When the lights came on she realized she was in a strange bedroom, probably belonging to one of the maids. In a daze of happiness, she re-did her face and staggered downstairs. Steve loved her! She wasn’t looking forward to breaking it off with Rupert, but it was no good marrying him if she really loved Steve.
She felt so free, she wanted to swing from the chandeliers.
Downstairs she found everyone standing round Chrissie, who was in hysterics.
‘It’s gone!’ she screamed. ‘It’s gone!’
‘What’s gone?’ said Lazlo sharply. ‘Pull yourself together!’
‘The Evening Star. I was upstairs. Someone put their hands round my neck and the next moment the diamond was gone. Oh! What will Mummy say?’
Bust a gut, thought Bella, and winked at Steve. But he didn’t smile. He looked the picture of concern.
‘Don’t panic. I guess someone’s playing a joke.’
‘Bloody silly joke, whoever’s playing it!’ snapped Lazlo.
‘I’m going to call the police,’ said Chrissie.
‘Don’t be crazy,’ said Lazlo. ‘Come on, let’s look for it.’
But although they searched all the passages and rooms, no-one could find any trace of the stone.
Lazlo looked at his watch. ‘I’ve got to catch that plane. I must go. I’ll ring you tomorrow,’ he said, as he kissed Chrissie. ‘And whatever you do, don’t get the police in.’
And that, thought Bella, looking at Lazlo’s broad departing back, is the last I’ll ever see of that snake.
‘I’m going to call Aunt Constance,’ said Chrissie, going upstairs. But when she came back, ten minutes later, her eyes were glittering. ‘I’ve rung the police,’ she said defiantly. ‘They’ll be round any moment.’
Rupert frowned. ‘That’s a bit extreme, isn’t it?’
Angora giggled. ‘How exciting,’ she said, starting to re-paint her lips a brilliant scarlet. ‘Do you think they’ll search me?’
‘Sure to,’ said Steve, rumpling her hair.
They smiled into each other’s eyes.
Can’t he let up even now, thought Bella; then she relented. Let him have his little game of taunting her; he’d be hers as soon as she broke it off with Rupert.
All the same, she felt twitchy. She hated the police. She hoped they wouldn’t ask too many awkward questions. If they found out about her background, they might suspect her. Thank goodness she’d been with Steve all the time, and had a proper alibi.
When the police arrived, Chrissie talked to them first, then Steve, who stayed in there a long time, then Angora, Rupert, Lazlo’s various racing cronies and, finally, Bella.
The CID man had a smooth, pink, deceptively homely face. After a few enquiries, he said politely, ‘Your real name’s Mabel Figge, isn’t it, Miss Parkinson?’
She caught her breath. ‘Yes – yes, that’s right.’
‘And your father died in prison, doing time for murder and robbery.’
‘Yes.’ She clasped her hands together to stop them from shaking.
After a few more questions it was quite obvious they knew all the appalling details of her past.
Who could have told them? Steve? No. Steve loved her. It must have been Angora or Chrissie, probably clued up by Lazlo.
‘Where were you when the theft took place?’
Now she was on safe ground. ‘I went up the main staircase and turned left towards the servants’ quarters, and slipped into a room along that passage. Mr Benedict followed me.’ She blushed under the detective’s scrutiny. ‘We – er – spent the rest of the time together.’
‘That’s odd. Mr Benedict says he was with Miss Fairfax, all the time, and she bears this out.’
Bella gave a gasp of horror. ‘He’s lying! He was with me.’
‘He claims he was with Miss Fairfax in Miss Fairfax’s bedroom. There was a lot of Miss Fairfax’s lipstick on the shirt he was wearing.’
‘It must be mine!’
‘You don’t wear bright scarlet lipstick, Miss Parkinson.’
‘He’s lying!’ her voice rose.
‘I’ve also got to warn you Miss Henriques claims that the person who put their hands round her neck and stole the diamond wore bracelets that jangled.’ He looked at the three heavy gold rings on Bella’s wrist.
