The Silent Pool (22 page)

‘She was dead. It was a long time. She was right down in the water. She was dead.’

‘You didn’t tell anyone?’

‘I went – home. Mary was there – in my room. I didn’t tell her – I didn’t tell anyone.’

Miss Silver spoke slowly and gravely.

‘You will have to tell the police.’

There was a terrified movement.

‘No! No!’

Miss Silver said, ‘Do you know that Mr Geoffrey Ford is being detained for questioning?’

‘No—’ It was more of a gasp than a word.

‘He is under grave suspicion, and the police have detained him for questioning. You cannot withhold this evidence.’

Ellie burst into tears.

Superintendent Martin looked at Miss Silver with that mixture of exasperation and respect which it was not unknown for her to arouse in the official breast. There had been quite a neat case against Mr Geoffrey Ford. In addition to his own admissions, the butler Simmons had heard raised voices proceeding from the study when he passed through the hall at half past eight. It had been his intention to make up the study fire, but on hearing those angry voices he thought better of it and went back to the housekeeper’s room. He had had no difficulty in identifying the voices as those of Mr Geoffrey and Miss Meriel, and he had attributed no importance to the fact that they were quarrelling, since Miss Meriel was always in a way about something. Taxed with this evidence, Geoffrey Ford admitted that Meriel had found him in the study, and that they had quarrelled there, but he continued to deny that she had accompanied him to the Lodge, or so far as he knew, that she had followed him there. On the top of this Miss Silver produced Ellie Page with her story of having overheard Meriel Ford accuse Geoffrey and Mrs Trent of having pushed Mabel Preston into the pool. According to this statement she had accused them and threatened them with the police, after which she left the Lodge and Geoffrey followed her. Evidence that would hang Geoffrey Ford if she stuck to it in the box. Ellie Page had stuck to it with him all right, and at this second time of telling there had been very little of the agitation reported by Miss Silver. She had been anxious to tell her story and careful in telling it, and again, according to Miss Silver, the narrative though more coherent and rather more ample in no way differed from its original form. All very satisfactory up to a point. But if that point was to be accepted, the whole case against Geoffrey Ford broke down, because Miss Ellie Page deposed, and stuck to it, that Geoffrey Ford had entered the house by the study window, and that it was a woman coming up from behind her who had followed Meriel across the lawn and through the gate into the enclosed garden beyond. Miss Ellie Page could be lying to protect a man with whom she had been carrying on, but her evidence did not strike him that way. She was so set on this point and so sure of it, it really didn’t seem to occur to her that the earlier part of her evidence would bring him under suspicion. It was just something to be got out of the way before coming to the real point. And the real point was that she had seen a woman following Meriel Ford with a golfclub in her hand. She had seen this woman come back alone from the pool, and some considerable time later she had found Meriel lying there dead with her head and shoulders under the water. If that was to be accepted, bang went the case against Geoffrey Ford. A difficult business, taking part of a girl’s evidence to build your case on and rejecting the climax to which it led. A jury either believes a witness or it doesn’t. He thought the odds were that it would believe Ellie Page. Well, that left you with the good old three-card-trick and ‘Spot the lady’! If a woman followed Meriel Ford, what woman was it? Again an easy answer, if it were not that Ellie Page’s evidence didn’t lend itself to easy answers. A woman coming up from behind and following Meriel carried the overwhelming suggestion that it would be Esmé Trent. Quite in character that she should distrust Geoffrey Ford’s capacity to silence Meriel with fair words and make sure of it by some more drastic action. She could have taken up a golfclub and followed them, seen Geoffrey go into the house, and pursued her purpose. A nice easy theory ruined by the evidence of Miss Ellie Page to the effect that she had afterwards seen the woman enter Ford House by the study door.

He had gone so far in a frowning silence. He broke in now upon his own train of thought.

‘Miss Page says she saw this woman go into the house. You say you believe her evidence. Do you believe that?’

Miss Silver said composedly,

‘I think she was speaking the truth.’

‘Your reasons?’

‘She was in such a state of shock and agitation as to preclude any design in what she said. And when she repeated it to you she did not vary it. I feel sure that if it had not been securely based on fact there would have been discrepancies.’

‘She wants to help Geoffrey Ford.’

‘She believes him to be innocent. If she did not, she would recoil from him in horror.’

He said,

‘Well, well – about this woman. She ought to be Mrs Trent, but if you believe that she went into Ford House, why in heaven’s name should Mrs Trent do that? If she had just killed Meriel she would have every incentive to get back to the Lodge and make out that she had never left it. She could have had no possible motive for going into Ford House.’

‘I think as you do, Superintendent. The woman who entered Ford House was returning to it.’

‘Then it wasn’t Mrs Trent. And that leaves us with the six women who are known to have been in the house that night – Adriana Ford, Meeson, Mrs Geoffrey Ford, Miss Johnstone, Mrs Simmons, and yourself. I think perhaps we may exclude the last three.’

