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street as usual, whistling as they carried messages, fish and poultry,
or other small grocery items. One of them called out a cheeky com-
pliment to a housemaid shooing a cat up the area steps and she gig-
gled and told him off soundly.
 Get on wi yer, yer daft  aporth! Flowers, indeed!
 Violets! he shouted after her, waving his arm.
Once inside the house it was a different matter. The curtains
were half drawn as was appropriate for a death, but then many peo-
ple did that anyway, simply to protect the rooms from the strong
light, or to offer a greater privacy.
The parlor where Maude Lamont had died was undisturbed.
222
ANNE PERRY
Lena Forrest received them civilly enough, although she still looked
tired and there was a greater air of strain about her. Perhaps the
reality of Maude s death had become apparent to her, and in a short
while the necessity of finding another position. It cannot have been
easy to live alone in the house where a woman whom you knew, saw
every day in the most intimate circumstances, had been murdered
only a week ago. It said a great deal for her fortitude that she had
managed to remain in control of herself.
Except that no doubt she had seen death many times before,
and the fact that she served Maude Lamont did not in itself mean
that she had any personal affection for her. She might have been a
hard mistress, demanding, critical or inconsiderate. Some women
thought their maids should be on duty at any hour of the day or
night that they might be sent for, whether it was really necessary
or not.
 Good morning, Miss Forrest, Pitt said courteously.
 Good morning, sir, she replied.  Is there something further I
can do for you? She included Tellman in her glance. They were
standing in the parlor now, uneasily, each of them aware of what
had happened there, if not why. Pitt had been thinking profoundly
about that, and had discussed it briefly on the way over.
 Please sit down, he invited her, then he and Tellman did also.
 Miss Forrest, Pitt began. Her attention was unwavering.
 Since the front door was closed and locked, the French doors to
the garden  he glanced at them  were closed but not locked,
and the only way out from the garden is through the door into
Cosmo Place, which was locked but unbarred, it is the inevitable
conclusion that Miss Lamont was killed by one of the people in the
house during the séance. The only alternative is that it was all
three in some collusion, and that does not seem even remotely
likely.
She nodded silently in agreement. There was no surprise in her
face. Presumably she had already realized as much herself. She had
had a week in which to think of it, and it must have crowded al-
most everything else out of her mind.
223
SOUTHAMPTON ROW
 Have you had any further thought as to why anyone should
wish Miss Lamont any harm?
She hesitated, doubt in her face. It was clear some deep emo-
tion worked within her.
 Please, Miss Forrest, he urged.  She was a woman who had op-
portunity to discover some of the most profound and vulnerable
secrets in people s lives, things that they may well have been des-
perately ashamed of, past sins and tragedies too raw to forget.
He saw the instant compassion in her face, as if her imagination
reached out to such people and saw the horror of their memories in
all their terrible detail. Perhaps she had served other mistresses with
griefs, children dead, unhappy marriages, love affairs that tormented
them. People did not always realize just how much a lady s maid was
privy to, and sometimes how much she knew of a woman s most inti-
mate life. Some might like to think of her as a silent confidante, oth-
ers might be appalled that anyone else saw their most private
moments and understood too much. Just as no man was a hero to his
valet, so no woman was a mystery to her maid.
 Yes, Lena said very quietly.  There are not many secrets from
a good medium, and she was very good.
Pitt looked at her, trying to read in her face, her eyes, whether
she knew more than the bare words she was offering. It would have
been difficult for Maude Lamont to have hidden from her maid any
regular accomplice, either to fake manifestations or to gain per-
sonal information about prospective clients. A lover would also
have given himself away sooner or later, even if only in Maude s de-
meanor. Was Lena Forrest keeping such secrets out of loyalty to a
dead woman, or self-preservation because if she betrayed them then
who would employ her in such a sensitive position in the future?
And she had to think very carefully about that. Maude Lamont was
not here to give her a good reference as to her character or skills.
Lena was coming from a house where a murder had been commit-
ted. Her outlook was, if not desperate, at the least extremely poor.
 Did she have regular callers who were not to do with séances?
224
ANNE PERRY
Tellman asked.  We re looking for those who gave her the informa-
tion about people that she told them . . . things they wanted to
hear.
Lena looked down, as if embarrassed.  You don t need a lot.
People give themselves away. And she was very good at reading
faces, understanding the things people don t say. She was a terribly
quick guesser. I can t count the number of times I was thinking
something, and she d know what it was before I said it.
 We ve searched the house for diaries, Tellman said to Pitt.
 We found nothing other than lists of appointments. She must
have committed everything to memory.
 What did you think of her gifts, Miss Forrest? Pitt said sud-
denly.  Do you believe in the power to contact the spirits of the
dead? He watched her closely. She had denied helping Maude La-
mont, but surely there had been some assistance, and there was no
one else here.
Lena took in a long, very deep breath and let it out in a sigh.  I
don t know. Seeing as I ve lost my mother and my sister, I d like to
think they were somewhere I could speak to them again. Her face
was blurred with the depth of her emotion, which she kept only
barely in control. It was profoundly obvious that her loss still
racked her, and Pitt loathed having to reawaken it, and in front of
others. Such grief should be afforded privacy.
 Have you ever seen manifestations yourself? he asked. The
answer to Maude Lamont s murder lay at least in part in this house, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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