‘But that’s absurd! Other people were wearing bracelets.’
‘Not ones that jangled.’
‘She’s trying to frame me,’ Bella whispered. ‘She’s madly in love with Rupert and he’s engaged to me. They all hate me! They’d kill me rather than let me marry their darling Rupert. Oh, God!’ She clasped her clenched fists to her mouth. She was badly out of control, on the verge of tears.
The pink-faced detective looked at her. Then, to her amazement, he said, ‘All right, Miss Parkinson, you can go now.’
It was two o’clock in the morning, but she still made Rupert drive her straight back to London. She couldn’t bear another moment under that roof. She didn’t know what Steve was up to, but she knew the only way to get the Furies off her back was to break it off with Rupert.
As they were driving down the Bayswater Road, she took a deep breath and said, ‘I’m sorry, Rupert. I know this sounds totally ridiculous and insane, but I can’t marry you. I really can’t. I’m afraid I’m in love with someone else.’
She had no idea how he took this because she was staring down at her hands.
‘How long have you known this other chap?’
‘Ages – but, well, he only came back into my life about a fortnight ago – the night, in fact, I was late for dinner, the first time I met your parents, I was with him.’
‘And you still felt it was all right to get engaged to me?’
‘I thought what I felt for you was the real thing, and that I was just infatuated by him, but now I know I can’t live without him. I don’t like him very much, but it’s driving me out of my mind! I’m sorry, darling, I’ve not been thinking of you at all. I know I’ve been a bitch. I just thought I might grow to love you . . .’ Her voice ran out in a thin line of drivel.
The car slowed down outside her flat. The pale green trees were lit up by the street lamps. Rupert looked quite calm, but he was as white as a sheet.
‘We’d better talk about it upstairs.’
Outside Bella’s flat, however, stood two men. ‘Miss Parkinson?’ said one of them.
‘Yes!’ snapped Bella. ‘What do you want?’
‘We’re police officers, sir. We have a warrant to search Miss Parkinson’s luggage.’
‘Don’t be bloody stupid!’ said Rupert.
‘It’s all right,’ said Bella. ‘There’s nothing in there. You’re quite welcome to search it.’
But in the pocket of the smaller suitcase, wrapped in one of Bella’s petticoats, they discovered the Evening Star.
‘Someone put it there!’ Bella screamed. ‘I’ve been framed! I didn’t take it!’
‘I’m sorry, Miss Parkinson,’ said the policeman imperturbably. ‘I’m afraid we’ll have to take you into custody.’
Chapter Thirteen
Bella, when she looked back later, could recall very little about her spell in prison. She remembered Rupert making the most appalling scene when the police arrested her and, later, beating her fists against the door of her cell. She remembered appearing in court the following morning, nearly fainting with horror when the magistrate refused her bail, and finally being gripped by hysterical panic at finding herself locked in a cell in Holloway.
One of the wardresses had brought her some revolting stew, and a sardonic doctor with rimless glasses had asked her endless questions about herself. Afterwards, she lay on a hard, narrow bed trying to control her mounting desperation. Why had Steve denied being with her during the murder game? Who had betrayed her to the police? Was it Chrissie, Angora or Steve? Who had planted the diamond in her suitcase? Would the papers get all the details of her past? If they did, her career was finished. At intervals, the thought of Lazlo rose, black and churning, choking her like a wave of nausea. He’s behind this, she thought, he’s the one who cooked my goose.
I’m innocent, she said over and over again but, in spite of the stifling heat in the cell, she couldn’t stop shivering.
Then a key turned in the door.
‘The Prison Governor wants to see you,’ said the wardress.
The Prison Governor had a kind, sheep-like face. She looked embarrassed. For a minute she played with a paper knife.
Then she said, ‘I’m afraid there’s been a mistake. The evidence was very conclusive against you, but the police have now discovered you’ve been framed. The Henriques family have withdrawn all charges.
