The Unexpected Guest Read Free Page B

Jan?'
    Laura gave him an embarrassed look before replying. Then, with an air of reluctance, she said, 'He's Richard's young half-brother. He - he lives with us.'
    Starkwedder moved over to the stool where she still sat. 'Come clean, now,' he insisted. 'What is there about Jan that you don't want to tell me?'
    After a moment's hesitation, Laura spoke, though she still sounded guarded. 'Jan is a dear,' she said. 'Very affectionate and sweet. But - but he isn't quite like other people. I mean he's - he's what they call retarded.'
    'I see,' Starkwedder murmured sympathetically. 'But you're fond of him, aren't you?'
    'Yes,' Laura admitted. 'Yes - I'm very fond of him. That's - that's really why I couldn't just go away and leave Richard. Because of Jan. You see, if Richard had had his own way, he would have sent Jan to an institution. A place for the mentally retarded.'
    Starkwedder slowly circled the wheelchair, looking down at Richard Warwick's body, and pondering. Then, 'I see,' he murmured. 'Is that the threat he held over you? That, if you left him, he'd send the boy to an institution?'
    'Yes,' replied Laura. 'If I - if I believed that I could have earned enough to keep Jan and myself-but I don't know that I could. And anyway, Richard was the boy's legal guardian of course.'
    'Was Richard kind to him?' Starkwedder asked.
    'Sometimes,' she replied.
    'And at other times?'
    'He'd - he'd quite frequently talk about sending Jan away,' Laura told him. 'He'd say to Jan, “They'll be quite kind to you, boy. You'll be well looked after. And Laura, I'm sure, would come and see you once or twice a year.” He'd get Jan all worked up, terrified, begging, pleading, stammering. And then Richard would lean back in his chair and roar with laughter. Throw back his head and laugh, laugh, laugh.'
    'I see,' said Starkwedder, watching her carefully. After a pause, he repeated thoughtfully, 'I see.'
    Laura rose quickly, and went to the table by the armchair to stub out her cigarette. 'You needn't believe me,' she exclaimed. 'You needn't believe a word I say. For all you know, I might be making it all up.'
    'I've told you I'll risk it,' Starkwedder replied. 'Now then,' he continued, 'what's this, what's-her-name, Bennett - Benny - like? Is she sharp? Bright?'
    'She's very efficient and capable,' Laura assured him.
    Starkwedder snapped his fingers. 'Something's just occurred to me,' he said. 'How is it that nobody in the house heard the shot tonight?'
    'Well, Richard's mother is quite old, and she's rather deaf,' Laura replied. 'Benny's room is over on the other side of the house, and Angell's quarters are quite separate, shut off by a baize door. There's young Jan, of course. He sleeps in the room over this. But he goes to bed early, and he sleeps very heavily.'
    'That all seems extremely fortunate,' Starkwedder observed.
    Laura looked puzzled. 'But what are you suggesting?' she asked him. 'That we could make it look like suicide?'
    He turned to look at the body again. 'No,' he said, shaking his head. 'There's no hope of suicide, I'm afraid.' He walked over to the wheelchair and looked down at the corpse of Richard Warwick for a moment, before asking, 'He was right-handed, I assume?'
    'Yes,' replied Laura.
    'Yes, I was afraid so. In which case he couldn't possibly have shot himself at that angle,' he declared, pointing to Warwick's left temple. 'Besides, there's no mark of scorching.' He considered for a few seconds and then added, 'No, the gun must have been fired from a certain distance away. Suicide is certainly out.' He paused again before continuing. 'But there's accident, of course. After all, it could have been an accident.'
    After a longer pause, he began to act out what he had in mind. 'Now, say for instance that I came here this evening. Just as I did, in fact. Blundered in through this window.' He went to the french windows, and mimed the act of stumbling into the room. 'Richard thought I was a burglar, and took a pot shot at me. Well,