Unseemly End by Roderic Jeffries

Author:Roderic Jeffries [Jeffries, Roderic]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Press
Published: 2017-04-03T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

Alvarez returned to Ca Na Nadana and parked next to the open Seat, which had been left outside the garage. He rang the front-door bell and as he waited he turned round and stared at the field beyond the drive in which a crop of barley, grown under fig and almond trees, had very recently been harvested. Fifty years ago, he thought, all suitable land had been used to grow food and people had been poor and hungry: today, much of the best land had either been buried under concrete or turned into gardens and yet few people were poor and none needed to be hungry. How could any man understand life when it presented such a paradox?

The door was opened by Ana. His first emotion on seeing her was one of quiet compassion: Ana was so very plain when compared to Victoriana. But there was a ring on her engagement finger. Victoriana, beautiful and vivacious, longed for what she probably would never have: Ana, plain, dull, was happily content with the little she had. Another paradox?

She told him the señor was outside and showed him through to the pool patio. Erington lay sunbathing by the side of the pool and when he heard them he came to his feet. ‘Thanks a lot for coming here so promptly. Thing was, I reckoned you must be told as soon as possible: matter of fact, that old shark, Vives, thought the same … You’ll have a drink this time, won’t you?’ He walked round to the west-facing house patio and pressed the bell push by the side of the telephone extension socket. ‘We might as well sit down here, in the shade. When the sun gets this hot, I have to admit that even I can get too much of it.’

They sat at the glass-topped bamboo table. Erington produced a thin gold cigarette case which contained cigarettes with different coloured paper. ‘They’re all the same tobacco — just a bit of nonsense, really, but it’s quite amusing.’

Alvarez took a green cigarette. Ana came out, followed by Lulu, and Erington asked her to wheel out the drinks. As she returned inside, Lulu sniffed Alvarez’s trousers and after a thoughtful pause wagged her tail because she realized she knew him. He bent down and patted her: the moment he stopped, she waddled under the table to Erington, who lifted her on to his lap.

‘I saw Vives, as I mentioned over the phone,’ said Erington. ‘He told me … I still can’t believe it. But you must know something about the terms of the will or you wouldn’t have been so hot on my going to see him … She’s left everything to me. It’s … I just can’t get used to the fact.’

‘You had no idea, señor?’

‘Of course I didn’t,’ he answered sharply. ‘How could I have?’

‘There is a copy of the señora’s will in this house.’

‘There is? … How d’you find that out?’

‘It is in the desk in the study.’

‘In Dolly’s desk. Good God!’

‘Do you not have spare keys to her desk?’

‘I do not.

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