Deadly Beloved (16 page)

Mrs Findlay-Cupar declined to take it back. "Keep it, Inspector. I know I can rely on your discretion. And if Dr Kellar has indeed put away my dearest sister, then I want him brought to justice. And if this letter will help to put a rope around his neck, then let it be done."

"One thing puzzles me," said Faro. "The baby Mrs Kellar mentions, that she wasn't allowed to keep. I'm not sure that I understand."

"I'm not sure that I do either," said Mrs Findlay-Cupar hurriedly. "I believe that Melville with his medical knowledge could have averted a threatened miscarriage, but declined to do so."

"I see. Your sister's statement does rather imply that the baby was born alive and then put out for adoption."

"You have my assurance., Inspector, there was no child."

Faro saw her into her carriage. She thanked him for receiving her so informally and he promised to keep her in touch with any events relating to Mabel Kellar.

Vince was waiting for him. "Well, what news of Mabel?"

Faro handed him the letter.

Vince could hardly control his emotion as he read, his face grew pale with horror. "This is utterly appalling, Stepfather, appalling. The man is an absolute devil. This letter proves without a shadow of doubt that he planned to get rid of Mabel. It's all there in her own words, Stepfather. Why don't you go and arrest him?"

"It certainly provides a new and damning aspect of the case against Kellar, lad, but without further evidence a court of law would dismiss it as the hysterical denunciations of a betrayed wife."

"What about Mabel's bloodstained fur cloak, and the knife? What further proof do you need to put a rope around Kellar's neck?" demanded Vince angrily.

"A body," said Faro shortly.

Vince shuddered and gave him an angry look. "At least you are wrong about your motive this time, Stepfather. This hardly fits into your pet theory of gain."

"That rather depends, lad. There are many aspects of gain and in this case it would appear that Kellar realised, almost too late, the benefits of fatherhood."

"Of a bastard son," said Vince bitterly. "One that he wanted so desperately that he was prepared to go to any lengths, even murder, to legitimise."

"Thereby following the desperate example of kings and nobles who set the pattern in ancient times and got rid of inconveniently barren wives."

"Like Henry the Eighth?"

"If succession and a throne are in jeopardy then history is prepared to turn a blinder eye than Edinburgh society. I'm afraid as far as Kellar is concerned the scandal of divorce would have ruined him."

Faro was silent, deep in thought. Have I been expecting something like this? Was this damning document written by a frightened wife the missing piece of the puzzle? Once you have that, the complete picture springs into view and leaves you wondering why on earth you hadn't seen the strikingly obvious.

"I wonder," he said.

"You surely can't have any further doubts that Kellar is guilty after this. There were plenty of veiled hints among the students that the ladies pursued Kellar and that he wasn't averse to walking slowly."

Faro smiled. Even the shrewd Sir Hedley Marsh had hinted that Melville was a womaniser.

While they were talking Faro had been mulling over the contents of the letter and had come to a rather obvious but very disturbing conclusion regarding the unknown woman's identity.

In reply to his question., Vince shook his head. "No, Mabel never even hinted to me that she suspected Kellar of philandering. Misplaced loyalty, I suppose."

"To whom?" demanded Faro sharply.

"Why, to her husband, of course." He thought for a moment. "I expect it was the kind of topic she considered too indelicate to discuss with a man. It never occurred to me to ask, but now that you mention it, she might well have confided in her best friend. Mrs Shaw, for instance."

"Ah yes, Mrs Shaw. I've been thinking about her. A young woman with an infant. A son," he added heavily. "Does that not strike you as a remarkable coincidence?"

Vince stared at him indignantly. "It strikes me as absolute sheer coincidence, Stepfather. And that's all. Mrs Shaw is a respectable widow. Why, Stepfather, I'm surprised at you even entertaining such a notion. You surely can't be seriously implying that Eveline Shaw would have an — an affair — with her best friend's husband? After all Mabel's kindness to her?"

"It has been known," said Faro drily.

"But in this case, you should know better. You have the evidence of your own eyes.You saw them at the dinner party."

One of Faro's lasting impressions had been Mrs Kellar's apparent devotion, her many smiles and anxiety that Mrs Shaw be included in every conversation, often staring uneasily at Kellar who was barely civil to the young woman.

"I'm just speaking my thoughts out loud," said Faro. And tactfully changing the subject, "When did you first become friendly with Mrs Kellar?"

"About three months ago, but it seems as if I've known her for a lifetime."

"I'm curious about this baby she wasn't allowed to keep? Did she ever mention it to you?"

"Not on that occasion," said Vince hurriedly. "I was collecting some papers for Kellar and she asked for my advice on a quite minor affliction, some stiffness in her shoulder. As it turned out a pulled muscle, but she was worried that this might be the onset of rheumatism, common in her family.

"While I was examining her I observed a considerable amount of bruising. The nature and positions were curious and suggested that she had been physically beaten. She made several transparent excuses, but her reluctance became obvious."

Vince fell silent and Faro said, "Her assailant was none other than her own husband, was that it?"

Vince nodded. "You guessed right, Stepfather. I was shocked and furious, although I knew Kellar to be a man quite capable of fits of sarcasm and even cold anger with his students. Anyway," he continued, "poor Mabel was full of blushing whispers and tears of embarrassment, trying to excuse her husband's ill-treatment. I was desperately sorry for her but, what was worse, I was quite helpless. Without betraying Mabel's confidence and making it a lot worse for her, I couldn't confront him with his beastly behaviour, tell him — my superior, my employer — to desist and that he was several kinds of swine."

Vince banged down his glass on the table. "Dear God. I shouldn't even be telling you all this, Stepfather, such matters between patient and doctor are utterly sacrosanct."

