Latest / Unnatural Death / 15 - Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers

Transcript

15 - Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers · Unnatural Death

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter fifteen of Unnatural Death by Dorothy Sayers. This LibriVox
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Temptation of Saint Peter
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Piero Scarammel, I am tempted, Scarammel, always yield to temptation.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: L Housman Prunella. As Parker came out from the Chief
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Commissioner's room, he was caught by an officer. There's been
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: a lady on the phone to you, he said, I've
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: told her to ring up at ten thirty. It's about that, now,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: what name Missus Forrest? She wouldn't say what she wanted? Odd,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: thought Parker. His researches in the matter had been so
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: unfruitful that he had practically eliminated Missus Forrest from the
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: go to bed mystery, merely keeping her filed, as it were,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: in the back of his mind for future reference. It
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: occurred to him whimsically that she had at length discovered
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: the absence of one of her wine glasses and was
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: ringing him up in a professional capacity. His conjectures were
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: interrupted by his being called to the telephone to answer
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Missus Forrest's call. Is that, Detective Inspector Parker. I'm so
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: sorry to trouble you. But could you give me mister
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Templeton's address? Templeton, said Parker, momentarily puzzled. Wasn't it Templeton,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: the gentleman who came with you to see me? Oh yes,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: of course I beg your pardon. I the matter had
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: slipped my memory. Er, you want his address. I have
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: some information which I think he will be glad to hear.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Oh yes, you can speak quite freely to me, you know,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Missus Forrest not quite freely heard the voice at the
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: other end of the wire. You are rather official, you know.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: I should prefer just to write to mister Templeton privately
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: and leave it to him to take up with you.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I see Parker's brain worked briskly. It might be inconvenient
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: to have Missus Forrest writing to mister Templeton at one
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: ten A Piccadilly. The letter might not be delivered, or
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: if the lady were to take it into her head
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: to call and discover that mister Templeton was not known
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: to the porter, she might take alarm and bottle up
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: her valuable information. I think, said Parker. I ought not,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: perhaps to give you mister Templeton's address without consulting him.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: But you could phone him. Oh, yes, that would do.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Is he in the book? No? But I can give
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: you his private number. Thank you very much. You'll forgive
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: my bothering you no trouble at all. And he named
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Lord Peter's number. Having rung off, he waited a moment
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: and then called the number himself. Look here, Whimsy, he said,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: I've had a call from missus Forrest. She wants to
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: write to you. I wouldn't give the address, but I've
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: given her your number. So if she calls and asks
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: for mister Templeton, you will remember who you are, won't you, right?
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: He ho wonder what the fair lady wants. It's probably
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: occurred to her that she might have told a better story,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: and she wants to work off a few additions and
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: improvements on you. Then she'll probably give herself away. The
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: rough sketch is frequently so much more convincing than the
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: worked up canvas. Quite so I couldn't get anything out
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: of her myself. No, I expect she's thought it over
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: and decided that it's rather unusual to employ Scotland Yard
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: to ferret out the whereabouts of arrant husbands. She fancies
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: they're something up and that I'm a nice, soft headed
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: imbecile whom she can easily pump in the absence of
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: the official cerberus. Probably, well, you'll deal with the matter.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: I'm going to make a search for that solicitor, rather
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: a vague sort of search, isn't it. Well, I've got
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: an idea which may work out. I'll let you know
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: if I get any results. Missus Forrest's call duly came
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: through in about twenty mi minutes time. Missus Forrest had
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: changed her mind. Would mister Templeton come round and see
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: her that evening about nine o'clock if that was convenient.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: She had thought the matter over and preferred not to
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: put her information on paper. Mister Templeton would be very
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: happy to come round. He had no other engagement. It
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: was no inconvenience at all. He begged Missus Forrest not
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: to mention it. Would mister Templeton be so very good
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: as not to tell anybody about his visit. Mister Forrest
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: and his sleuths were continually on the watch to get
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Missus Forrest into trouble, and the decree absolute was due
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: to come up in a month's time. Any trouble with
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: the King's Proctor would be positively disastrous. It would be
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: better if mister Templeton would come by underground du Bond
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Street and proceed to the flats on foot, so as
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: not to leave a car standing outside the door, or
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: put a taxi driver into a position to give testimony
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: against Missus Forrest. Mister Templeton chivalrously promised to obey these directions.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Missus Forrest was greatly obliged, and would expect him at
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: nine o'clock. Bunter, my lord, I'm going out tonight. I've
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: been asked not to say where, so I won't. On
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: the other hand, I've got a kind of feeling that
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: it's unwise to disappear from mortal ken, so to speak.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Anything might happen. One might have a stroke, don't you know.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to leave the address in a sealed envelope.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: If I don't turn up before tomorrow morning, I shall
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: consider myself absolved from all promises. What very good, my lord.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: And if I'm not to be found at that address,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: there wouldn't be any harm in trying, say Epping Forest
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: or Wimbledon Common. Quite so, my lord. By the way,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: you made the photographs of those finger prints I brought
