Marthe, did you find a photograph of a woman in my coat pocket?’ she asked.
    ‘ But no, madame ,’ replied Marthe. ‘There were a number of things that—as I have told you before many times—one does not expect a lady à la mode to carry in her pockets, such as a pen-knife and some string and a quantity of liquorice. But no, there was no photograph.’
    Suitably chastened, Angela dismissed the girl and rifled through her things again without success. The picture had gone.
    ‘ How very odd,’ she said. ‘But how—’
    She stopped as she thought back to her adventure on Northumberland Avenue that afternoon. Had the picture fallen out of her handbag when it was stolen, or had it been taken intentionally? But why should anybody want to steal an old photograph when there was plenty of money in the bag for the taking, as well as a gold cigarette-case? Now for the first time it occurred to her that perhaps she had not, after all, been the victim of a casual thief, but had in fact been deliberately attacked.
    ‘ Who was it, then? And why did he do it?’ she said to herself. ‘Was it the owner of the picture? Did he merely wish to retrieve it by any means necessary, or did he also intend to do me harm? Why, had that motor-van stopped even one second later I could have been badly hurt or even killed.’
    She shivered as she recalled the brief thrill of terror she had experienced as the vehicle bore down upon her. Until that moment she had had no intention of calling the police, but now she felt in need of advice. She suddenly noticed the soreness in her grazed hands and knees and winced. It was almost as though they were tingling in