Death in Autumn Page 10

  After listening patiently for some five minutes the Captain made a sign to Heer that he should stop her. If there was anything worse than this woman's vicious respectability it was her assumption that he naturally must agree with her, with her constant 'you will understand'. Besides which, he had no time to waste listening to her respectable lies and abuse. It was information he needed.

  She was none too pleased to be silenced and tightened her lips which trembled very slightly, though this was evidently a sign of age rather than emotion for she was very cool and sure of herself.

  The Captain took the Vogel file from his drawer and extracted Mario Querci's statement, addressing himself to the lawyer.

  'Perhaps you would ask the Signora to be so good as to answer a few questions which might help us with our inquiries.'

  Heer translated. He showed no embarrassment or special interest in what he had to translate, apparently having no objection to anything he had to do or say provided it was paid for. The woman stared at the window until the first question should be referred to her in German.

  'Did you know your daughter-in-law's parents?'

  'Certainly not.'

  'They weren't at the wedding?'

  'The mother had died some months before.'

  'And her father?'

  'The father had made himself scarce long before that, leaving them penniless.'

  'And isn't that why Hilde Vogel was obliged to stop studying and find work?'

  'It may have been.'

  'Hadn't they, in lact, been quite well-to-do up till then?'

  'Quite possibly. The father was an architect. All I know is that that girl didn't bring a penny with her when she married my son. She knew what she was about, all right. I saw through her from the start and said so.'

  'I imagine that until her mother died the daughter attempted to keep her in the style to which she was accustomed.'

  'They tried to keep up appearances, if that's what you mean. In my opinion people should live within their income and content themselves with the lifestyle they can afford.'

  'Even so, it seems to me odd that the daughter should have taken a job as a shopgirl if she had been well educated, whether she was obliged to interrupt her studies or not.'

  'If you want to split hairs I suppose you could say that she managed Becker's business since he travelled a lot, but if you ask me she only got a position like that because there was something going on between those two.'

  'Do you know where the father went when he left?'

  'He came here, of course, as I'm sure you know since she followed him in the end.'

  'Followed him in what sense?'

  'She came out here to live with him since my home wasn't good enough for her, or rather, my standards were too high for her.'

  'She told you she was coming to live with her father?'

  'Certainly. And I can't say I was surprised. In my opinion they were two of a kind. I understand he dabbled in painting and no doubt thought of himself as another Gauguin, running off like that. Needless to say nothing came of it.'

  'Does it seem likely to you that her father would have wanted her living with him if, as you say, he had abandoned his family and left them penniless for all those years?'

  'It must be so, given that that's what happened.'

  'It isn't what happened, Signora. Hilde Vogel never lived with her father but in a hotel, alone.'

  'I'm afraid you must be mistaken. She hadn't the money.'

  'It seems she had plenty of money.'

  'Then she was up to no good.'

  And the Captain, though he found himself automatically defending Hilde Vogel against this vicious woman, was obliged to remember that he had said the same himself.

  'Is your son still alive, Signora?'

  'No, he isn't. He died very young, of a brain haemorrhage.'

  'What was his occupation?'

  'He lectured in law at the University of Mainz.'

  'Leaving you and your daughter-in-law together in the house?'

  'Yes.'

  'What were her financial circumstances at that point? Your son provided for her?'

  'The estate is entailed on the male heir as it always has been. She had a small income, as I have, until such time as she might marry again, and she had the right to live in the house for her lifetime.'

  'Would such income as she had have permitted her to live elsewhere?'

  'In my opinion, no. The upkeep of the house was paid for from the estate. The income was for her personal expenses only.'

  Sooner or later they must come to the question of the male heir. By this time the Captain was convinced that Guarnaccia had been right and that this interview could only be concluded at the Medico-Legal Institute. He decided it was best to get all the other information he needed before dealing with that problem. Nevertheless, he noted before going on that the woman was volunteering no information about there being a child and he was going to want to know why.

  'Tell me about this man . . . Becker, you said his name was, with whom you think your daughter-in-law was involved.'

  'I don't think so, I know so. I have a pair of eyes in my head. What's more, he was a bad lot, in my opinion. The whole town knew that he was having an affair with his secretary who used to travel around with him on the pretext of work.'

  'Was this before or after his supposed affair with your daughter-in-law?'

  'Before or after?' The woman almost spat with disgust. 'He was playing around with both of them. It may have been just my daughter-in-law when she first went to work for him, but he soon took up with the other one again when she and my son married. As for afterwards—'

  'Just a moment. Are you saying this affair went on when your son and daughter-in-law were newly married?'

  'I'm not saying anything of the sort! Do you imagine I would have allowed a scandal like that in the family? I watched her every minute, I can assure you. And I did everything in my power to get my son to break with Becker. Marriage and family are more important than friendship.'

  'Did you quarrel over it.'

