Mr. Zero

by Patricia Wentworth

  “Oh, yes, I did. We were coming down here, and he said if I met him just after twelve o’clock by the window in the yew walk-”

  “Then last night was not the first time you had met him there?”

  “Oh, no, it wasn’t. And he said would I like to earn some money-”

  “One moment, Lady Colesborough-when did he say this?”

  Sylvia looked surprised.

  “When I met him.”

  “I see. And that was down here at Cole Lester at midnight on Friday the twenty-ninth of January?”

  “I suppose it was. He said such a lot of things, and it’s so difficult to remember.”

  Mr. Brook’s voice was very persuasive.

  “Try and remember just what happened when you met him-what he said-what impression he made on you.”

  “He said he wanted to help me, and he said would I like to earn a lot of money, and I said I would. And he said I could quite easily, and then he told me how.”

  “He knew you were going to Wellings?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “Did he mention Mr. Lushington at that time?”

  “I don’t know. I suppose he did. Oh, yes, I know he did, because he seemed to think I ought to know about his being something in the Government.”

  “You didn’t know Mr. Lushington was Home Secretary?”

  “I can’t remember that sort of thing,” said Sylvia in a helpless voice.

  Mr. Brook smiled at her.

  “It’s dull-isn’t it? Now, Lady Colesborough, I’m not going to bother you any more, but I would just like to know what impression you got about Mr. Zero the first time you met him by the window in the yew hedge.”

  “He was outside, and I was in-I didn’t see him at all.”

  “He was outside, and you were in all the time, just as you were last night. Well now, how did he seem-all tall, and up in the air?”

  “Oh, no, he didn’t. I wasn’t a bit frightened of him then.”

  “Thank you, Lady Colesborough. I don’t think we need keep you now. I suppose your husband never mentioned Mr. Zero to you, did he?”

  Sylvia, glad to be gone, was already out of her chair. She said with unmistakable truthfulness,

  “Oh, no. He didn’t know anything about him. That was the only reason I did it-so that Francis shouldn’t know.”

  XXIII

  When the door had closed behind Sylvia Colonel Anstruther allowed his pent-up feelings to escape him.

  “The woman’s a half-wit!” he boomed. “I don’t know what you thought you were getting out of her, Mr. Brook. She can remember about her hair, but she can’t remember when she made up her mind to steal papers from the Home Secretary. She can’t put two sentences together without contradicting herself, and she can’t give a rational answer to save her life.”

  Mr. Brook looked up from making a note.

  “An irritating witness, but not, I think, an untruthful one. An undeveloped mentality, and a childish outlook, but no deliberate attempt to pervert facts. One or two very useful points emerged from her evidence. She was not frightened of Mr. Zero until she met him in the drive at Wellings. It was then that he began to strike her as tall and up in the air. I believe that was the only occasion on which his physical presence alarmed her. For the rest of the time she was afraid of his threats, of what he might do, and of her husband getting to know, but I don’t think that he himself inspired her with any particular dread, or she would not so readily have agreed to meet him at the window of the house in town or in the yew walk down here. If she had been afraid she would have found a way out. She could have fainted, had hysterics, developed some fashionable complaint, or in the last resort have confessed to her husband. One thing is certain, she was much more afraid of Sir Francis Colesborough than she was of Mr. Zero. I find this very suggestive, and one of the things it suggests is that the person to whom she handed Mr. Lushington’s papers in the drive at Wellings may very well have been Sir Francis himself.”

  Inspector Boyce lifted his head with a jerk. Colonel Anstruther said,

  “Bless my soul, Mr. Brook-that’s a bit of a tall order!”

  Mr. Brook smiled his quiet, deferential smile.

  “Not so tall, sir, if you will cast your mind back to the letter Sir Francis left behind him when he jumped out of that window to follow Lady Colesborough.”

  “You think he followed her?”

