Better to Eat You Read online

  “Pretty?” Malvina touched the flowers. “We must go, darling.”

  Sarah said, “But what happened, Edgar? The car went over, we know that. Please, was there anything wrong?”

  The nurse rattled warningly. Edgar answered, looking only at Malvina, “There was something wrong. Sarah, you should get married.”

  “I should … what? Edgar, what do you mean?”

  “It would be a good thing,” Edgar said. “And safer.” Now his face was tragic again. “Sometimes it is safer to marry. Isn’t it, Malvina?”

  “Edgar,” Sarah cried, “you’ll have to explain …”

  He began to raise himself from the bed. His eyes never left Malvina. His breathing was heavier.

  “Darling,” Malvina said, “don’t upset yourself. Don’t worry. Everything will be all right. I will take care.”

  “I’m afraid you mustn’t stay,” the nurse said sharply.

  “Can we do anything?” Malvina was solicitous. “Are you thirsty? Isn’t there something you would like?”

  “Where is his glass?” the nurse said.

  Sarah had the water glass. She put it on the edge of the table, in the lee of the flower vase.

  “I’ll get your pitcher filled,” the nurse said. “Now, ladies, please …”

  Edgar’s eyes were fixed on Malvina. He looked very ill and tired now. He said, “Shall I wait for you, Malvina, a little while longer?” There was in his voice a great sadness and despair.

  Sarah helplessly turned. He wasn’t aware of her. She looked back. Malvina’s hand was on his brow. Malvina said some soft word. Malvina kissed his brow and left his side. Sarah saw Edgar, tense and awkward, a look of hope and struggle on his face, reaching for the glass of water as the nurse bustled them out.

  Gust was waiting. They got into the car. “Home, I suppose,” said Malvina. Now, suddenly, she looked exhausted.

  Sarah flexed her arms a trifle. The pain was not great. “Edgar says something was wrong,” she said crisply. “What did he mean? What was wrong?”

  “Of course something was wrong,” Malvina muttered. “We had quarreled.”

  You said you hadn’t, Sarah thought. But she skipped that and pressed another question. “You said you would take care, Malvina. Take care of what?”

  “Of myself,” said Malvina savagely.

  Sarah remembered Edgar’s words. Safer to marry. What did that have to do with Malvina taking care of herself?

  “What about safety?” Sarah insisted. “Who isn’t safe?”

  Malvina looked at her angrily. “People around you,” she snapped. “You and your jinx. You and your Jonah.”

  “It’s all lies,” said Sarah quietly, and she sat quietly and was borne upward toward the Nest and Grandfather.

  Chapter 13

  “Consuelo?” David in a phone booth was dirty and unshaven. His clothes had nearly dried upon his body.

  “Davey?” Consuelo in her gaudy morning coat snuggled the phone closer. “Good morning.”

  “Not so good.” His voice was grim. “Got a packet of horrors for you. Can you take it?”

  Consuelo said, “Yep.” She sat down, her fleshy body quaking. “Go on, Davey.”

  “Not Sarah. She’s O.K. I just called the Nest. But listen, Consuelo. Sarah’s car went off the road this morning with Edgar Perrot in it. He’s O.K., or will be. I got to him before he drowned. Hospital now. He wasn’t conscious.…”

  “Wait a minute, Davey l Sarah’s car?”

  “Exactly,” he said. “Look, if you have any influence will you talk to this man Maxwell?”

  “From the Sheriff’s office?”

  “Yes. I can’t get anywhere. He doesn’t know me. He thinks I’m a nervous swain or something. Nothing I say penetrates. We can’t raise the car out of the water without heavy machinery. I doubt if there is going to be any evidence, anyhow.”

  “Wait a minute, Davey. Wait a minute. Evidence of what?”

  “Of murder,” said David. “Because that’s what is going on. Call this Maxwell and do something. Vouch for me, at least. Will you, Consuelo? Meantime, I’ve got to run over to the hospital, see what I can get out of Edgar himself, and then …”

  “Murder?” Consuelo said. “You mean murder for Sarah?”

  “That’s it. That’s right.”

  “Davey, for heaven’s sakes …!”

