The Young Widow by Cassandra Chan Read Free Book Online

she shot him a sharp glance.
    â€œThere was more than that,” she said tartly. “But I don’t suppose you’d believe me if I told you. She’s already got you wrapped around her finger, too.”
    Carmichael deeply resented this. “Nonsense, Miss Wellman—” he began.
    â€œLet me put it this way,” she interrupted. “Geoffrey was a kindly, deeply religious, and generous man. He could also be totally unreasonable and he wasn’t beyond cracking the whip to make things come out the way he wanted. Annette played on his beliefs, took advantage of his generosity, and supported his whip-cracking in order to drive wedges between him and his family.”
    â€œIf she went to all that trouble to keep him to herself, it hardly makes sense that she would murder him,” Carmichael pointed out.
    Miss Wellman snorted. “Nonsense. He wasn’t any good to her once she’d won the game. None of us realized that, of course,” she added. “Foolish of us, but then one doesn’t suspect people one actually knows are murderers, even the most unpleasant people.”
    â€œNo one ever suspects that,” Carmichael told her. “Now, if we could just go over the day of the murder. You went down to breakfast with the rest of the family?”
    â€œYes. I was down first, I usually am. It was a fairly ordinary morning. Geoffrey and Paul were discussing business, and Annette was reading a magazine. I left when I’d finished eating and came back here. Kitty came up to go over a few household details, and then I spent the rest of the morning at the desk there, writing letters. I did get up once to open the window, but I didn’t notice anyone out there besides our gardener. It was some time after noon when Kitty came up and said she’d found Geoff dead in his study. I didn’t believe her—Geoffrey always enjoyed excellent health. I got downstairs as quickly as I could and went in to him, but it was no use. I’ve
had some first-aid training and it was clear to me he was dead.” For the first time, her gray eyes looked rather bleak. “So I went out to wait for the doctor. I had no idea, of course, that it was anything but a sudden heart attack.”
    â€œOf course not.” Carmichael had watched her carefully, but she had made this statement too many times before for him to tell whether there was deception in any part of it. He smiled at her. “I’m almost done, Miss Wellman. I’d just like to ask you about the business differences Mr. Berowne was having with his son. Am I right in assuming they arose after Mr. Berowne had retired?”
    â€œCertainly,” she answered. “Before that, Geoffrey ran the company and Paul followed whatever he said. No problem there.”
    â€œWho was in the right in most of these disagreements?”
    â€œDepends on what you mean by ‘right,’” she said. She paused, peering intently at her knitting, and counting under her breath. Then the click of the needles resumed and she looked back at him. “Geoffrey was very clever about business and investments, so, from the point of view of profits, he was certainly right. On the other hand, it was unreasonable of him to blame Paul for not having the same cleverness. It was also rather unreasonable of him to give Paul the business and then not let him run it.”
    â€œBut surely,” said Carmichael, “if Mr. Berowne was so knowledgeable about such matters, it was unreasonable of Mr. Paul Berowne not to take his advice.”
    â€œOh, he did take advice. No, it wasn’t as simple as that, Chief Inspector.” She thought for a moment. “Here’s an example: some other little biscuit company wasn’t doing very well and Paul wanted to take it over. He asked Geoffrey, who said he was a fool if he didn’t. So Paul put in a takeover bid. I’m not sure what happened next, but at any rate, things