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: you some time ago. Oh, yes, my lord, because possibly
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: mister Parker may be wanting them presently for some inquiries
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: he will be making. I quite understand, my lord, nothing
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: whatever to do with my excursion tonight you understand certainly not,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: my lord. And now you might bring me Christie's catalog.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: I shall be attending a sale there and lunching at
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: the club and detaching his mind from crime. Lord Peter
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: bent his intellectual and financial powers to outbidding and breaking
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: a ring of dealers, and exercise very congenial to his
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: mischievous spirit. Lord Peter duly fulfilled the conditions imposed upon
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: him and arrived on foot at the block of flats
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: in South Audley Street. Missus Forrest, as before, opened the
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: door to him herself. It was surprising, he considered that,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: situated as she was, she appeared to have neither made
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: nor companion. But then he supposed a chaperone. However, disarming
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: of suspicion in the eyes of the world might prove
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: venal on the whole. Missus Forrest's principle was a sound one.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: No accomplices. Many transgressors, he reflected, had died because they
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: never knew these simple little rules and few. Missus Forrest
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: apologized prettily for inconveniencing mister Templeton. But I never know
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: when I am not spied upon, she said. It is
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: sheer spite, you know, considering how my husband has behaved
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: to me, I think it is monstrous, don't you. Her
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: guest agreed that mister Forest must be a monster. Jesuitically, however,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: reserving the opinion that the monster might be a fabulous one.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: And now you will be wondering why I have brought
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: you here, went on the lady, do come and sit
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: on the sofa. Will you have whiskey or coffee? Coffee please?
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: The fact is, said Missus Forrest, that I've had an
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: idea since I saw you. I, you know, have been
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: much in the same position myself. With a slight laugh,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: I felt so much for your friend's wife, Sylvia, put
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: in Lord Peter with commendable promptitude. Oh yes, shocking temper
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: and so on, But probably some provocation, yes, yes, quite
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: poor woman feels things extra sensitive, highly strung and all that,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: don't you know, quite so, Missus Forrest nodded, her fantastically
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: turbaned head swathed to the eyebrows in gold tissue, with
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: only two flat crescents of yellow hair plastered over her
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: cheek bones. She looked in an exotic smoking suit of
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: embroidered tissue, like a young prince out of the Arabian nights.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Her heavily ringed hands busied themselves with the coffee cups. Well,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: I felt that your inquiries were really serious, you know,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: And though as I told you, it had nothing to
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: do with me, I was interested and mentioned the matter
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: in a letter to do my friend, you see, who
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: was with me that night, Just so said Whimsy, taking
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: the cup from her. Yes, sir, that was very er,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: was very kind of you to be interested. He my
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: friend is abroad at the moment. My letter had to
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: follow him, and I only got his reply to day.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Missus Forrest took a sip of coffee, as though to
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: clear her recollection. His letter rather surprised me. He reminded
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: me that after dinner he had felt the room rather
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: close and had opened the sitting room window. That window there,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: which overlooks South Audley Street, he noticed a car standing there,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: a small closed one black or dark blue or some
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: such color. And while he was looking idly at it,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: the way one. Does you know? He saw a man
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: and woman come out of this block of flats, not
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: this door, but one or two along to the left,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: and get in and drive off. The man was in
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: evening dress, and he thought it might possibly have been
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: your friend. Lord Peter, with his coffee cup at his lips,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: paused and listened with great attention. Was the girl in
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: evening dress too? No, that struck my friend particularly. She
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: was in just a plain little dark suit with a
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: hat on. Lord Peter recalled to mind. As nearly as possible,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Bertha Gotobed's costume. Was this going to be real evidence
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: at last? The that's very interesting, he stammered. I suppose
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: your friend couldn't give any more exact details of the dress. No,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: replied missus Forrest regretfully. But he said the man's arm
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: was round the girl as though she was feeling tired
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: or unwell, And he heard him say, that's right, the
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: fresh air will do you good, but you're not drinking
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: your coffee. I beg your pardon, Whimsy recalled himself with
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: a start. I with dreamin putting two and two together,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: as you might say. So he was along here at
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: the time. The artful beggar. Oh the coffee. Do you
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: mind if I put this away and have some without sugar?
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. Men always seem to take sugar in
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: black coffee. Give it to me, I'll empty it away,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: allow me. There was no slop basin on the table,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: but Whimsy quickly got up and poured the coffee into
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: the window box outside. That's all right, how about another
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: cup for you? Thank you? I oughtn't to take it, really,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: it keeps me awake. Just a drop? Oh well, if
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: you like. She filled both cups and sat sipping quietly.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Well that's all really, but I thought perhaps I ought
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: to let you know. It was very good of you,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: said Whimsy. They sat talking a little longer about plays
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: in town. I go out very little. You know, it's
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: better to keep one out of the limelight on these occasions.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: And books I adore Michael Arlen. Had she read Young
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Men in Love? Yet? No? She had ordered it from
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: the library. Wouldn't mister Templeton have something to eat or drink? Really?
