Again Hadley sat down at his desk, and opened his notebook.
'Don't you understand?' he went on. 'If Sam took that much luminal before going to bed at some time past eleven, it's practically impossible that he could have come downstairs under his own steam at five o'clock the following morning.'
CHAPTER l6
'MIND!' added the cautious superintendent. 'We can't say it is impossible.' He picked up a pencil and examined its point. 'There are people capable of resistance to the strongest drugs, and people who shake off their effects very quickly. All we can say is that it's very unlikely. But according to the evidence at least, Sam did come downstairs this morning?' 'Apparently, yes.'
'And, unless we call Mr Markham a liar, a light did go on in this room when he says it did?'
' Undoubtedly.'
'But you think that doesn't upset the apple-cart in any way?'
'No,' answered Or Fell, pushing himself back against the wall so that the front of his shovel-hat rose up as though tilted by an invisible hand, 'no, my lad, I can't say it does. This may become clearer,' he screwed up his face hideously, 'if you let me get on with a few relevant matters. What explanation (may I repeat) did Miss Cynthia Drew give for her presence in the lane at that hour?'
Dick looked away.
'She couldn't sleep. She'd been out for a walk.' 'A walk. Oh, ah. And is Gallows Lane the fashionable place for an early morning walk hereabouts ?' 'It could be. Why not?'
Dr Fell frowned. 'The lane, Lord Ashe informed me, ends only a few hundred yards east of here: where, in the eighteenth century, a gallows actually stood.'
'Technically it ends, yes. But there's a hard path across open fields towards Goblin Wood, where everybody goes for a walk. Miller the constable lives near there, as a matter of fact'
'Really, my boy,' said Dr Fell with exceptional mildness, 'you needn't yell. I quite understand. The point is that Miss Drew was also smack on the scene of the crime, or very nearly so. Did she see or hear anything that would help us?'
'No. Cynthia... Wait a minute, yes she did!' exclaimed Dick, catching himself up and obsessed with new, torturing puzzles. 'I didn't mention this in my evidence early this morning, because Cynthia hadn't told me then. She only told me afterwards, when I saw her at Lesley's house.'
'Well?'
'A minute or so before the rifle was fired,' explained Dick, 'Cynthia saw somebody run across the lane from the orchard on this side to the coppice on the other.'
He related the incident
And the effect of this on Dr Fell was electric.
'Got it!' said the doctor thunderously, and snapped his fingers in the air. 'Archons of Athens, but this is almost too good to be true! Got it!'
Hadley, who knew his obese friend of old, pushed back the easy-chair from the writing-table and got up in a hurry.. The movement of the chair - whose rollers slid creakily on the worn brown carpet, past the spilled box of drawing-pins - disclosed something else.
On the floor, open and face down as though it had been shoved under the chair to get it out of sight, lay a cloth-bound book. Hadley, despite his momentary distraction of attention, stooped down to pick up the book.
' I say, Hadley,' remonstrated Dr Fell, with his eye on one drawing-pin which had evidently rolled wide of the others. ' I wish you'd be careful not to step on those drawing-pins. Well? What is it?'
Hadley held out the book. It was a well-thumbed copy of Hazlitt's essays in the Everyman edition, with the name Samuel R. De Villa on the fly-leaf and many annotations in the same neat handwriting. Dr Fell inspected it curiously before throwing it on the table.
'Hadn't Sam,' he grunted, 'rather a sophisticated taste in reading-matter ?'
'Will you get the idea out of your amateur head,' snapped Hadley, 'that the professional confidence-man is. always a flashy hanger-on at fashionable hotels and bars ?'
'All right, all right!'
'Sam's donnish manner, as I kept telling you this-morning, was worth five thousand a year to him. His father was a West Country clergyman; he took honours, at Bristol University; he really did study medicine, and he's, played pathologist before without too many slips. Once, in the south of France, he hooked a hard-headed English lawyer out of a thumping sum just because ...' Hadley paused, himself picking up and throwing down the book. 'Never mind that, for the moment! What's this brain-wave-of yours?'
' Cynthia Drew,'said Dr Fell. 'What about her?'
'What she saw, or claims to have seen, tends to put the lid on it. Somebody has made a bad howler. Now you, my lad' - he blinked at Dick - 'saw no sign of this mysterious prowler in the lane?'
