Death Comes to Cambers (39 page)

“Too bad,” murmured Chris, more sympathetically than believingly. To Cora, Chris added: “I don't know when I shall be able to pay back that couple of thou.”

Cora took not the least notice of this remark. She might not have heard, and yet they all felt in her a kind of hidden heat of attention, as though no word was spoken but was fuel to some secret fire in her. Chris's remark had reference to a sum of £2,000 Ronnie Owen had lent to him in a mood of unusual benevolence, affluence, and less unusual intoxication. That, of course, had been before the crash, and Bobby remembered the occasion well, for he had chanced that night to be in his cousins' company; had had made to himself, but had not accepted, similar generous offers; and had admired a fur coat in ocelot skin Ronnie had happened to see in a shop window, taken a fancy to, and bought then and there for Cora. She had been less grateful in that she had already two fur coats, and did not care for ocelot fur or consider that it suited her. The loan to Chris had been for the purpose of buying out an unsatisfactory partner in the antique business and for extending it, and the windfall which had permitted Ronnie to display such all-round generosity had been the result of a highly successful speculation in gold-mine shares, undertaken on the strength of information passed on by Dick Norris that it was commonly said he had failed to act on himself since he had not believed it reliable – otherwise he would not have passed it on but kept it to himself, was the unkind comment generally added when the story was told. By an added irony of fate, it was only this lucky hit, resulting in such unusual affluence – for the £2,000 lent to Chris had been a comparatively small part of the gain – that had put Ronnie in a position to propose to Cora. Chris said to her now:

“No news yet of Ronnie, I suppose?”

“Yes,” she answered. “I believe he's been murdered.”