Lay Her Among The Lilies

“I climbed it,” I said, and took the glass. “To your dark and lovely eyes, and the figure I

haven’t seen—yet.”

She stood by and watched me drink a third of it. Then she lit a cigarette with a hand that

was as steady as the cliff we were talking about, took it from her red, sensual mouth and gave

it to me.

Our fingers touched. Her skin felt feverish.

“Is your sister here?” I asked, and set the whisky carefully on the coffee table at my side.

She inspected her thumb again thoughtfully, then looked at me out of the corners of her

eyes.

“Janet’s dead. She died two years ago,” she said.

“I’ve made a lot of discoveries since you told me that,” I said. “I know the girl your mother

kept a prisoner in the sanatorium for something like two years is your sister, Janet. Shall I tell

you just how much I do know?”

She made a little grimace and sat down.

“You can if you want to,” she said.

“Some of it is guess-work. Perhaps you’ll help me as I go along?” I said, settling farther

down in the chair. “Janet was your father’s favourite. Both you and your mother knew he was

going to leave her the bulk of his money. Janet fell in love with Sherrill, who also knew she

was coming into the money. Sherrill was quite a dashing type, and dashing types appeal to

you. You and he had an affair on the side, but Janet found out and broke the engagement.

There was a quarrel between you two. One of you grabbed a shot-gun. Your father came in at

the wrong moment. Did you shoot him or was it Janet?”

She lit a cigarette, dropped the match into an ashtray before saying, “Does it matter? I did

if you must know.”

“There was a nurse staying in the house at the time: Anona Freedlander. Why was she

there?”

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“My mother wasn’t quite right in the head,” she said casually. “She didn’t think I was,

either. She persuaded father I wanted looking after, and she sent Nurse Freedlander to spy on

me.”

“Nurse Freedlander wanted to call the police when you shot your father?”

She nodded and smiled. The smile didn’t reach the expressionless, coal-black eyes.

“Mother said they would put me away in a home if it came out I had shot him. Nurse

Freedlander made herself a nuisance. Mother got her back to the sanatorium and locked her

up. It was the only way to keep her quiet. Then Janet insisted on me being locked up, too, and

mother had to agree. She sent me here. This is her house. Janet thought I was in the

sanatorium. She found out I wasn’t, but she didn’t know where I was. I think that’s why she

wrote to you. She was going to ask you to find me. Then Nurse Freedlander had a heart attack

and died. This was too good a chance to miss. Mother and Douglas carried her body to

Crestways. Mother told Janet I wanted to see her, and she went over to the sanatorium. She

was locked up in Nurse Freedlander’s room, and Nurse Freedlander was put in Janet’s bed. It

was quite a bright idea, wasn’t it? I called Dr. Bewley who lived near by. It didn’t occur to

him that the dead woman wasn’t Janet, and he signed the death certificate. It was easy after

that. The Trustees didn’t suspect anything, and I came into all the money.” She leaned

forward to tap cigarette-ash into the ashtray, went on in the same flat, disinterested voice, “It

was true what I told you about Douglas. The little rat turned on me and tried to blackmail me

and made me buy the Dream Skip. Janet’s maid blackmailed me, too. She knew Janet hadn’t

died. Then you came along. I thought if I told you some of the story it might scare Douglas

off, but it didn’t. He wanted to kill you, but I wouldn’t let him. It was my idea you should go

to the sanatorium. I didn’t think you would get Janet away. As soon as I found out where she

was I got Sherrill’s men to bring her here.”

“Was it your idea to shoot Nurse Freedlander’s father?”

She made a little grimace of disgust.

“What else could I do? If he told you she had a bad heart I knew you would guess what had

happened. I got in a panic. I thought if we could silence him and get her papers from the

police we might be able to carry on. But it does seem rather hopeless.”

“Janet’s here then?”

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She shrugged.

“Yes, she’s here.”

“And you’re trying to make up your mind what to do with her?”

“Yes.”

“Any ideas?”

“Perhaps.”

I finished my drink. I needed it.

“You shot Sherrill, didn’t you, and set fire to the ship?”

“You have found out a lot.”

“Didn’t you?”

“Oh, yes. I knew he would let me down if the police caught him. He was a nuisance,

anyway. It was quite fun to set fire to the ship. I’ve always hated it. Did it burn well?”

I said it burned very well.

We sat for some moments looking at each other.

“I’m wondering about you,” she said suddenly. “Couldn’t we team up together? It seems so

senseless to give all that money to a lot of stuffy old scientists. There must be nearly two

million left.”

“How should we team up?”

She bit her thumb while she thought about how we should team up.

“You see, she’s my sister. I can’t keep her here for long. If they find out she’s alive I shall