Dead Man's Dinner - Una Gordon Page 0,47

very special tale of how one of London's most respected solicitors, who, in truth, would prefer not to touch me with a barge pole, is now acting for me in a legal capacity. Oh, there are lawyers who would have leapt at the chance of getting me as a client, but I wanted someone special.”

Homer simply nodded.

Everyone, everyone,” here Derwent leaned forward, “ has a skeleton in the cupboard. One only has to find it. It wasn't easy, for Ben Carmichael has covered his tracks well, but I succeeded.”

“What is this skeleton?” asked Homer on cue as he was expected to do.

“There are certain weaknesses which even in a great man are quite acceptable and some which are not.” Homer waited for Derwent to continue. “Ben Carmichael's weakness is not in society as a whole a serious weakness, but we must consider his situation.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Ben, a man of superior intellect born to a very ordinary middle class family, married above him.” Derwent smiled as if this were some kind of joke. Again Homer waited. “He married into an aristocratic family of the Roman Catholic faith, and this family, Homer, abhors any whiff of scandal. None of them will ever enter the portals of divorce courts and any hint of gossip about them would be immediately investigated by the head of the family, Ben's father-in-law. He's an old man now, but early on in Ben's marriage he found he was...eh...shall we say rather more friendly with his secretary than was necessary. The old man sent for him and the secretary left Ben's employment immediately afterwards. The old man made it plain to him that he played fair and square with his wife or he'd be ruined and the old man carries such power he'd be able to carry out his threat. Ben has been very careful ever since, but I have found out that a certain lady plays a very important part in his life.” That was the first Homer heard of Verity Parr. The name had been given to her by Ben and she signed herself Verity I. Parr, but no one knew what the I was for. Derwent suspected it stood for nothing. The whole name had been invented.

“Ben was very clever and very discreet. It was by pure chance that I found out there was anything between them. Verity, by trade, is a jeweller. She doesn't just sell jewellery, she makes it. Ben first met her when he went to ask her to make something for his wife for their wedding anniversary. The relationship developed from there and, although I cannot be sure, of course, I think Ben's plan is that if he is ever caught at her place of business he will say he is in the process of commissioning a new piece of jewellery for his wife or checking that it is coming along satisfactorily. I rarely buy gifts or women, but my late Aunt Maud hinted that she wanted something rather special for her seventieth birthday, so having vaguely heard of this Verity Parr, I went along. She lives in a small flat attached to a workshop above another shop. I forget what it is – a ladies' outfitter perhaps. Anyway it was rather late when I called and I thought Verity might have closed up for the night, but when I tried the door it was still open, so I went in, but no one was around. I could hear voices and I supposed Verity was speaking to someone in the back room. I was looking round at a few items on show when it suddenly dawned on me I recognised the voice. It was Ben Carmichael's. I was puzzled at first because his voice seemed to be going on continuously without Verity ever replying. Gradually it dawned on me why. She was playing the messages on her telephone answering machine. I couldn't actually hear what Ben was saying, but the message seemed rather long for a business call. I didn't do anything then. I just stored the information in my mind and when it was necessary produced it like a rabbit out of a hat.”

Homer waited patiently to hear the rest of the story as he knew he would.

“When I first approached Ben about being my solicitor, he flatly refused to have anything to do with me. He was quite insulting,” said Derwent petulantly. “I simply asked him how Verity was. He tried to bluff his way out of it at first, of