  “I think there is no doubt about that. He was disturbed-that is obvious from the unfinished letter. He was very sharply and intimately disturbed or he would not have left a letter of this character lying open upon his table even for a few minutes in the middle of the night when he would not expect anyone to enter the room. I am certain that he heard Lady Colesborough open the parlour door. I have experimented with the bolt, and it is practically impossible to withdraw it without making a good deal of noise. I think Sir Francis heard this, saw Lady Colesborough across the terrace-she had left the light on and the door open behind her-and forgot everything in his desire to follow. He did not attempt to catch her up, but, having seen her enter the tunnel, skirted the rose garden and came up on the outside of the window in the yew hedge to the place where he was found shot. Now to return to the letter. You say it is a tall order to suppose that the man to whom Lady Colesborough handed the envelope in the drive at Wellings may have been Sir Francis. But consider that unfinished letter.” Mr. Brook turned the leaves of his notebook and read: “ ‘You disturb yourself unnecessarily. Neither Zero nor the agent is under the least suspicion. This rests in quite another quarter. M. L. has decided-’ Now, Colonel Anstruther, you will not dispute that this letter implicates Sir Francis up to the hilt. He is addressing an associate and assuring him that neither Zero nor the agent is under suspicion. Zero may be Sir Francis himself, or he may be this anonymous associate. The agent I take to be Lady Colesborough.”

  “Well, I agree about Lady Colesborough. I thought that myself.”

  Mr. Brook resumed.

  “I feel quite sure that Sir Francis was cognizant of Lady Colesborough’s theft. As to his being Zero, I do not think that he would have risked speaking to her on the telephone-I think his associate did that-and I am quite sure he would not have risked meeting her and talking to her even on the darkest night. But I am inclined to believe that he received the papers from her in the drive at Wellings. For one thing, he was on the spot. He would only have had to leave the house for a very few minutes, and he had every opportunity of doing so. He and Lady Colesborough were the only two of the house-party who were not playing cards. You see, I have been on this case from the beginning, so I have a certain advantage.”

  “Quite so, quite so.” Colonel Anstruther was obviously impressed. “Then you think that there were two of them, both calling themselves Zero?”

  “I think Sir Francis was the moving spirit. Everything points to it. He was a man of dominating character. If he engaged in a criminal enterprise, it is unthinkable that he should be a subordinate, and the stake would have to be a big one to tempt him.”

  “But bless my soul, Mr. Brook, the man must have known his wife was a fool. That’s where I’m stuck. Would anyone in their senses have picked Lady Colesborough for a particularly delicate and dangerous job?”

  Mr. Brook nodded.

  “I think so, Colonel Anstruther. I think it was a very clever choice. Who is going to suspect a lovely, charming, artless young woman who can hardly be said to have a mind at all? Even if she had been found in Mr. Lushington’s room, it would only have been supposed that she had mistaken it for her own. There are certain advantages in being a fool.”

  Colonel Anstruther said “Perhaps-” in a doubtful tone. “Then you believe Lady Colesborough’s story? You believe she was meeting this associate of her husband’s, and that it was he who shot Sir Francis?”

  “We had better continue to call him Mr. Zero. Yes, I think so. I think he was engaged in double-crossing his chief. He had induced Lady Colesborough to open her husband’s safe and abstract a
packet of letters.”

  “That is if you accept her story,” said Colonel Anstruther. “We have only her word for all that. I’m not at all convinced that there was anyone else present when Colesborough was shot. Hang it all, she had the pistol in her hand. You can’t rule out the possibility that she shot him herself.”

  “With what motive?” Mr. Brook’s tone was rather dry.

  “One that you’ve supplied yourself. It’s your own suggestion that Sir Francis was Mr. Zero. Lady Colesborough goes to her assignation, taking the pistol with her, and shoots the man who is frightening her. She may have recognized him or she may not. She may have shot in a hurry and only discovered afterwards that she had killed her husband.”

  Mr. Brook shook his head.

  “I do not think so. I cannot believe that her assignation was with Sir Francis, first because I am quite sure that he would not have risked such a meeting and could have had no possible motive for it, and next because of the unfinished letter. If he had been planning to go out he would either have finished the letter first or put off writing it until afterwards.”

