The Ivory Dagger (22 page)

Looks as if we’re back where we started.’

The Chief Inspector’s tone was a gloomy one. Frederick had been dismissed. He spoke to Frank Abbott and Miss Silver, and his expression indicated that this unfortunate state of affairs could only have arisen through negligence on their part. He would not have put the accusation into words, but he was certainly in the mood in which a man feels that he has been let down, and casts about him for someone to take the blame.

Miss Silver, opening her work-bag and picking up her knitting, was perfectly aware of this. She observed a tactful silence, and left it to Frank Abbott to say,

‘That’s about the size of it.’

Lamb thumped the table.

‘First it looks like a cast-iron case against Miss Dryden and young Waring, and then you go and make a red herring out of the Professor and drag him across the trail. For all we know, he may have done it. I grant you there doesn’t seem to be any adequate motive, but there have been murders done with less. It isn’t always the motive—it’s the state of a man’s mind. If he’s worked up to a certain pitch he loses control, lets go of himself, and hits out with anything that comes handy. Take this Professor. He and Sir Herbert have a kind of running quarrel—like to score off each other. Looks as if Sir Herbert had the money and the Professor had the brains. You can get a lot of jealousy, and ill-feeling out of a situation like that. Well, the Professor was here with Sir Herbert for about twenty minutes between a little before eleven and the quarter past. And we’ve only got his word for it that he left him alive. There’s quite a case to be made out there, you know. If it hadn’t been for things looking so black against Waring and Miss Dryden, I might have told you to go ahead with it. And now they’re out, I think we had better come back to the Professor again.’

Frank said,

‘I don’t think he did it, sir. As you say, the motive isn’t much. Mr. Haile has a stronger one. Even Lady Dryden. There’s no absolute evidence that he was blackmailing her into pushing her niece into marrying him, but I haven’t the slightest doubt that he was bringing some pressure to bear. Quite frankly, I think that Lila Dryden’s money is gone, and that Lady Dryden knows where. We could check up on that, you know, and it would certainly provide her with a motive. As to opportunity, any one of the people in the house that night could have come down to the study and bumped Whitall off. The bother, as stated by Miss Whitaker, seems to be that there is quite an embarrassment of choice—so many people disliked him and were going to be the better for his death. Haile, I gather, is going to be the better for it to the tune of something like three-quarters of a million, even after the Chancellor has had his whack. Quite a lot of people have been put out of the way for a good deal less than that.’

Lamb looked up with his lips pursed, as though to whistle.

‘Three-quarters of a million? My word!’

‘And Haile was up to his eyes in debt. According to Lady Dryden and Miss Whitaker he came here on Saturday night to ask for a loan, and Whitall was going to refuse him. He admits that he had hopes of a legacy from his cousin. That would be under the old will. But in three or four days time there was going to be a new will. He may easily have supposed that his prospects were diminishing. There’s a whale of a motive there.’

Lamb nodded slowly.

‘And not as much evidence as you could put on a threepenny bit—the old kind, before they took to making a cheap show of them with plants growing.’

They went on talking—about Haile, about Lady Dryden, about the Professor. And what it came to in the end was that there wasn’t enough evidence to make a case against any of them. Haile had a very strong motive if he knew what was in the first will, but there was no proof that he did. Lady Dryden had a motive if Herbert Whitall was blackmailing her into pushing on the marriage to Lila, but there was no proof that there was any blackmail going on. The world is full of women who will rush a girl into a marriage they consider advantageous. Professor Richardson could hardly be said to have a motive at all. On the other hand, he admitted to something like a quarrel, and he was certainly one of the last people to see Herbert Whitall alive. He left Vineyards at a quarter past eleven, according to his own statement and the evidence of Frederick. Either Haile or Lady Dryden could have come down and stabbed Sir Herbert after that. Or Adrian Grey, or Marsham, or Mrs. Marsham, or Frederick. So far as opportunity went, they all had it and could have availed themselves of it. And there wasn’t any evidence to show that anyone of them did.

Miss Silver had been knitting in a thoughtful silence. She now gave a gentle cough.

‘If I may make a suggestion—’

Lamb turned to look at her.

‘Think you’ve got something?’

She smiled disarmingly.

‘I would not go so far as to say that. It was just a suggestion.’

‘Well?’

‘The time that is so important is from a quarter past eleven, when Professor Richardson is known to have left, and twelve o’clock, when according to her own evidence and that of Frederick it seems probable that Miss Whitaker found Sir Herbert dead. The medical evidence also supports this probability. We have, therefore, rather less than three-quarters of an hour during which anyone in the house could have come to the study and stabbed Sir Herbert. Since you have seen Professor Richardson’s statement, you will remember that he says he heard Sir Herbert bolt the door behind him, yet Miss Whitaker found it open. Sir Herbert may have admitted someone from outside, in which case we are left without any clue to his identity, or, the crime having been committed by someone in the house, the door may have been unbolted by the murderer in order to make it appear that some person had come in from outside.’

