Mike always played a betting game on Richard about what wine it was and Richard had always won. The game was a pleasure for both. Mike was ready to lose the bet to prove his wine was recognized and Pratt loved showing his knowledge.
That night, he served a Mosel wine. A very unusual wine,`Geierslay Ohligsberg, 1945. It came from a very small village in the Mosel area in Germany, but only a little of this wine was produced Mike waited for the moment Richard Pratt would drink his first drop but he was in a deep conversation with Louise, Mike’s 18 year old daughter.He leaned closer and closer to her but the poor girl leaned as far as she could from him. The first course finished and the servant was ready to bring the second course, roast meat, when Mike said the best wine for this food was a claret. He had already opened it.
It was on top of the green cupboard in his study, the best place in the house for a wine to reach room temperature. Mike said it would be difficult to get it, but Richard finally bet the hand of Mike’s daughter in marriage if he could The author saw something devil in Richard’s face.Louise and her mother were against it. But Mike was as sure Richard couldn’t get it, as Richard was he could. Mike told Louise she could own two properties, but she refused.
Finally, she accepted helplessly, as her father swore there was no danger of losing. Richard was about 50, he didn’t have a pleasant face. It was all moth and lips. The typical face of a professional epicure.
He started smelling the wine carefully. Then the tasting process started. First he decided what area of Bordeaux it came from. It was far too light to be from St Emilian or Graves.
It was obviously a Medoc. Then, from which part of Medoc it was. It couldn’t be a Margaux or a Pauillac. It was very gentle, so unmistakably it was a St. Julien.
In that moment, Louise intended to light a cigarette and Richard got quite angry at that.. He continued. He said the wine was from a great year. He said it could be a Beycheville or a Talbot. He drank a little more.
He said it couldn’t be any of them but it was so close to them it had to be somewhere almost in between He finally decided it was a Chateau Branaire-Ducru, year 1934.Mike’s face started getting pale, as his wife and daughter stared at him. Richard felt himself a winner. Suddenly the servant held out to him a pair of glasses and said he had left them in Mr Schofield’s study, on top of the green cupboard, where he had gone before dinner. The colour came back to Mike’s face.
Everything was understood. A SWIM After two days of fairly rough weather, the sea was calm and the whole ship seemed more friendly. At 8 o’clock the dining room was filled with people with the confidence of experienced sailors.But the meal wasn’t half over when the ship started rolling again and only after 5 or 6 minutes it was swinging heavily from side to side. When a really bad roll came, Mr Botibol, sitting at the purser’s table saw his plate sliding away and Mrs Renshaw, sitting at the purser’s right, gave a cry and held onto his arm. Most of the passengers continued with their meal and a small number went away.
When the eating was finished, Mr Botibal went to Mrs Renshaw’s empty place, next to the purser and wanted to know if the captain had already made his guess at the day’s run for the competition before the sea had begun to get rough.The purser said he couldn’t really tell Mr Botibol guessed if it got worse it would be worth buying some of the low numbers and asked the purser what he would choose. He answered he didn’t know the range as it wasn’t announced until the auction started. At auction time, he took a chair next to the auctioneer’s table.
He imagined the winner would get around 7 thousand dollars, selling the numbers for about 3 or 4 hundred each. As it was a British ship, the auction would be in pounds. But he liked to think in dollars.He would buy a car immediately and imagined his wife’s face when she saw the car. Then the auctioneer explained the captain had guessed the day’s run at 830 km, taking ten numbers on each side to make up the range which was 820 to 840. For those who thought the figure would be still further away, there would be low field and high field sold separately.
The first number was 827. It was sold for 110 pounds. The ship continued rolling heavily. The auctioneer called the next number was low field.
Mr Botibol was determined to get that ticket, but others had also noticed the weather was rough.He finally got the ticket at 200 pounds. The money to win was 2. 100 pounds, about 6 thousand dollars When he woke up the next morning, the sea was completely smooth.
He lost hope. One of the higher numbers was certain to win. He had an idea. He’d throw to the water, the ship would have to stop and sail back for him.
That would take about an hour. The delay would reduce the day’s run for about 48 km. Low field would be sure to win then. He put on some sports clothes and went to sun deck.
