Bodies from the Library 5 by Tony Medawar

Author:Tony Medawar [Medawar, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2022-04-14T17:00:00+00:00

III

As Lessingham pushed the decanter across the table to Langler, he reflected comfortably that he knew just how matters stood. Wholly disregardful of conventional niceties where Jack’s interests were concerned, he had employed private detectives to watch over his daughter-in-law; and their reports showed that hitherto Claire had not overstepped the ‘limit’ of her slogan. Fool though she was, she had been just sufficiently cautious.

But with Langler, anything might happen. Lessingham had gathered information about the man’s past history, and it was all of a piece. Believing himself irresistible, his vanity was involved as soon as he fixed his choice on a woman, and he was ruthless to his victims.

For the most part, his affairs were furtive, ending obscurely; but Lessingham’s researches had unearthed one ugly business which had finished in a suicide. At the inquest Langler had been technically cleared but the Coroner had left him with little credit.

Now Lessingham, knowing the man’s weakness, deliberately led the talk by slow degrees to his guest’s favourite subject—and Langler rose to the bait. Making love was his speciality; failing that, he liked best to talk about it.

‘I’m afraid I know very little about women,’ the older man said diffidently at last, as though bowing to a superior’s knowledge ‘I suppose there’s some definite technique in these affairs?’

There was an encouraging twinkle in his grey eyes as he spoke, and about his mouth the trace of a sardonic smile which seemed to say, ‘Come, we’re both men of the world. I’m not a shockable type.’

‘Technique?’ Langler echoed, reflectively. ‘Well, I suppose you can call it that, just as you talk about artists’ technique. But in practice, each case stands by itself. That’s what makes it so fascinating to me, Lessingham.’

‘Oh, there must be some general rules,’ said Lessingham, impatiently. ‘You don’t mean to tell me that a man of your experience is no better than a boy in his teens when it comes to sizing up a girl who interests you? You must have learned something from practice. You can’t be much of an artist in the business if you haven’t got beyond the pot-hooks, at your age.’

The faint sneer in Lessingham’s tone flicked Langler’s vanity, as his host intended; and he reacted precisely as the older man had foreseen. For a moment or two he was silent, as though reviewing some of his many affairs in order to find pegs on which to hang his ideas. Then, apparently baffled, he made a gesture of irritation.

‘You can’t classify things like these,’ he said, crossly. ‘Each is a special case, as I told you. If it’s a shop-girl, you might buy her a musquash coat. If it’s a lonely girl, homesick perhaps, you can take her about a bit till she gets a taste for company and bright lights. Then she can’t bear to lose that.’

‘Or a married girl may have got bored with a dull husband and wants something more interesting. Or a grass-widow may be pining for someone to amuse her.

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