' I tell you, the sun was in my eyes!'
'The sun,' returned Dr Fell, 'has been in everybody's eyes. Look there!'
With a sense of impending disaster, with a sense that the whole affair was now running downhill towards a smash, Dick followed the doctor's nod towards the window. A shiny but conservative black two-seater car, which he recognized as belonging to Bill Earnshaw, rattled along the lane and came to a stop. Cynthia Drew sat with Earnshaw in the front seat
‘We haven't met the lady,’ observed Dr Fell, 'but I think I can guess who that is. Would you like to bet, Hadley, that she's heard Miss Grant is not an evil poisoner after all ? And is coming along here in something like horror to find out the truth from us?'
Hadley whacked his hand down on the table.
'She can't have discovered anything, I tell you!' the superintendent declared. 'Nobody knows but ourselves and Miss Grant and Lord Ashe. Lord Ashe swore he wouldn't say a word. She can't have discovered anything.'
'Oh, yes, she can,' said Dick Markham. 'Earnshaw!'
Hadley looked puzzled.
'Earnshaw?'
'The bank-manager! That fellow who's getting out of the car with her now! He was here this morning, and he stayed long enough to hear Dr Fell say, "That's not Sir Harvey Gilman!" - Don't you remember, Dr Fell?’
There was a silence, while they clearly heard the swishing noise of footsteps in grass as Cynthia and Earnshaw approached the cottage.
Dr Fell swore under his breath.
'Hadley,' he said, in a thunderous whisper like the wind along an Underground-railway tunnel, ‘I am an ass. Archons of Athens, what an outstanding ASS am I! I completely forgot the fellow, in spite of the fact that we met him in the post office this afternoon.'
Here Dr Fell smote his fist against his pink forehead.
' I should keep a secretary,' he roared, 'merely to remind me of what I was thinking about two minutes before. Of course! That erect back! That Anthony Eden hat! That polished hair and dental smile 1 When we met him at the post office, you know, I had a vague feeling I'd seen the blighter somewhere before. Absence of mind, my good Hadley...!'
'Well,' said Hadley unsympathetically, 'don't blame me. But, speaking of post offices, doesn't this dish your other scheme?'
'No, not necessarily. At the same time, I would rather have had it work out in a different way.'
The meaning of this reference to die post office - with its temperamental proprietress Miss Laura Feathers, who shouted lectures at you from behind her wire-guarded counter for the smallest postal infringement - was far from clear to Dick.
But every other consideration went out of his mind, was swept away, in his concern for Cynthia Drew.
' Miller!' called Superintendent Hadley.
Outside the window, Bert Miller wheeled round. He looked as though about to say something on his own account, but altered his mind.
'Sir?'
'You can admit both Miss Drew and Mr Earnshaw,' Hadley told him. 'But ' - here he directed a very significant glance at Dr Fell'- I, my friend, will do the questioning of this witness.'
Cynthia, with Earnshaw just behind her, hurried into the room from the hall and stopped dead. The weight of emotional tensity, while Hadley stood looking politely at Cynthia, could be felt like the warmth of that sitting-room.
Cynthia had almost managed to disguise, with powder, th
e darkish bruise on her right temple. Other things she could not disguise.
'Miss Cynthia Drew?' Hadley said without inflexion. 'Yes, yes. I -'
Hadley introduced himself, and presented Dr Fell. He did this with deliberation, with smoothness, and with what was, to Dick Markham, a horrible sense of imminent danger.
' You wanted to see us about something, Miss Drew ?'
'My mother told me’ returned Cynthia, with a steady hardness and shine about her blue eyes, 'that you came to see me.' Cynthia made a slight gesture.' She didn't tell me at the time you were there, I'm afraid. She thought she was keeping me from unpleasantness. It wasn't until Mr Earnshaw dropped in -'
'Ah, yes,' Hadley said pleasantly. 'Mr Earnshaw I'
' - dropped in, and mentioned one thing or another,' said Cynthia, fighting to control her breathing but keeping her eyes steadily fixed on Hadley's, 'that I learned you had been there. Did you want to see me about anything, Mr Hadley?'
'As a matter of fact, Miss Drew, I did. Will you sit down?'
And he indicated the heavy easy-chair in which the dead man had been sitting.
