“Grace and Victoria! You’re pulling my leg,” Fina cried. “I thought they were lovers.”
Ruby wiped her hands on her napkin and pushed away her plate. “No, they’re sisters. Half-sisters to each other and half-sisters to Gasthorpe. They all shared the same father.”
Fina blinked.
“I already had my suspicions, but the will confirmed it,” said Ruby. “It first struck me on the night when Victoria was attacked. Though it could have been from the shock, Grace acted a little oddly toward Victoria – not as someone who was overly concerned with her physical well-being. Furthermore, she said something to the effect of ‘there are other ways to make him pay’. I’m not sure why, but that phrasing struck me as peculiar. It sounded like she had already thought it through. More importantly, it sounded like she had already done so in another case. I thought perhaps that other case might have been Gasthorpe.”
“So why did you let Dean Ossington be arrested? And, more importantly, why did you allow them to arrest me?!”
“I’ll return to that in a minute. Let me take you through what happened, first. Remember the first night we heard about Gasthorpe’s visit?”
“You mean when Ossie, Grace and Victoria were discussing it at dinner?”
“Yes. Remember how it seemed like Ossie was the one who wanted Gasthorpe to be the guest? And Grace and Victoria were against it?”
Fina nodded.
“In fact, it was either Grace or Victoria who suggested it first. It only seemed like it was Ossie’s idea. Ossie was concerned – as I found out from her later – that something might go pear-shaped with his visit and he’d stop supporting the college. Grace and Victoria manipulated Ossie by making the suggestion and then turning around and saying it wasn’t a good idea. They knew her psychology well enough to know this would work. I suspect that was Victoria’s idea.”
“Why did they suggest it? Did they know about the will?”
Wendell said, “No, they didn’t know and neither did the dean. Or I should say the dean only knew what Gasthorpe told her about the will. Grace and Victoria wanted to kill Gasthorpe for revenge, not for money.”
“Revenge? For being siblings?”
“I didn’t know the reason until I spoke to Grace and Victoria last night. They told me a rather tragic story about their mothers. What tied everything together for me initially in suspecting them was the connection to Liverpool. Remember when you had that conversation with Grace about Liverpool at dinner?”
“Yes. But she said her father worked on the docks and her mother worked in a newsstand. Surely Gasthorpe senior didn’t work on the docks,” said Fina.
“I think she told you that story to emphasise the point about her mythical dock-worker father. She knew she couldn’t cover up the fact she was from Liverpool,” replied Ruby. “I knew Gasthorpe was from Liverpool as well. He’d done a good job of concealing his natural accent, but you could still hear traces of it in his speech if you knew what to listen for.”
“He certainly covered it quite well. What gave him away?” asked Fina.
“Remember how he had a slight adenoidal tinge to his speech? I suspected he was covering an accent. People from Liverpool have that distinctive way of speaking. In any case, it seemed like too much of a coincidence. And then there was the odd relationship between Grace and Victoria. I thought they were lovers at first, but then something seemed, well, peculiar about their relationship.”
Ruby waved away the smoke coming from Wendell’s cigarette. “Grace and Victoria’s mothers were destitute. Gasthorpe’s father would visit them periodically and was often physically and verbally abusive. Both women witnessed this as children. He paid for Victoria’s education, but not Grace’s. That fit well with his son’s views on women’s equality for only some kinds of women,” said Ruby with a sigh.
“I can see them being furious with Gasthorpe Senior, but why take it out on the son?” asked Fina.
“Because he did eventually find out about his two half-sisters. Not only did he not want to have anything to do with them, but he denied both mothers any share of his father’s estate when his father died. He knew how poor and sick both of the women were, and he did nothing. Both mothers died destitute – Grace and Victoria were in their late teens when this happened.”
“How did they find out about each other?”
“According to Grace, her mother knew about Victoria’s mother’s relationship with Gasthorpe Senior. They didn’t live too far away from one another in Liverpool. Looks like Gasthorpe Senior would visit one per day.”
“Makes me ill thinking about it,” said Wendell.
“Yes, me too. I think Harold Gasthorpe’s rise to fame and fortune, as well as his lies about his background, set the plan in motion. When I spoke to Grace and Victoria about it last night, they were still so furious, even though they had killed him. The fact he’d left them money – should they care to reveal themselves – somehow made it all worse in their minds.”
“So how did they do it?”
“This case had a lot to do with eyes. The puffy, bloodshot eyes of Harold Gasthorpe right before he died. Vera’s dilated eyes. My question to Grace and Victoria about spectacles.”
“Yes, what was that question all about? It seemed significant, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why,” said Fina.
“I wanted to see how they reacted to a question about eyes,” said Ruby.
“Now you’re just teasing poor Fina,” said Wendell playfully. “Spill the beans, Ruby Dove!”
“Eye-drops,” said Ruby.