"Danielle? I"m back." Lisette called through the bathroom door. "Do you want anything?"
No answer. Lisette looked into their bedroom, just in case Danielle had invited a friend over. No, the beds were still made up; Danielle"s clothes were spread out by themselves.
"Danielle?" Lisette raised her voice. Perhaps she couldn"t hear over the noise of the shower. "Danielle?" Surely she was all right.
Lisette"s feet felt damp. She looked down. A puddle of water was seeping beneath the door. Danielle must not have the shower curtains closed properly "Danielle! You"re flooding us!"
Lisette opened the door and peered cautiously within. The curtain was closed, right enough. A thin spray still reached through a gap, and the shower had been running long enough for the puddle to spread. It occurred to Lisette that she should see Danielle"s silhouette against the translucent shower curtain.
"Danielle!" She began to grow alarmed. "Danielle! Are you all right?"
She pattered across the wet tiles and drew aside the curtain. Danielle lay in the bottom of the tub, the spray falling on her upturned smile, her flesh paler than the porcelain of the tub.
*XI*
It was early afternoon when they finally allowed her to return to the flat. Had she been able to think of another place to go, she probably would have gone there. Instead, Lisette wearily slumped onto the couch, too spent to pour herself the drink she desperately wanted.
Somehow she had managed to phone the police, through her hysteria make them understand where she was. Once the squad car arrived, she had no further need to act out of her own initiative; she simply was carried along in the rush of police investigation. It wasn"t until they were questioning her at New Scotland Yard that she realized she herself was not entirely free from suspicion.
The victim had bled to death, the medical examiner ruled, her blood washed down the tub drain. A safety razor used for shaving legs had been opened, its blade removed. There were razor incisions along both wrists, directed lengthwise, into the radial artery, as opposed to the shallow, crosswise cuts utilized by suicides unfamiliar with human anatomy There was, in addition, an incision in the left side of the throat. It was either a very determined suicide, or a skillfully concealed murder. In view of the absence of any signs of forced entry or of a struggle, more likely the former. The victim"s roommate did admit to a recent quarrel. Laboratory tests would indicate whether the victim might have been drugged or rendered unconscious through a blow. After that, the inquest would decide.
Lisette had explained that she had spent the evening with Dr Magnus. The fact that she was receiving emotional therapy, as they interpreted it, caused several mental notes to be made. Efforts to reach Dr Magnus by telephone proved unsuccessful, but his secretary did confirm that Miss Seyrig had shown up for her appointment the previous afternoon. Dr Magnus would get in touch with them as soon as he returned to his office. No, she did not know why he had cancelled today"s appointments, but it was not unusual for Dr Magnus to dash off suddenly when essential research demanded immediate attention.
After a while they let Lisette make phone calls. She phoned her parents, then wished she hadn"t. It was still the night before in California, and it was like turning back the hands of time to no avail. They urged her to take the next flight home, but of course it wasn"t all that simple, and it just wasn"t feasible for either of them to fly over on a second"s notice, since after all there really was nothing they could do. She phoned Maitland Redding, who was stunned at the news and offered to help in any way he could, but Lisette couldn"t think of any way. She phoned Midge Vaughn, who hung up on her. She phoned Dr Magnus, who still couldn"t be reached. Mercifully, the police took care of phoning Danielle"s next of kin.
A physician at New Scotland Yard had spoken with her briefly and had given her some pills-a sedative to ease her into sleep after her ordeal. They had driven her back to the flat after impressing upon her the need to be present at the inquest. She must not be concerned should any hypothetical a.s.sailant yet be lurking about, inasmuch as the flat would be under surveillance.
Lisette stared dully about the flat, still unable to comprehend what had happened. The police had been thorough-measuring, dusting for fingerprints, leaving things in a mess. Bleakly, Lisette tried to convince herself that this was only another nightmare, that in a moment Danielle would pop in and find her asleep on the couch. Christ, what was she going to do with all of Danielle"s things? Danielle"s mother was remarried and living in Colorado; her father was an executive in a New York investment corporation. Evidently he had made arrangements to have the body shipped back to the States.
