Appleby's Other Story by Michael Innes Read Free Book Online Page A

‘One could not maintain, Sir John, that poor Mr Tytherton’s second marriage quite filled all his horizons.’ Miss Kentwell paused on this expansive if not very lucid image. ‘Upon signs of that, indeed, one might come in the composition of our present small house party.’
    â€˜Indeed?’
    â€˜And of the second marriage there are, of course, no children.’ Miss Kentwell had gone discreetly off on another tack. ‘So it seemed rather a question of Mr Tytherton’s finding new fields of interest, of worthwhile interest. Signs were not wanting that he was about to do so.’
    â€˜I see.’ Appleby felt prompted to add: ‘You think you had pretty well nobbled him for something?’ Instead, he said: ‘I gather he had been something of a collector or connoisseur of pictures, and so on. Perhaps he was proposing to start in again on that? Perhaps that’s why Mr Raffaello is here?’
    â€˜Mr Tytherton was too large a man to rest content with a sterile dilettantism.’ Miss Kentwell paused on this elevated persuasion. ‘Besides, Sir John, as you know, in that field public recognition takes some time to mature. To give this to one gallery and that to another is not enough. A whole collection is required, and the nation itself has to be the recipient. All that takes time.’
    â€˜I suppose it does.’ Appleby was conscious of perceptible effort as required for dissimulating a growing astonishment before this lady. ‘Would you describe the dead man as having been a person of the first ability?’
    â€˜Not, I think, quite that.’
    â€˜He wouldn’t have been likely, for example, to have got to the Lords on a life peerage by way of public service on boards and commissions and so on? Philanthropy would have to be his line? What one might call instant philanthropy, if possible?’
    â€˜I am afraid we are coming to speak in very crude terms, Sir John. Of course Mr Tytherton would have accepted proper public recognition of anything he did. But his deeper motive–’
    â€˜Quite so. We need waste no time upon so obvious a thought. However – and to be crude again for just a moment – are you sure that there was quite all that money available?’
    â€˜No, I am not.’ Miss Kentwell was surprisingly emphatic. ‘I am bound to confess that my inquiries in that direction have yielded some rather disappointing, even disconcerting, results. However, we must not talk in this fashion with poor Mr Tytherton not yet even in his grave. I am told that the coroner’s inquest is likely to be held on Thursday. It is most inconvenient, since it will clash with an important meeting – that of the committee of the Society for the Relief of Depressed Widows of the Higher Clergy. There is a need there that is too little recognized. So I am most anxious to attend.’
    â€˜Then I hope you will be able to do so. Have you been positively notified that you will be required to give evidence at the inquest?’
    â€˜But of course, Sir John!’ Miss Kentwell sounded surprised and even offended. ‘Was I not the first person to set eye upon the body?’
    â€˜Dear me! I am sorry to hear that. It must have been a most distressing experience.’ The facts of the case, Appleby thought, were coming to him all out of order and in an almost luxuriously amateur way. He would have been perfectly happy pottering round Elvedon all day, simply picking up here and there pleasing pieces of information like this. Being closeted with one of Pride’s senior men and presented with a well-ordered narrative wouldn’t be half the fun.
    â€˜Thank you, yes – it was most distressing. It is probably best that dead bodies should be found by servants. They are less sensitive, and therefore less easily upset.’
    â€˜Dead bodies are very frequently found by butlers,’ Appleby said gravely. ‘That is perhaps the best