He smiled slightly, but Miss Silver remained grave.

‘Yes, I think so.’

They were in the study at the Vicarage where he had interviewed Ellie Page, now handed over to Mary Lenton’s care. He sat a little drawn back from the table at which John Lenton was in the habit of writing his sermons. On the right of the blotter lay a Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. Since to Miss Silver all law and justice drew its authority from these two books, the association did not seem incongruous. That the police force was upheld by what she called Providence in exactly the same way as the ministry of the Church she regarded as axiomatic.

Martin was frowning.

‘Well, to start at the beginning, there’s Adriana Ford herself. There doesn’t seem to be any motive for her to kill her old friend – but there are old grudges as well as old friendships. Granting the first crime, she would have the same motive as anyone else for the second. She knew Meriel Ford had been down at the pool, and she was afraid of what she might have seen.’

Miss Silver shook her head.

‘She is a very tall woman, and she has a limp. It becomes especially noticeable by the end of the day. The woman seen by Ellie Page was not tall, and there was no mention of a limp.’

The Superintendent said, ‘Meeson—’ in a meditative voice. ‘Now what would Meeson’s motive have been? As regards the first crime, some provision under Miss Ford’s will, I suppose. Do you happen to know if it was considerable?’

‘I believe that she is handsomely provided for.’

‘And she doesn’t like living in the country. Somebody told me that – I believe it was Meriel Ford. Anyhow she’s a regular Londoner — it sticks out all over her.’

‘She has been forty years with Miss Ford. She is devoted to her.’

He nodded.

‘Sometimes people have been too long together, they get on one another’s nerves – you’d be surprised. Well, the other possible is Mrs Geoffrey Ford. Either she or Meeson would do as far as height is concerned, and so would Mrs Trent if one could think of any reason for her going in through that study window. You don’t think it was a put-up thing between her and Geoffrey Ford? Say it was like the Macbeth business – “Infirm of purpose, give me the daggers!” He hadn’t the nerve to pull it off, and she had.’

Miss Silver observed him with interest.

‘You are a student of Shakespeare?’

‘Well, I am. He knows a lot about the way people go on, doesn’t he? You don’t think Mrs Trent might have come into the house to tell him she’d done the job? I don’t mind saying she is the one I would pick out for it. Not many scruples, I should think.’

Miss Silver gave her slight cough.

‘No, Superintendent,’ she said. ‘But not one to rely upon another, or to risk anything for Geoffrey Ford. If she had committed the crime she would, I feel sure, have returned at once to the Lodge as you yourself opined.’

Sitting at an angle to the writing-table, she looked down the study to where Mary Lenton’s dahlias bloomed brightly in the sun. She saw Edna Ford walk up to the front door.

Mary Lenton came through the hall to let her in. Nothing could possibly have been more inconvenient, but then Edna was one of those people who always did time her visits at the most inconvenient moment. She had a shopping-bag on her arm and was extracting from it three small account-books which she held out in a complaining manner.

‘I really ought not to have undertaken anything to do with accounts. I remember I told you so at the time. I have no head for figures.’

‘But you offered—’

‘I am too kind-hearted,’ said Edna in a fretful voice. ‘When I heard that Miss Smithson was ill, I know I said that I would carry on, but I really can’t make head or tail of her writing. So I thought I would come down and tell you it’s no use. Unless, of course, we can just go through them together—’

Mary Lenton struggled with an acute feeling of irritation. She never had been able to like Edna Ford, though she had sometimes felt sorry for her. And to come at this moment, with Superintendent Martin in the house, Ellie upstairs looking as if she was going to faint again, and lunch to see to! Now she came to look at her, Edna didn’t seem any too well herself. Such a bad colour — and that dreadful old black coat and skirt! It ought to have been on the scrap-heap years ago. She really oughtn’t to go about looking like that. And that steel buckle would be off her shoe any minute now. She said,

‘I’m afraid, Edna, I’m very busy just now. Ellie isn’t well.’

‘She gives way,’ said Edna Ford. ‘I’ve always said so. She should rouse herself. I’m sure no one can tell me anything about bad health, but it shouldn’t be made an excuse for neglecting one’s duties. Now if we can just come into the dining-room and go through the entries for July. I see Miss Smithson has put down six yards of pink flannelette, and I really can’t think what it was for.’

Mary Lenton was just going to say ‘night-gowns’, when the study door opened and Miss Silver came to her rescue.

‘Mrs Ford, I wonder if you would mind coming in here for a moment.’

Edna looked surprised. She could not imagine why Miss Silver should be inviting her into the Vicar’s study – she could not imagine why Miss Silver should be there at all. She walked into the room with the shopping-bag on her arm and the three account-books in her hand, and was still further surprised to see that it was Superintendent Martin who was sitting in the Vicar’s chair. The door closed behind her. He said,

‘Ah, Mrs Ford – won’t you sit down?’