"Oh, Danielle." Lisette was too stunned for tears. Perhaps she should check into a hotel for now. No, she couldn"t bear being all alone with her thoughts in a strange place. How strange to realize now that she really had no close friends in London other than Danielle-and what friends she did have were mostly people she"d met through Danielle.
She"d left word with Dr Magnus"s secretary for him to call her once he came in. Perhaps she should call there once again, just in case Dr Magnus had missed her message. Lisette couldn"t think what good Dr Magnus could do, but he was such an understanding person, and she felt much better whenever she spoke with him.
She considered the bottle of pills in her bag. Perhaps it would be best to take a couple of them and sleep around the clock. She felt too drained just now to have energy enough to think.
The phone began to ring. Lisette stared at it for a moment without comprehension, then lunged up from the couch to answer it.
"Is this Lisette Seyrig?"
It was a woman"s voice-one Lisette didn"t recognize. "Yes. Who"s calling, please?"
"This is Beth Garrington, Lisette. I hope I"m not disturbing you."
"That"s quite all right."
"You poor dear! Maitland Redding phoned to tell me of the tragedy. I can"t tell you how shocked I am. Danielle seemed such a dear from our brief contact, and she had such a great talent."
"Thank you. I"m sorry you weren"t able to know her better." Lisette sensed guilt and embarra.s.sment at the memory of that brief contact.
"Darling, you can"t be thinking about staying in that flat alone. Is there someone there with you?"
"No, there isn"t. That"s all right. I"ll be fine."
"Don"t be silly. Listen, I have enough empty bedrooms in this old barn to open a hotel. Why don"t you just pack a few things and come straight over?"
"That"s very kind of you, but I really couldn"t."
"Nonsense! It"s no good for you to be there all by yourself. Strange as this may sound, but when I"m not throwing one of these invitational riots, this is a quiet little backwater and things are dull as church. I"d love the company, and it will do you a world of good to get away."
"You"re really very kind to invite me, but I..."
"Please, Lisette-be reasonable. I have guest rooms here already made up, and I"ll send the car around to pick you up. All you need do is say yes and toss a few things into your bag. After a good night"s sleep, you"ll feel much more like coping with things tomorrow." When Lisette didn"t immediately reply, Beth added carefully: "Besides, Lisette. I understand the police haven"t ruled out the possibility of murder. In that event, unless poor Danielle simply forgot to lock up, there is a chance that whoever did this has a key to your flat."
"The police said they"d watch the house."
"He might also be someone you both know and trust, someone Danielle invited in."
Lisette stared wildly at the sinister shadows that lengthened about the flat. Her refuge had been violated. Even familiar objects seemed tainted and alien. She fought back tears. "I don"t know what to think." She realized she"d been clutching the receiver for a long, silent interval.
"Poor dear! There"s nothing you need think about! Now listen. I"m at my solicitor"s tidying up some property matters for Aunt Julia. I"ll phone right now to have my car sent around for you. It"ll be there by the time you pack your toothbrush and pyjamas, and whisk you straight off to bucolic Maida Vale. The maids will plump up your pillows for you, and you can have a nice nap before I get home for dinner. Poor darling, I"ll bet you haven"t eaten a thing. Now, say you"ll come."
"Thank you. It"s awfully good of you. Of course I will."
"Then it"s done. Don"t worry about a thing, Lisette. I"ll see you this evening."
*XII*
Dr Magnus hunched forward on the narrow seat of the taxi, wearily ma.s.saging his forehead and temples. It might not help his mental fatigue, but maybe the reduced muscle tension would ease his headache. He glanced at his watch. Getting on past ten. He"d had no sleep last night, and it didn"t look as if he"d be getting much tonight. If only those girls would answer their phone!
It didn"t help matters that his conscience plagued him. He had broken a sacred trust. He should never have made use of posthypnotic suggestion last night to persuade Lisette to return for a further session. It went against all principles, but there had been no other course: the girl was adamant, and he had to know-he was so close to establishing final proof. If only for one final session of regressive hypnosis...
Afterward he had spent a sleepless night, too excited for rest, at work in his study trying to reconcile the conflicting elements of Lisette"s released memories with the historical data his research had so far compiled. By morning he had been able to pull together just enough facts to deepen the mystery. He had phoned his secretary at home to cancel all his appointments, and had spent the day at the tedious labor of delving through dusty munic.i.p.al records and newspaper files, working feverishly as the past reluctantly yielded one bewildering clue after another.
