Dandy Gilver and a Bothersome Number of Corpses by Catriona McPherson Page A
Authors: Catriona McPherson
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me and that’s precisely why I don’t want to talk to them any more.’ She swallowed hard at the end of all this and then straightened up, breathing in a long gathering breath and blowing it out slowly again like someone trying not to panic. I shook my head at her.
‘That’s not at all what Pearl told me,’ I said. ‘She told me you were indeed fine for a long time and she and the others knew it, but that something else has gone wrong now and they’re worried again. As they were before. They’re worried you’re going to bolt.’
‘What?’ said Fleur. It was the loudest she had spoken and I thought I heard the creak of a chair as someone in the next room overheard and turned to listen. Just in that creak and its timing I felt I could see the head raised from study and the shoulders twisted round, the enquiring glance at the wall shared with Miss Lipscott. Fleur had heard it too and when she spoke again she was whispering as she had before, harsh and sibilant.
‘Leave me alone,’ she said. ‘You don’t understand and neither do Pearl, Aurora or Mother.’ I almost gasped. For one of the Lipscott girls to call Mamma-dearest ‘Mother’ was like one of
my
children calling me ‘you there’.
‘Well, I don’t understand
yet
,’ I said, ‘because I haven’t heard the story, but I’m very understanding as a rule.’ Fleur closed her eyes and murmured through lips barely moving.
‘Stay away from me,’ she said. ‘For your own good. I told them too. Stay away. For their own good.’
‘Why?’ I said. ‘What on earth do you mean?’ Fleur swallowed hard. I could hear her dry throat clicking.
‘I have killed four people,’ she said.
Outside, a barn owl gave its unearthly shriek. I jumped, heart hammering, and was sure that the listening neighbour through the wall jumped too. I had heard the knocking sound of someone startled letting her knee or foot bang against a table leg. I even thought I heard a soft groaning. Fleur did not so much as flinch.
‘I have killed four people,’ she repeated. ‘And no matter how hard I try I have no way of knowing when it will happen again.’
3
‘Four?’ said Alec. He did not notice as the sandwich he was holding flopped open and a slice of tongue dropped out onto the carpet.
‘Four,’ I said.
We were sitting in his room at the Crown (his rather than mine because it had a sweet little corner bow with armchairs which looked out over the harbour and seemed made for chatting) to where he had ordered up coffee and sandwiches, thinking my pallor when I banged on his door owed itself to hunger and exhaustion. In fact the exhaustion was not too far from the mark: it had been a long day on the trains and dinner with a hundred clamouring schoolgirls had taken its toll. Of course, the cold-water shock of Fleur’s announcement, swiftly followed by my stumbling, skidding descent of the cliff path in the bad light, had not helped matters any.
‘I’ve eaten,’ I had managed to say after he had replaced the house telephone.
‘It doesn’t seem to have agreed with you,’ Alec had said in reply.
Then I told the entire tale, beginning with Miss Shanks, taking in the missing mistresses and the startling change in Fleur – here we were interrupted by the sandwiches’ arrival, the girl’s eyes out on organ stops at the sight of me in Alec’s room, still in my hat and coat – and finishing up with Fleur’s whispered pleas for me to leave, her shouting out that odd way at the mention of bolting and finally her bombshell, the words which were still ringing in my ears even now.
‘She just said it, right out? “I’ve killed four people”?’ I nodded. ‘Then what?’
‘Not another word. Well, actually then she said she couldn’t say when it might happen again.’
‘My, my,’ said Alec. ‘And then?’
‘Nothing further.’
‘No, I mean what did
you
say?’
‘Nothing. Or maybe a few incoherent mumbles. I left. I fled.’
‘Hmph,’ said Alec, and
‘That’s not at all what Pearl told me,’ I said. ‘She told me you were indeed fine for a long time and she and the others knew it, but that something else has gone wrong now and they’re worried again. As they were before. They’re worried you’re going to bolt.’
‘What?’ said Fleur. It was the loudest she had spoken and I thought I heard the creak of a chair as someone in the next room overheard and turned to listen. Just in that creak and its timing I felt I could see the head raised from study and the shoulders twisted round, the enquiring glance at the wall shared with Miss Lipscott. Fleur had heard it too and when she spoke again she was whispering as she had before, harsh and sibilant.
‘Leave me alone,’ she said. ‘You don’t understand and neither do Pearl, Aurora or Mother.’ I almost gasped. For one of the Lipscott girls to call Mamma-dearest ‘Mother’ was like one of
my
children calling me ‘you there’.
‘Well, I don’t understand
yet
,’ I said, ‘because I haven’t heard the story, but I’m very understanding as a rule.’ Fleur closed her eyes and murmured through lips barely moving.
‘Stay away from me,’ she said. ‘For your own good. I told them too. Stay away. For their own good.’
‘Why?’ I said. ‘What on earth do you mean?’ Fleur swallowed hard. I could hear her dry throat clicking.
‘I have killed four people,’ she said.
Outside, a barn owl gave its unearthly shriek. I jumped, heart hammering, and was sure that the listening neighbour through the wall jumped too. I had heard the knocking sound of someone startled letting her knee or foot bang against a table leg. I even thought I heard a soft groaning. Fleur did not so much as flinch.
‘I have killed four people,’ she repeated. ‘And no matter how hard I try I have no way of knowing when it will happen again.’
3
‘Four?’ said Alec. He did not notice as the sandwich he was holding flopped open and a slice of tongue dropped out onto the carpet.
‘Four,’ I said.
We were sitting in his room at the Crown (his rather than mine because it had a sweet little corner bow with armchairs which looked out over the harbour and seemed made for chatting) to where he had ordered up coffee and sandwiches, thinking my pallor when I banged on his door owed itself to hunger and exhaustion. In fact the exhaustion was not too far from the mark: it had been a long day on the trains and dinner with a hundred clamouring schoolgirls had taken its toll. Of course, the cold-water shock of Fleur’s announcement, swiftly followed by my stumbling, skidding descent of the cliff path in the bad light, had not helped matters any.
‘I’ve eaten,’ I had managed to say after he had replaced the house telephone.
‘It doesn’t seem to have agreed with you,’ Alec had said in reply.
Then I told the entire tale, beginning with Miss Shanks, taking in the missing mistresses and the startling change in Fleur – here we were interrupted by the sandwiches’ arrival, the girl’s eyes out on organ stops at the sight of me in Alec’s room, still in my hat and coat – and finishing up with Fleur’s whispered pleas for me to leave, her shouting out that odd way at the mention of bolting and finally her bombshell, the words which were still ringing in my ears even now.
‘She just said it, right out? “I’ve killed four people”?’ I nodded. ‘Then what?’
‘Not another word. Well, actually then she said she couldn’t say when it might happen again.’
‘My, my,’ said Alec. ‘And then?’
‘Nothing further.’
‘No, I mean what did
you
say?’
‘Nothing. Or maybe a few incoherent mumbles. I left. I fled.’
‘Hmph,’ said Alec, and
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