Dangerous Inheritance (24 page)

They all stood up and, with de Richleau leading, walked out into the hall. The front door was still ajar, as Douglas had left it. He drew it open. With sudden shock it impinged on his mind that de Richleau's statement a moment before might be counted among ‘
famous last words
'.

Outside on the verandah Lalita was standing. The moonlight glinted on the thick lenses of his spectacles and in his hand he held a heavy automatic.

As Douglas pulled the door open he had stepped aside for the Duke, and Simon was only a pace behind de Richleau, so the three of them were bunched together. Lalita stood pointing the gun at them from about six feet away; too far off for there to be any hope of rushing him. His slack mouth broke into a grin and he said:

‘I catch you nicely. Recognising Mr. Rajapakse's car tell me that he, and perhaps others, come to rescue the old gentlemans. How lucky that I come back with new plan regarding him. I have only to wait here for you come out. Hands up, all of you, and inside. Be quick.'

As he spoke, he thrust forward his pistol. Under the threat they retreated to the middle of the hall. Following them he pushed-to the door behind him, then snapped, ‘Now, form line. Turn round. Backs towards me.'

When they had obeyed him he jabbed his weapon against de Richleau's spine. ‘You move, or your friends, and I shoot.' With his left hand he quickly frisked the Duke, and from the way he did so it was clear that since he had become a Security Officer he knew his business. While repeating the procedure with the other two, he removed Douglas's revolver from Simon's trouser top and thrust its barrel inside the belt of his uniform tunic.

His next orders were, ‘Advance now to curtains. Turn to face me. Hands you may put down.' When they had obeyed him he walked forward until he was within two paces of them, so that
he could look into the sitting room. Seeing that it was empty he said:

‘My father? You catch him off guard, eh? Then tie him up. Where you put him?'

It was de Richleau who replied, ‘You will recall that it was his intention to put me in the back room with the cobra.'

Lalita's eyes narrowed. He was making no admission before witnesses, so he said cautiously, ‘This is strange statement you make.'

‘Well,' said the Duke, ‘he did. But instead of biting me it bit him.'

‘Aiee!' Lalita's mouth dropped open and from it there issued a strange wail of mingled grief and shock. His muscles tautened as though he had been hit, then suddenly relaxed, causing the hand that held the heavy automatic to droop. Seeing that the pistol now pointed toward the floor both Douglas and Simon seized their chance. Before Lalita had time to recover they simultaneously threw themselves upon him.

The ensuing struggle was so brief that it was over in a matter of seconds. Douglas flung his arms about Lalita. Simon grabbed his gun hand, gave his wrist a sharp twist and tore the weapon from him. Thrusting him against the wall, Douglas then recovered his own revolver and, seeing that Simon had Lalita covered, stuck it back in his trouser band.

De Richleau had taken a few steps towards the door. Turning, he said to Lalita, ‘It is your turn now to listen while we talk to you. Get over there with your back to the curtain.'

‘My father!' gasped Lalita, still panting from the recent scrimmage, as he moved over. ‘Oh, what have you do? Is he… is he dead?'

The Duke nodded. ‘As he was bitten at least half an hour ago he must certainly be beyond aid by now. But if you wish to make sure we will put you in there with him.'

‘No! Please! No; no!' Lalita wailed. ‘I meant no harm. I do nothings against you. I refuse help my father. Leave house. You know it.'

‘Yes. You ratted on your charming parent. But only to save your own skin. It was you who lured me from the Galle Face.'

Lalita rallied suddenly. ‘You cannot prove. I make no admissions I was ever here.'

‘Naturally.' A cynical smile twitched de Richleau's lips. ‘And you were very wise to have backed out of assisting your father to murder me. Had you remained and done so, instead of him tripping up and falling on the cobra it might have been you who met with such a fatal accident. But you have been very foolish to return. Although it might be difficult to trace the telephone call you made to me and identify you with the Indian who picked me up, if I liked to charge you with having abducted me, both Mr. Aron and Mr. Rajapakse can now swear to it that they found me in this house, and that later you arrived and held the three of us up with your pistol.'

‘I should say it mus' be my father who telephone. That I know nothings of it. That I come to see him, find you here and thought you was burglars.'

