The Story of Ivy · Chapter 13 (2/2)

“Roger has been arrested on the charge of having murdered a man called Jervis Lexton⁠—”

“Roger arrested on a charge of murder? God bless my soul!”

He took off his eyeglasses and began cleaning them mechanically with a small piece of wash-leather which he kept for that purpose.

Here was indeed a complication! And a very troublesome as well as a painful complication, from his point of view. His own connection with the Gretorex family was hereditary. His grandfather had been, not only the lawyer, but the very close friend and trustee, of Mrs. Gretorex’s father-in-law. As for the rich Rushworths, they were in Mr. Oram’s estimation mere upstarts compared to the ancient, if now impoverished, county family.

“If you don’t mind,” he said suddenly, “I’ll send for Finch. In a case of this sort two heads are better than one. Also Finch can take notes of any information you can give me about the matter.”

Mrs. Gretorex would much rather have told her story to this good old friend alone. But she saw the sense of his suggestion, and they both waited in silence till the head clerk came in.

Mrs. Gretorex rose and shook hands with Mr. Finch. She was well acquainted with him, and she had always liked him.

“May I tell Finch what you have just told me?” Mr. Oram asked.

She bent her head, overwhelmed with a passion of agony and shame.

“Mrs. Gretorex has brought bad news, Finch. Her son has just been arrested on the charge of having caused the death, I presume by the administration of arsenic, of Mr. Jervis Lexton. I take it”⁠—and he looked very straight into the younger man’s face⁠—“that you had no notion of this fact, when you told me, this morning, that you had heard that an arrest was about to be effected in connection with the Lexton affair?”

Alfred Finch prided himself on his self-control, and wise lack of emotion, where anything connected with business was concerned. But his face was full of dismay as he answered instantly, “No name at all was mentioned, sir. I was simply told that an arrest was imminent.”

He turned to Mrs. Gretorex. “When was it that Mr. Roger was arrested?” He had known “Mr. Roger” from childhood.

Tears welled up to her tired eyes. “Last evening,” she answered.

“I wish he’d sent for us at once,” Finch exclaimed. “It’s always important to get one’s blow in first, and especially over a matter of this kind.”

“My son was arrested at Anchorford House. I came up by the night train, as the police inspector from Lynchester said he would be brought to town the first thing this morning. I suppose he is in London by now.”

Finch looked at his employer.

“In that case, don’t you think, sir, that I’d better go off at once and try to find Dr. Gretorex? Let me see. Where would he be charged?”

Mentally he answered his own question. Then he observed, “I hope he made no statement to the police?”

“He wished to make a statement, but the inspector advised him not to do so.”

“You think, Finch, that you’d better go off now, instantly?”

“I’m sure of it, sir. Even now, I fear I shall be too late to stop his saying something he’d best keep to himself.”

“I feel quite sure he has nothing to hide,” said Mrs. Gretorex rather stiffly. But neither of the two men made any comment on that.

Mr. Oram was the first to break the silence.

“Very well, Finch. You go off,” he said. “Start at once! And of course no expense is to be spared?”

He glanced at his client, and she quickly nodded.

“Meanwhile, I’ll make rough notes of any information that Mrs. Gretorex is good enough to give me. But I don’t suppose she really knows very much.”

And then in a serious tone he asked her, “Were you yourself acquainted with Mr. and Mrs. Lexton?”

He put the question just as the other man was leaving the room, and Mrs. Gretorex saw Finch stay his steps. It was clear that he wished to hear her answer.

“I’ve never seen Mr. Lexton; but Mrs. Lexton spent a weekend at Anchorford last winter.”

Both men noticed the somewhat embarrassed way in which Roger Gretorex’s mother answered that question.

At last, reluctantly, Finch shut the door. How useful it would be, sometimes, to find oneself in two places at once!

Being the manner of woman she was, Mrs. Gretorex did not try to conceal anything of what was in her heart from her old and trusted friend.

“I am absolutely certain, Mr. Oram, that Roger had nothing to do with Mr. Lexton’s death. On the other hand, it would be dishonest to conceal from you my conviction that he is in terrible danger.”

“What makes you think that, if you are certain he is innocent?”

“Because,” answered Mrs. Gretorex in a low tone, “he loves this woman, Ivy Lexton, desperately. He admitted as much to me last night, before we supposed there was any fear of an immediate arrest, but after he had already had an interview with someone from Scotland Yard⁠—”

“Roger in love with a married woman. That’s the last thing I should have expected to hear!”

Mr. Oram got up. “I have a bit of business I must attend to this morning, Mrs. Gretorex. But I suggest that you wait here till a telephone message comes through from Finch.”

As they shook hands, “I beg you, I implore you,” she said in a stifled voice, “to try and believe Roger innocent.”

Mr. Oram said to himself, “I will⁠—until he is proved guilty.” Aloud he exclaimed:

“Of course I believe him innocent! But, Mrs. Gretorex, I have something very serious to say to you; that is, I feel that this is not the kind of case of which I have the necessary experience, and I doubt if I should be able to afford your son the kind of legal assistance which he needs.”

He saw a look of terror and of fear flash over her face.

“Don’t desert me in my extremity!” she exclaimed. “You know as well as I do that I haven’t a single man relation in the world. You, Mr. Oram, are my only hope.” And he saw that tears were rolling down her cheeks.

“If you feel that, Mrs. Gretorex, then be assured that I shall do my best for Roger.”