The Red Widow; or, The Death-Dealers of LondonLe Queux, William
General
The Red Widow; or, The Death-Dealers of London
Le Queux, William
Mystery fiction
"Emery—that solicitor in Manchester! He—he—knows me as—as Augusta
Morrison—the dead woman!"
"And did he see you?" cried Boyne in a low, hoarse voice. "Are you
certain?"
"Well—no—I—I’m not absolutely certain. He was looking up at the house,
and he’s coming here."
At that second the front door electric bell rang.
All three started.
"Why is he here?" asked Lilla. "Are inquiries already on foot?"
"If they are, then our game is up," declared Ena. "You must receive him,
Lilla, but you must deny all knowledge of me. You know nothing of
Augusta Morrison."
"But he may call at Upper Brook Street," said Boyne quickly. "You must
not return there."
"Did he recognise me? That’s the question," asked Ena, still pale to
the lips.
A second later the man entered with a card upon his salver—the card of
the Manchester solicitor, Mr. Emery.
"Oh!" exclaimed Lilla, taking it up. "Oh, yes—show him up."
Then as soon as the man had left, Ena slipped upstairs into one of the
bedrooms to hide, in company with Bernard Boyne.
When the young Manchester solicitor was ushered in, he found the
tea-things cleared—which had been effected several minutes before—and
Lilla rose to greet him.
"I believe you are Mrs. Braybourne," he said, bowing. "My name is
Emery. I am the solicitor who effected a policy on the life of the late
Mrs. Augusta Morrison in your favour. My client, I hear, with much
regret, has died, and I understand from the company that you have put in
your claim."
Mrs. Braybourne admitted that it was so, and offered her visitor a seat.
"I came this morning from Manchester, in order to consult with your
solicitor," he went on. "Mrs. Morrison was a personal friend of mine,
and she told me that she had, since her husband’s death, discovered that
she was indebted to Mr. Braybourne, hence her insurance on the
assignment of the policy."
"It came as a great surprise to me," said Lilla, with her innate
cleverness. "I had not the pleasure of knowing Mrs. Morrison, though I
met her husband several times, years ago. My late husband was a friend
of his."
"So she told me when we were together at Llandudno," Emery said. "It
was certainly very generous of her to try and make reparation for some
wrong which her husband did to Mr. Braybourne. But I confess I am
somewhat surprised."
"At what?" asked the pseudo widow.
"Well—she gave me the impression that you were a person of limited
means. But that does not appear so," he said, glancing around the
luxurious little apartment.
Lilla smiled quite calmly. She was uncertain whether her very unwelcome
visitor had recognised Ena through the window as his client, the false
Augusta Morrison.
"Of course, I have no idea what Mrs. Morrison told you concerning
myself. I only know that my late husband was interested in certain
business transactions with Mr. Morrison up in Scotland," she said, with
an air of ignorance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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