‘You’re impossible,’ said Mary hopelessly. ‘Did it occur to you, when you deliberately played on her feelings, that the one thing she’s been dreading, ever since Sunday, was that you’d be accused of having had something to do with Wally’s death?’
‘Oh, then that was why she reacted so superbly! I must say, I didn’t expect her to turn on Alexis quite so fiercely. Now you come to mention it, though, I did think something was weighing on her mind. Did she tell you about it?’
‘Just now. Perhaps you’ll soothe her yourself the next time you elect to drive her into hysterics!’
‘I don’t suppose I will,’ said Vicky, considering it. ‘You’re so much better at it than I am. Are you going to the Inquest tomorrow?’
‘No, and I hope you’re not either!’
‘Well, I am, because it seems to me I’m a very interested party, and I want to see what’s likely to happen next.’
‘I shouldn’t go, if I were you,’ said Hugh. ‘I’ll let you know if anything startling comes out. Not that it’s likely to. The police are sure to ask for an adjournment.’
‘I should like,’ said Vicky, dipping her fingers in the cut-glass bowl before her, ‘to find out why Harold White wanted to see Wally on Sunday, and what they were going to do with that five hundred pounds.’
‘Oh, it’s got to that now, has it?’ said Hugh. ‘Any good my reminding you that that idea is nothing more than a suspicion of Mary’s?’
‘Well, not much,’ Vicky said, with one of her enchanting smiles.
‘In any case, you’re not likely to hear anything about it at the Inquest.’
‘I expect I’ll go all the same,’ said Vicky tranquilly.
‘Then I suppose I shall have to take you,’ said Hugh.
‘Oh, no! Not a bit necessary.’
‘You’ll only get into mischief if I don’t keep an eye on you.’
‘I wouldn’t wonder,’ Vicky murmured. ‘Oh, I’ve just been smitten with the most awesome reflection! How do you suppose Maurice is managing to entertain Alexis?’
‘Vicky, you little beast!’ said Mary. ‘That’s the worst part of it all, that Maurice should be stuck with that awful man!’
‘Well, I don’t know,’ said Vicky. ‘After all, we’ve had him ever since Friday, so it’s time somebody else had a turn.’
This was too much for Mary, and she got up from the table, bringing the party to an end. Hugh declined going into the drawing-room with the two girls, but instead took his leave of them, and drove back to the Manor, having promised to meet Vicky outside the Coroner’s Court on the following morning.
Not long after his departure, Steel arrived, and was ushered into the drawing-room. Ermyntrude, still reclining upon the sofa, greeted him with unaffected pleasure; and Mary could not help feeling, as she watched him take Ermyntrude’s little plump hand in his own strong one, that he must undoubtedly represent a pillar of strength to clinging womanhood. The story was poured into his ears, and his reactions to it were all that Vicky had hoped they might be. Nothing could have formed a greater contrast to the Prince’s excitable display than Steel’s rugged calm. He indulged in no aspersions upon his late rival’s character; he merely said that it was a good thing the fellow had gone, and that he had never taken to him much. He even refused to join Ermyntrude in attributing the Prince’s oblique attack on Vicky to his having murdered Wally himself, remarking that he didn’t think the fellow would have the guts to do it. When he was alone with Ermyntrude, he held her hand in an uncomfortably strong grasp, and told her that whatever happened she could rely on him.
Ermyntrude wept a little, and confided to him the fear that was gnawing at her nerves. ‘Oh, Bob, they won’t think it was my Vicky, will they?’
‘No,’ he replied.
The simple negative was wonderfully reassuring, but she could not be quite satisfied. ‘Bob, it keeps nagging at me day and night! I ought never to have told her about Wally and that girl, only I was so upset at the time, it just slipped out. And I keep thinking about it, wondering, because she’s not like most girls, my Vicky. You never know what she’ll get up to next! Bob, she – she couldn’t have done a thing like that! She couldn’t!’
‘She didn’t do it. You can put that clean out of your head.’