‘We’re very sorry for all the worry this has caused you,’ said the Prison Governor, flashing her big teeth. ‘But of course, all the papers will print the fact that you’re innocent. It’ll be wonderful publicity.’
Bella didn’t smile back.
‘Why wasn’t I allowed bail?’
‘There have been several big diamond raids in the past few weeks. Police suspect the same gang at work. For some reason they felt you were mixed up in it.’
‘Have they arrested anyone else?’
‘Not yet.’
Suddenly she couldn’t stand the awful sheep-like face any longer.
‘I want to get out of here – at once.’
‘Of course. There’s a car waiting to take you to the court, where you’ll be released immediately.’
When she came out of court an hour later and felt the hot sun on her face, she threw back her head and took a deep breath. Then a group of reporters surged forward and started to bombard her with questions. Oh God! She hadn’t thought they’d get on to the story so fast. Suddenly, a tall man in dark glasses grabbed her arm and pulled her down the steps into a waiting car. It was only after he’d driven off, leaving the reporters gaping, that she realized it was Lazlo Henriques.
‘What the hell are you doing here?’ she stormed. ‘You’re the last person I want to see. I thought you were in Zurich.’
‘I was. Rupert rang me in hysterics this morning, begging me to come back and spring you from prison. The things I do for my family.’
‘It was your rotten family who got me shut up in the first place.’
She was overcome by a terrible fit of shaking. Lazlo got out a packet of cigarettes, lit one, and handed it to her.
‘Thanks,’ she said, trying to get a grip on herself. ‘Where’s Rupert?’
‘Gone to Zurich. Carrying on the deal I started. I thought it better if he was out of the way for a bit.’
‘Just in case I might have second thoughts about getting re-engaged to him.’
Lazlo grinned. ‘How perceptive you are, my dear.’
‘Was it splashed all over the papers? My arrest?’
‘It was too late for the dailies. But the evenings lead on it, with lots of pictures. By the final editions they’ll be leading on your release. It’ll look like a publicity stunt.’
‘That’s what the Prison Governor said.’
She started to relax. London in the blue haze of the late afternoon had never looked so lovely.
‘Where are we going?’ she asked.
‘To my flat.’
‘I want to go home.’
‘Don’t be silly. Once the big Press boys get on to this, they’ll never leave you alone.’
‘How did you manage to spring me, anyway?’
‘Pulled a few strings, leaned on a few people.’
‘I’d forgotten you were so influential. Who planted the diamond in my case?’
‘I’ll tell you the whole story when we get home.’
Lazlo’s flat was a surprise. She had expected it to be as ugly and impersonal as the Henriques’ London house. But it was sybaritic in the extreme, with grey silk walls, long fur rugs on the ground and brilliant scarlet curtains. Thousands of books and paintings covered the walls. Three large cats wandered up to welcome them.
Lazlo went straight to the drinks tray and poured Bella a vast brandy.
‘Get that inside you.’
‘I’m sorry, I’m still a bit stunned,’ Bella said, taking the glass. ‘Would you mind awfully if I had a bath?’
She soaked in emerald green scented water for a long time, and scrubbed and scrubbed herself to get every speck of prison dirt off. Later she pinched some of Lazlo’s scent from the row of bottles near the bath. Odd that he used Black Opal like Steve.
She put on a dark green towelling dressing gown that was hanging on the back of the door. In the kitchen she found Lazlo eating smoked salmon sandwiches and reading his mail.
‘I’ve just weighed myself,’ she said. ‘I’ve lost five pounds in the last two days.’
Lazlo handed her the plate of sandwiches.
‘Well, you’d better eat something. I’ll get you another drink.’
‘I’m not hungry,’ she said. Then, realizing suddenly that she was ravenous, she wolfed the lot. The brandy was giving her heartburn, but a mild euphoria stole down inside her. She sat down on the sofa. A large ginger cat jumped on to her knee, and started purring and kneading her with his paws.