A Match Made for Murder by Iona Whishaw (top 10 best books of all time txt) 📗

had a big nose, like someone who drinks a lot. But I can’t talk to them, miss! That’s why I’m telling you. You could talk to them. You could tell them if you think it’s important.”

Lane shook her head. “I don’t know if it’s important or not, but she was there when that poor man was shot. I know the police are going to want to know anything that may be out of the ordinary. I’ve met the sergeant in charge. He’s called Martinez. He’s very nice and not at all frightening. But he won’t be satisfied from hearing anything second-hand from me. If you want, I’ll go with you.”

Chela surprised Lane by collapsing onto an overturned bucket and beginning to cry. “No, you don’t understand. Raúl, he—”

“Your brother? Would he be angry for some reason?”

“It’s just that he can’t be noticed by the police. He doesn’t have a birth certificate. My parents were poor when he was born, and he didn’t get one. They’re always checking. If they ask him and he can’t produce one, they’ll deport him.”

“Oh.” Lane was stymied. “But was he born here?”

“Yes, even my parents and grandparents were. But when people get in trouble and they don’t have papers they send them across the border. Some of them have never even been there. They don’t even have relatives over there.”

“But no one is in trouble here, Chela,” Lane said reasonably. “And your brother doesn’t have to come into it. He didn’t see anything. You did. Do you have a birth certificate?”

Chela nodded, but she looked unconvinced.

“Look. I’ll call Sergeant Martinez and we can go together. He’ll be much more interested in solving the murder than talking about Raúl.”

It hadn’t been easy, but Chela had been persuaded to talk to the police, and Lane hurried back to the room to talk to Darling and call Martinez. Darling, however, was nowhere to be found. She went out and across the grounds to the pool, but he was not among the sunbathers. Muttering “blast!” under her breath, she went back to the room and shuffled through a couple of papers till she found the number Darling had written.

“It happens I was just about to come out there,” Martinez said, when she’d explained.

“Oh. Chela works on the cleaning staff here. I’m a bit worried about how the management would view it. We couldn’t come there, could we?”

Martinez sighed. “Look, can you give me a rundown of what she said? I need to go there because I have to interview . . .” He was about to tell her and then he stopped. “I have to interview someone else there. If what she says is relevant, I’ll meet her after she leaves for the day. What time is that, do you know?”

“I think she starts very early, so I suspect probably around four, but I can check for you.” Lane went on to tell Martinez about the mystery man Meg Holden seemed to have met more than once. “The thing is, that Mrs. Holden seems to have a young man that she meets as well. Both Chela and I have seen them together, as it happens.”

Martinez shook his head at the folly of humans, remembering his own father who had an affair with a woman for nearly the full length of his marriage and even had children with her. It interested him that women could carry on like that as well. “Thank you. Just tell the maid that I will arrange to meet her after work.”

“She’ll be very relieved, thank you.”

Darling, looking as animated as a thoroughly self-contained man could, arrived just as Lane was hanging up the telephone. “They have a tennis pro here,” he said.

Chapter Ten

“For God’s sake, Ned. I told you. This doesn’t change anything.” Ivy Renwick folded her gloved hands tightly together and looked with distaste around his room. “How can you stay here? I could have paid for you to stay at the inn. No one would have been any the wiser.”

“I would have been. I don’t want to be a kept man. All I wanted was what was mine. Anyway, that Canadian couple recognized the family resemblance right away. He’s a policeman. Can you beat that? Anyway, I’d hardly be incognito.”

Ned sounded petulant, and Ivy felt a rush of impatience and, she realized with surprise, anxiety. She saw again that image of Jack lying dead under the bedspread, and the memory triggered a lurch of sickness. She moved toward the door.

“Look, I think we’d better lay off. I have to get Jack’s body home as soon as this nightmare is over, and I have to get to the office to sort things out. This has been a mistake.”

“That’s my baby in there,” Ned said. “Or are you forgetting that?”

“It would be hard to. You remind me every five minutes.”

“Look,” Ned went back to being conciliatory. “You’re right. We should lay off. When this is over, we can get married. You know the board is going to want me to take over the company. They won’t want a woman. It’s logical, especially if we’re married. You’d still be part of the decision making.”

Ivy stood by the door looking at him. Could he have picked a more sordid rooming house? He couldn’t manage his way out of a paper bag, she thought, let alone the company. She would cope with the board. It amazed her that he didn’t know how much they disliked him. He’d been several times to the chairman railing against his brother being in charge. At least one of those times he’d been drunk. No. She felt quite sure of the board. “Of course, darling. We’ll talk about it when this is over. In the meantime, don’t contact me.” She had no intention of talking about anything with him. She looked right, then left when she stepped onto the street, and then realized how shifty she must look, like a criminal trying to avoid detection. She held up her hand