Read The Bad Sister for Free Online

forgetting she had been there at all. God knows what new powers Meg had over her by then.’
    â€˜But you didn’t know that Jane had been seeing Meg again? And what “powers” do you mean?’ (I was conscious of feeling slightly uncomfortable: was Stephen going to try to persuade me that the killer of the Dalzells had been suffering from diabolic possession? That he had tried to exorcize the demon and had failed?) I felt this was going a bit too far, and said so.
    â€˜I did suspect that Jane was seeing Meg again,’ Stephen replied. ‘But you must understand that she was very much in two minds about the whole thing. On the one hand, Meg and her mother had brought her up to fight capitalism, to be in a state of perpetual war with the society they lived in, and she was a radical by temperament, and on the other she wanted peace and harmony, which it seems she could never find. As for the diabolic qualities of Meg, I don’t know how else you would describe them. Have you never felt real evil?’
    â€˜Well, what were these powers,’ I said again. No doubt Stephen wanted to protect his friend, whether she was dead or alive, and by believing she had been ‘possessed’ at the time of the crimes he could condone them.
    â€˜I began to grasp them when I went to see Meg shortly after the murder of Mr Dalzell,’ Stephen said after a short pause. ‘Jane had recently seemed very agitated and confused and all the newspaper reports of his Scottish background, etc. made me uneasy. I knew she had seen Meg again and I wanted to try to have it out with her. But – and whether you believe this or not is up to you – Meg threw me off course from the beginning. I rang the bell and one of the small (female – the boys were sent away) children let me in. It was quite dark in the hall and there were rows of bicycles stacked there. Then the door of the red room, the visitors’ room, opened. I saw Jane quite clearly standing against thelight. One of the bicycles was in the way and I couldn’t see her legs and feet, but from the waist up it was definitely Jane. The only snag was that I knew Jane was at a film showing on the other side of London. I’d spoken to her just as she set off, so as to make sure I wouldn’t bump into her when I went to see Meg. Then she turned and went back into the room, and Meg’s voice called to me to come in. I went – and there was Meg and no one else. I remember it was a very windy day, and cold, but the window was open at the top and some white blossom was blowing in. It had settled on Meg’s hair, like confetti. But I can’t think of a less likely bride! Well it’s possible she was up to that kind of trick at Michael Dalzell’s house and Jane wasn’t there at all. It all depends on what you believe.’
    â€˜It certainly does,’ I said. I knew I sounded cold, but I was beginning to feel that Stephen wouldn’t be the ideal witness, as I had hoped.
    â€˜So what did Meg say?’ I went on.
    It was terrible. I realized that she had spun a web round Jane from which she would never be able to extricate herself. There was nothing, no method of persuasion she hadn’t used. She’d persuaded Jane, I think, that if she killed her father and her half-sister, the Dalzell money would go to her, as the natural child – and if there was any trouble she, Meg, would see to it that there’d be a big court case, and all the women out in force. (All this I worked out afterwards, wondering about Meg’s motives, but once I saw it was the money that was wanted for the group, it was simple.) I don’t know how she convinced Jane she wouldn’t be found out but, after all, none of them ever was. It was only since the second killing that I began to realize all this and then they’d all disappeared. It was an extraordinary gamble, for Jane coming forward and claiming the fortune would