'That's it. With the practical certainty, you see, that she wouldn't tell you: at least, not yet. He was a great psychologist, Sam was.' 'A great psychologist. Yes.'
'Which,' Hadley pointed out, 'put you in the position to be upset by the hint of even more sinister secrets. Oh, yes. He couldn't know an accident would play into his hands when that rifle went off. But he used that too, with smacking good effect.
' I don't think there's much more to tell you, Mr Markham. His whole game, the story about the terrible poisoner and the diary or poison or something locked up in a safe, was to get that safe open. And how to do that? Easy! He told you, if I've got the story straight from Dr Fell, that he wanted to be present unseen while you had dinner with Miss Grant? And that he was very anxious to see what was in the safe?'
'Yes.'
'And that he would give you his "final instructions" about it next morning ?'
'Yes. Those were the exact words.'
Again Hadley lifted his shoulders.
'You were to get the combination of the safe for him,' the Superintendent said. 'The combination of that impregnable safe. He'd have told you that this morning - if he'd been alive.'
' Wait a minute! Do you think Lesley would have... ?'
'Given you the combination? You know ruddy well she would have, if you pressed her! She meant to tell you about the whole thing, anyway, at this dinner she projected for to-night.'
Words floated back to him, words which Lesley had spoken in his own cottage the night before:' I want everything to be perfect to-morrow. Because I've got something to tell you. And I've got something to show you.' He saw her sitting in the lamplight, stung and brooding.)
'But would you have believed anything she'd told you, by that time?'
'No. I suppose not'
(He was glad Lesley wasn't here, now.)
'You'd have got that combination during the day. And while you were at dinner, Sam would have cleaned out the safe and quietly faded away. That's all there is to it, Mr Markham. Only -'
' Only,' interposed Dr Fell,' somebody murdered him.'
CHAPTER 14
THE words fell with a heavy chilling weight.
And the cautious Hadley, thrusting out his jaw, made formal protest.
'Stop a bit, Fell! We can't say for certain this is murder. Not at the present stage of the game.'
' Oh, my boy! What do you mink ?'
'And I, perhaps,' interposed Lord Ashe, 'can answer one of your questions now.'
Both Hadley and Dr Fell, surprised, turned to look at him. Lord Ashe, who was again weighing the gold ruby-studded collar in his hand, made a deprecating noise as though warning them not to expect too much.
'You were asking a while ago,' he said, 'whether this fraudulent Bible-salesman visited any other house except mine. The matter is hardly very important. But I can tell you. He didn't I made inquiries about him.'
' So!' muttered Dr Fell.' So!'
Hadley regarded him suspiciously - the doctor's scatter-brain had been having this effect on his friend for twenty-five years - though Hadley said nothing.
'But surely, gentlemen!' protested Lord Ashe, putting down the gold collar. 'Come, now! You make use of the word "murder"?'
'I use it,' affirmed Dr Fell
'For myself, I know little of such matters,' said Lord Ashe. 'Though I used to read those novels of the gentleman who wrote them over the weekend, about mysterious deaths in ancestral mansions. But surely now!
As I understand it, this man De Villa died of poison in a room with the doors and windows locked up on the inside.'
'Yes,' agreed Dr Fell. 'That,' he added, 'is why I must repeat that the centre of the whole plot, apparently, is Miss Lesley Grant.'
'Wait a minute, please!' urged Dick, and appealed to Lord Ashe. 'You say, sir, that Lesley came here this morning, and threw those jewels at you, and poured out this story about her mother ?'
' Yes. Rather to my discomfort'
'Why did she do it, sir?'
Lord Ashe looked bewildered.
'Because, apparently, little Cynthia Drew had come to her and accused her of being a poisoner.'
Lesley herself slipped into the room now, closing the green-baize door softly after her. Though outwardly composed, she was clearly nerving herself to meet this interview. She stood at the corner of the windows, her back to the light, and faced them.
'You'd better let me answer that,' she said. 'Though I loathe telling it!' A little curving smile, the smile Dick Markham found so irresistible, flashed round her lips and was gone in concern. 'It's all right, Dick,' she added. 'I'll - I'll talk to you about it later. But it was rather dreadful for me.'
