Root of All Evil by E. X. Ferrars

Author:E. X. Ferrars
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Felony & Mayhem Press
Published: 2020-07-09T00:00:00+00:00

He found that besides Derek, Frances, Quentin, Georgina and Patricia had arrived. He sensed that they had been engaged in a fierce discussion before he appeared, which was broken off abruptly as he came into the room, leaving them all sitting awkwardly silent. They all looked at him questioningly, as if they expected him to have something to tell them, but all he could think of saying was, “Good morning.”

It took Frances a moment to have the presence of mind to say, “It’s terrible, just terrible, isn’t it? I still can’t really believe it.”

“Professor Basnett, is it true about the diamonds?” Georgina demanded.

“That they’ve been stolen?” he said. “Apparently.”

“You see!” she cried, looking round on the others as if she had scored a point. “Didn’t I always say she ought to keep them in the bank? Didn’t I always say it was crazy to keep them here?”

“We all said that,” Quentin said. “You weren’t the only genius among us.”

“But she hadn’t left them to you,” Georgina said. “You didn’t really care what happened to them.”

“And now they’re all you care about,” he said. “You don’t really care that she’s been murdered.”

“Do you?” she said. “Haven’t you been saying for the last year or two that she couldn’t live much longer and how useful it would be if she didn’t?”

“I never said anything of the kind,” he said. “Anyway, not seriously. We all said that kind of thing. And none of us dreamt that the poor old thing would be murdered.”

“Children, children!” Frances cried. “Don’t talk like that! Don’t quarrel now of all times.”

“Do they quarrel much?” Patricia asked in a tone of calm interest. “I’ve never thought of Quentin as quarrelsome.”

“They’ve quarrelled all their lives,” Frances said. “I’m sure I don’t know why. Isn’t there some phrase for it psychologists use—sibling something or other? I know it somehow makes one feel it’s all the parents’ fault. Psychologists always do that. They blame everything on the parents instead of ever saying the children were just born like that. I can’t think of anything Derek or I ever did to make the two of them so quarrelsome. I mean, we always treated the two of them just the same, we never favoured one more than the other.”

“Darling Ma, don’t you understand Georgina and I are devoted to one another?” Quentin said. “Our quarrelling is just the way we show it.”

“You’ve never quarrelled with me,” Patricia said, “so perhaps you aren’t as devoted to me as you say.” It was said lightly, but her eyes were serious.

“Balls!” Georgina said. “He’s so devoted to me that if I’m murdered tonight he’ll only think that that will double his legacy, as I suppose it would. I don’t understand the legal side of those things. Professor Basnett, do you think the diamonds were insured, and if they were, will I get the insurance money or will that go into the estate as a whole?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know anything about it,” Andrew answered. “I imagine they

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