My dear, she said, thank goodness youre still here. One needs a man so badly.
She dropped my hands, crossed to a high-backed chair, altered its position a little, glanced at herself in a mirror, then, picking up a small Battersea enamel box from a table, she stood pensively opening and shutting it.
It was an attractive pose.
Sophia put her head in at the door and said in an admonitory whisper, Gaitskill!
I know, said Magda.
A few moments later Sophia entered the room, accompanied by a small elderly man, and Magda put down her enamel box and came forward to meet him.
Good morning, Mrs Philip. Im on my way upstairs. It seems theres some misunderstanding about the will. Your husband wrote to me with the impression that the will was in my keeping. I understood from Mr Leonides himself that it was at his vault. You dont know anything about it, I suppose?
About poor Sweeties will? Magda opened astonished eyes. No, of course not. Dont tell me that wicked woman upstairs has destroyed it?
Now, Mrs Philiphe shook an admonitory finger at herno wild surmises. Its just a question of where your father-in-law kept it.
But he sent it to yousurely he didafter signing it. He actually told us he had.
The police, I understand, have been through Mr Leonides private papers, said Mr Gaitskill. Ill just have a word with Chief Inspector Taverner.
He left the room.
Darling, cried Magda. She has destroyed it. I know Im right.
Nonsense, Mother, she wouldnt do a stupid thing like that.
It wouldnt be stupid at all. If theres no will shell get everything.
Sshheres Gaitskill back again.
The lawyer re-entered the room. Chief Inspector Taverner was with him and behind Taverner came Philip.
I understood from Mr Leonides, Gaitskill was saying, that he had placed his will with the bank for safe keeping. Taverner shook his head.
Ive been in communication with the bank. They have no private papers belonging to Mr Leonides beyond certain securities which they held for him.
Philip said:
I wonder if Rogeror Aunt Edith Perhaps, Sophia, youd ask them to come down here.
But Roger Leonides, summoned with the others to the conclave, could give no assistance.
But its nonsenseabsolute nonsense, he declared. Father signed the will and said distinctly that he was posting it to Mr Gaitskill on the following day.
If my memory serves me, said Mr Gaitskill, leaning back and half-closing his eyes, it was on November 2th of last year that I forwarded a draft drawn [88]up according to Mr Leonides instructions. He approved the draft, returned it to me, and in due course I sent him the will for signature. After a lapse of a week, I ventured to remind him that I had not yet received the will duly signed and attested, and asking him if there was anything he wished altered. He replied that he was perfectly satisfied, and added that after signing the will he had sent it to his bank.
Thats quite right, said Roger eagerly. It was about the end of November last yearyou remember, Philip? Father had us all up one evening and read the will to us.
Taverner turned towards Philip Leonides.
That agrees with your recollection, Mr Leonides?
Yes, said Philip.
It was rather like the Voysey Inheritance, said Magda. She sighed pleasurably. I always think theres something so dramatic about a will.
Miss Sophia?
Yes, said Sophia. I remember perfectly.
And the provisions of that will? asked Taverner.
Mr Gaitskill was about to reply in his precise fa shion, but Roger Leonides got ahead of him.
It was a perfectly simple will. Electra and Joyce had died and their share of the settlements had returned to father. Joyces son, William, had been killed in action in Burma, and the money he left went to his father. Philip and I and the children were the only relatives left. Father explained that. He left fifty thousand pounds free of duty to Aunt Edith, a hundred thousand pounds free of duty to Brenda, this house to Brenda, or else a suitable house in London to be purchased for her, whichever she preferred. The residue to be divided into three portions, one to myself, one to Philip, the third to be divided between Sophia, Eustace, and Josephine, the portions of the last two to be held in trust until they should come of age. I think thats right, isnt it, Mr Gaitskill?
Those areroughly statedthe provisions of the document I drew up, agreed Mr Gaitskill, displaying some slight acerbity at not having been allowed to speak for himself.
Father read it out to us, said Roger. He asked if there was any comment we might like to make. Of course there was none.
Brenda made a comment, said Miss de Haviland.
Yes, said Magda with zest. She said she couldnt bear her darling old Aristide to talk about death. It gave her the creeps, she said. And after he was dead she didnt want any of the horrid money!
That, said Miss de Haviland, was a conventional protest, typical of her class.
It was a cruel and biting little remark. I realized suddenly how much Edith de Haviland disliked Brenda.