‘I know, I know! But I can’t help its coming back to me. For there’s no denying she was there, and it’s in the blood, Bob. You can’t get away from that!’
‘That’s a lot of rot,’ said Steel. ‘Your first husband wasn’t a murderer!’
‘No, but look at the animals he killed in his time! I mean, he had a regular passion for it, but he took it out on lions and tigers and things; and I can’t help thinking of a book I read once, all about impulses, and what you inherit from your parents, and things that happen to you in the cradle that go and give you fixtures, or some such nonsense, and I ask myself if perhaps there is something in it after all, and I ought to have seen to it my Vicky had a chance to shoot bigger things than just a few rabbits here and there.’
The suggestion that Vicky, finding rabbits poor sport, had added her stepfather to the bag, did not draw even a smile from Steel. He was rather shocked and extremely scornful of such far-fetched ideas; and he told Ermyntrude that she was not to worry her head over it any more.
She dabbed cautiously at her eyes. ‘You won’t let that dreadful policeman take her away, Bob, will you? He’s been at her already.’
‘Then he’s a fool. But nothing’s going to happen to Vicky, I give you my word.’
‘Oh, Bob, you are a comfort to me!’ Ermyntrude said gratefully. ‘I feel better just for having seen you. Only you know what the law is, and if the Inspector was to get it into his head Vicky’s done it, there isn’t one of us could stop him taking her up for it!’
‘Listen to me, Ermyntrude!’ Steel said, looking very steadily at her. ‘You’ve got my word for it no harm’s coming to Vicky. I told you you could depend on me, and I’m not a chap who says what he doesn’t mean. Whatever happens, I won’t let your girl get mixed up in this. Now, you trust me, and don’t think another thing about it!’ He gave her hand a final squeeze, and released it, rising to his feet. ‘I’m going home now, and you’re going to get to bed, and have a good night’s rest. That’s what you need, and that’s what I’m going to tell Mary.’
Mary, when this piece of information was delivered to her, said that she had tried to put Ermyntrude to bed before dinner.
‘She’ll go now,’ Steel said. He turned to Vicky, and said abruptly: ‘So the police are on to you, are they?’
‘Yes, I’m having a very crowded life all at once,’ replied Vicky. ‘Do you suppose I’ll be arrested?’
‘No. I’ve just set your mother’s mind at rest about that. Don’t you worry either! See?’
Vicky was quite entranced by this masterful speech, and no sooner had Steel left the house than she turned to Mary, and said: ‘Oh, I do think I’ve created a grand situation! Do you suppose he’s going to give himself up in my stead?’
‘I hope he wouldn’t be such a fool!’
‘So do I, but I can’t help seeing that it would be a very Nordic act. Really, darling, you must admit I was quite right to send for him. He’s even soothed Ermyntrude!’
‘You know, Vicky,’ said Mary, ‘I’m absolutely horrified by the way you talk about your mother! It’s positively indecent.’
‘Dearest pet, the way I talk truly isn’t as indecent as the way you think,’ Vicky replied. ‘Because you’ve got the most degrading suspicions, and you disapprove of the poor sweet so much that you daren’t put it into words. I don’t disapprove of her at all; in fact, she has my vote.’
Mary was silenced, and turned away, merely remarking over her shoulder that she hoped Vicky was not really going to the Inquest.
The hope, however, was without f
oundation, and she was not surprised when Vicky left the house next morning at half past ten, and drove off in the direction of Fritton.
Hugh Dering had already arrived at the King’s Head Hotel, where the Coroner’s Court was to sit, but he was not alone. He had brought his father to the Inquest, in spite of Sir William’s strongly-worded announcement that he wished to have nothing to do with the affair. ‘I wish you would come, sir,’ Hugh had said. ‘I’d like you to take a look at some of the protagonists, and tell me what you make of them.’
‘Why?’ demanded Sir William.
‘I want your opinion. It’s got me guessing, and I’d very much like to know how it strikes you.’