'Cynthia?'
'Yes! She turned up in my room this morning. Heaven knows how she got there, but she was trying to open the safe.'
' I’ve - er - heard about it'
Lesley's arms were straight down at her sides, her breast heaving.
'Cynthia said to me, " I want to know what's in this safe. And I mean to find out before I leave here." I asked her what she was talking about. She said, "That's where you keep the poison, isn't it? The poison you used on those three men who were in love with you before ? "
'Well!' cried Lesley helplessly, and turned out her hands. 'Steady, now!'
' I ‘d been thinking,' she went on, ' that the whole village must be saying or at least imagining some terrible things about me. But never in my wildest dreams did I think it could be anything like that! Especially as she went on to say Dick knew all about it, and the police were coming for me because I'd got poison or something locked up in that safe. I -I rather lost my head.'
'Just a minute. Did you hit her ?'
Lesley blinked.
'Hit her?'
' With a hand-mirror off the dressing-table.' 'Good gracious, no!' The brown eyes widened. 'Did she say I hit her?' 'What happened?'
'Cynthia ran at me, that's all. She's stronger than I am and I didn't know what to do. I dodged, and she tripped and went over like a sack of coals against the footboard of the bed.
'When I saw she was just knocked out, not badly hurt at all' - the full lips compressed, and Lesley looked elaborately out of the window - ' maybe it was callous of me, but I just let her stay there. Wouldn't you?'
'Go on!'
' I thought to myself, " This is too much; I can't stand any more." So I got those things out of the safe, and rushed over here to Lord Ashe, and told him the true story. While I was telling it, Dr - Dr Fell, isn't it? - and Superintendent Hadley got here. So I thought I might as well tell everybody.' Lesley moistened her lips. 'There's only one thing I'm curious about, Dick,' she added with great intensity. 'Did you tell Cynthia?'
'Tell her what?'
'This horrible story about the three husbands, and -and the rest of it.' Lesley coloured. 'She kept repeating, "Till death do us part, till death do us part," like a mad woman. That's all I care about, that's all I'm concerned about! Did you tell Cynthia, in confidence, something that you wouldn't tell me?' ‘No.'
'Do you swear that's true, Dick? You were messing about out there with her this morning. Major Price said you were.'
'On my word of honour, I never said one word to Cynthia'
Lesley drew the back of her hand across her forehead. ' Then where did Cynthia get the story ?' 'That,' observed Dr Fell, 'is something which interests all of us.'
Reaching into his hip pocket under the folds of the big cape, Dr Fell drew out a large red bandanna handkerchief. He mopped his forehead with such thoroughness that his big mop of grey-streaked hair tumbled over one eye. Then, assuming an argumentative pose which made Hadley instinctively bristle, he pointed to the chair on the other side of Lord Ashe's desk.
' Sit down, my dear,' he said to Lesley.
Lesley obeyed.
'If you're going to lecture - !' began a very suspicious Hadley.
' I am not,' said Dr Fell with dignity, ' going to lecture. I am going to ask Miss Grant whether she has, in this village
, any very deadly enemy.'
"That's impossible!' cried Lesley.
There was a silence.
'Well,' said Dr Fell, returning the handkerchief to his pocket, Met us consider the evidence. Sam De Villa, may he rest in peace, came to Six Ashes as an outsider. He had, it would seem' - here Dr Fell hesitated slightly - 'no connexion with anybody in this village. Agreed, Hadley?'
' So far as we know at the moment, agreed.'
'Therefore Sam, qua Sam, ceased to become important in the scheme of murder.'
' If it was murder,' Hadley said quickly.
'If it was murder. Oh, ah. Very well. It is now inescapable, as we agreed this morning, that the whole reproduction of an imaginary crime - hypodermic syringe, prussic acid, locked entrances - was a deliberate attempt to throw the blame on Lesley Grant, whom somebody believed to be a murderess. Otherwise there is no point to it'
' Now look here!' Hadley began.
'Otherwise,' inquired Dr Fell politely but firmly, 'do you see any point to it?'
Hadley jingled coins in his pocket. He did not reply.
