Clouds of Witness Part III

 Peter meets a woman in London who is a friend of Marys' from her socialist activism days.. and 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 but wonders how she would have managed as the wife of a Tory diplomat, like Cathcart.  During dinner, Mary's friend points out Goyles who has just come into the club and Peter calls to him.. but Goyles runs away.  Peter follows him and Goyles shoots him.  Clearly there is a lot of drama in Mary's life. 

Meanwhile Parker is in Peter's flat waiting for him to come back and is interrupted by Mary, who 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 and they hurry to the hospital.  Peter tells Mary that he's not pressing charges against Goyles but that he wants to talk to him and for Goyles to talk to the police  Mary is very shaken and 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.. She was unhappy that George Goyles had been told to stay away from her, and that Gerald had refused to give them any money to marry.  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 because 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 who told her he had found a new job and if she was willing he would marry her now that 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, 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 had no business being at the shooting lodge had run off, leaving Mary to try and cover up for him.   Mary, hurt and disillusioned, breaks off their engagement.   To Peter's surprise he notes that Parker is very admiring of his sister and 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.