  Colonel Anstruther received this with scepticism.

  “There may be something that we don’t know about-unknown factor-there very often is. You make your theory, and something comes along and upsets it. To my mind it’s a perfectly plain case as far as the murder is concerned. The unknown factor is that we don’t know what Lady Colesborough was up to. She may have been meeting someone or she may not, but I think Colesborough caught her out, and I think she shot him with his own pistol. The butler’s evidence is that he kept it in an unlocked drawer, so she could have got it if she wanted to. And I say she did get it and she did shoot him. And there isn’t a particle of evidence except her own to show that there was any other man there at the time-not a particle. And if Miss Hardwicke hadn’t gone out of her way to wipe the pistol, we should have had a cast-iron case.”

  “Well,” said Mr. Brook, “I don’t agree with you about there being no evidence, because it’s an undisputed fact that Mr. Somers was, if not there, at least very near at the time that the shot was fired. He says he was on the edge of the lawn at the point where the path comes out when he heard the shot. We have only his own word for that. He may have been nearer-he may have been very much nearer indeed.”

  Inspector Boyce’s chair creaked as he shifted his weight. Colonel Anstruther said “Bless my soul!” in an extremely startled voice.

  “You see,” said Mr. Brook, “we have to consider what we know about Mr. Zero. I believe Lady Colesborough was telling the truth when she described the various telephone conversations and the interview she had with him in the yew walk. At this interview, more than twelve hours before the report which was afterwards stolen had reached Mr. Lushington, Mr. Zero was making his plans for having it stolen. He knew what it was and when it would be delivered.”

  “He couldn’t have known that Mr. Lushington would take it down to Wellings.”

  “Consider what he did know, Colonel Anstruther. He knew that Mr. Lushington was going away. He knew that the report would be delivered to him before he went. I think we may assume that he knew Mr. Lushington was in the habit of taking papers away with him. In any case, the last instructions were given to Lady Colesborough by telephone at five o’clock on the Saturday afternoon, some hours after Mr. Lushington had left for Wellings with the report in his possession. It is quite certain that Mr. Zero knew this. Now, in looking for Mr. Zero, we have to look for someone who was in a position to know all these things. Mr. Somers is in such a position. He is a member of Mr. Lushington’s staff and also of his family. He knew that the report was expected. He actually handled it and conveyed it to Mr. Lushington. He had been under suspicion from the first, but at that time it was considered rather more than probable that the theft had taken place before Mr. Lushington left town. Mr. Somers had the opportunity of substituting the dummy envelope which was found when Mr. Lushington opened his despatch-case. In fact, Mr. Somers fills the bill very neatly. Perhaps he fills it a little too neatly-I don’t know. Mr. Lushington has complete confidence in him, but it is certain that Mr. Somers knew about the visit to Wellings, that he knew about the report, and that he knew the report had been taken to Wellings. He could very easily have rung Lady Colesborough up. There remains the damning fact that the man who knew these things was here in the grounds of Cole Lester at the hour of Lady Colesborough’s appointment with Mr. Zero, and at the moment when Sir Francis Colesborough was shot.”

  “Bless my soul!” said Colonel Anstruther in a tone of dismay.

  Mr. Brook got up and pressed the bell.

  “I think we must ask Mr. Somers to explain himself,” he said.

  XXIV

  Algy Somers came into the room, and found it hostile. Colonel Anstruther, grey of hair and red of face, was standing with his back to the fire. Inspector Boyce sat stiffly at the writing-table. Mr. Brook, whom he knew by sight, looked up from a notebook and then down again. It was borne in upon Algy that he was here not only to be questioned, but also to show good reason why the suspicions of the occasion should not be focussed upon his person. It was a very disquieting impression. Colonel Anstruther’s cold stare and Mr. Brook’s detachment did nothing to modify it. He could hardly sit while Colonel Anstruther remained standing, yet this position intensified the suggestion that he was in some sort a prisoner at the bar.