The Chief Inspector nodded.

‘Very nicely put and all that. But it doesn’t get us anywhere, does it?’

Miss Silver’s look held some slight reproof.

‘I believe it might do so. What I was about to say is this. During the critical period which we have to consider, we know for certain that one of the people in the house was actually moving stealthily about in it. I refer, of course, to Frederick. He came down the back stairs, satisfied himself that Marsham was nowhere in the back premises, and finally left the house by the housekeeper’s room. I think it might be advantageous to press him closely as to why he was so sure that Marsham was in the front of the house. You will have noticed that while he answers any question that is put to him, he does not readily volunteer anything.’

‘Well, we can press him on that point. I don’t suppose we shall get very much.’

Miss Silver continued to knit.

‘From the conversation which I overheard between Mr. Haile and Marsham it appears to me that there is some implication that the former had been seen by the latter in circumstances which he was not willing to have disclosed. This may, or may not, refer to the night of the murder, but I am inclined to believe that it does. Finally, I think that Mr. Adrian Grey should be questioned very closely as to his movements on Saturday night. His story that he heard Miss Dryden come out of her room and followed her to the study is disproved by what Miss Whitaker and Frederick have told us. He could not have been immediately behind Lila Dryden, or he would have seen Miss Whitaker and heard what she said, in which case he would certainly have intervened and given the alarm. I think he should now be pressed to correct his statement.’ She paused, smiled in an encouraging manner, and concluded, ‘Those are the suggestions which I thought might be productive of something which you would admit to be evidence.’

Lamb frowned, drummed on his knee, and finally nodded.

‘All right, we’ll have Mr. Grey. I can’t say I think it’s any use, but we’ll see what he says.’

Adrian Grey was his unhurried and quiet self. In a gently disarming manner he acquiesced in the suggestion that he had not been perfectly frank when he made his original statement. He had followed Lila Dryden down, but he had not followed her immediately.

‘You see, I was thinking—I may even have been a little drowsy—I don’t know. I heard her door open just as I said, but for the moment I didn’t connect the sound with her, or with anything. As I say, I was thinking about something else. Later on—’

Lamb interrupted him.

‘How much later on?’

‘A minute or two—I don’t know. I came back to what I had heard, and I got up and looked out. Lila’s door was open. I went to the head of the stairs and saw her in the hall. She was going in the direction of the study. I went back to my room and put on my dressing-gown and slippers, then I went across the landing and closed her door just in case anyone should be about. It wasn’t till after that I went down and followed her to the study.’

The Chief Inspector’s solid bulk was facing him, the Chief Inspector’s whole solid personality registered the most uncompromising disapproval.

‘In fact, Mr. Grey, your original statement to Inspector Abbott was deliberately misleading.’

‘That is rather a harsh way of putting it. I knew that Miss Dryden was quite incapable of stabbing anyone, but I could not help seeing that she was in a very dangerous position, and I naturally wished to protect her.’

Lamb’s rather prominent brown eyes gazed impeturbably at him. A very composed gentleman considering he had just been found out in a lie and been obliged to admit it. Sweet on the girl of course—that stuck out a mile. Too much relieved to hear she was out of the wood to bother about anything else. A very quiet, pleasant gentleman. He recalled the proverb, ‘Still waters run deep.’ All very pleasant on the surface, Mr. Adrian Grey—but he got five thousand pounds out of the will, didn’t he? He began to wonder just how deep the waters might be. He said,

‘When someone admits that part of a statement is false, it makes you wonder about the rest of it—doesn’t it, Mr. Grey?’

Adrian smiled faintly.

‘Oh, naturally. But there isn’t much more of mine that could be false, is there? I did come into the study just when I said, you know, because Bill Warring saw me, and he and I were on either side of the sofa looking at Lila Dryden who had fainted, when Haile came into the room a minute or two later. So all the rest of my statement is corroborated.’

Lamb nodded.

‘And just as well,’ he said in a tone of heavy reproof. ‘I suppose you don’t need me to tell you that it’s a very serious thing to try and mislead the police in the execution of their duty. If people would stop thinking about their own private affairs, hedging here and trying to cover up there, it would be a whole heap easier to clear things up. Now, Mr. Grey, I take it you’ll agree that it’s up to you to make what amends you can. I want you to go over in your mind every minute of the time between eleven o’clock and a quarter past twelve—every single minute of it. You were awake?’

‘Yes. I may have been a little drowsy towards the end, but I wasn’t asleep.’