The only person in sight was an old fat woman leaning over the rail.He wasn’t sure he would call for help, perhaps because she might have had bad hearing and eyesight, but also because she might have had one of the high numbers and she wouldn’t wish to stop the ship. So he went and talked to her. She didn’t know about the auction and said she was lazy , had dinner in bed. Everything was in order then. The sea was calm, he was slightly dressed for swimming, there weren’t man-eating fish and the woman to call for help.
He climbed to the wooden rail and jumped shouting for help. At first the woman didn’t know what she ought to do.Then immediately she seemed to relax. She leaned over the rail to keep the little spot in sight but it couldn’t be seen.
After a time, another thin bony woman came. The fat woman explained what she had seen: a nice man waving at her. The bony woman took her across the deck and asked her not to go on deck alone again. They lived in a small flat in New York city. He was a dentist and she was a big, active woman.
Once a month she travelled to Baltimore to visit her old aunt, where she spent the night.But that was only an excuse, as the real purpose of her trips was to visit the Colonel. He was very wealthy. He lived in an attractive house on the edge of the town. He had no wife or children, only a few loyal servants. He enjoyed riding his horses and hunting.
This pleasant relationship continued for eight years. They saw so rarely, they had no chance of getting bored. Once, it was just before Christmas and Mrs Bixby was in Baltimore waiting for the train to New York, when Wilkins, one of the Colonel’s servants, brought her a large, flat box from the Colonel.When she was on the train, she went into the Ladies’ Room, trying to guess what it was in the box.
It was a mink coat, it was almost pure black with a touch of blue. She felt a different woman in it. She felt wonderful, beautiful, rich and sexy. There was also a letter inside the box.
The colonel said for personal reasons he could see her no more. Mrs Bixby felt he had lost one thing but gained another. Just as she was about to throw the litter she noticed something written on the other side of the note. It suggested to tell her family that her nice, generous aunt had given it for Christmas.But she couldn’t do it. Everybody knew her aunt couldn’t afford a six-thousand dollar mink coat.
She thought the Colonel had done it to drive her crazy. When she arrived to London, she got a taxi and asked for a pawnbroker’s shop. She told the man she had lost her handbag and needed some money for the weekend. She only asked for 50 dollars. The man gave her a ticket but she didn’t want to write her name or address on it.
The man told her if she lost her ticket anyone who got hold of it could come and claim the coat She didn’t want to write a description, either.The man gave her five ten-dollar notes and said the interest was 3% a month. When she got home, she kissed her husband, as always, and asked for a drink. She asked what he had done at the weekend.
He said he had got his accounts up to date. Mrs Bixby suggested Pultney, his secretary, did it for him but he answered he had to decide on the prices first as she didn’t know who was rich and who wasn’t. Then she showed him the ticket, saying she had found it on the taxi. He examined it and realized it was a pawnbroker’s ticket.
He explained how pawnbrokers worked.The object in question might be quite valuable as they never gave people more than a tenth of the real value and, as there was no name or address on it, they could claim it. They had a little argument about who would go and claim it, but it was finally agreed Mr Bixby would go for it. On Monday, before leaving, she asked him to phone her if it was something she might like. He phoned her to say it was something extraordinary she could wear but he didn’t say what it really was She was anxious to get it; she couldn’t wait until he returned, so they ecided she ‘d go to his office at 1:30 while he was having a sandwich When she opened her eyes to see what the surprise was, she started backing away and nearly cried. It was only a stupid little fur neckpiece.
Two narrow dirty looking skins with their heads still on and little feet. One of them was biting the end of the other. She felt terrible. Mr Bixby said he’d be back home late as he had plenty of work. Mrs Bixby was going to kill the pawnbroker if he didn’t give her, her coat. Mrs Pultney came back, walking in a proud way.
She looked like a queen in the beautiful black mink coat. Mrs Foster had almost an illness. She had a strong fear of missing a plane, a train, a boat or even the start of a play. As a result, a muscle in the corner of her left eye would begin to tremble and it wouldn’t stop after whatever it was had been safely caught. She was always ready to leave the house half an hour before.
Mr Foster’s timing was so exact and his manner so calm that it was hard to believe that he wasn’t purposely causing pain to her.On two or three occasions on the later year of their marriage, it seemed almost as though he had wanted to miss the train to increase her suffering. But Mrs Foster was a good, loving wife who had served him loyally and well, so although she refused to believe he could hurt her, there had been times when she had begun to wonder. They lived in a six floor house in New York city on East 62nd St. It was a dark, cheerless place but on this morning in January everything was different as she was leaving to Paris by plane.