"Quite so. Doctors are like priests in being the recipients of intimate confidences. I'm fully aware of that and you can rely on my discretion."

"I am only telling you," Vince continued desperately, "because the matter is one of life — and I think, dear God, death too. And you, most of all, you must understand the sort of beast you are dealing with."

Faro regarded his stepson with compassion. Vince might be shocked by Mabel's revelations, but Faro could have reiterated many such tales of respectable middle-class men who allied Christian virtue with hypocrisy and abused their wives, treating them little better than animals once the bedroom door was closed. Faro knew of many husbands who could get no pleasure from normal lovemaking and sought satisfaction in outlandish and even brutish practices.

"His treatment of her was the first bond between us," Vince whispered. "I was, it seemed, as a doctor who was also a friend, the only person she could confide in."

"What about Mrs Shaw?"

Vince gave him a sharp look. "I think not. Mabel would have been too embarrassed and humiliated to confess such matters to another woman, especially one so much younger."

Faro rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Has it ever occurred to you that as there were no children, you would be about the right age as a substitute for the son she had never had."

Vince laughed. "You imagine that that was the reason for us being drawn to each other." He shook his head. "Not so. Stepfather. You are wrong this time. Far from it. And her confessions, I assure you, were hardly the sort a mother would make to her son."

"She told you the reason there were no children to the marriage?"

"She did indeed," said Vince grimly.

Faro waited a moment and then said, "Well, what were they?"

Vince looked doubtful, and regarded his stepfather uneasily. "I don't know that I really ought to tell you. Stepfather. It is not a pretty story and one, I must warn you, which will only further prejudice you against Kellar."

"I will have to take that chance." When Vince hesitated, Faro continued, "Come, come, lad. There is, and always has been, a tendency for husband to blame wife when the fault is not hers at all. You must know as a doctor, surely, that a man's pride suffers a mortal blow when he realises that his manhood is incapable of begetting a child."

Vince remained silent and Faro said. "You had better tell me. What was it? Syphilis? There couldn't be anything much worse."

"Oh yes, there could. There could indeed."

"Such as?"

"Aborting one's own wife."

Faro stared at him. "You don't mean ..."

"I do mean. That the beast Kellar never wanted a child and refused to let his wife conceive. He took elaborate precautions, so she told me, and when by accident — or design, poor soul, since she yearned for a child — she became pregnant, he coldly insisted that the foetus be aborted."

Faro shuddered."Dreadful. I can hardly believe that any husband would be so callous, so inhuman. There must have been some very good reason for such a terrible decision. A father-to-be often suffers qualms of conscience, such as fearing that he is too poor, or the world a too wicked place, to entrust another life into it."

"Such reasoning could hardly be valid in Kellar's case, with so much to offer a child."

"He might have feared taking second place in his wife's affections."

Vince laughed derisively. "An unlikely story. You've seen them together. You don't really believe that, do you?"

Faro remembered his own qualms when Rose was conceived within weeks of his marriage to Lizzie. He had felt dread and resentment of being plunged into fatherhood before they had a chance to get to know each other. "There is always that other fear, that the mother may not survive childbirth."

Such had been Lizzie Faro's fate with their third child. The two men, her husband and her beloved firstborn, exchanged stricken glances. Vince stretched over and put his hand on Faro's arm. "You must not torment yourself, Stepfather. You were not to blame. Mother so wanted to give you a son."

Faro patted his hand. "I know, lad, I know. But nevertheless ..." Blinking away tears, he said, "Oh, let's get back to Kellar. Presumably at that time he loved Mabel, so there must have been some other reason for his decision."

"There was none. Only his detestation of children, which must have made Mabel's agony even harder to bear when she wrote to her sister."

"This does indeed throw another light on her letter," said Faro "How appalling."

"It was indeed. Can you imagine the feelings of a woman whose husband had put her through the depths of hell, both physically and mentally. That would be bad enough, except that when she is beyond child-bearing, he cheerfully gets his young mistress pregnant. And, worst of all, he dotes upon her child and wants to claim it as his own."

Vince stared at him with stricken eyes. "Dear God, don't you see how monstrous and inhuman Kellar is?"

"Aye, lad. I do. I'm shocked too. In the class Kellar belongs to, fathers need play little part in the upbringing beyond the begetting. Once property and inheritance are settled, the offspring can be safely left to the tender mercies of nurses and public schools."

"Yes, however we look at it, an heir is often the only reason for marrying at all. As I fear it will be mine," said Vince. "But not until I am very old."

Faro smiled. Vince's fierce determination to remain a bachelor was a constant source of discussion and friendly argument between them.

"Well, Stepfather, would you not say that this was the first indication of a black-hearted murderer?"

Faro shook his head. "I can't believe that Kellar could have aborted his own child without extenuating circumstance, some powerful reason."

"Some dread medical history in his wife's family which he wanted to spare her, like insanity, is that what you are suggesting?" said Vince.

"We have her sister's assurances on that. From the standpoint of eight healthy children."

"And the Mad Bart is only a relative by marriage, unfortunately," said Vince.

"Aye, lad. And despite his nickname he's as sane as the next man. A recluse, with his own reasons for withdrawing from society."

"Eccentric, crafty and wicked, I don't doubt, but sharp as a tack." Vince jumped up from the table and strode over to the window, staring at the winter sunlight dying on Arthur's Seat.

"The story isn't quite over yet, Stepfather. Prepare yourself for something worse, much worse. And I doubt that even you will find excuses for Kellar's inhumanity." Taking a deep breath he continued. "Not only did this vile man remove the foetus conceived by himself upon his wife, he used it for experiments."