‘It was eleven o’clock when you saw Mr. Haile in his room with the door open as you came back from the bathroom?’

‘Yes.’

‘He was in his pyjamas?’

‘Oh, yes.’

‘Anything odd about him—anything noticeable—anything unusual in his manner?’

‘No.’ There was just the faintest shade of hesitation about the way the word came out.

Lamb said,

‘You don’t seem to feel quite sure about that.’

Adrian looked unhappy.

‘It’s nothing of course—I just wondered why his door was open—that’s all.’

‘It was wide open?’

‘Yes.’

‘And where was he? What was he doing?’

‘He was over by the bed. He wasn’t doing anything. He was just standing there looking in the direction of the door.’

‘As if he was waiting for you to come along and see him?’

‘Well—I don’t think that’s quite fair—’

Lamb said,

‘He might have wanted you to say you had seen him ready for bed at eleven o’clock that night?’

Adrian shook his head.

‘You don’t really expect me to answer that, do you, Chief Inspector?’

‘Well, well—what about the rest of the time?’

‘I am afraid there isn’t anything to say. I just went into my room and stayed there till after I heard Miss Dryden open her door.’

Lamb pressed him a little more—took him in detail through the time, and finally let him go.

‘Not much there,’ he said when the door was closed behind Adrian Grey. ‘We’ll have Haile in next.’

Eric Haile, in the chair so lately vacated by Adrian, was as complete a contrast as could be. Ruddy and vigorous, with his air of having always done himself and been done extremely well, he sat there, the genial host, only too anxious to assist the law and be of any service that he could.

‘I am sure you will appreciate, Chief Inspector, how very glad I shall be to have this painful matter cleared up. If there is anything I can do—’

Lamb retained his solid reserve.

‘Naturally, Mr. Haile, We are anxious to cover the time between eleven o’clock and a quarter past twelve on Saturday night. If you would tell us anything you did, or saw, or noticed—’

‘But I’m afraid I can’t. After having a last drink with my cousin just after half past ten I went upstairs and had a bath. I was in bed by just after eleven.’

Lamb nodded.

‘Yes—Mr. Grey passed your room at eleven o’clock and saw you in your pyjamas. Your door was open. Do you mind telling us why?’

Haile burst out laughing.

‘Because I hadn’t shut it! Come, Chief Inspector, that’s a little too much like “Why did the chicken cross the road?” ’

Lamb was not amused. He stared and said,

‘And why hadn’t you shut it?’

‘I really don’t know.’

‘It wasn’t because you heard Mr. Grey coming along the passage?’

Haile gave a careless nod.

‘I expect so, now you mention it. Rude to shut the door in anyone’s face.’

‘You might have wished him to see that you were ready for bed.’

Haile’s laugh came easily.

‘Not a very good alibi, Chief Inspector. I expect I could have done better than that if I had thought I was really going to need one.’ Then, after a pause and in the face of Lamb’s portentous stare, ‘You are not by any chance serious, are you?’’

‘Perfectly serious, Mr. Haile.’

‘Good lord, man—what possible motive could I have had for wishing my cousin out of the way?’

Frank Abbott’s light, cool gaze rested on him appreciatively. Nothing could have had a more natural ring.

Lamb’s face remained as wooden as the figurehead of a ship. He said with as little expression in his voice,

‘Some people might consider three-quarters of a million or thereabouts quite a sizable motive.’

Haile made a face of almost comic protest.

‘But, my good sir, I hadn’t the remotest idea that I was going to get it. A small legacy perhaps—it would just depend on what mood he was in when he made that will. But residuary legatee and all that money! I give you my word I never dreamed of such a thing. Just look at it from my point of view. I’m a careless chap about money—have been all my life—one of the diminishing class who live happily on an overdraft. When my bank manager became too pressing I could generally touch my cousin for a loan. Hang it all, I’ve been doing it for the last twenty years. He used to be fairly rude about it, but he generally paid up. It was as good as having a second overdraft. Now, family feeling and a natural disinclination for bloodshed apart, wouldn’t I have been a damned fool to cut off the supply by killing my cousin on the off chance that he might have done something handsome for me in his will? And mind you, like everyone else, I knew he was making a new will in anticipation of his marriage, and I had no idea at all whether he had already signed it or not. He wasn’t a man who talked about his affairs— anyone will tell you that. He certainly didn’t talk about them to me. If the new will had been made in time, the off chance I spoke of would have been practically no chance at all. That is my position, and I think it is a reasonable one.’

Lamb said, ‘Very reasonable.’ He turned to the table, moved the papers that were lying there, and picked up one of them, then swung round again. ‘I believe you had a conversation with the butler, Marsham, last night.’

Haile’s eyebrows rose.

