A New Lease of Death by Ruth Rendell Read Free Book Online Page A

the young people were so diffident about it. Charles’s letters had been paeans of praise and I could see they were deeply in love. Then she told us. She came out with it quite baldly. She said – I remember the very words – “I think you ought to know something about me, Mrs Archery. My father’s name was Painter and he was hanged for killing an old woman.”
    ‘At first my wife didn’t believe it. She thought it was some sort of a game. Charles said, “It’s true. It doesn’t matter. People are what they are, not what their parents did.” Then Theresa – we call her Tess – said, “It would matter if he had done it, only he didn’t. I told you
why
he was hanged. I didn’t mean he’d done it.” Then she began to cry.’
    ‘Why does she call herself Kershaw?’
    ‘It’s her stepfather’s name. He must be a very remarkable man, Chief Inspector. He’s an electrical engineer, but …’ You needn’t come that rude mechanicals stuff with me, thought Wexford crossly. ‘… but he must be a most intelligent, perceptive and kind person. The Kershaws have two children of their own, but as far as I can gather, Mr Kershaw has treated Tess with no less affection than his own son and daughter. She says it was his love that helped her to bear – well, what I can only call the stigma of her father’s crime when she learnt about it at the age of twelve. He followed her progress at school, encouraged her in every way and fostered her wish to get a County Major Scholarship.’
    ‘You mentioned “the stigma of her father’s crime”. I thought you said she thinks he didn’t do it?’
    ‘My dear Chief Inspector, she
knows he didn’t do it
.’
    Wexford said slowly, ‘Mr Archery, I’m sure I don’t have to tell a man like yourself that when we talk of somebody
knowing
something we mean that what they know is a fact, something that’s true beyond a reasonable doubt. We mean that the majority of other people
know
it too. In other words, it’s history, it’s written down in books, it’s common knowledge.’ He paused. ‘Now I and the Law Lords and the official records and what your son means when he talks about the Establishment, know beyond any reasonable doubt, that Painter did kill Mrs Rose Primero.’
    ‘Her mother told her so,’ said Archery. ‘She told her that she had absolute irrefutable personal knowledge that Tess’s father did not kill Mrs Primero.’
    Wexford shrugged and smiled. ‘People believe what they want to believe. The mother thought it was the best thing for her daughter. If I’d been in her shoes I daresay I’d have said the same.’
    ‘I don’t think it was like that,’ Archery said stubbornly. ‘Tess says her mother is a very unemotional woman. She never talks about Painter, never discusses him at all. She just says quite calmly, “Your father never killed anybody” and beyond that she won’t say any more.’
    ‘Because she can’t say any more. Look, sir, I think you’re taking a rather romantic view of this. You’re visualizing the Painters as a devoted couple, kind of merry peasants, love in a cottage and all that. It wasn’t like that. Believe me, Painter was no loss to her. I’m certain in my own mind he was in the habit of striking her just when the fancy took him. As far as he was concerned, she was just his woman, someone to cook his meals, wash his clothes and – well,’ he added brutally, ‘someone to go to bed with.’
    Archery said stiffly, ‘I don’t see that any of that’s material.’
    ‘Don’t you? You’re picturing some sort of declaration of innocence plus incontrovertible proof made to the one person he loved and whom he knew would believe in him. Forgive me, but that’s a load of rubbish. Apart from the few minutes when he came back to the coach house to wash his hands – and incidentally hide the money – he was never alone with her. And he couldn’t have told her then. He wasn’t supposed to know about it. D’you understand me?