CHAPTER 21-2

 

 

　　Bess Sedgwick said:

　　"Was it in Italy?"

　　"Yes," said Elvira.

　　Father said: "That‘s where you’ve been at school, isn‘t it, or a finishing place or whatever they call it nowadays?"

　　"Yes. I was at Contessa Martinelli’s. There were about eighteen or twenty of us."

　　"And you thought that somebody tried to kill you.How was that?"

　　"Well, a big box of chocolates and sweets andthings came for me. There was a card with it written in Italian in a flowery hand. Thesort of thing they say, you know, ‘To the bellissimaSignorina.’ Something like that. And my friends and I –well – we laughed about it a bit, andwondered who‘d send it."

　　"Did it come by post?"

　　"No. No, it couldn’thave come by post. It was just there in my room. Someone must have put it there."

　　"I see. Bribed one of the servants, I suppose. Iam to take it that you didn‘t let the Contessa whoever-it-wasin on this?"

　　A faint smile appeared on Elvira’s face. "No. No. We certainly didn‘t. Anyway we opened the box and they were lovely chocolates. Different kinds,you know, but there were some violet creams. That’s the sortof chocolate that has a crystallised violet on top. My favourite. So of course I ate oneor two of those first. And then afterwards, in the night, I felt terribly ill. I didn‘t think it was the chocolates, I just thought it was something perhaps that I’d eaten at dinner."

　　"Anybody else ill?"

　　"No. Only me. Well, I was very sick and all thatbut, I felt all right by the end of the next day. Then a day or two later I ate another ofthe same chocolate, and the same thing happened. So I talked to Bridget about it. Bridgetwas my special friend. And we looked at the chocolates, and we found that the violetcreams had got a sort of hole in the bottom that had been filled up again, so we thoughtthat someone had put some poison in and they‘d only put it inthe violet creams s that I would be the one who ate them."

　　"Nobody else was ill?"

　　"No."

　　"So presumably nobody else ate the violet creams?"

　　"No. I don’t thinkthey could have. You see, it was my present and they knew I liked the violet ones, so they‘d leave them for me."

　　"The chap took a risk, whoever he was," said Father. "The whole place might have beenpoisoned."

　　"It’s absurd,"said Lady Sedgwick sharply. "Utterlyabsurd! I never heard of anything so crude."

　　Chief-Inspector Davy made a slight gesture with hishand. "Please," he said, then hewent on to Elvira: "Now I find that very interesting, MissBlake. And you still didn‘t tell the Contessa?"

　　"Oh no, we didn’t. She‘d have made a terrible fuss."

　　"What did you do with the chocolates?"

　　"We threw them away," saidElvira. "They were lovely chocolates," she added, with a tone of slight grief.

　　"You didn’t try andfind out who sent them?"

　　Elvira looked embarrassed.

　　"Well, you see, I thought it might have beenGuido."

　　"Yes?" saidChief-Inspector Davy, cheerfully. "And who is Guido?"

　　"Oh, Guido…” Elvirapaused. She looked at her mother.

　　"Don‘t be stupid,"said Bess Sedgwick. "Tell Chief-InspectorDavy about Guido, whoever he is. Every girl of your age has a Guido in her life. You methim out there, I suppose?"

　　"Yes. When we were taken to the opera. He spoke tome there. He was nice. Very attractive. I used to see him sometimes when we went toclasses. He used to pass me notes."

　　"And I suppose," saidBess Sedgwick, "that you told a lot of lies, and made planswith some friends and you managed to get out and meet him? Is that it?"

　　Elvira looked relieved by this short cut toconfession. "Sometimes Guido managed to –”

　　"What was Guido’sother name?"

　　"I don‘t know,"said Elvira. "He never told me."

　　Chief-Inspector Davy smiled at her.

　　"You mean you’re notgoing to tell? Never mind. I dare say we‘ll be able to findout quite all right without your help, if it should really matter. But why should youthink that this young man who was presumably fond of you, should want to kill you?"

　　"Oh, because he used to threaten things like that.I mean, we used to have rows now and then. He’d bring some ofhis friends with him, and I‘d pretend to like them better thanhim, and then he’d get very, very wild and angry. He said I‘d better be careful what I did. I couldn’t givehim up just like that! That if I wasn‘t faithful to him he’d kill me! I just thought he was being melodramatic and theatrical."Elvira smiled suddenly and unexpectedly. "Butit was all rather fun. I didn‘t think it was real or serious."

　　"Well," saidChief-Inspector Davy, "I don’tthink it does seem very likely that a young man such as you describe would really poisonchocolates and send them to you."

"Well, I don‘t thinkso really either," said Elvira, "butit must have been him because I can’t see that there‘s anyone else. It worried me. And then, when I came back here, I got a note –”She stopped.