The Scarlatti Inheritance(74)
“What are you doing?”
“Just interesting that your help should be so curious.”
“Oh, that.” Janet turned and picked up a cigarette from a case on the coffee table. “Servants will talk and I think you’ve given them cause.”
Canfield lit her cigarette. “Including the painters?”
“Hannah’s friends are her own business. They’re no concern of mine. Hannah’s barely a concern of mine.…”
“You don’t find it curious that Hannah nearly tripped when I mentioned a dirigible?”
“I simply don’t understand you.”
“I admit I’m getting ahead of myself.”
“Why didn’t you telephone?”
“If I had, would you have seen me?”
Janet thought for a minute. “Probably.… Whatever recriminations I had over your last visit wouldn’t be any reason to insult you.”
“I didn’t want to take that gamble.”
“That’s sweet of you and I’m touched. But why this very odd behavior?”
There was no point in delaying any longer. He took the envelope out of his pocket “I’ve been asked to give you this. May I sit down while you read it?”
Janet, startled, took the envelope and immediately recognized her mother-in-law’s handwriting. She opened the envelope and read the letter.
If she was astonished or shocked, she hid her emotions well.
Slowly she sat down on the sofa and put out her cigarette. She looked down at the letter and up at Canfield, and then back to the letter. Without looking up, she asked quietly, “Who are you?”
“I work for the government. I’m an official … a minor official in the Department of the Interior.”
“The government? You’re not a salesman, then?”
“No, I’m not.”
“You wanted to meet me and talk with me for the government?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you tell me you sold tennis courts?”
“We sometimes find it necessary to conceal our employment. It’s as simple as that.”
“I see.”
“I assume you want to know what your mother-in-law means in the letter?”
“Don’t assume anything.” She was cold as she continued. “It was your job to meet me and ask me all those amusing questions?”
“Frankly, yes.”
The girl rose, took the necessary two steps toward the field accountant, and slapped him across the face with all her strength. It was a sharp and painful blow. “You son of a bitch! Get out of this house!” She still did not raise her voice. “Get out before 1 call the police!”
“Oh, my God, Janet, will you stop it!” He grabbed her shoulders as she tried to wriggle away. “Listen to me! I said listen or I’ll slap you right back!”
Her eyes shone with hatred and, Canfield thought, a touch of melancholy. He held her firmly as he spoke. “Yes, I was assigned to meet you. Meet you and get whatever information I could.”
She spat in his face. He did not bother to brush it away.
“I got the information I needed and I used that information because that’s what I’m paid for! As far as my department is concerned, I left this house by nine o’clock after you served me two drinks. If they want to pick you up for illegal possession of alcohol, that’s what they can get you for!”
“I don’t believe you!”
“I don’t give a good God damn whether you do or not! And for your further information I’ve had you under surveillance for weeks! You and the rest of your playmates.… It may interest you to know that I’ve omitted detailing the more … ludicrous aspects of your day-to-day activities!”
The girl’s eyes began to fill with tears.
“I’m doing my job as best I can, and I’m not so sure you’re the one who should scream ‘violated virgin’! You may not realize it, but your husband, or former husband, or whatever the hell he is, could be very much alive. A lot of nice people who never heard of him—women like you and young girls—were burned to death because of him! Others were killed, too, but maybe they should have been.”
“What are you saying?” He relaxed his grip on her but still held her firmly.
“I just know that I left your mother-in-law a week ago in England. It was a hell of a trip over! Someone tried to kill her the first night out on the ship. Oh, you can bet your life it would have been suicide! They would have said she had tearfully thrown herself overboard. No trace at all.… A week, ago we let out a story to the newspapers saying she’d gone to a retreat in a place called York, in England. Two days ago the heating system blew up and killed Christ knows how many people! An accident, of course!”