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making a Will in his favour -but Mrs Llewellyn-Smythe was not that kind of woman."
"What about the forgery? I still don't understand that. What was the point of it all?"
"It was confusing at first. Too much forgery, one might say. But if one considered it, the purpose of it
was clear. You had only to consider what actually happened.
"Mrs Llewellyn-Smythe's fortune all went to Rowena Drake. The codicil produced was so obviously
forged that any lawyer would spot it. It would be contested, and the evidence of experts would result in
its being upset, and the original Will would stand. As Rowena Drake's husband had recently died she
would inherit everything."
"But what about the codicil that the cleaning woman witnessed?"
"My surmise is that Mrs Llewellyn-Smythe discovered that Michael Garfield and Rowena Drake were
having an affair - probably before her husband died. In her anger Mrs Llewellyn-Smythe made a codicil
to her Will leaving everything to her au pair girl. Probably the girl told Michael about this - she was
hoping to marry him."
"I thought it was young Ferrier?"
"That was a plausible tale told me by Michael. There was no confirmation of it."
"Then if he knew there was a real codicil why didn't he marry Olga and get hold of the money that
way?"
"Because he doubted whether she really would get the money. There is such a thing as undue influence.
Mrs Llewellyn-Smythe was an elderly woman and a sick woman also. All her preceding Wills had been
in favour of her own kith and kin - good sensible Wills such as law courts approve of. This girl from
foreign parts had been known to her only a year - and had no kind of claim upon her. That codicil even
though genuine could have been upset. Besides, I doubt if Olga could have put through the purchase of
a Greek island - or would even have been willing to do so. She had no influential friends, or contacts in
business circles. She was attracted to Michael, but she looked upon him as a good prospect
matrimonially, who would enable her to live in England - which is what she wanted to do."
"And Rowena Drake?"
"She was infatuated. Her husband had been for many years a crippled invalid. She was middle-aged but
she was a passionate woman, and into her orbit came a young man of unusual beauty. Women fell for
him easily - but he wanted - not the beauty of women - but the exercise of his own creative urge to make
beauty. For that he wanted money - a lot of money. As for love - he loved only himself. He was
Narcissus. There is an old French song I heard many years ago -" He hummed softly.
"Regarde, Narcisse Regarde, dans l'eau... Regarde, Narcisse, que tu es beau II n'y au monde Que la
Beaute Etlajeunesse, Helas! Etlajeunesse... Regarde, Narcisse Regarde dans l'eau..."
"I can't believe -1 simply can't believe that anyone would do murder just to make a garden on a Greek
island," said Mrs Oliver unbelievingly.
"Can't you? Can't you visualise how he held it in his mind? Bare rock, perhaps, but so shaped as to hold
possibilities. Earth, cargoes of fertile earth to clothe the bare bones of the rocks - and then plants, seeds,
shrubs, trees. Perhaps he read in the paper of a shipping millionaire who had created an island garden
for the woman he loved. And so it came to him - he would make a garden, not for a woman, but - for
himself."
"It still seems to me quite mad."
"Yes. That happens. I doubt if he even thought of his motive as sordid. He thought of it only as
necessary for the creation of more beauty. He'd gone mad on creation. The beauty of the Quarry Wood,
the beauty of other gardens he'd laid out and made - and now he envisaged even more - a whole island
of beauty. And there was Rowena Drake, infatuated with him. What did she mean to him but the source
of money with which he could create beauty. Yes - he had become mad, perhaps. Whom the gods
destroy, they first drive mad."
"He really wanted his island so much? Even with Rowena Drake tied round his neck as well? Bossing
him the whole time?"
"Accidents can happen. I think one might possibly have happened to Mrs Drake in due course."
"One more murder?"
"Yes. It started simply. Olga had to be removed because she knew about the codicil - and she was also to
be the scapegoat, branded as a forger. Mrs Llewellyn-Smythe had hidden the original document, so I [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]