False Diamond--An Abbot Agency Mystery Read Free Page A

criticize you both in front of the boys?’
    Dilys wrung her hands. ‘The boys understand how silly we are. It’s all in good part. They laugh, he tells them to laugh, and I don’t like it much, but … I wish I were dead.’ Dilys hung her head. Her arms went around her shoulders. Her hair hung over her face.
    â€˜Your dying won’t help your children.’
    â€˜That’s what I keep telling myself. I have to learn how to be a better wife and mother, I have to be honest with myself, and when I’ve done something awful, I must apologize and try to do better.’ The girl’s tears overflowed once more.
    Bea was silent. Sybil’s instincts were correct. Benton was a turd of the first water. Could you have a
turd
of the first water? No, that was for diamonds, wasn’t it? Oh, forget it. ‘Assuming that he did substitute a fake for the original diamond, have you any idea what he did with the money? Another woman?’
    Dilys mumbled into her hankie. ‘No, no! He wouldn’t! He loves me.’
    â€˜Gambling debts?’
    â€˜Oh, no! How could you think that!’ She seemed genuinely shocked at the idea.
    It must have been another woman, then. Dilys would have guessed as soon as it happened, but not dared to do anything about it. She had no brothers, her father was a broken reed and her husband was a bully. What’s more, Benton was now managing director of the firm which provided them all with a living.
    All Dilys had on her side was an aunt. And what an aunt! Dilys ought to be grateful to Sybil, but probably wasn’t.
    Bea wondered what sort of mistress would have taken Benton’s fancy. Someone blonde and full-bodied. A total opposite to the dumpy, badly-presented little girl he’d seduced and married.
    â€˜He took the money from the diamond and gave it to his mistress?’
    Dilys blew her nose. ‘You don’t understand. It was a boy-girl thing from before we were married. He stopped seeing her when he met me but she’d got into debt and he wanted to help her out, so … Anyway, he told me all about it when I noticed about the ring, which I did straight away, and he said it was all right because everything he had was mine, and mine was his, and it had got him out of a terrible hole. Of course, I understood how it had been, and we agreed never to mention it again.’
    â€˜How do you know the affair’s not still going on?’
    â€˜She died.’
    â€˜Really?’
    â€˜Oh, yes. She was run over late at night soon after that – in the October, just one year after we were married – in a quiet cul de sac. He was so shocked. He told me the next day, just gave me the facts, couldn’t talk about it. He said he wasn’t going to think any more about it and I shouldn’t, either. He’s very sensitive, you see. I have to remember that.’
    â€˜Of course,’ said Bea, not believing a word of it. ‘Now, shall we go and get that ring appraised?’

TWO
    â€˜W e can’t!’ said Dilys, delving into her handbag with fingers that shook. Trying to find a hankie?
    â€˜Watch me!’ said Bea, pushing a box of tissues towards the girl.
    â€˜You don’t understand. I can’t upset things or we’ll all be ruined. Auntie—’
    â€˜What about Auntie?’ said that redoubtable female, entering the room. Dilys stifled a scream. ‘I’m bored, hanging around, waiting for you to see sense. Are you ready to have the ring appraised yet? Mrs Abbot, I was sure I could rely on you.’
    Dilys said, ‘Auntie, you startled me! We mustn’t do anything to upset Ben or we’ll all be out on the street.’
    â€˜Tell that to the birds!’ The mink coat seated herself on a typing chair. She’d been followed in by the man in the shadows, but he still didn’t seem interested in taking a hand in the game.
    Dilys took a tissue and began to shred it.