Behold Here's Poison Read Online Free PDF Page A

to be rid of him. For perhaps the first time in her life Zoë Matthews had found it impossible to get her own way. Her only means of gratifying her son's ambition, and of keeping him at her side, was to sell out some of her own capital for his use, and since her income was already quite insufficient for her needs this expedient was naturally out of the question. She did not even consider it. Nor did she permit her resentment to become apparent to Gregory Matthews, for that would have been very stupid, and might have led to the loss of an extremely comfortable home for which she was not expected to pay as much as one farthing. The home had its disadvantages, of course. It was not her own, and the presence of her sister-in-law was always an irritation, but since poor Harriet was the antithesis of everything Gregory Matthews thought a female should be it needed really very little trouble to enlist his support in any disagreement she happened to have with her sister-in law. Patience and unfailing sweetness had achieved their object: at the end of a five-year sojourn at the Poplars Zoë Matthews had contrived to make herself, if not the mistress of the house, at least the cherished guest whose comfort must be everyone's first consideration. 'Such a ruthless woman - my dear Aunt Zoë,' Randall Matthews had once murmured, glancing maliciously up under his long lashes.
    Randall was in Stella's thoughts as she waited for her brother to conclude his conversation with Nigel Brooke. When he put the receiver down at last she said abruptly: 'Do you suppose uncle left everything to Randall, Guy?'
    'You bet he did—most of it, anyway,' replied Guy. 'Randall's been working for it for months, if you ask me—always turning up here for no known reason except to oil up to uncle by suddenly being attentive to him. It's so damned unfair! I come down from Oxford, and get a job absolutely bang-off, and stick to it, and all Randall does is to drift around looking willowy and run through a packet of money (because Uncle Hubert left a fair spot, so Aunt Harriet told me) and never do a stroke of work, or attempt to! It makes me sick! Besides, he's so utterly poisonous.'
    Stella lit a cigarette. 'I suppose he'll turn up next. And say foul things to everybody in a loving voice. Do you think uncle's left mother any money?'
    'Yes, I'm pretty sure he has,' said Guy confidently. 'Anyway, the main point is she's my sole trustree now, which means I shall be able to carry on with Nigel.' His brow clouded. 'Everything would be all right if it weren't for that blasted old harridan Aunt Gertrude! What the hell she wanted to stick her nose into it for I can't imagine.'
    Jealous of us,' said Stella negligently. 'She probably thinks mother's getting more out of uncle's death than she is. Of course it's fairly noxious, but I suppose it doesn't really matter—the post-mortem, I mean.'
    'Oh, doesn't it matter?' said Guy with considerable bitterness. Well, for once in her life Aunt Harriet hit the nail on the head! We shall have the police barging in and asking damned awkward questions, and if that's your idea of a good time it isn't mine! Everyone knows I had a flaming row with uncle over his precious South American scheme, and when the police hear about that I shall be in a nice position.'
    Stella, not much impressed, flicked the ash off her cigarette on to the carpet 'But when they don't find poison in uncle they won't ask us any questions at all.'
    'Yes, but what if they do find poison?' Guy demanded.
    'They won't.' She looked up quickly. 'Good lord, you don't—you don't really think he was done-in, do you?'
    'No, of course not,' answered Guy. 'Still, we've got to face the fact that he may have been. Mind you, I don't believe he was, but that ass Fielding didn't seem any too sure.'
    'Do you frightfully mind not calling Deryk "that ass"?' asked Stella frigidly. 'I happen to be going to marry him.'
    'Well, you'll have a jolly job explaining that to the police,'