She took the chair on the other side of the table and put the bag down on the ground. Miss Silver seated herself. Edna said,

‘What is it?’

‘We think you may be able to help us.’

‘I can’t see – I really don’t think—’

He leaned towards her with a hand on the edge of the table.

‘It has been found necessary to detain your husband for questioning.’

She went on looking surprised.

‘I don’t see how you can think of any more questions to ask. I don’t suppose he can tell you anything he hasn’t told you already.’

‘That is as may be. At the moment, I’ve asked you to come in here because Miss Silver would like to speak to you.’

‘Miss Silver?’ The surprise deepened.

He got up and walked away to the window. Miss Silver said,

‘Superintendent Martin does not wish to be involved in this, but I think you ought to know that your husband is under a good deal of suspicion in regard to the deaths of Miss Preston and Miss Meriel Ford.’

Edna said, ‘Geoffrey?’

‘There is quite a strong case against him. In fact up to a point it is a very strong case indeed. I think you know that he went to the Lodge to see Mrs Trent on the night of the murder, and a witness has now come forward to prove that Miss Meriel followed him there. This witness overheard the violent quarrel which ensued. She heard Miss Meriel say to your husband that she would tell the police she had seen him push Miss Preston into the pool under the impression that the person wearing Adriana Ford’s coat was in fact Adriana Ford herself. Miss Meriel then left, and after being adjured by Mrs Trent to follow her Mr Geoffrey Ford did so.’

Superintendent Martin looked over his shoulder and saw Edna Ford sitting stiffly upright. She was clutching the three account-books, and there was a perfectly blank expression on her face. As he looked round, she said,

‘I don’t know why you are telling me all this. I don’t approve of Geoffrey going to see Mrs Trent – you have heard me say so before. She is an immoral woman – I don’t approve of her at all.’

Miss Silver said firmly,

‘There is a witness to the fact that Miss Meriel Ford threatened your husband, and that he followed her when she left the Lodge. Within a very short time of that she was struck down by a murderous blow and her body left in the pool.’

Edna had a gleam of animation.

‘I can’t think what she was doing there. So damp – and such unpleasant associations.’

‘Mrs Ford, your husband was seen to follow her. Do you not realize that that could be very serious for him? She threatened him. He followed her. She was found dead.’

The trace of animation became stronger.

‘Well, he had to get home. I hope you do not suppose he would have stayed at the Lodge all night.’

Miss Silver sighed. She looked round at the Superintendent, and he came back to his place at the writing-table.

‘Well, Mrs Ford, it is not part of my job to make you anxious about your husband, but the evidence of this witness whom Miss Silver has mentioned extends beyond his case.’

‘Really, you know, I came here to do these accounts with Mrs Lenton.’

‘Just a moment, if you please. This witness states that she followed Miss Meriel and Mr Geoffrey all the way to Ford House. She says Mr Geoffrey went in, but that someone else came up from behind her after she had reached the farther corner of the house and followed Miss Meriel across the lawn and into the enclosed garden which contains the pool. She states that it was a woman, and that after a little time this woman returned and went into Ford House by way of the study window. But Meriel Ford did not return.’

Edna fidgeted with the account-books.

‘How very strange.’

‘You realize that this witness was seeing the murderer?’

She nodded.

‘Then it would have been Esmé Trent.’

‘You think so?’

‘Oh, yes. She is a bad woman – I have always said so.’

‘But she would not have gone into Ford House.’

‘Oh, yes – she was always running after Geoffrey.’ She put a hand on the edge of the table and got up. ‘I really mustn’t keep Mrs Lenton waiting.’

And just at that moment the handle moved, the door opened, and Ellie Page came a half step into the room. She wore a dark blue jumper and skirt, and she looked like a ghost. When she saw Edna she said ‘Oh!’ and stopped where she was.

‘There was something I had forgotten. I thought perhaps – I ought to say—’

Edna began to move towards the door. As she did so, the loose steel buckle on her left-hand shoe fell sideways and almost tripped her. Ellie stared at it, and at her. Then she came right into the room, shut the door, and went back against it.

‘That was the thing I remembered,’ she said.

The Superintendent got to his feet and came round the table.

He saw Ellie’s eyes fixed and staring, and he wanted to see what they were staring at.

Edna Ford stooped down and pulled at the buckle. The loose threads broke and pulled away. She stood up with it in her hand.

‘Dear me – it nearly tripped me!’

Ellie’s eyes followed the buckle. She said,

‘That’s what I remembered. I saw it when she was crossing the lawn after she put the light on. The torch hung down in her left hand and shone on the buckle. It moved because it was loose, and the light shone down on it. I remembered, and I thought I ought to tell you.’ She looked from the buckle to Edna’s face and shrank back against the door. ‘Oh, you killed them! You killed them both!’

Edna Ford had a small complacent smile. She tilted the buckle on the palm of her hand and said,

‘It was very clever of me, wasn’t it?’