  The Chief Constable opened the proceedings.

  “I should be glad if you would repeat your account of what happened last night, Mr. Somers.”

  “I have made a statement in writing, sir.” Algy’s tone was quiet and pleasant.

  “You wish to adhere to that in every respect? Nothing you’d like to add to it?”

  “Nothing that I can think of, but if there are any questions you would like to ask-”

  Colonel Anstruther looked past him.

  “Mr. Somers’ statement, Boyce.”

  The Inspector brought it over and went back to his seat. Colonel Anstruther frowned at the typewritten page.

  “You say, Mr. Somers, that Miss Hardwicke asked you to drive her down to Cole Lester. When was this?”

  “Well, I was having a bath when she rang up-I suppose it was about seven o’clock. By the way, she didn’t ask me to drive her to Cole Lester, she asked me to lend her my car. I wouldn’t do that, but I offered to drive her, and she stipulated that I shouldn’t ask where we were going.”

  “And when did you find out?” There was a sneering tone in Colonel Anstruther’s voice.

  A young man with political aspirations must learn to keep his temper. Algy kept his. He said,

  “When Miss Hardwicke told me to make for a village called Colebrook, I guessed at once that she was going to Cole Lester to see her cousin.”

  “And you want us to believe that you asked no questions?”

  “I had promised not to, sir.”

  “Perhaps you were going down to Cole Lester in any case?”

  Algy allowed himself to be surprised.

  “Oh, no, sir. My acquaintance with Lady Colesborough is very slight.”

  “Have you ever talked to her on the telephone?”

  “Certainly not.”

  Mr. Brook looked up.

  “Did Miss Hardwicke give you any explanation of why she was going down to see her cousin in the middle of the night?”

  “No, she didn’t tell me anything.”

  “But you had your own ideas on the subject. Do you mind telling us what they were?”

  Algy hesitated.

  “It’s rather difficult to say. I was a good deal concerned about Miss Hardwicke. She is very young, her people are abroad, and I had an idea that she was letting herself get mixed up in something that might-involve her in some unpleasantness. As soon as I guessed we were going to Cole Lester I thought it was something to do with Lady Colesborough. I had to let her go off into the grounds by herself, but I didn’t feel at all happy about it, and as soon as 1 thought it was safe I followed
her.”

  Colonel Anstruther returned to the statement.

  “You say you followed Miss Hardwicke up the drive, and afterwards along the path that skirts the house. Did you know the place? Had you ever been there before?”

  “No.”

  “Then how did you find your way?”

  The question came at him sharply, but Algy took it with a smile.

  “I had a torch, sir. I didn’t use it more than I could help, because I didn’t want Miss Hardwicke to know that I was following her.”

  “And you maintain that you followed Miss Hardwicke all the way?”

  “Oh, yes-definitely.”

  Mr. Brook spoke in his quiet voice.

  “Taking into account the time that passed before you followed Miss Hardwicke, would it have been possible for you to reach the far side of the yew hedge by the time the shot was fired?”

  “Oh, no-certainly not.”

  “But if a shorter time had elapsed-if you had followed Miss Hardwicke immediately, then it would have been possible?”

  “No. I should still have been behind Miss Hardwicke, and she was certainly not more than half way down the tunnel when she heard the shot.”

  “Mr. Somers, are you aware that the path which skirts the house divides at a point level with the terrace?”

  “I know it now, but I knew nothing about it last night.”

  “Miss Hardwicke took the right fork and came out upon the lawn. If you had taken the left fork you would have passed the end of the yew hedge and come out upon the strip of grass behind the rose garden. You know that now, don’t you?”

  “Yes, I know it now.”

  “But you didn’t know it last night?”

  Algy’s eyebrows went up.

  “How could I know it? The place was utterly strange to me.”

  “You had never been there before?” The sneer was still in Colonel Anstruther’s voice.

  “No, I had never been there before.”

  Mr. Brook took up the question.