  'I simply tried to make him see reason.'

  'So she was Becker's mistress before she met your son? There needn't be anything extraordinary in that. She presumably broke with Becker and decided to marry your son.'

  'She knew which side her bread was buttered. Becker would never have married her.'

  The Captain paused to leaf through Mario Querci's statement. When he found the page he wanted he looked up and asked: 'Becker's secretary, was she older than your daughter-in-law?'

  'Some years older. No doubt that's why he—'

  'Her name?'

  'Ursula Janz.'

  'Is she still living in Mainz?'

  'No.'

  'Where is she living?'

  'I can't imagine why you expect me to know that. I've no idea.'

  'When did she leave the town?'

  'When Becker sold his business and left.'

  'How long ago was that?'

  'At least fourteen years.'

  'Did they go off together?'

  'I wouldn't know. He left first but that doesn't mean anything.'

  'And your daughter-in-law?'

  'She had already left, almost a year earlier.'

  'Because you quarrelled about her receiving Becker?'

  'I don't stoop to quarrelling with that sort of person. I merely made my feelings known. I'm sure you understand that under my own roof, in my son's home . . .'

  'Who ran the household after your son's death?'

  'I did, naturally, before and after. My son was accustomed to an orderly household.'

  The Captain remembered the face in the passport photograph. Had she managed to regard her mother-in-law with that detached irony? He strongly suspected not. She had been so much younger then and left a widow under this grim woman's rule without sufficient means to escape, or even anywhere to go. She may have invented the story of joining her father out of pride. Or was it to cover up the fact that she ex
pected Becker to join her? In any case he hadn't. So what had she lived on? Where did the money from Geneva come from? And where was Becker now?

  'Since you say this man Becker was a friend of your son's, do you happen to have a photograph of him?'

  'No.'

  'Your son and he were never photographed together? What about the wedding, wasn't he there?'

  'He was, despite my wishes.'

  'Then he must have appeared on one or two of the photographs, surely?'

  'He did. But after my son's death I had no desire to keep anything that would remind me of his unfortunate marriage.'

  'You destroyed the photographs?'

  'I did.'

  Had Hilde Vogel done the same? They had found no trace of her former life among her belongings.

  'How old would Becker be now?'

  'I suppose in his mid-fifties.'

  'Leaving aside his relationships with women, what sort ofmanishe?'

  'Arrogant. If I tell you that his favourite phrase was "ninety-nine point nine per cent of people are fools . . ." He liked to manipulate people.'

  'Including your son?'

  'My son was a very intelligent man but a rigidly honest one. Becker used to say he was his only worthy chess opponent, they had played chess together ever since their University days. But in my opinion Becker just liked having him around as an audience.'

  'An audience for what?'

  'You might say for his practical jokes, except that there was nothing amusing about them. He liked to make fools of people and then point out to them how gullible they had been.'

  'Did he ever do anything illegal?'

  'Not strictly speaking but my son often warned him that he was playing with fire.'

  'Did he heed the warning?'

  'I doubt it. He was utterly contemptuous of other people.'

  'Was he ever seen again in Mainz after he left?'

  'Never, I'm glad to say.'

  'I see. Would you excuse me for a moment?'

  When he went into the anteroom next door he found the Marshal blocking the doorway with his broad back. Sweeton was slumped in a chair with his hands thrust deep in his pockets, his face pale and sullen. The two men stepped outside and closed the door on him.

  'I think,' the Captain said, 'that we now know who Hilde VogePs grey-haired visitor was.' And he explained briefly about Becker. 'It ties in with Querci's account of her having a lover with another woman in his life.'

  'You're not thinking of a crime of passion?' The Marshal looked dubious.

  'Anything but. I'm thinking she may have been blackmailing him, though without knowing what he was up to I'm going to have trouble proving it. . .'

  The Marshal still looked dubious.

  'What do you want me to do with the boy?'

  'Let him telephone his father and then get him something to eat. After that we're going to the Medico-Legal Institute.'

  'You want me to come, too?'

  'Yes . . . unless . . . You could try talking to Querci again.'

  'He's still down in the cells?'

  'Yes, and now we've got something on the grey-haired visitor he might talk.'

  'I don't think so,' murmured the Marshal. 'Not yet. I think I'd better come with you, as you said. I could talk to Querci later if you think I should. We'd perhaps better clear up a few things first. . .'

  The Marshal knew well enough that he would have to be the one to deal with Querci but he wasn't looking forward to it and he wasn't sure yet how to tackle it.

  'I'll see to the boy,' he said, opening the door of the anteroom again. 'Are you hoping he'll identify his friend's body?'

  'If that's who the dead boy is, yes. Either he or the grandmother. I'm going to have to broach the matter with her now and it's not going to be pleasant for her, though I must say she's a tough character.'