  “I know. I know. Get her out of there. I will. I’m going to get her out of there, Consuelo. I don’t care how, either.”

  “Don’t you care,” said Consuelo fiercely. “Hit her and drag her. Anything.”

  “I intend to. If I could just get one pennyworth of proof …”

  “Oh, Davey, get her out of there first.”

  “I know,” he said.

  “Bring her here.”

  David blessed her and hung up, thinking that it didn’t cross Consuelo’s mind to consider whether trouble went where Sarah came. He gathered himself and reviewed his plans. He did not like the shape of things. On the phone he had said to Gust Monteeth, “Stick as close as you can to Miss Shepherd. I’m afraid something might happen to her.”

  The man had taken this bald advice with very little surprise. “I know what you mean, Mr. Wakeley,” he’d said, with a certain relish, a certain pleasure in an exchange of this kind. “Me and the Missus, we’ve heard Mr. Fox say he’s afraid, many’s the time. The little lady’s had too much to take. Liable to feel pretty low in her mind. Yeah, we know that.”

  “Then watch her,” David had snapped and hung up. But the old Fox had laid the ground for Sarah’s suicide. Had he? Well, if Sarah had driven off the road and the car showed no incontrovertible evidence of any tampering, wouldn’t the accumulation of Sarah’s trouble add up to just this suspicion?

  He hurried out of the drugstore across from the Sheriff’s office and peered around for the taxicab he had ordered. He had no car, having hooked a ride with the Deputy and argued all the way. He’d talk to Edgar. He thought Edgar might tell him something. He thought even Edgar, stupefied and besotted as he was by his infatuation, could not deny that he and Malvina had been in dispute and immediately thereafter Malvina had, at the very least, watched him drive away in Sarah’s car. If the car was a death trap, Edgar had not known it. But had Malvina known it? That was a good question to put to Dr. Perrott. It should have an interesting result, one way or another.

  When the cab came he directed it to the hospital, and he had it wait for him, and that was a good thing because he was there four minutes. Long enough to hear how Edgar had died.

  When the cab took him through the gates to the Colony Cove, David knew the Sheriff’s car couldn’t be far behind. He had in his hand a ring full of keys. Edgar’s keys.

  A rather stupid little clerk at the hospital had asked if any of Edgar’s effects were needed by the family. He’d snatched the keys, signed something. It had been in his mind to search Edgar’s possessions. Now he thought better of it.

  He thought the confusion at the hospital would soon clear. The Deputy Sheriff would not care for this idea. He shouldn’t have been given the keys. He shouldn’t have taken them. In the case of a natural death, this may have been normal procedure. The little clerk hadn’t realized … Edgar had been poisoned. This was murder.

  Open, he thought. Good. At least it’s open. And someone will listen, now.

  He paid the cab off and ran up the nine steps into the garden. He saw Gust puttering about a vine. “Where is she?”

  “Miss Sarah? She’s O.K.,” Gust said. “She’s with her grandpa.”

  David gave him a black look, and rushed across the garden. Malvina was standing in the small foyer, face frozen, phone tight to her ear. David strode into the big room. He saw through an open door the old man in his chair in the study, only a silhouette against the light. Before his heart stopped, Sarah came, with short quick steps, out of the study; she closed that door and came toward him.

  He wanted to touch her and did not dare, remembering her pain when he had touc
hed her before. As his hands came up she saw the keys he was holding.

  “Edgar’s?” said Sarah, and took them. “Oh, how is he now? We saw him an hour ago. He was pretty well. You saved him.” Her face was glowing and admiring.

  David thought only that he must save her. She must leave here alive. He didn’t analyze the bare panic that now drove everything else from his mind. He said, “Sarah, will you go with me, now, quickly?”

  “Go where?”

  He thought of the Sheriff’s car that wouldn’t be far behind, whose arrival would freeze them all here, possibly. Was there time? How to shake her and shock her and get her away? He wished he dared touch her.

  “Marry me,” he blurted. “Sarah, throw the world over and come away with me, now.”

  Her face wrung his heart. It was shocked and in the shock was joy. Deep in the eyes the confession lay open. But Sarah said quietly, “Why, David?”

