Clouds of Witness Part III

Peter meets a woman in Bloomsbury, London - a Miss Tarrant. She knows Mary from her socialist days.. He goes to dinner with her at the Soviet Club, to try and find out more about Mary's life. He is sceptical about Mary's sympathy with the workers, since she has rarely had to work in her life. He also wonders why, with her socialist beliefs, she had decided to marry a man with Tory sympathies. During dinner, Mary's friend points out Goyles who has just come into the club and Peter calls to him. Goyles runs away. Peter follows him and Goyles shoots him. Clearly there is a lot of drama in Mary's life. Parker is in Peter's flat waiting for him to come back. He is startled by the arrival of Mary. She has just come down from Yorkshire. She tells him that she engaged in a struggle with Denis, and shot him herself. The message that Peter has been shot comes through before Parker can make up his mind if he believes Mary. They hurry to the hospital. Peter tells Mary that he's not pressing charges against Goyles but that he wants to talk to him. He thinks Goyles must talk to the police. Mary is very shaken. She then resolves to tell the truth. She admits that she and Denis were not at all in love and that it was a marriage of convenience.. Mary tells him that she was unhappy that Denver had forbidden her relationship with Goyles. She decided to marry someone who would give her a position as a married woman and they would leave each other alone. She thinks that it is possible that Denis was having an affair with another woman while courting her. He had "French" ideas about marriage. Peter remarks that for a red revolutionary, Goyles seems to be a nervous person, who was quick to shoot and run away. Mary explains that she got increasingly unhappy about her engagement to Denis, that he was too cold even to suit someone who only wanted a marriage of convenience. Then she had heard from Goyles. He had found a new job and he still wanted to marry her. He was able to support her in a modest way. Mary agreed to elope with him, that night of the shooting. So she was up and ready to run away when the incident happened. When she found that Denis had been killed, she believed that Goyles had met him when he came to the house. He had panicked and shot him in a struggle and then run away. Goyles is brought in by the police and does not cut a very fine figure. He says that he found Denis dead, and realising that he was trespassing at the lodge, he scoots off. He leaves Mary to try and cover up for him. Mary, hurt and disillusioned, breaks off their engagement. To Peter's surprise, he notes that Parker seems to admire his sister. He hopes that perhaps his friend may console her for the loss of her fiance. However, if Mary did not shoot Denis, nor did Goyles, it begins to look as if it must have been Gerald.