  The woman was sitting exactly as he had left her and the lawyer was speaking to her quietly in German.

  The Captain apologized again for his absence and sat down.

  'Signora, I'm going to have to ask you to officially identify your daughter-in-law's body. If, when the magistrate gives permission, you want to remove her to Germany . . .'

  'I see no need for that.'

  'In that case, Avvocato Heer, perhaps you and I could discuss the arrangements for her burial here at some later date.'

  'Certainly.'

  'Thank you. Now, Signora, I'd like to know whether your son and daughter-in-law had a child.'

  'They did.'

  'A boy?'

  'Yes.'

  'And his name?'

  'Christian. He was named after my son.'

  'How old was he when his father died?'

  'He had just turned two.'

  'And his mother left shortly afterwards?'

  'About two years later.'

  'She didn't attempt to take the child with her?'

  'She did, but naturally it was out of the question. She had no means of supporting him.'

  'But surely the boy inherited from his father?'

  'He will inherit at age twenty-five. In the meantime I am the trustee along with our family lawyer.'

  'Why wasn't his own mother made trustee?'

  'In the first place because she understood nothing of such matters and would have been incapable of taking necessary decisions regarding investments. In the second place because it was Vogel family money. It would hardly have been suitable to have it administered by an outsider.'

  'You married into the Vogel family yourself, did you not?'

  'Bringing with me a very considerable dowry. A large part of the property which my grandson will inherit originally belonged to my father.'

  'If your daughter-in-law had persisted in her attempt to take the child away, could you have stopped her?'

  'I rather think so. I would have had him made a ward of court on the grounds of his mother's immorality and the fact that she could ofFer him no alternative home or means of support.'

  'Did you threaten to do that—openly, I mean?'

  'I am not in the habit of threatening people. I made my intentions known, if that's what you mean.'

  'And she gave up?'

  'She abandoned the child rather than remaining where she was to bring him up in a respectable home.'

  she was to bring him up in 'Were they very close?'

  'In what way?'

  'In the way that a child and his mother are normally close. Did she care for him herself up to the time she left?'

  'To a limited extent. Naturally the child had a nurse.'

  'Chosen by you?'

  'The woman was already in my employ in another capacity and had proved an excellent nurse when my son was small.'

  'After your daughter-in-law left did she have any further contact with the child?'

  'None whatever.'

  'Yet I understand she sent money to an account in a bank in Mainz each month. Was the money sent to you?'

  'It was.'

  'Was it a contribution to the child's upkeep?'

  'Supposedly, though he had no need of it. Naturally, I never touched it. I transferred it to a savings account in my grandson's name.'

  'Does he know about it?'

  'I informed him of it on his eighteenth birthday.'

  'Why was the money sent directly to the bank rather than to you personally?'

  'At my request. I had no desire for any personal contact with my daughter-in-law.'

  'You regard a cheque as a personal contact? Or were there letters, too?1

  'In the first few years, yes.'

  'You didn't answer them, apart from requesting her to send the cheque directly to your account?'

  'The letters were not addressed to me but to my grandson.'

  'Did he answer them when he was old enough?'

  'He never saw them.'

  'You considered you had the right to censor your grandson's mail?'

  'My grandson was a small child. I considered myself responsible for his moral welfare since he
had been left in my care.'

  'And you felt his moral welfare would be endangered by receiving letters from his mother?'

  'I did. And the manner of her death, not to mention the unexplained money which enabled her to live in a hotel, indicates that my fears were more than justified.'

  The Captain watched Avvocato Heer carefully as he translated this last remark into Italian but the heavy face of the Swiss showed nothing but bland professional politeness. He decided against making any mention of his suspicions about blackmail but to stick to the subject of the boy.

  'Does your grandson still live with you, Signora?'

  'He does, though most of the time he is away at school in Frankfurt.'

  'Is that where he is now?'

  She hesitated for only a fraction of a second before saying, 'At the moment he's travelling.'

  'In Europe?'

  'I believe so. He sends me only the occasional postcard.'

  'When did he leave Germany?'

  'At the beginning of July.'

  'Shouldn't he be back at school by now?'

  'He should. Unfortunately he has inherited some of his mother's headstrong ways.'

  'Do you think he may have come here to see his mother?'

  'I have no reason to think so.'

  'Not even the fact that your daughter-in-law ceased to send the regular cheques after July?'

  'My bank manager deals with that. I was unaware of it.'

  She was lying and not very successfully. There had to be a reason why she hadn't mentioned the boy until he had insisted.

  'Has he ever been in trouble?'

  'If you mean with the police, certainly not.'

  'At school, then.'

  She didn't answer immediately and there was a short discussion in German between her and the lawyer. Without understanding a word of it, the Captain was convinced that the lawyer had advised her to tell the truth on the grounds that it wouldn't be difficult to find out anyway.