By now Dr Magnus was exhausted, hungry and none too clean, but he had managed to establish proof of his theories. He was not elated. In doing so he had uncovered another secret, something undreamt of in his philosophies. He began to hope that his life work was in error.
"Here"s the address, sir."
"Thank you, driver." Dr Magnus awoke from his grim revery and saw that he had reached his destination. Quickly, he paid the driver and hurried up the walk to Lisette"s flat. Only a few lights were on, and he rang the bell urgently-a helpless sense of foreboding making his movements clumsy.
"Just one moment, sir!"
Dr Magnus jerked about at the voice. Two men in plain clothes approached him briskly from the pavement.
"Stand easy! We"re police."
"Is something the matter, officers?" Obviously, something was.
"Might we ask what your business here is, sir?"
"Certainly. I"m a friend of Miss Borland and Miss Seyrig. I haven"t been able to reach them by phone, and as I have some rather urgent matters to discuss with Miss Seyrig, I thought perhaps I might try reaching her here at her flat." He realized he was far too nervous.
"Might we see some identification, sir?"
"Is there anything wrong, officers?" Magnus repeated, producing his wallet.
"Dr Ingmar Magnus." The taller of the pair regarded him quizzically. "I take it you don"t keep up with the news, Dr Magnus."
"Just what is this about!"
"I"m Inspector Bradley, Dr Magnus, and this is Detective Sergeant Wharton. CID. We"ve been wanting to ask you a few questions, sir, if you"ll just come with us."
It was totally dark when Lisette awoke from troubled sleep. She stared wide-eyed into the darkness for a moment, wondering where she was. Slowly memory supplanted the vague images of her dream. Switching on a lamp beside her bed, Lisette frowned at her watch. It was close to midnight. She had overslept.
Beth"s Rolls had come for her almost before she had had time to hastily pack her overnight bag. Once at the house in Maida Vale, a maid-wearing a more conventional uniform than those at her last visit-had shown her to a s.p.a.cious guest room on the top floor. Lisette had taken a sedative pill and gratefully collapsed onto the bed. She"d planned to catch a short nap, then meet her hostess for dinner. Instead she had slept for almost ten solid hours. Beth must be convinced she was a hopeless twit after this.
As so often happens after an overextended nap, Lisette now felt restless. She wished she"d thought to bring a book. The house was completely silent. Surely it was too late to ring for a maid. No doubt Beth had meant to let her sleep through until morning, and by now would have retired herself. Perhaps she should take another pill and go back to sleep herself.
On the other hand, Beth Garrington hardly seemed the type to make it an early night. She might well still be awake, perhaps watching television where the noise wouldn"t disturb her guest. In any event, Lisette didn"t want to go back to sleep just yet.
She climbed out of bed, realizing that she"d only half undressed before falling asleep. Pulling off bra and panties, Lisette slipped into the antique nightdress of ribbons and lace she"d brought along. She hadn"t thought to pack slippers or a robe, but it was a warm night, and the white cotton gown was modest enough for a peek into the hall.
There was a ribbon of light edging the door of the room at the far end of the hall. The rest of the hallway lay in darkness. Lisette stepped quietly from her room. Since Beth hadn"t mentioned other guests, and the servants" quarters were elsewhere, presumably the light was coming from her hostess"s bedroom and indicated she might still be awake. Lisette decided she really should make the effort to meet her hostess while in a conscious state.
She heard a faint sound of music as she tiptoed down the hallway. The door to the room was ajar, and the music came from within. She was in luck; Beth must still be up. At the doorway she knocked softly.
"Beth? Are you awake? It"s Lisette."
There was no answer, but the door swung open at her touch.
Lisette started to call out again, but her voice froze in her throat. She recognized the tune she heard, and she knew this room. When she entered the bedroom, she could no more alter her actions than she could control the course of her dreams.
It was a large bedroom, entirely furnished in the mode of the late Victorian period. The windows were curtained, and the room"s only light came from a candle upon a night table beside the huge four-poster bed. An antique gold pocket watch lay upon the night table also, and the watch was chiming an old music-box tune.