After this, Sir William’s protests had been merely a matter of form, for although he would have hotly denied such an idea, he was secretly much flattered to think that Hugh wanted his opinion. Whenever anyone asked him questions about Hugh, he naturally disparaged him, and said that he was an idle young hound, and that he didn’t think he was at all clever (though, as a matter of fact, he took a first in Greats, for what that was worth), or particularly good at games (though actually he got his Rugger Blue, and had entered for the Amateur Golf Championship last year; not that that was anything to make a fuss about); but if Sir William had ever been obliged to enter a confessional, and to state his true opinion of his son, he would have said, with the utmost reluctance, that Hugh’s equal for character, brains, physique, athletic prowess, and general virtue did not exist. So when this paragon expressed a desire to hear his opinion on the Carter case, Sir William swelled with inward gratification, and allowed himself to be persuaded to give up his own plans for the morning, and to accompany his young fool of a son to a stuffy room at the King’s Head, all to listen to an inquest which he had no interest in, and which Hugh wouldn’t have had any interest in either if he had had a grain of sense, which, however, he knew from long experience he hadn’t, and probably never would have.
Having made quite clear his extreme reluctance to accompany Hugh, he got happily into the car beside him; wished he could drive as well as the boy could; said that Hugh took his corners too fast; was sorry for an acquaintance whom they passed on the road, whose son was a very poor specimen compared with Hugh, and never wanted to take his father anywhere.
When Hugh drew up outside the King’s Head behind Vicky’s sports-car, and Sir William saw Vicky sitting pensively at the wheel, and looking very young and fragile in a black hat and frock, he exclaimed: ‘Surely it’s not necessary for that child to be present!’
‘She thinks it is,’ responded Hugh, opening the door for him to get out. ‘She’s a suspected party.’
‘Preposterous!’ said Sir William. ‘As though a girl of her age could have had anything to do with it!’
‘I wouldn’t put it beyond her,’ said Hugh. ‘Hallo, Vicky! Congratulations on the ensemble!’
‘Hush, I’m feeling frightfully holy, because black has that effect on me, I find. Oh, how do you do, Sir William! I’m glad you’ve come, because so far the most scruffy-looking people have turned up, and I thought it was going to be utterly drab.’
‘My dear child, you ought not to be here,’ said Sir William, shaking hands with her. ‘There’s no need at all: I can’t think what that boy of mine was about to let you come.’
‘You don’t think he could stop me, do you?’ asked Vicky, quite shocked. ‘Besides, I’ve rather fallen for the Inspector from Scotland Yard, on account of his reminding me awfully of a robin that got so tame it used to hop into the dining-room. Oh, Hugh, all the Whites have turned up, and Janet was terribly sweet to me, and said she’d stay with me, only I thought not, because she’s wearing the kind of hat that makes you feel perhaps after all you’re frittering your life away, and ought to be telling people how to look after their babies, or drilling Girl Guides, or something just as dispiriting. And the Prince hasn’t turned up, which seems to me pretty callous, really.’
Sir William rather blinked at these confidences, but though he did not approve of the younger generation, he was easily won over by a pretty face. Vicky made him feel fatherly, so he smiled tolerantly at the extravagances of her speech, and took her into the King’s Head, telling her that he was glad she did not think he was scruffy-looking.
Quite a number of people had come to attend the Inquest. Robert Steel was present, Dr Hinchcliffe, the three Whites, Mr Jones, and, as Vicky immediately pointed out to Hugh, Gladys Baker, who was sitting beside her mother at the back of the room. In addition to these interested persons there was a large sprinkling of strangers, who appeared to have come in the hope of hearing startling revelations.
In this they were disappointed, for, as Hugh had warned Vicky, nothing exciting happened. Inspector Cook gave his evidence in a monotone; Dr Hinchcliffe followed him; and a man, who, Vicky said, looked like a haddock, got up, and announced that he was a gunsmith, and that he was prepared to swear that the bullet lodged in Wally Carter’s chest had been fired from the rifle found in the shrubbery. No one, except, perhaps, the Coroner and the police, was at all interested in his evidence, for it was very dull, quite lacking in human interest. He said that the rifle was a Mannlicher-Schönauer .275, standard in all respects, except that it had a hair-trigger pull; and that it had the appearance of not having been kept in very good order, since the barrels were slightly rusty. He then displayed photographs, taken through a comparing microscope, of test bullets in juxtaposition with the bullet found in Wally Carter’s body, and sat down.