' Consequently,' pursued Dr Fell, blinking across at Lesley, 'we must face the question. Is there anyone who hates you enough to want to see you charged with murder? Or, putting the matter more broadly, is there anyone who would profit by it if you were put in an extremely sticky position?'
Lesley regarded him helplessly.
'There isn't anybody,' she replied. 'Except - but that's utterly impossible!' Dr Fell remained imperturbable.
'This,' he continued, 'is the conclusion to be drawn from our facts. The corollary to that conclusion...'
' Is there a corollary ?' demanded Hadley.
'Oh, yes. It shines with great light' Dr Fell peered at Dick. 'By the way, my boy. In the excitement of the moment, while we were at that cottage, I forgot to warn you about being very, very discreet. When you left me this morning to go and see Miss Grant, I gather you did meet Miss Cynthia Drew ?'
'Yes.’
'Did you - harrumph - enlighten her? Did you tell her that Miss Grant was not, in fact, an evilly disposed character suspected of three murders ?'
'No. She wouldn't admit she'd heard anything at all about Lesley. So I didn't say anything, naturally.'
' Did you tell anybody else ?'
'No. I haven't seen anybody else."
'What about your friend Dr Middlesworth? Is he likely to spill the beans that Miss Grant is not a poisoner ?'
'Hugh Middlesworth,' answered Dick, 'is as close-mouthed a chap as you'll find anywhere. He'll be especially close-mouthed about this. You can bet your shirt he won't talk.'
Dr Fell mused for a moment
'Therefore,' he went on, 'there is somewhere within reach a person who STILL believes this yarn. This person killed Sam De Villa, arranged all the trappings to suggest murder by Lesley Grant, and is now hugging himself or herself for sheer joy. Except in the unlikely event that the murderer is our friend Lord Ashe...'
' Good God!' exclaimed Lord Ashe.
Totally taken aback, he dropped on the table the pearl necklace which he had been examining. His grey eyes, with their darkish eyebrows in contrast to the iron-grey hair, wore behind the pince-nez a look of consternation. His mouth was open.
"That, sir,' growled Superintendent Hadley, 'was just an example of Dr Fell's own peculiar idea of humour.'
' Oh. A joke. I see. But...'
'Except in that unlikely event,' pursued Dr Fell, 'I repeat that the real murderer still believes this yarn. Now come on! Use your very capable intelligence, Hadley! Having provided us with a problem, it follows as a corollary that the real murderer must do what ?'
'Well?'
'Why, damn it,' thundered Dr Fell, rapping the ferrule of his cane against the floor,- 'he must now provide us witha solution.'
Wheezing, Dr Fell looked from one to the other of them.
'Sam De Villa's corpse,' he emphasized, 'is found in a room locked up on the inside. So far, so good. Lesley Grant, argues the murderer, will be blamed for doing this. But how did she do it?
'Remember, these imaginary crimes were supposed to have been unsolved. You, the police, were supposed to have been baffled. Very well: but it won't do to have you baffled this time. If the blame is to be placed on Miss Grant, we must learn how the thing was done or we still can't touch her. The murderer's whole design against her fails unless it is proved how the locked room worked. Do you follow me now?'
Dick Markham hesitated. 'Then you think... ?'
'I rather think,' responded Dr Fell, 'we shall get a communication of some kind.'
Hadley's face wore a suspicious frown.
'Hold on!' the superintendent muttered. 'Was that why you asked me, a while ago, to -'
He checked himself as Dr Fell gave him a warning glance of portentous entreaty. To Dick Markham it seemed that this was a little too obvious a warning glance, a litde too portentous; and Dick had an uncomfortable sense of a battle of wits being fought, somehow, under the surface.
' I mean,' amplified Dr Fell, ' that we shall get a communication from A Friend or a Well-Wisher that will hint at, if not ruddy well indicate in detail, how the locked-room trick was worked. The police were supposed to have been duffers once. It won't do to risk their being duffers again.'
'A communication - how ?' asked Dick.
' Why not by telephone ? ‘
After a pause during which Dr Fell again addressed his ghostly parliament, the doctor scowled at Dick.
'You had a telephone-call early this morning,' he said, 'which interests me very much. The local policeman gave me a summary of your evidence. But I should like to question you rather closely about it, because ... Archons of Athens! Wow, wow, wow!'