Lisette crossed the room, praying that this was no more than another vivid recurrence of her nightmare. She reached the night table and saw that the watch"s hands pointed toward midnight. The chimes stopped. She picked up the watch and examined the picture that she knew would be inside the watchcase.
The picture was a photograph of herself.
Lisette let the watch clatter onto the table, stared in terror at the four-poster bed.
From within, a hand drew back the bed curtains.
Lisette wished she could scream, could awaken.
Sweeping aside the curtains, the occupant of the bed sat up and gazed at her.
And Lisette stared back at herself.
"Can"t you drive a bit faster than this?"
Inspector Bradley resisted the urge to wink at Detective Sergeant Wharton. "Sit back, Dr Magnus. We"ll be there in good time. I trust you"ll have rehea.r.s.ed some apologies for when we disrupt a peaceful household in the middle of the night."
"I only pray such apologies will be necessary," Dr Magnus said, continuing to sit forward as if that would inspire the driver to go faster.
It hadn"t been easy, Dr Magnus reflected. He dare not tell them the truth. He suspected that Bradley had agreed to making a late night call on Beth Garrington more to check out his alibi than from any credence he gave to Magnus"s improvised tale.
Buried all day in frenzied research, Dr Magnus hadn"t listened to the news, had ignored the tawdry London tabloids with their lurid headlines: "Naked Beauty Slashed in Tub"
"Nude Model Slain in Bath"
"Party Girl Suicide or Ripper"s Victim?" The shock of learning of Danielle"s death was seconded by the shock of discovering that he was one of the "important leads" police were following.
It had taken all his powers of persuasion to convince them to release him-or, at least, to accompany him to the house in Maida Vale. Ironically, he and Lisette were the only ones who could account for each other"s presence elsewhere at the time of Danielle"s death. While the CID might have been sceptical as to the nature of their late night session at Dr Magnus"s office, there were a few corroborating details. A barman at the Catherine Wheel had remembered the distinguished gent with the beard leaving after his lady friend had dropped off all of a sudden. The cleaning lady had heard voices and left his office undisturbed. This much they"d already checked, in verifying Lisette"s whereabouts that night. Half a dozen hara.s.sed records clerks could testify as to Dr Magnus"s presence for today.
Dr Magnus grimly reviewed the results of his research. There was an Elisabeth Beresford, born in London in 1879, of a well-to-do family who lived in Cheyne Row on the Chelsea Embankment. Elisabeth Beresford married a Captain Donald Stapledon in 1899 and moved to India with her husband. She returned to London, evidently suffering from consumption contracted while abroad, and died in 1900. She was buried in Highgate Cemetery. That much Dr Magnus had initially learned with some difficulty. From that basis he had pressed on for additional corroborating details, both from Lisette"s released memories and from research into records of the period.
It had been particularly difficult to trace the subsequent branches of the family-something he must do in order to establish that Elisabeth Beresford could not have been an ancestress of Lisette Seyrig. And it disturbed him that he had been unable to locate Elisabeth Stapledon nee Beresford"s tomb in Highgate Cemetery.
Last night he had pushed Lisette as relentlessly as he dared. Out of her resurfacing visions of horror he finally found a clue. These were not images from nightmare, not symbolic representations of buried fears. They were literal memories.
Because of the sensation involved and the considerable station of the families concerned, public records had discreetly avoided reference to the tragedy, as had the better newspapers. The yellow journals were less reticent, and here Dr Magnus began to know fear.
Elisabeth Stapledon had been buried alive.
At her final wishes, the body had not been embalmed. The papers suggested that this was a clear premonition of her fate, and quoted pa.s.sages from Edgar Allan Poe. Captain Stapledon paid an evening visit to his wife"s tomb and discovered her wandering in a dazed condition about the graves. This was more than a month after her entombment.
The newspapers were full of pseudo-scientific theories, spiritualist explanations and long accounts of Indian mystics who had remained in a state of suspended animation for weeks on end. No one seems to have explained exactly how Elisabeth Stapledon escaped from both coffin and crypt, but it was supposed that desperate strength had wrenched loose the screws, while providentially the crypt had not been properly locked after a previous visit.