If it was meant as a gesture of studied callousness, it had its effect. Yet Cynthia never flinched or took her eyes from his.
' In that chair, Mr Hadley ?'
' In another chair, by all means. If you've got any objection to that one.'
Cynthia went over and plumped down in the easy-chair.
Earnshaw, hesitating and smiling in the doorway, cleared his throat.
'I just happened to tell Cynthia -' he began. But his voice rose with shattering loudness, and then fell away to nothing, because of the silence and the battery of looks directed at him by both Hadley and Dr Fell. Hadley faced
Cynthia across the writing-table, leaning his hands on the edge of it.
'Your mother told us, Miss Drew, that you got that bruise on your temple from slipping and falling on some stone steps.'
' I'm afraid,' answered Cynthia, ' that was just a polite fiction for the benefit of the neighbours.' Hadley nodded.
'Actually, I'm told, you got the bruise when Miss Lesley Grant hit out at you with a hand-mirror ?' 'Yes. I'm afraid that's true.'
'Would it interest you to hear, Miss Drew, that Miss Grant denies hitting you with a mirror or with anything else?'
Cynthia raised her head. She put the palms of her hands flat along the arms of the chair. Her blue eyes opened in amazement.
' But that's simply not true!'
' It's not true, Miss Drew, that you fell and struck the side of your head against the footboard of a bed ?'
' I... no, of course not!' After a speculative silence, while they again heard distantly the voice of the church-clock, Cynthia added: 'Let's come straight out with this, shall we? I hate beating about the bush. I hate - crooked things! And I'm pretty sure you know why I've come here to see you. Mr Earnshaw has been telling me...'
Earnshaw intervened before anybody could stop him.
'If you don't mind,' he said with polite sharpness, ‘I'd rather be kept out of this.'
'So?' inquired Dr Fell.
' I came here early to-day,' Earnshaw continued, smiling away unconsciously even as he registered a protest, ' to ask about a rifle. That rifle there by the fireplace. While I was here, I gave Dick Markham a theory about this affair. I also gave him some information.'
'Concerning,' said Dr Fell, 'drawing-pins?'
'Yes!' Earnshaw now poured with volubility. 'Colonel Pope always used to use drawing-pins for his gauze screens, as you can see for yourself if you examine the marks on any window-frame in this house. Though what a box of them should be doing on the floor now I can't say. Never mind 1'
Here Earnshaw raised his hand.
'While I was here,' he went on to Dr Fell, 'I heard a certain thing. About - Sir Harvey Gilman. You said it, Dr Fell. I wasn't sworn to secrecy, if you remember. Nobody asked me not to mention it. All the same, I decided not to mention it. Because of my position; because I didn't understand it; because discretion is discretion.'
Nobody now tried to stop Earnshaw. It was as though he spoke into a void, as though he spoke to Dr Fell round a corner, utterly ignoring the tableau presented by Hadley and Cynthia in the middle of the room. The silent struggle between the eyes of Hadley and the eyes of Cynthia was emphasized and heightened to fever-pitch by Earnshaw's words.
'On my way home from the bank to-day...'
(Cynthia made a short, slight movement)
' On my way home from the bank to-day,' said Earnshaw, ' I stopped at Cynthia's house to give her a message from my wife. She saw me. She broke down a little. She told me an absolutely ghastly story' - here Earnshaw uttered a loud laugh - 'about Lesley Grant.'
'A true story,' said Cynthia, with her eyes on Hadley.
'A ghastly story,' repeated Earnshaw. 'I felt bound to warn her, you know. Discretion or no discretion. I said; "Look here, where did you hear that?"'
'A very interesting question,' said Hadley.
' I said, "Because I'm bound to warn you that Dr Gideon Fell says this Sir Harvey Gilman wasn't Sir Harvey Gilman at all. And Middlesworth claims he was an impostor too.
'Is the story true? The story about Lesley?' demanded Cynthia.
'Is it true?' asked Earnshaw, who was white to the forehead.
Superintendent Hadley remained for a second or two supporting his weight with both hands on the writing-table; his face betraying nothing.
'Suppose I told you, Miss Drew - and you too, Mr Earnshaw - that the story about Miss Lesley Grant is perfectly true?'