‘One does, you know, with one’s butler. He comes along and says, “Anything I can get you sir?” and you say, “Yes,” or “No,” or whatever the occasion calls for.’

‘It was a rather longer conversation than that, Mr. Haile. And it was overheard.’

‘Indeed? Hpw very interesting! May I ask what your eavesdropper made of it?’

‘Oh, yes—I was going to tell you. Marsham began by inquiring what you were going to do about keeping on the staff. You proceeded to let him know you were in possession of some damaging facts about himself. He had been fleecing your cousin, and Sir Herbert was about to discharge him without a character. After asserting that he had merely been taking a commission on wine and cigars, which had been his custom under a previous employer, Marsham denied that he was being dismissed and said that it was quite the other way about—he was anxious to leave, and Sir Herbert was using the threat of prosecution in order to compel him to stay. There then follow some very curious passages which I will read out to you from this transcript.’

He proceeded to do so in his best official voice, and having read, he summarized.

‘Up to this point you appear to have had, as it were, the upper hand—Marsham has put himself on the wrong side of the law, and you are letting him know it. But now he puts what he calls a hypothetical case. He says “Everyone has some private affairs which he would not like to have intruded upon. Let us take the question of last Saturday night, or of any other night, sir. There are always a number of persons in a house any one of whom could be about his private business at an hour or in a place which might be considered compromising. By the police for instance. Their profession induces a very suspicious habit of mind. If I may say so, sir, it would be most unwise to import them into the matter under discussion.” ’

He paused for long enough to mark the end of the quotation, and then continued weightily.

‘On this you immediately take up the attitude that he is attempting to blackmail you. He comes out with what he calls a vulgar proverb about letting sleeping dogs lie, and you ask how long they are going to lie and whether they don’t come back to be fed again, and again, and again. Marsham comes out with a piece about the subject being a painful one and the less said about it the better, and suggests that if you accept his notice and give him and his wife a testimonial, it will be satisfactory to all concerned. Upon which you burst out laughing, tell him he’s a thundering hypocrite, and agree that there are things which are better forgotten. Well, Mr. Haile?’

Eric Haile had maintained his smile of amusement. He laughed right out now.

‘My dear sir—what a lot of cooked-up nonsense! I don’t know who your informant was, but—well, there used to be a game called Russian Scandal. Something was whispered from one to another, and you have no idea what it would come out like by the time even a few people had had the handling of it. All this rubbish is a case in point. I saw Marsham, I told him I knew he had been peculating, and he came back with the suggestion that he knew things about me which perhaps I would not care to have repeated. Well, so he did—and as I don’t choose to be suspected of murder I’m going to tell you what they were. We’re all human, and the last time I stayed here Marsham happened to run into me in circumstances which would have compromised a lady. I’m sure you won’t expect me to take you any further into my confidence than that.’

Lamb consulted the paper which he still held, and read from it.

‘ “Let us take the question of last Saturday night—” ’

Haile finished the sentence—‘ “or of any other night,” Chief Inspector. It wasn’t Saturday night he was hinting at so far as I was concerned, and whether your eavesdropper thought it was or not is neither here nor there. And you know perfectly well that all this hearsay stuff isn’t evidence and you can’t use it. Marsham is a magnificent butler and a magnificent rogue. He gave me a good laugh, and I didn’t want to be hard on him. Hang it all man, even your eavesdropper admits I burst out laughing. Do you really suppose I’d have done that if I had thought he was hinting that I’d had a hand in my cousin’s death?’ He got up, still smiling, still genial. ‘I have a great deal of business to see to, so you must excuse me now. If you have any more posers for me, I’ll do my best to answer them later on.’

Lamb sat where he was.

‘Just a minute, Mr. Haile. There is something I would like to ask you now.’

‘I am all attention.’

‘You were ready for bed at eleven o’clock, but at a quarter past twelve or so you were downstairs at the study door listening to a conversation between Mr. Waring and Mr. Grey.’

‘What about it?’ Haile’s tone had a shade of impatience.

‘You came in very pat, didn’t you? I should like to know what brought you down to the study.’

‘Do you always go off to sleep as soon as you put out the light? I don’t. I think I said as much in my statement. I didn’t go to sleep. I thought I heard something in the shrubbery— went and looked out of the window for a bit. Then I thought I could do with a nightcap. My cousin might have gone to bed, or he might not—anyhow the whisky would be there. So I went down. Simplicity itself!’

‘I think you said in your statement that you weren’t satisfied about the noise you had heard and came down to investigate.’

Haile laughed.

‘It was a bit of this and a bit of that, I expect. Perhaps I didn’t want to confess to the nightcap! You may have it any way you like. And if that is really all—’

‘For the present, Mr. Haile.’