  He groaned. “Sarah, they are trying to kill you.”

  The eyes winced. “Malvina?”

  “Yes, Malvina.” (Anything, anything, to get her away.)

  “But then I can’t leave Grandfather,” she stammered.

  “Yes you can. Safer. Just let me take you where you will be safe. Sarah, run away with me.” Her lips parted. She seemed to rise on her toes, to be falling toward him. “Gamble,” he said, keping his arms from reaching for her lest he hurt her. “Do it. Jump off into the blue.…” While their eyes clung, he said gently, “We may be in love with each other.” Her mouth trembled. He bent to kiss it. Consuelo was right. If only once his mouth were to touch Sarah’s beautiful mouth, everything would be better, and he would know what truth to tell her.

  But she swayed away and he saw by her eyes that Malvina was standing close behind him. He half turned. He knew at once what Malvina must have only just heard on the phone. It was impossible for him not to meet Malvina’s eyes and confirm the news, even though he could have wished that this knowing glance did not have to pass between them in front of Sarah.

  Malvina said with a grisly smile, “Did you see Edgar?”

  David shook his head. “Too late.”

  Sarah said, “What are you talking about, please?”

  But Malvina staggered, “Grandfather,” she cried. “We must think of his poor old heart … and take care …”

  Sarah caught her breath. David told her. “Edgar is dead.”

  David stood between them and it was Malvina who started to fall so it had to be Malvina he supported with a quick arm. “How can we tell him?” she mourned.

  “I can tell him,” Sarah said quietly.

  “Eh?” said Grandfather. “Oh, there you are, David.” He began to trot toward them. “Dear chap, aren’t you going to catch a chill? Look at your clothing! Come now, what’s the matter?”

  Sarah gathered her control but Malvina was quicker. It was Malvina who said, “Grandfather, we have had some news. I’m afraid it isn’t pleasant at all.” Her voice was the old purr. Indeed, it was almost cheerful.

  Sarah moved quietly near the little old man and put her hand on his arm. His fingers scrambled for hers and David Wakeley watched it. Watched her face, which was all tender anxiety, watched the old man, who was anxious, too. “I am ready,” Grandfather said and the old lids guarded the eyes.

  “Soon after we saw Edgar, he died, in the hospital.”

  “Ah …” The old man’s head bent toward his chest. “Many have died. So many. Eh, Sarah?” Sarah had her arm under his, now, and he leaned upon her. “So many I have known. And I am an old, old man and I do not die.”

  They helped him toward a chair.

  “They are saying a very terrible thing,” Malvina said. “Grandfather, I am afraid you must know.… They say Edgar has died of poison.”

  David watched Sarah’s whole body take this shock. Her eyes came to his, stunned, unbelieving. He watched her, and not the old man. He watched her control any cry, any terror, and heard the old man say, “I don’t wish to hear any more. Edgar is dead. That’s what you say? Then, that is enough to hear in one morning.”

  “Of course it is. You must lie down, Grandfather.”

  “Yes, I …”

  “Shall I call Mrs. Monteeth?”

  “Yes, do, dearie.”

  “Yes, we had better,” Malvina said. Both Monteeths came and the old man was led gently away.

  David, waiting in the big room alone, moved to the sea side and looked out upon the scene. But he did not see it. He was seeing the lift of Sarah’s head, the brace of her shoulders, the proud bone driven by the courageous heart. He knew that if he could he was going to marry Sarah Shepherd.

  He also knew it was too late, now, to run away.

  An official-looking car was threading swiftly through the houses in the cove.

  Chapter 14

  They had taken chairs near the glass in the big room, Malvina, David, Sarah. The Sheriff’s Deputy, Thomas Maxwell, who had come himself, had his own back to the light. The sense of being on an edge was here, as it was in so much of this house. Beyond the glass there seemed to be nothing, nothing at all but empty air.

  “We see no reason to believe that the hospital staff is involved,” he told them. His deep voice rumbled out of his chest and set up vibrations. “Dr. Perrott had no connection with the hospital. No one there knew him more than casually. But he had visitors. Miss Lupino, I believe you were one. And Miss Shepherd.”

