Death in Kenya by M. M. Kaye

Perhaps Alice did.’
    â€˜When?’ demanded Greg. ‘Her day has been pretty well accounted for. She spent the morning shopping in Naivasha, the afternoon in her room, had tea with you on the verandah, and went out shooting with you immediately afterwards – in order to avoid, I gather, what looked like being an embarrassing tête-à-tête with young Ken Brandon. And as it was just after you got back that she went across to the Markhams with a message for Lisa, there doesn’t seem to be any point during the day when she could have carried a cushion out to the knoll. Now, can you remember what you yourself did on Tuesday, Em? In detail?’
    â€˜I think so,’ said Em, frowning. ‘Let me see – I had breakfast in bed and didn’t get up until just before Eden left. I asked him to fetch the clock and to ring up the Airport and check the time that Victoria would be arriving, and we discussed the purchase of Jimmy’s Land-Rover. After Eden had gone I saw the cook and told Kamau what I wanted in the way of vegetables, and then Alice and I made out a list of things we wanted from the stores in Naivasha. As soon as she had gone I started on the milk records, and then Lisa came over to see Eden, but Zacharia told her he’d left. She said she wouldn’t disturb me, and left a note asking if we’d give her a lift next time either of us went into Nairobi. I heard the dogs barking and went to see who it was, but she was already half-way across the garden by then, so I didn’t stop her.’
    Greg said: ‘Do the dogs always bark when anyone comes to the house?’
    â€˜If they’re around. But they stop at once if it’s anyone they know.’
    â€˜What time was it when Lisa came over?’
    â€˜About twenty to eleven I should say: Alice had just left. Then at eleven Gilly came over on business and stayed for half an hour, and he’d only just gone when the Brandons dropped in. We had coffee, and Hector went off to see Kamau about some fodder we’re selling him, while Mabel and I talked.’
    â€˜What about?’
    The question was asked so casually that Em had started to answer it before she realized where it would lead her: ‘She’d seen Alice’s car in Naivasha and knew she wouldn’t be here, and she wanted to see me alone because she was worried about——’
    She stopped abruptly, her face flushing in the unbecoming and mottled manner of the old, while her lips folded into a tight hard line.
    Eden gave a short and mirthless laugh, and finished the sentence for her. ‘About Ken. You needn’t worry, Gran darling. It’s no secret. What did she want you to do. Ship Alice home, or slip some arsenic in her soup?’
    â€˜Eden!’ Once again Em’s voice was sharp and commanding, and this time it was edged with anger.
    â€˜I’m sorry,’ said Eden impatiently. ‘I quite see that under the present circumstances that was a bloody silly remark to make. But you must admit that Mabel’s been making a complete cake of herself over her precious Ken. It wasn’t Alice’s fault that her kid had a hopeless crush on her. Heaven knows she did everything she could to choke him off! But it wasn’t at all easy for her, what with Ken threatening suicide and generally behaving like an amateur actor getting his teeth into Hamlet. She ought to have let me deal with him.’
    â€˜She was quite right not to,’ said Em tartly. ‘She took the very sensible view that it was really only like measles or teething – something that everyone gets when young, though some children get it worse than others. He’d have got over it soon enough. But if you’d taken a hand and lectured him, we’d have had a first class Brandon–DeBrett feud on our hands, and we neither of us wanted that. Hector and Mabel are good friends of mine, and good neighbours; but Ken is their Achilles