Read The Fallen Curtain Online
Authors: Ruth Rendell
“How have you been keeping, Pauline?”
“All right. Just the same.” And although she hadn’t been asked, Pauline said, “Mother had me up four times in the night. She fell over in the passage and I had to drag her back to bed. The laundry didn’t come, so I did the sheets myself. It’s a job getting them dry when it’s raining like today.”
“I was thinking, I could come in two evenings a week and sit with her so that you could go out. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t take some of the washing and do it in my machine. Come to that, I could take it all. Every week.”
Pauline shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
“Yes, well, it’s all very well saying that,” said Marjorie, working herself up to the required pitch, “but if you keep on complaining like this, what am I to say?”
“I don’t complain.”
“Maybe not. But everyone else does. You know very well who I mean. I can’t take all this outside interference and just pretend it’s not happening.”
“I shouldn’t call a husband outside interference.”
For a moment Marjorie thought she was referring to George. Realisation of what she actually meant gave her the impetus she needed. “I may as well tell you straight out, Pauline, I’m not having Mother to live with us and that’s flat. I’ll do anything else in my power, but not that. No one can make me and I shan’t.”
Pauline made no answer. They ate their tea in almost total silence. Marjorie couldn’t remember ever having felt so uncomfortable in the whole of her life. On the doorstep, as she was leaving, she said, “You’d better tell me which evenings you want me, and you can let me know when you want George to come round in the car for the washing.”
“It makes no difference to me,” said Pauline. “I’m always here.”
Of course, she didn’t phone. Marjorie knew she wouldn’t. And what was the point of going round in the evening when Pauline didn’t want to go out, when she was snug at home with her doctor?
“We’re not having Mother,” she said to George. “That’s definite. I’ve cleared it all up with Pauline. She’s quite capable of carrying on if I help out a bit.”
“That’s not what I was told.”
“It’s what I’m telling you.” Marjorie hated the way he looked at her these days, with a kind of dull, distasteful reproach. “She’s done the washing for this week, and next week the laundry’ll do the sheets and the heavy stuff. I thought we might go over on Friday and collect their bits and pieces, put them in my machine.”
So on Thursday Marjorie phoned. She chose the morning
just in case that man might answer. Doctors are never free to make social calls in the morning. Pauline answered.
“O.K. Tomorrow, if you like.”
“It’s what
you
like, Pauline,” said Marjorie, feeling that her sister might at least have said thank you.
She added that they would be there at seven. But by seven George hadn’t yet got home, so Marjorie dialled her mother’s number. It didn’t matter if
he
answered. Show him she wasn’t the indifferent creature he took her for. He did. And he was quite polite. Mr and Mrs Crossley couldn’t get there till eight-thirty? Never mind. He would still be there and would be delighted to meet them at last.
“We’re going to get a look at him at last,” said Marjorie to George as he came in at the door. “Now don’t you forget, I expect you to back me up if we have any more nonsense about us having Mother and all that. United we stand, divided we fall.”
Mother’s house was in darkness and the hall light didn’t come on when Marjorie rang the bell. She rang it again, and then George rang it.
“Have you got a key?” said George.
“In my bag. Oh, George, you don’t think…? I mean…?
“I don’t know, do I? Let’s get this door open.”
No one in the hall or in any of the downstairs rooms. Marjorie, who had turned on lights, began to climb the stairs with George behind her. Halfway up, she heard a man’s voice, speaking soothingly but with authority. It came from Mother’s room, the door of which was ajar.
“It was the best thing, Pauline. I gave her two hundred milligrammes crushed in her milk drink. She didn’t suffer. She just fell asleep, Pauline.”
Marjorie gave a little gasping whimper. She clutched George, clawing at his shoulder. As he pushed past her, she heard the voice come again, the same words repeated in the same lulling hypnotic tone.
“I gave her two hundred milligrammes crushed in her milk drink. She didn’t suffer. It was the only thing. I did it for you, Pauline, for us….”
George threw open the bedroom door. Mother lay on her back, her face waxen and slack in death, her now totally sightless eyes wide open. There was no one else in the room but Pauline.
Pauline got up as they entered, and giving them a nod of quiet dignity, she placed her fingers on Mother’s eyes, closing the lids. Marjorie stared in frozen, paralysed terror, like one in the presence of the supernatural. And then Pauline turned from the bed, came forward with her right hand outstretched.
In a deep, cultured, and authoritative voice, a voice whose hectoring manner on the telephone was softened now by sympathy for the bereaved, she said, “How do you do? I am Dr Pavlov. It’s unfortunate we should meet under such sad circumstances but…”
Marjorie began to scream.