  “Yes, we were both there,” said Sarah tensely. Malvina said nothing. She smiled her false smile.

  “Nurse tells me you two had been gone no more than twenty or twenty-five minutes when she discovered the death. Now we know that poison was put in his glass of water. Not the pitcher. The glass. We don’t understand how he could have taken it in water and not known. Fact remains, he did. Now, the glass shows fingerprints. Did either of you handle it?”

  “Yes. I did,” said Sarah. “My fingerprints will be on it.”

  “Did you handle it, Miss Lupino?”

  “No, sir.”

  “He had no other visitors,” Maxwell said, “but you two young ladies.”

  “You are assuming that one of these two young women put poison in that glass?” said David, his hair seeming to stir.

  “We have to check,” the Deputy said smoothly. “Now, pending analysis, we have made a good guess as to what the poison was. An alkaloid. What drugs are in the possession of anyone in this house?”

  “I don’t know,” said Sarah. Her face was cold with her fine control.

  “Oh …” Malvina’s eyes flickered as if with a sudden memory. “In Edgar’s laboratory.”

  “Yes?”

  “Down at the back of the garage.” Malvina bit her lips and the eyes widened and turned in that hinting manner of hers. “I couldn’t say what drugs he might have kept in there.”

  “Kept the place locked up, did he?”

  “Yes,” Sarah said. “I suppose you will want to look around in there. Here are his keys.” She took Edgar’s keys from the pocket of her slacks.

  Malvina covered her face. Maxwell handed the bunch of keys to his companion, a man in plain clothes, without comment. The man made a salute indicating understanding and left the room. David sat still and kept quiet and an idea swelled rapidly and occupied his mind.

  “Miss Lupino?” Maxwell prodded. “Something’s come to your mind?”

  Malvina’s head went from side to side as if she were in great distress. “I gave her … I asked her to move that glass.” She drew her hands over her mouth.

  “So the nurse tells me,” said the Deputy rather dryly. “Miss Shepherd held the water glass in her hands for some minutes. Is that true, Miss Shepherd?”

  “Malvina asked me to pick up the glass,” said Sarah, “to make room for the flowers.”

  “If you were going to put poison in somebody’s glass,” said David in a conversational tone, “it would be rather dumb to put your fingerprints on it.”

  “Or would it?” said Maxwell. “Now, as I see
it, these two young ladies were there and no other visitors. Either of them could have put the poison in that glass.”

  Sarah swallowed. One saw the motion of her throat in this glareless light. “I did not. Whether Malvina did, I don’t know. She was with him alone before I came.”

  “Yes,” said Malvina, “but there was no poison in the glass before Sarah came.”

  “What makes you sure?”

  “Why, Edgar drank of it. He was drinking of it, as Sarah came in.”

  “Is that true, Miss Shepherd?”

  “No,” said Sarah. “I don’t think so. I don’t remember that he was drinking out of the glass until just as we left.”

  “I remember it clearly,” Malvina said.

  The Deputy had a mouth that lay in a sour arc across the fleshy lower part of his face. He said, “I’m checking for opportunity.…” The other man came back at this point and said, “It’s there, all right. Just about anything you’d want.”

  Maxwell nodded. “Now, since I’m looking for opportunity and there seems to be a supply of the poison here, let’s see who had a chance to get at it.”

  Malvina said, “I’m sorry. I’d better tell you.” She lifted her face and stared beyond the Deputy into the sky. “This morning when I came with the news that Edgar had survived his fall and was in the hospital, I went to change … to dress. My room has a window to the garden. Sarah was supposed to be dressing, too. But I saw her come up through the wall where the steps lead to the laboratory. I wondered … but I had to go to Grandfather.”

  “That is a lie,” blazed Sarah. Malvina’s face did not lose its mask of painful sincerity.

  “Just a minute.… Go on, Miss Lupino.”

  “Grandfather said, and he will remember this and I think Mrs. Monteeth will remember it, too. He said to Sarah that she must take the flowers. That Gust would drive us. And Sarah said, ‘Where am I going?’ And Grandfather told her she was going to the hospital. And she said, ‘Yes. I do very much want to see Edgar.’ It was a very sudden and vehement thing … the way she said it.”