‘Very clever. But I still feel I could make a case that you would find difficult to answer. However, it is your good fortune that I am averse to involving myself in a criminal action which might lead to my being detained in Ceylon for some time as the principal witness. So we will draw a veil over this night's work. It remains only for you to throw a hearty meal to the cobra then, when it is sleeping it off, remove your father's body, tell your neighbours that his pet snake bit him and make arrangements for his funeral.'

Lalita nodded dully. ‘Yes, that I mus' do. For he is dead, dead! To realise is hard yet.' For a moment he remained silent. Then suddenly his dark eyes behind the heavy spectacles lit up and he gave a pale smile. ‘But he made you sign contract. I inherit. Olenevka is now mine.'

‘Don't be too certain. Where is your copy of the contract?'

‘In safe place.' Lalita's smile deepened. ‘You see my father give me, to take away. I take to my office and put in safe. Contract already witness by two mens very reliable to me. All in order. No use you demanding back. I claim deeds; firm of Rajapakse have to give.'

‘To that I can see no objection,' remarked Douglas tartly, ‘or what you have to look so pleased about. Your vile plot was
aimed at getting both Olenevka and keeping the jewels. Instead you are having to give up the jewels and you have lost your father.'

‘Aiee!' The strange wail came again from Lalita. For a moment his features were contorted with hate and rage, then he cried, ‘My father! Yes! That he is dead, the shock drives all sense from my head. The contract was never meant to be fulfil both ways. The stones were bait only. Shown only so that later people believe we give them you as paying for Olenevka, but they worth more; much more.'

Simon tittered into his hand. ‘Case of the trickster tricked, isn't it?'

‘You think very funny,' snarled Lalita. ‘But I not sit down for this. Stones are property of d'Azavedos. Now myself. You leave house with them and I charge you with theft.'

De Richleau shook his head. ‘They are not the property of the d'Azavedos, and they never have been. They are the stones that should have been handed over to my representative after a verdict was given against your father in the Court of Appeal. The very fact of your father possessing such a hoard shows the story of their having been looted at the time your workshop was burned out to be a pack of lies. In fact he admitted that tonight and boasted to me of the clever trick he had played in order to retain them.'

‘And why not?' Lalita sneered. ‘It pleased him, I guess, to have last laugh at you; although idea of using riots for purpose of keeping our fortune in stones was mine.'

Actually, Ukwatte had made no mention of the fire and the Duke's saying he had was just a clever bluff by which he had hoped to secure an admission from Lalita. And it had come off. Glancing at his friends he said, ‘You see. He admits that the stones are my property.'

Lalita gave a quick shrug. ‘No matter. What has been said here makes nothings different. Word of you and your friends against mine; no proof. No proof whatevers. As for contract I not use now. I tear up. Olenevka I lose; but stones of much greater value I keep.' The case showed as a large oblong bulge at the left side of the Duke's overcoat. Pointing to it, Lalita
added, ‘You have stones there. Give me back. Then you all go and much riddance'.

‘No,' replied de Richleau. ‘I'm keeping them as a small remuneration for their having very nearly cost me my life.'

Again Lalita shrugged. ‘Then you behave very foolish and ask for much trouble. How you get stones, eh? Not as payment for mine. Contract I scrap. Come. You hand over or I go to police. Charge you as thief and you go to prison.'

‘Not so fast,' Simon put in. ‘There's the other copy of the contract. The one that's with the jewels. Tear yours up if you like; but you can't wriggle out of the deal that way. His Grace's copy is all that's needed to prove it took place.'

For a moment Lalita appeared to be nonplussed; then his dark face took on a sly look. ‘Witnesses who sign blanks are my men; very reliable. You produce contract, I say witnesses who are they? Describe please. Duke has never seen, so cannot. Then I say, he get hold of these men's names and for bad ends forge them. Police send for men, very reliable. They say as I tell them. These writing very like ours, but not. Never seen contract, never seen Duke. These forgeries.'

