The Unexpected Guest Read Free Page A

was like a child's toy. Sometimes he used to shoot into the wall, making patterns. Over there, if you look.' She indicated the french windows. 'Down there to the left, behind the curtain.'
    Starkwedder went across and lifted the curtain on the left-hand side, revealing a pattern of bullet holes in the panelling. 'Good heavens, he's picked out his own initials in the wall. “R.W”, done in bullet holes. Remarkable.' He replaced the curtain, and turned back to Laura. 'I must admit that's damned good shooting. Hm, yes. He must have been pretty frightening to live with.'
    'He was,' Laura replied emphatically. With almost hysterical vehemence, she rose from the sofa and approached her uninvited guest. 'Must we go on talking and talking about all this?' she asked in exasperation. 'It's only putting off what's got to happen in the end. Can't you realize that you've got to ring up the police? You've no option. Don't you see it would be far kinder to just do it now? Or is it that you want me to do it? Is that it? All right, I will.'
    She moved quickly to the phone, but Starkwedder came up to her as she was lifting the receiver, and put his hand over hers. 'We've got to talk first,' he told her.
    'We've been talking,' said Laura. 'And anyway, there's nothing to talk about.'
    'Yes, there is,' he insisted. I'm a fool, I dare say. But we've got to find some way out.'
    'Some way out? For me?' asked Laura. She sounded incredulous.
    'Yes. For you,' He took a few steps away from her, and then turned back to face her. 'How much courage have you got?' he asked. 'Can you lie if necessary - and lie convincingly?'
    Laura stared at him. 'You're crazy,' was all she said.
    'Probably,' Starkwedder agreed.
    She shook her head in perplexity. 'You don't know what you're doing,' she told him.
    'I know very well what I'm doing,' he answered. 'I'm making myself an accessory after the fact.'
    'But why?' asked Laura. 'Why?'
    Starkwedder looked at her for a moment before replying. Then, 'Yes, why?' he repeated. Speaking slowly and deliberately, he said, 'For the simple reason, I suppose, that you're a very attractive woman, and I don't like to think of you being shut up in prison for all the best years of your life. Just as horrible as being hanged by the neck until you are dead, in my view. And the situation looks far from promising for you. Your husband was an invalid and a cripple. Any evidence there might be of provocation would rest entirely on your word, a word which you seem extremely unwilling to give. Therefore it seems highly unlikely that a jury would acquit you.'
    Laura looked steadily at him. 'You don't know me,' she said. 'Everything I've told you may have been lies.'
    'It may,' Starkwedder agreed cheerfully. 'And perhaps I'm a sucker. But I'm believing you.'
    Laura looked away, then sank down on the footstool with her back to him. For a few moments nothing was said. Then, turning to face him, her eyes suddenly alight with hope, she looked at him questioningly, and then nodded almost imperceptibly. 'Yes,' she told him, 'I can lie if I have to.'
    'Good,' Starkwedder exclaimed with determination. 'Now, talk and talk fast.' He walked over to the table by the wheelchair, flicking ash in the ashtray. 'In the first place, who exactly is there in this house? Who lives here?'
    After a moment's hesitation, Laura began to speak, almost mechanically. 'There's Richard's mother,' she told him. 'And there's Benny - Miss Bennett, but we call her Benny - she's a sort of combined housekeeper and secretary. An ex-hospital nurse. She's been here for ages, and she's devoted to Richard. And then there's Angell. I mentioned him, I think. He's a male nurse-attendant, and - well, valet, I suppose. He looks after Richard generally.'
    'Are there servants who live in the house as well?'
    'No, there are no live-in servants, only dailies who come in.' She paused. 'Oh - and I almost forgot,' she continued. "There's Jan, of course.'
    'Jan?' Starkwedder asked, sharply. 'Who's