She was worried about getting to the airport on time.It had taken months to persuade her husband let her go. If she missed the plane, she might decide that she should forget it. She was going to Paris for 6 weeks to visit her only daughter who was married to a Frenchman, and had three children, whom she only knew by photos.
Mrs Foster didn’t like the Frenchman very much. She really wished to finish her days near her grandchildren but she knew her husband wouldn’t leave New York and live in Paris. Mr Foster did everything slowly and they finally got into the hired car.He said he had arranged to give the servants half pay for six weeks and they would return when they wanted them back. He also said he’d move into the club and visit the house occasionally to see everything was all right. She suggested letting Walher, the butler, stay but he refused As they got near the airport, an assistant told her the flight had been delayed but she had to wait as the weather might clear at any moment.
Mr Foster returned home and she was the rest of the day waiting for her flight to leave.But after 6 in the evening it was announced the flight had been delayed until 11 the next morning. She didn’t want to return home and see her husband as he would prevent her from getting to France. But then she realized it was a stupid thing for an old lady to do , and phoned her husband. Although the house was already empty, there was no food and he was about to leave for the club, he persuaded her to return. He ordered a car for the next day at 9 and asked her to drop him at the club.
The next morning she was up very early and ready to go but, as always, he did everything slowly.As they were in the car, he began searching his pockets for a present he had for Ellen. It was a little box wrapped up in white paper. He returned to the house for it. Mrs Foster was desperate. She finally found the box on the side of the seat where her husband had been sitting.
She asked the driver to go for him but the door was closed. She searched for the key herself and ran to the door. But she stood there, still. She was listening to some sounds that were coming from some place deep inside the house. Then, suddenly she came to life again and asked the driver to drive her to the airport.
Her expression had suddenly changed. A strange hardness had suddenly settled on her features, she carried a new note of decision. The man drove fast and she just caught the plane. She spent six wonderful weeks in Paris.
Once a week on Tuesdays, she wrote to her husband a letter which always finished saying:”Be sure you take your meals although you may not be doing it when I’m not with you. When the 6 weeks were up, everybody was sad that she had to return but she appeared to leave open the possibility of a soon return. When she reachedNew York, nobody was waiting for her. A taxi took her home but nobody answered.
She took her key and opened the door She saw the mail lying on the floor. The place was dark and cold. There was a strange smell in the air. She walked quickly across the hall and disappeared at the back, purposefully. When she returned there was a look of satisfaction on her face.
She went to her husband’s study and phoned somebody. She explained the lift seemed to be stuck on the 2nd. and 3rd. Floors and it needed repairing soon.The room was warm, clean. Mary Malonery was as every day, waiting for her husband to come from work.
There were only three months before the birth of her child. At exactly ten to five she heard her husband come. She made some drinks. She knew he didn’t want to speak much until the first drink was finished.
He served other stronger drink. She said it was a shame when a policeman had as much experience as he had, they kept him walking around on his feet all day long. As it was Thursday, the day when they ate out, she hadn’t prepared any dinner.But if he was tired, she offered to take some lamb out of the freezer and prepare it . But he said he had something important to tell her He had been thinking about it a long deal but he had to.
He said he ‘d give her money and see she was looked after and he hoped there wouldn’t be any problems, it wouldn’t be good for his job. She wanted to continue life as if nothing had happened, perhaps the next day, she? d realize it hadn’t been true. She went to the freezer and took out a leg of lamb. As she went through the living room she saw him by the window.
He told her he was going out. Mary simply walked up behind him and without any pause hit him on the back of his head with the lamb. She killed him As the wife of a policeman, she began thinking what the punishment would be. She didn’t know and she wasn’t prepared to take a chance.
She placed the lamb in the cooker and went to the corner shop for some potatoes and beans. She returned as if nothing had happened. She entered the house and called Patrick’s name. She saw him lying on the floor and started to cry.
A few minutes later she called the police station asking for help.Jack Nooman and O’Mallery came immediately and confirmed his death. Nooman discovered some dry blood on the dead man’s head. And phoned some more policemen and a doctor..
They asked her a lot of questions, went to the corner shop and finally said he had been killed by a blow on the back of the head with a heavy instrument. As they were tired she persuaded them to eat the lamb before continuing looking for the weapon. Meanwhile they talked about the case. One of them said that perhaps the weapon was under their noses.
In the other room, Mary Maloney started to laugh.