' Oh, my God,' murmured Earnshaw in a flat voice.
Cynthia dropped her eyes at last. She seemed to gasp at the air, as though she had been holding her breath for a full minute.
' Officially, mind,' the superintendent spoke in a warning tone, 'I have no information to give you. I merely say "suppose" that. And I think, Mr Earnshaw, I'd rather excuse you while I have a further word with Miss Drew. If you wouldn't mind waiting but in the car ?'
'No, no, no,' Earnshaw assured him. Earnshaw glanced at Dick, and looked away with perplexed embarrassment. 'Lesley Grant a poisoner with - Never mind! Discretion. It's incredible! Excuse me.'
He closed the door firmly after him. They heard his footsteps in the hall, and their tempo seemed to quicken in the grass outside.
For the first time Cynthia addressed herself to Dick Markham.
' I couldn't tell you about it this morning, Dick,' she said in a low, steady voice. There was pity in her gaze: if this were acting, it struck him with honest horror. ' I couldn't bring myself to hurt you that much! When it came to the test, I'm afraid I simply failed it.'
'Yes,' said Dick. His throat felt thick; he did not look back at her.
'I've been wondering all afternoon,' Cynthia went on in a conscience-stricken voice, 'whether I might be doing her an injustice. Honestly, if there had been any mistake about this, I should have gone down on my knees to beg her pardon!'
'Yes. Of course. I see.'
'When Bill Earnshaw told me what he did, I wondered for half a second ...! But there it is!'
'Just one moment, Miss Drew.' Hadley did not speak loudly. 'You couldn't bring yourself to hurt Mr Markham by telling him about this, though you believed he knew it already?' He paused. 'You told Miss Grant, didn't you, that Mr Markham already knew all about it?'
Cynthia uttered a small harsh laugh.
' I'm a rotten bad hand at expressing myself,' she replied. ' Yes. I knew he'd heard it. But J didn't want to be the one who threw it in his teeth and reminded him of it. Can't you understand that ?'
'By the way, Miss Drew, where did you hear the story?'
'Oh, does that matter now? If the story is true?'
Hadley reached over and picked up his notebook.
'It might not matter,' he conceded in an even voice, 'if the story were true. But it's not true at all, Miss Drew. It was a pack of lies invented by a crook who called himself Sir Harvey Gilman.'
Cynthia stared at him.
‘You said-!'
'Oh, no. I carefully said "suppose" that, as any of these gentlemen can testify.' Hadley poised his pencil over the notebook. 'Where did you hear the story?'
Incredulity, defiance, still a straightforward virtuousness all mingled in Cynthia's expression, despite the pallor of her face and the rigidity of her body.
'Don't be silly!' she burst out. And then: 'If this isn't true, why should anybody say it was?'
'Certain people might not like Miss Grant very much. Can't you understand that?'
'No. I like Lesley, or thought I liked her, very much.'
'Yet you attacked her?'
'I didn't attack her,' replied Cynthia, raising her chin with pale calm.
'She attacked you, then? You still maintain you got that bruise on your temple from being hit with a hand-mirror?'
‘Yes.'
' Where did you hear this story, Miss Drew ?' Cynthia still disregarded this.
' It's utterly absurd,' she declared,' that anybody should give all those details unless there was some truth in it. Some truth, don't you see?' She spread out her hands. 'What do you know about Lesley? How many times has she been married ? What does she keep in that safe ?'
'Listen, Miss Drew.' Hadley put down notebook and pencil. Again he balanced his hands on the edge of the table, with powerful patience, as though he were going to push the table towards her. 'I keep telling you there's NO truth in the whole thing.'
'But...!'
' Miss Grant isn't a criminal. She has never been married. What she kept in the safe was perfectly innocent. She was nowhere near this cottage last night or this morning. Let me carry that further. The house here remained dark from eleven o'clock last night until some minutes past five this morning, when a light was turned on in ...'
' Sir!' interposed a new voice.
For some minutes Dick had been aware of what might be called a background difference. The helmet of Police-Constable Miller still passed and repassed outside the windows. But it had been moving a little more rapidly.
And it was Miller's large face which appeared now, poked through the frame of die shattered window: sideways, almost comic-looking if it had not been for Miller's heavy urgency.
Till Death Do Us Part dgf-15 Page 15