After that, Harold White gave his evidence, and was followed by his friend Samuel Jones, and his daughter Janet. Sir William Dering muttered into his son’s ear an uncharitable estimate of Mr Jones’s character, which differed hardly at all from that given by Alan White to his sister, and said that in his opinion there was not a penny to choose between him and Harold White.
Janet’s way of giving her evidence made the optimists in the room feel that they had not wasted their time in coming, after all, but no sooner had she sat down, than Inspector Hemingway rose, and disappointed everyone by asking for an adjournment. This was granted, and there was nothing for the interested to do but to disperse.
‘Well, sir?’ said Hugh. ‘What do you make of it?’
‘Not enough evidence. I don’t make anything of it,’ answered Sir William. ‘I should like to know what those three were up to.’
‘Carter, Jones, and White? You think they were up to something?’
‘All birds of a feather,’ said Sir William, with a snort.
‘That’s what Mary suspects, that there was some deal on, probably shady.’
‘I shouldn’t be surprised. Who’s that child got hold of ?’
Hugh looked round. ‘The Scotland Yard man. Heaven grant she isn’t putting on some disastrous act! I think I’d better go and keep an eye on her.’
By the time he reached Vicky’s side, Janet and Alan White had also joined her, and Robert Steel was making his way towards the group. Janet at once began to describe her sensations at finding herself giving evidence in a murder-case, and Hugh, feeling that there was no reason why he should listen to this recital, said good morning to the Inspector, and asked him, with a twinkle, whether he had recovered from the shocks of the previous day.
‘I have,’ responded Hemingway. ‘I’m told you hold a watching brief for Miss Fanshawe, sir.’
‘By Miss Fanshawe, I should think,’ said Hugh. ‘I wish you’d put her under lock and key till all this is over.’
‘The trouble is, I’m hampered,’ explained the Inspector. ‘Who’s the gentleman with the jaw, sir?’
‘Steel.’
Robert Steel had broken into the flood of Janet’s conversation to address Vicky, in rather a rough voice. ‘Vicky, what are you doing here? You’d no business to come!’
‘Oh, but I had, Robert! I told you I’d been entangled in the meshes.’
&
nbsp; ‘And I told you you were a little idiot! You’ve nothing to do with the case at all.’
‘But, darling Robert, I’ve got far more to do with it than you have, because I was there, and you weren’t,’ Vicky pointed out.
‘Oh, how thankful you must be that you weren’t there!’ said Janet earnestly. ‘It was dreadful! And you might have been, only, of course, I’m very glad you weren’t, because it would have made it worse for me. I mean, inviting you, and then that happening!’
‘What on earth are you talking about?’ said Steel. ‘You didn’t invite me!’
‘Yes, I did. Don’t you remember, when we came out of church, and I was asking you about King Edward raspberries?’
‘No, I don’t,’ said Steel shortly.
‘Oh, but you must!’ insisted Janet. ‘Because I always think it must be so lonely for you, living all by yourself, and I asked you if you wouldn’t drop in at about five, only Father said he’d asked Mr Carter, and you probably wouldn’t want to come, which I’m afraid you must have thought was awfully rude of him, but it’s only his way, you know, and he doesn’t mean anything.’
‘Oh!’ said Steel, looking rather annoyed. ‘Yes, I do remember now that you said something about dropping in to tea.’
Hugh cast a covert glance at the Inspector. That gentleman’s bird-like gaze was fixed with an expression of the deepest interest on Steel’s frowning countenance.
Thirteen
Alan White, never one to pay much heed to other people’s utterances, was not interested either in his sister’s artless disclosure, or in Steel’s obvious annoyance. He plucked at Vicky’s sleeve, and said in a portentous undertone that he wanted to talk to her.
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