“The Fallen Curtain” by Ruth Rendell. Originally published in the August 1974 issue of
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
Copyright © 1974 by Ruth Rendell. Reprinted by permission of the author and arrangement with
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
“A Bad Heart” by Ruth Rendell. Originally published under the title “Trapped” in the September 1973 issue of
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
Copyright © 1973 by Ruth Rendell. Reprinted by permission of the author and arrangement with
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
“You Can’t Be Too Careful” by Ruth Rendell. Originally published in the March 1976 issue of
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
Copyright © 1976 by Ruth Rendell. Reprinted by permission of the author and arrangement with
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
“The Double” by Ruth Rendell. Originally published under the title “Meeting in the Park” in the December 1975 issue of
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
Copyright © 1975 by Ruth Rendell. Reprinted by permission of the author and arrangement with
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
“Venus’ Fly-trap” by Ruth Rendell. Originally published under the title “Venus’s Fly-trap” in the January 1973 issue of
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
Copyright © 1973 by Ruth Rendell. Reprinted by permission of the author and arrangement with
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
“His Worst Enemy” by Ruth Rendell. Originally published under the title “The Clinging Woman” in the February 1975 issue of
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
Copyright © 1975 by Ruth Rendell. Reprinted by permission of the author and arrangement with
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
“The Fall of a Coin” by Ruth Rendell. Originally published in the June 1975 issue of
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
Copyright © 1975 by Ruth Rendell. Reprinted by permission of the author and arrangement with
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
“Almost Human” by Ruth Rendell. Originally published in the September 1975 issue of
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
Copyright © 1975 by Ruth Rendell. Reprinted by permission of the author and arrangement with
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
A DEMON IN MY VIEW
In this dark and compelling tale, a lonely paranoid sneaks into the basement to visit the object of his affection and slips his hands around her throat, but one day he goes down there and she is gone, and he comes unhinged.
Crime Fiction/0-375-70491-4
HARM DONE
After two girls have disappeared, the people of Kingsmarkham are understandably alarmed. The situation becomes even more ominous when the father of one of the children is stabbed to death, and Wexford finds that in the case of the inner life of families, justice is never as straightfoward as the letter of the law.
Crime Fiction/0-375-72484-2
A JUDGEMENT IN STONE
In this raw and powerful psychological thriller, it only takes housekeeper Eunice fifteen minutes to kill her employer and his family, but for the police to find out why may be a trickier matter—that the tragedy began with a secret Eunice has guarded her whole life.
Crime Fiction/0-375-70496-5
THE LAKE OF DARKNESS
Martin Urban is a quiet bachelor with a comfortable life. When he unexpectedly comes into a small fortune, he wants to share the wealth. But when he helps strangers in need, his good intentions become fatally entangled with the madness of a small-time assassin.
Crime Fiction/0-375-70497-3
MURDER BEING ONCE DONE
A young girl is found murdered in a gloomy cemetery. The authorities, commanded by Inspector Wexford’s nephew, can’t find out who the victim was: the dead girl has no possessions, no past, and a name that seems patently false. And so Inspector Wexford defies doctor’s orders and the big-city condescension of the London police to take a look for himself.
Crime Fiction/0-375-70488-4
NO MORE DYING THEN
Years as a policeman in the placid village of Kingsmarkham have taught Inspector Wexford that the most unlikely people are capable of the most appalling crimes. But what kind of person would steal—and possibly murder—two children? Wexford’s search is complicated when his colleague falls in love with the mother of one of the missing youngsters.
Crime Fiction/0-375-70489-2
ONE ACROSS, TWO DOWN
Two things interest Stanley Manning: crossword puzzles and his mother-in-law’s money. One afternoon, he lends death a helping hand, but after the deed is done, he realizes that he may get more than he bargained for: a victim who may outsmart him from the grave.
Crime Fiction/0-375-70494-9
SHAKE HANDS FOREVER
Probably, Angela Hathall had picked up a stranger. Probably, the stranger had killed her. It was that simple. Or was it? Inspector Wexford had his doubts—especially after meeting the loved ones Mrs. Hathall left behind.
Crime Fiction/0-375-70495-7
A SLEEPING LIFE
Her corpse is unremarkable, her handbag devoid of clues. But as Inspector Wexford tracks down the few people who knew Rhoda Comfrey before her death, he discovers that even an obscure soul harbors extraordinary secrets.
Crime Fiction/0-375-70493-0
SOME LIE AND SOME DIE
In spite of the dire predictions, the rock festival seems to be going off smoothly. Then a hideously disfigured body is discovered in a nearby quarry. The victim is a local girl who lied about her friendships with celebrities. But she had a very real connection with the festival’s charismatic star, a singer who inspires an unwholesome devotion in his followers.
Crime Fiction/0-375-70490-6
FIRST VINTAGE CRIME / BLACK LIZARD EDITION, JANUARY 2001
Copyright © 1976 by Ruth Rendell
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Vintage is a registered trademark and Vintage Crime / Black Lizard and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the Doubleday edition as follows: Rendell, Ruth, 1930–
The fallen curtain : eleven mystery stories by an Edgar-award winning writer / Ruth Rendell. —1st ed.
p. cm.
I. Title
PZ4.R4132 Fan 1976
823’.914 75-040739
CIP
eISBN: 978-0-307-55605-9
v3.0