Husband and wife understandably went abroad immediately afterward, in order to escape publicity and for Elisabeth Stapledon to recover from her ordeal. This she very quickly did, but evidently the shock was more than Captain Stapledon could endure. He died in 1902, and his wife returned to London soon after, inheriting his extensive fortune and properties, including their house in Maida Vale. When she later inherited her own family"s estate-her sole brother fell in the Boer War-she was a lady of great wealth.
Elisabeth Stapledon became one of the most notorious hostesses of the Edwardian era and on until the close of the First World War. Her beauty was considered remarkable, and men marvelled while her rivals bemoaned that she scarcely seemed to age with the pa.s.sing years. After the War she left London to travel about the exotic East. In 1924 news came of her death in India.
Her estate pa.s.sed to her daughter, Jane Stapledon, born abroad in 1901. While Elisabeth Stapledon made occasional references to her daughter, Jane was raised and educated in Europe and never seemed to have come to London undl her arrival in 1925. Some had suggested that the mother had wished to keep her daughter pure from her own Bohemian life style, but when Jane Stapledon appeared, it seemed more likely that her mother"s motives for her seclusion had been born of jealousy. Jane Stapledon had all her mother"s beauty-indeed, her older admirers vowed she was the very image of Elisabeth in her youth. She also had inherited her mother"s taste for wild living; with a new circle of friends from her own age group, she took up where her mother had left off. The newspapers were particularly scandalized by her a.s.sociation with Aleister Crowley and others of his circle. Although her dissipations bridged the years of Flaming Youth to the Lost Generation, even her enemies had to admit she carried her years extremely well. In 1943 Jane Stapledon was missing and presumed dead after an air raid levelled and burned a section of London where she had gone to dine with friends.
Papers in the hands of her solicitor left her estate to a daughter living in America, Julia Weatherford, born in Miami in 1934. Evidently her mother had enjoyed a typical whirlwind resort romance with an American millionaire while wintering in Florida. Their marriage was a secret one, annulled following Julia"s birth, and her daughter had been left with her former husband. Julia Weatherford arrived from the States early in 1946. Any doubts as to the authenticity of her claim were instantly banished, for she was the very picture of her mother in her younger days. Julia again seemed to have the family"s wild streak, and she carried on the tradition of wild parties and bizarre acquaintances through the Beat Generation to the Flower Children. Her older friends thought it amazing that Julia in a minidress might easily be mistaken as being of the same age group as her young, pot-smoking, hippie friends. But it may have been that at last her youth began to fade, because since 1967 Julia Weatherford had been living more or less in seclusion in Europe, occasionally visited by her niece.
Her niece, Beth Garrington, born in 1950, was the orphaned daughter of Julia"s American half-sister and a wealthy young Englishman from Julia"s collection. After her parents" death in a plane crash in 1970, Beth had become her aunt"s protegee, and carried on the mad life in London. It was apparent that Beth Garrington would inherit her aunt"s property as well. It was also apparent that she was the spitting image of her Aunt Julia when the latter was her age. It would be most interesting to see the two of them together. And that, of course, no one had ever done.
At first Dr Magnus had been unwilling to accept the truth of the dread secret he had uncovered. And yet, with the knowledge of Lisette"s released memories, he knew there could be no other conclusion.
It was astonishing how thoroughly a woman who thrived on notoriety could avoid having her photographs published. After all, changing fashions and new hair styles, careful adjustments with cosmetics, could only do so much, and while the mind"s eye had an inaccurate memory, a camera lens did not. Dr Magnus did succeed in finding a few photographs through persistent research. Given a good theatrical costume and makeup crew, they all might have been taken of the same woman on the same day.
They might also all have been taken of Lisette Seyrig.
However, Dr Magnus knew that it would be possible to see Beth Garrington and Lisette Seyrig together.
And he prayed he would be in time to prevent this.
With this knowledge tormenting his thoughts, it was a miracle that Dr Magnus had held on to sanity well enough to persuade New Scotland Yard to make this late-night drive to Maida Vale-desperate, in view of what he knew to be true. He had suffered a shock as severe as any that night when they told him at last where Lisette had gone.