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: A brandy a liqueur? No, thank you, And mister Templeton
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: felt he really ought to be slipping along now. No,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: don't go yet. I get so lonely these long evenings.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: There was a desperate kind of appeal in her voice.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Lord Peter sat down again. She began a rambling and
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: rather confused story about her friend. She had given up
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: so much for the friend, and now that her divorce
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: was really coming off, she had a terrible feeling that
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: perhaps the friend was not as affectionate as he used
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: to be. It was very difficult for a woman, and
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: life was very hard, and so on. As the minutes passed,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Lord Peter became uncomfortably aware that she was watching him.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: The words tumbled out hurriedly yet lifelessly, like a set task,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: But her eyes were the eyes of a person who
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: expects something. Something alarming, he decided, yet something she was
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: determined to have. It reminded him of a man waiting
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: for an operation, peed up to it, knowing that it
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: will do him good, yet shrinking from it. With all
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: his senses. He kept up his end of the fatuous
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: conversation behind a barrage of small talk. His mind ran
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: quickly to and fro, analyzing the position, getting the range.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: Suddenly he became aware that she was trying clumsily, stupidly,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: and as though in spite of herself to get him
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: to make love to her. The fact itself did not
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: strike Whimsy as odd. He was rich enough, well bred enough,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: attractive enough, and man of the world enough to have
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: received similar invitations fairly often in his thirty seven years
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: of life, and not always from experienced women. There had
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: been those who sought experience as well as those who
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: qualified to bestow it. But so awkward an approach by
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: a woman who admitted to already possessing a husband and
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: a lover was a phenomenon outside his previous knowledge. Moreover,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: he felt that the thing would be a nuisance. Missus
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Forrest was handsome enough, but she had not a particle
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: of attraction for him. For all her make up and
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: her somewhat outspoken costume, she struck him as spinsterish, even episscene.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: That was the thing which puzzled him during their previous interview. Parker,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: a young man of rigid virtue and limited worldly knowledge,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: was not sensitive to these emanations. But Whimsy had felt
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: her as something essentially sexless even then, and he felt
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: it even more strongly now. Never had he met a
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: woman in whom the great it eloquently hymned by Missus
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Eleanor Glynn was so completely lacking. Her bare shoulder was
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: against him now. Marking his broadcloth with white patches of
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: powder blackmail was the first explanation that occurred to him.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: The next move would be for the fabulous mister Forrest
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: or somebody representing him, to appear suddenly in the doorway,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: a glow with virtuous wrath and outraged sensibilities. A very
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: pretty little trap, thought Whimsy, adding aloud, well, I really
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: must be getting along. She caught him by the arm.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Don't go. There was no caress in the touch, only
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: a kind of desperation. He thought. If she really made
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: a practice of this, she would do it better. Truly,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: he said, I oughtn't to stay longer. It wouldn't be
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: safe for you. I'll risk it, she said. A passionate
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: woman might have said it passionately or with a brave gaiety,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: or challengingly or alluringly or mysteriously. She said it grimly,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: her fingers dug at his arm. Well, damn it all,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: I'll risk it, thought Whimsy. I must and will know
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: what it's all about. Poor little woman, He coaxed into
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: his voice, the throaty, fatuous tone of the man who
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: is preparing to make an amorous fool of himself. He
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: felt her body stiffen as he slipped his arm round her,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: but she gave a little sigh of relief. He pulled
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: her suddenly and violently to him, and kissed her mouth
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: with a practiced exaggeration of passion. He knew then no
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: one who has ever encountered it can ever again mistake
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: that awful shrinking, that uncontrollable revulsion of the flesh against
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: a caress that is nauseous. He thought for a moment
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: that she was going to be actually sick. He released
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: her gently and stood up. His mind was in a world,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: but somehow triumphant. His first instinct had been right. After all,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: that was very naughty of me, he said, lightly. You
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: made me forget myself. You will forgive me, won't you?
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: She nodded, shaken, and I really must toddle. It's getting
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: frightfully late, and all that wears my hat. Ah, yes
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: in the hall. Now, good bye, missus forest, and take
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: care of yourself, and thank you ever so much for
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: telling me about what your friend saw. You are really going,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: She spoke, as though she had lost all hope. In
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: God's name, thought whimsy. What does she want? Does she
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: suspects that mister Templeton is not everything that he seems?
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Does she want me to stay the night so that
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: she can get a look at the laundry mark on
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: my shirt? Should I suddenly save the situation for her
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: by offering her Lord Peter Wimsey's visiting card. His brain
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: toyed freakishly with the thoughts as he babbled his way
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: to the door. She let him go without further words.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: As he stepped into the hall, he turned and looked
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: at her. She stood in the middle of the room,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: watching him, and on her face was such a fury
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: of fear and rage as turned his blood to water.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter fifteen.