[Wexford 01] From Doon & Death by Ruth Rendell Read Free Book Online Page B

something. I lost it in the cinema last night'
    'Are you quite sure you lost it in the cinema? Did you enquire about it? Ask the manager, for instance?'
    'What, for an eight-and-sixpenny lipstick? Do I look that poor? I went to the cinema -'
    'By yourself, madam?'
    'O f course I went by myself.' Burden sensed a certain defensiveness, but the glasses masked her eyes. ‘I went to the cinema and when I got back the lipstick wasn't in my bag.'
    Is this it?' Wexford held the lipstick out on his palm, and Mrs Missal extended long fingers with nails lacquered silver like armour-plating. I'm afraid I shall have to ask you to come down to the station with me and have your fingerprints taken.'
    'Helen, what is this?' Missal put his hand on his wife's arm. She shook it off as if the fingers had left a dirty mark. ‘I don't get it, Helen. Has someone pinched your lipstick, someone connected with this woman?'
    She continued to look at the lipstick in her hand. Burden wondered if she realized she had already covered it with prints.
    ‘I suppose it is mine ’ she said slowly. 'All right, I admit it must be mine. Where did you find it, in the cinema?'
    'No, Mrs Missal. It was found on the edge of a wood just off the Pomfret Road.'
    'What?' Missal jumped up. He stared at Wexford, then at his wife. ‘ Take those damn' things off!' he shouted and twitched the sunglasses from her nose.
    Burden saw that her eyes were green, a very light bluish green flecked with gold. For a second he saw panic there; then she dropped her lids, the only shields that remained to her, and looked down into her lap.
    ‘ You went to the pictures ’ Missal said. ‘Y ou said you went to the pictures. I don't get this about a wood and the Porntret Road. What the hell's going on?'
    Helen Missal said very slowly, as if she was inventing: 'Someone must have found my lipstick in the cinema. Then they must have dropped it. That’ s it. Ifs quite simple. I can't understand what all the fuss is about.'
    ‘I t so happens ’ Wexford said, 'that Mrs Parsons was found strangled in that wood at half past one today.'
    She shuddered and gripped the arms of her chair. Burden thought she was making a supreme effort not to cry out At last she said:
    'Ifs obvious, isn't it? Your murderer, whoever he is, pinched my lipstick and then dropped it at the ... the scene of the crime.'
    ‘ Except ’ Wexford said, 'that Mrs Parsons died on Tuesday. I won't detain you any longer, madam. Not just at present. One more thing, though, have you a car of your own?'
    ‘Y es, yes, I have. A red Dauphine. I keep it in the other garage with the entrance in the Kingsbrook Road. Why?'
    'Yes, why?' Missal said. 'Why all this? We didn't even know this Mrs Parsons. You're not suggesting my wife ... ? My God, I wish someone would explain!'
    Wexford looked from one to the other. Then he got up.
    ‘I’d just like to have a look at the tyres, sir ’ he said.
    As he spoke light seemed suddenly to have dawned on Missal. He blushed an even darker brick red and his face crumpled like that of a baby about to cry. There was despair there ’ despair and the kind of pain Burden felt he should not look upon. Then Missal seemed to pull himself together. He said in a quiet reserved voice that seemed to cover a multitude of unspoken enquiries and accusations:
    ‘I’ve no objection to your looking at my wife's car but I can't imagine what connection she has with this woman.'
    'Neither can I, sir ’ Wexford said cheerfully. That's what we shall want to find out. I'm as much in the dark as you are.'
    'Oh, give him the garage key, Pete ’ she said. ‘I tell you I don't know any more. If s not my fault if my lipstick was stolen.'
    ‘I’d give a lot to be able to hide behind those rhododendrons and hear what he says to her ’ Wexford said as they walked up the Kingsbrook Road to Helen Missal's garage.
    'And what she says to him ’ Burden said. 'You think it’s all right leaving them for the night, sir? She's