A very fair and reasonable disposal of his estate, said Mr Gaitskill.
And after reading it what happened? asked Inspector Taverner.
After reading it, said Roger, he signed it.
Taverner leaned forward.
Just how and when did he sign it?
Roger looked round at his wife in an appealing way. Clemency spoke in answer to that look. The rest of the family seemed content for her to do so.
You want to know exactly what took place?
If you please, Mrs Roger.
My father-in-law laid the will down on his desk and requested one of usRoger, I thinkto ring the bell. Roger did so. When Johnson came in answer to the bell, my father-in-law requested him to fetch Janet Wolmer, the parlourmaid. When they were both there, he signed the will and requested them to sign their own names beneath his signature.
The correct procedure, said Mr Gaitskill. A will must be signed by the testator in the presence of two witnesses who must affix their own signatures at the same time and place.
And after that? asked Taverner.
My father-in-law thanked them, and they went out. My father-in-law picked up the will, put it in a long envelope and mentioned that he would send it to Mr Gaitskill on the following day.
You all agree, said Inspector Taverner, looking round, that this is an accurate account of what happened?
There were murmurs of agreement.
The will was on the desk, you said. How near were any of you to that desk?
Not very near. Five or six yards, perhaps, would be the nearest.
When Mr Leonides read you the will was he himself sitting at the desk?
Yes.
Did he get up, or leave the desk, after reading the will and before signing it?
No.
Could the servants read the document when they signed their names?
No, said Clemency. My father-in-law placed a sheet of paper across the upper part of the document.
Quite properly, said Philip. The contents of the will were no business of the servants.
I see, said Taverner. At leastI dont see.
With a brisk movement he produced a long envelope and leaned forward to hand it to the lawyer.
Have a look at that, he said. And tell me what it is.
Mr Gaitskill drew a folded document out of the envelope. He looked at it with lively astonishment, turning it round and round in his hands.
This, he said, is somewhat surprising. I do not understand it at all. Where was this, if I may ask?
In the safe, amongst Mr Leonides other papers.
But what is it? demanded Roger. Whats all the fuss about?
This is the will I prepared for your fathers signature, RogerbutI cant understand it after what you have all saidit is not signed.
What? Well, I suppose it is just a draft.
No, said the lawyer. Mr Leonides returned me the original draft. I then drew up the willthis will, he tapped it with his fingerand sent it to him for signature. According to your evidence he signed the will in front of you alland two witnesses also appended their signatures and yet this will is unsigned.
But thats impossible, exclaimed Philip Leonides, speaking with more animation than I had yet heard from him.
Taverner asked: How good was your fathers eyesight?
He suffered from glaucoma[89]. He used strong glasses, of course, for reading.
He had those glasses on that evening?
Certainly. He didnt take his glasses off until after he had signed. I think I am right.
Quite right, said Clemency.
And nobodyyou are all sure of thatwent near the desk before the signing of the will?
I wonder now, said Magda, screwing up her eyes. If one could only visualize it all again.
Nobody went near the desk, said Sophia. And grandfather sat at it all the time.
The desk was in the position it is now? It was not near a door, or a window, or any drapery?
It was where it is now.
I am trying to see how a substitution of some kind could be effected, said Taverner. Some kind of substitution there must have been. Mr Leonides was under the impression that he was signing the document he had just read aloud.
Couldnt the signatures have been erased? Roger demanded.
No, Mr Leonides. Not without leaving signs of erasion. There is one other possibility. That this is not the document sent to Mr Leonides by Mr Gaitskill and which he signed in your presence.
On the contrary, said Mr Gaitskill. I could swear to this being the original document. There is a small flaw in the paperat the top left-hand cornerit resembles, by a stretch of fancy, an aeroplane. I noticed it at the time.
The family looked blankly at one another.
A most curious set of circumstances, said Mr Gaitskill. Quite without precedent in my experience.
The whole things impossible, said Roger. We were all there. It simply couldnt have happened.
Miss de Haviland gave a dry cough.
Never any good wasting breath saying something that has happened couldnt have happened, she remarked. Whats the position now? Thats what Id like to know.
Gaitskill immediately became the cautious lawyer.
The position will have to be examined very carefully, he said. This document, of course, revokes all former wills and testaments. There are a large number of witnesses who saw Mr Leonides sign what he certainly believed to be this will in perfectly good faith. Hum. Very interesting. Quite a little legal problem.