The latter dog-like noises, made by a scholar of international reputation, caused Lord Ashe to survey him in perplexity.
Lesley bit at her under-lip.
'I don't understand any of this,' she burst out. 'But I don't believe it, because it's more hateful than anything else yet. You don't mean, you can't possibly mean' - all Lesley's appeal went into her voice -' that anybody on earth would do a thing like this just to throw the blame on me ?'
' It does take a bit of believing, doesn't it?' asked Dr Fell, with his eye on vacancy. 'Yes, it does take a bit of believing.'
' Then, please, what are you getting at?'
'Exactly,' snapped an exasperated Hadley, 'what I want to know myself.'
' I must confess,' said Lord Ashe, ' that this kind of thing is a little beyond me too.' He looked at his wrist-watch and added hopefully: You'll all stay to lunch, of course ?'
Lesley jumped to her feet.
'Thanks, but I won't,' she said. 'Considering my new status in the community, as the daughter of Lily Jewell -'
'My dear girl,' said Lord Ashe gently, 'don't be a fool.'
Setting the four glittering trinkets together in the middle of the dark-velvet cloth, he folded it together like a bag and held it out to her.
' Take them,' he said.
'I won't take them I' retorted Lesley, as though she were about to stamp her foot. The tears rose to her eyes again. 'I never want to see them again I They're yours, aren't they? Or, at least, your family always said so. Then take them, take all of them, and please for heaven's sake let me have a little peace!'
' My dear Miss Grant,' said Lord Ashe, insistently shaking the bag at her,' we mustn't stay here arguing over who will or won't take anything as valuable as this. You might tempt me too much. Or, if you'd rather my wife didn't see them until after lunch-'
' Do you think I could ever face Lady Ashe again ?'
'Frankly,' replied the husband of the lady in question, 'I do.'
'Or anyone else here in the village, for that matter? I'm glad it's all over. I'm free, and relieved, and a human being again. But, as for facing people again...!'
Dick went over and took her by the arm.
'You're coming with me,' he said, 'for a walk in the Dutch Garden before lunch.'
>
'An excellent idea,' approved Lord Ashe. Opening the table-drawer, he dropped the velvet cloth with its contents inside. As an afterthought, he selected a small key off a much-crowded key-ring and locked the drawer. 'We can settle afterwards the vexed question of - er - taking your own property. In the meantime, if country air is to do you any good at all, you must get rid of these morbid ideas.'
Lesley whirled round.
'Are they morbid ideas, Dick ? Are they ?'
' They're morbid nonsense, my dear.'
' Does it matter to you who I am ?'
Dick laughed so uproariously that he saw her self-distrust shaken.
'What did Cynthia say to you?' Lesley persisted. 'And how is she? And how did it happen she was with you early in the morning?'
'Will you please prove it, Lesley?'
'Exactly,' said Lord Ashe. 'But one thing does seem to be evident, Mr Markham.' His face hardened a little, with an expression about the eyes Dick could not read. 'Miss Grant has more than one very spiteful friend.'
' How do you mean ?' cried Lesley.
'One of them,' Lord Ashe pointed out, 'sends you here to live at Six Ashes. Another, if we can credit what we've just heard, is trying to get you hanged for murder.'
'Don't you see,' urged Lesley, holding tightly to Dick's arm, 'that's just what I can't face? And won't face? The idea that somebody, anybody, could hate you as much as that is the most terrifying thing of all. I don't even want to hear about it!' ' Lord Ashe reflected.
'Of course, if Dr Fell has by any chance some notion of how and why this extraordinary locked-room crime was committed-?'
'Oh, yes,' said Dr Fell apologetically. 'I think I might manage that, if I hear one or two answers I expect.'
A sense of new danger, hidden danger, darted along Dick Markham's nerves.
Turning round half a second before, he surprised between Dr Fell and Superintendent Hadley a kind of pantomime communication. It was only a raising of eyebrows, a sketched motion of lips; yet it vanished instantly, and he had no idea of its meaning. Hitherto he had regarded both Dr Fell and Hadley as allies, as helpers, here to tear away phantom dangers. No doubt they still were allies. At the same time...
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