Douglas gave de Richleau an unhappy look. ‘I'm afraid we are up against it, sir. I don't doubt he's got a score of men under him who'd swear to anything he told them to. We know the jewels are yours by rights, but we can't possibly prove it; so if you go off with them——'

‘Neither can he prove that I took them,' the Duke cut in sharply. ‘Nor that any of us have ever been here tonight. He dare not go to the police at all without risking the part he played in the conspiracy to murder me coming to light. No, I have the jewels and I mean to keep them.'

Turning to Lalita, he added:

‘Moreover, should you attempt to make use of the contract your father extorted from me, I warn you I shall contest it; and I've good reason to believe that the case will go in my favour. You may count yourself lucky that I'm not bringing a charge against you for kidnapping. And now, since there is nothing else to discuss, we will be going.'

Simon had been holding Lalita's automatic at the ready ever
since he had secured it. Now, he thrust it into his trouser top and, together with the Duke and Douglas, turned towards the front door.

At that moment a woman's voice came from behind them, ‘One moment. I've got you covered. Stay where you are and put hands up.'

Taken entirely by surprise, all three of them halted in their tracks as though momentarily frozen. Then they slowly raised their hands and looked over their shoulders. The velvet curtains near which Lalita was standing had parted and between them stood a tall, good-looking woman in a blue and gold sari. She was pointing a small, nickel-plated revolver at them. De Richleau recognised her immediately as the coffee-coloured beauty with the widely spaced eyes who, when he had been up at Olenevka, had played the part of housekeeper, and whom he had believed to be Ukwatte's mistress—Mirabelle de Mendoza.

She spoke swiftly to Lalita, ‘Get their guns. They snatch your gun so quick, too late for me to come to your help then. And after, I not risk to show myself while the Jewish one had your own pistol pointing at you. But now we've got them; and I have much to tell you.'

Lalita gave a cry of triumph. ‘Mirabelle! Oh, blessings! Now I have witness that they try to rob me. One moment only while I get the stones back; also my pistol.

‘O.K.,
ma belle
!' he went on gleefully, as he stepped forward, relieved Douglas of his revolver and stuck it in his belt. Then he took his own automatic from Simon and, keeping it in his right hand, pulled the jewel case out of de Richleau's pocket with the other. Glancing at Mirabelle, he said, ‘What now? What have you to tell me?'

Instead of answering him she addressed the others. ‘You may put your hands down now. Turn round and all go into sitting room. I have been standing behind this curtain long time, and I wish to sit down.'

As they obeyed her and filed past Lalita into the room, de Richleau gave her an uneasy glance. He had a shrewd suspicion about what she might be going to tell Lalita and, if he were right, a new and extremely dangerous situation would result.
One of Simon's favourite phrases came into his mind: ‘We're going to be in a muddle; a really nasty muddle.'

Lalita, gesturing with his automatic, lined up his captives at the far end of the room. With the slinky walk that de Richleau well remembered, the lady swayed gracefully to the armchair in which Simon had found the Duke, sat down and relaxed. As Lalita had them covered, she laid her small revolver down on the lower shelf of the small table on which stood the telephone, then helped herself to a cigarette from a box that also stood on it. After taking a few puffs she said in a lazy voice:

‘These people tell you lies, Lalita. Poor Ukwatte did not die through accident. He told me to go to bed soon after ten o'clock, and stay there. As always, I obey him. I ask no questions and soon I am asleep. My room, you know, is above that in which Ukwatte have put his cobra. Presently I awake. I hear sounds of breaking in below me. I think, whatever Ukwatte intend to do this is not part of it. I get up, put on my sari, get my little gun from the drawer and come downstairs to find out what happens.

‘From behind the curtain I hear voices, but not that of Ukwatte. Also they speak in English. I strain the ears to listen and I hear what they say. I learn with shock that Ukwatte has been bitten by the cobra; that he is dead. I was, you know, quite fond of your father.'

Mirabelle paused a moment, then her rich lips parted in a smile and she went on, ‘Do not mistake me. I had not love for him as I have for you. But I am much upset. I listen then still more intently with hope to hear how this accident happens and why these men break into our house. They are talking of your father's death. The Sinhalese gentleman—it must have been him from sound of his voice—he wishes to call for the police. But the others would not let him. The old man—he is the great English Lord, you remember, who come to Olenevka—he said, “No, if the police come they will find out that I killed him.”'