The Curious Incident at Claridge's Read Free Page B

after went in hot pursuit?’
    â€˜That’s the precise sequence of events. Jesty prides himself on being extremely adept in the art of seduction. Got quite a reputation in that department, actually. Life is dull and painful, so why not take one’s pleasure where one can?
    That seems to sum up his philosophy. He is quite incapable of resisting the urge to lunge. He asked if I thought it was one of those self-destructive compulsions and I said yes. It made him laugh. Well, he saw the girl’s aged consort produce a little silver box, take out a capsule and swallow it with a glass of water.’
    â€˜Any idea what the capsule might have contained?’
    â€˜Some anti-dyspeptic remedy, Jesty imagines, but it could have been anything. The elixir of life—a painkiller—royal jelly—an anti-depressant—Viagra. People take all sorts of pills nowadays. Look at poor misguided Michael Jackson. The old boy then rose and started hobbling towards the loo. A second later Penelope did the substitution. She “pounced” on the box. As though her life depended on it, Jesty said. The old boy had left the box on the table. She opened it and took out the remaining capsule—’
    â€˜How could Captain Jesty be so sure there was only one capsule inside the box? It wasn’t as though he was peeping over her shoulder, was it? He was some distance away, behind a potted palm.’
    â€˜He knew because, as luck would have it, Penelope dropped the little box in her nervousness and it fell on the floor. Nothing fell out of it. It was empty. Jesty is certain it was empty. Penelope picked up the box, then opened her bag, pushed the capsule inside, produced another capsule out of her purse and put it inside the box. She then replaced the box on the table where the old boy had left it and leant back in her chair. It all happened very fast. At first Jesty imagined it was some kind of a practical joke. He is fond of practical jokes himself, apparently. At one time, he said, he enjoyed nothing better than spiking fellows’ drinks and substituting laxatives for painkillers.’
    â€˜Not exactly what one would expect from an officer and a gentleman.’
    â€˜No. Well, Jesty is the cad type. Actually I wonder if he is a bounder? He does wear the right kind of signet ring on the right finger, but such details can be easily aped.’
    â€˜What exactly was the difference? Cads betray their class—they break the gentlemanly code of behaviour—while bounders are the outsiders?’
    â€˜Perfectly correct. Bounders manage to assume the veneer of the real thing—’
    â€˜But they keep misbehaving and giving themselves away?’
    â€˜Perfectly correct. Now then, if the old boy—the “pantaloon”, as Jesty kept calling him—was not to notice anything untoward and become suspicious, the replacement capsule must have looked the same as the rest of the capsules he’d been taking. You agree? Which of course would suggest careful premeditation on the girl’s part.’
    There was a pause, then Antonia wondered aloud why Captain Jesty was so convinced that the capsule contained poison.
    â€˜He didn’t think the girl looked the practical joker type. Too serious, too intense. Something in that. Well, she seemed terrified when she realized we had been watching her. She flushed a deep crimson.’
    â€˜You thought she looked guilty?’
    â€˜I did. Yes.’ Payne loosened his collar with his forefinger. ‘And now I keep thinking of the fatal capsule gliding down the old boy’s gullet. Chances are that he will take it tonight, or has already taken it. Oh never shall sun that morrow see. As you can see, my love, my imagination is as bad as yours. You wouldn’t set a poisoning case at a house called Maybrick Manor, would you?’
    â€˜A name with such a sinister resonance wouldn’t be terribly subtle.’
    â€˜Emblematic names