Mrs Weldon continues to mourn Paul and insists that he must have
been murdered by Bolsheviks... because he was Russian and claimed to be from an
aristocratic family who had fallen into poverty when he had to leave Russia
during the Revolution.
Harriet has become friendly
with her, and learns that she is very well to do, and that she had intended on marriage
to make a will leaving most of her property to her new husband, while not leaving
so much to her son Henry. However she
has not made a Will as yet and Harriet realises that if Mrs Weldon were to die suddenly,
her son would inherit all his mothers’ money...He has financial problems. It looks as though Weldon had a motive for
murder, but Wimsey and Harriet both think that he is a stupid man who would not
be able to work out such a complex plan…involving coded letters from abroad etc.
Another suspect is turned up during the investigation, a travelling hairdresser
called Bright who has been moving around the country looking for temporary jobs…
and who claims that he spoke to Paul on his travels….
There are difficulties of settling the time when Alexis was murdered,
even when the body turns up…Harriet remembers that when she found the body the
blood was liquid, so it is likely that he died only a short time before she
found him... But she didn’t see anyone on the beach at the time. The case seems insoluble and investigating it
has put a strain on Harriet’s friendship with Wimsey.
She likes him but has so far been unable to
get over her feeling that she does not want to marry a man she is beholden to…
She and Wimsey have rowed during the investigation, but not to breaking
point. Mrs Weldon is still determined to
pursue the case, but then becomes friendly with another of the dancing partners
at the hotel, a Frenchman called Antoine.
Peter and Harriet like Antoine and feel sorry for him… but feel that as
a man with little money, it is possible that he might become tempted to allow Mrs
Weldon to suggest marriage to him, as she had done to Paul. They realise that if this were to happen, if
Antoine were to become Mrs Weldon’s new husband... that would provide a motive
for Henry Weldon to try to kill his mother or her new admirer. So although they are getting fed up with the
case they want to solve it….
Bunter Peter’s valet and assistant has been trailing Bright, and discovers that he is actually a businessman called Morecambe
who is living in London… and he’s not a travelling hairdresser at all. He claims that he is writing a play for his
wife, a former actress, and was looking for material… but he is arrested on suspicion
of murder . The policeman who has been working on the case with Wimsey is
very dubious as to whether they can make the case stick…
Then Wimsey and Harriet
tell him that there is a reason why the young man’s blood was liquid at the
time that Harriet found his body.. He has Haemophilia. Paul a naïve and foolish young man had believed
that he was a member of the Russian Imperial family and that he had a claim to
the throne... and it was this that led him to meet with the murderers on the
beach... to discuss claiming his birthright.
However since his blood would not clot normally, there was no way of
being clear as to the time of death.
The novel ends rather abruptly with Wimsey and Harriet deciding to
leave the case to the police, and leaving Wilvercombe. It is not made clear what happens to Henry Weldon,
or his partners in crime, Mr and Mrs Morecambe. In another book, Harriet refers
to the case and it seems as if they were all convicted, but it is left as a
rather dangling and confusing ending... We never learn what happens to Mrs
Weldon who has rather been patronised by Harriet throughout the novel…
It has a very convoluted plot which I find almost impossible to follow,
with long rather boring scenes about code making and breaking…but it has its
good moments and is important in the development of the relationship between
Peter and Harriet…
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