Death and the Visiting Fireman

by H. R. F. Keating

  ‘They argued a bit about it and Mr Schlemberger said twice, “I don’t have that much money here,” and Mr Wemyss said, “Very well then forty-eight hours, not a minute longer,” and that was all.’

  ‘Now, what about this pillow business?’

  ‘That was after, sir. I got back into bed when they had left because I wanted to think it all out. And I fell asleep, sir. It was while I was sleeping. Suddenly I felt something come down on my face and when I woke up it was all black and I couldn’t breathe properly. I kicked out and hit something. It felt like somebody. I tried to yell out but I couldn’t. And then everything went dim and suddenly I woke up again and I was all alone. And then you came in.’

  ‘You’re sure of all this?’

  ‘Yes sir, really.’

  ‘And you’ve no idea who it was who was holding the pillow over your face, if that was what happened?’

  ‘I think it was that, sir. Thinking about it that’s what it felt like. But I don’t know who it was at all.’

  ‘Man or woman?’

  ‘Whoever it was, sir, was pretty strong.’

  ‘Still you’re not all that big, are you?’

  ‘I suppose it could have been a woman, then.’

  ‘They didn’t say anything?’

  ‘No. I think I would have heard because the pillow was only pressed tight on my mouth and just covering my eyes.’

  ‘Anything else about it that you can remember?’

  ‘Yes sir. I’ve just thought. It was a person, sir, because they took hold of my wrist. Just before it all went dim, sir. I remember it was funny because they didn’t hold tight, not as if they were trying to hold me down. I couldn’t understand it and then ... Did I faint, sir? Is that what fainting is?’

  ‘You lost consciousness, Peter. It happens when you get no air to breathe.’

  ‘It isn’t very nice.’

  ‘No, I expect it isn’t. But never mind, it’s all over now. How do you feel? A bit cold? You look it.’

  ‘Yes, I am a bit shivery. That’s funny because before I thought it was going to be too warm to sleep.’

  Smithers draped an extra blanket on the bed.

  ‘Do you mind if I ring up Inspector Parker and ask him to have a word with you about the smothering. I don’t think you need mention the other business.’

  ‘No sir, I don’t mind. If you think he ought to. I’m glad I don’t have to say about what I heard. I don’t think the inspector would believe it.’

  ‘No, he quite likely would not, but people mustn’t be allowed to go about playing tricks, and he’s the man to put a stop to that. I shan’t be a minute.’

  Smithers ran down to the telephone, left a quick message for the inspector, and ran back to Peter’s room. He found him huddled up with the blankets round his shoulders.

  ‘Could you stay with me a bit, sir?’ he asked.

  ‘Certainly, I’ll be here until the inspector comes anyhow. I’ve asked him to come straight up. Would you like a cup of hot milk or anything?’

  ‘No thank you, sir, just as long as you’re here I don’t mind.’

  They sat in silence for a little. Peter yawned.

  ‘Can you keep awake until the inspector comes? He oughtn’t to be long,’ Smithers said.

  ‘I think I can. It’s funny, just a minute ago I didn’t feel sleepy at all, and now suddenly I’m awfully tired.’

  ‘That’s a good thing. You’ll be able to have a good long sleep and feel as right as rain in the morning. Either a policeman or I will be somewhere quite close.’

  ‘I’m feeling warmer now,’ said Peter.

  A long yawn.

  ‘Please sir, was what I heard the proof?’

  ‘Not quite the proof, Peter, but it did provide me quite incidentally with something that confirmed my guess, though nothing that would convince the police. But I think I hear the inspector. Waken up a bit if you can.’

  Smithers went to the door and let Inspector Parker in.

  ‘He’s very tired,’ he said.

  The inspector looked at him.

  ‘I was in two minds about coming.’

  ‘Talk to him and you’ll see.’

  In answer to the inspector’s questions Peter sleepily repeated almost word for word what he had told Smithers about the attack.

  The inspector asked him three extra questions checking points, and then said:

  ‘Well, lad, it looks as though someone did try something a bit odd on you. I’ll put a good solid copper on duty just outside for tonight, and in the morning I’ll sort it all out. Good night.’

  ‘Good night,’ said Peter.

  When they looked at him as they closed the door he was asleep.

  ‘I’ll tell you straight away that I believe the boy,’ Inspector Parker said when the door was shut.

  ‘He’s one of the sort that never thinks of telling lies,’ Smithers said. ‘Though when they’re put up to it they’ll do it well enough.’

  ‘But in this case I don’t think he was put up to it. Though I had the possibility in mind.’

  ‘I expected that, but I thought the boy’s story would convince you.’

  ‘I’ll put a man on duty here as I said, and I’ll have to make one or two inquiries about this pillow, though it looks just like the others on the bed. Where is your room by the way?’

  ‘Three doors along,’ said Smithers.

  ‘Here?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘May I go in?’

  ‘Certainly, though I don’t see .. .’

  The counterpane had been roughly jerked back and only one pillow lay at the head of the bed.

  ‘I see now,’ said Smithers.

  ‘It doesn’t really tell us anything,’ Inspector Parker said. ‘You can go on wondering about bluff and double bluff until the cows come home.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘You’ll have to find yourself another pillow for tonight I’m afraid. This will have to be gone over. It might provide a clue of some sort. And now it’s about time they serve dinner here, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Then I’ll be able to see everyone. We’ll drop in at the reception desk and ask them to hold the meal back for half an hour. And then I’ll commandeer the office again and see each one of you in turn. Where were you, for instance, all evening and how did you come to find out the boy had been attacked?’

  Smithers told him.

  ‘All alone in the deserted lounge?’

  ‘Yes, from the time the boy went to bed to the time I heard him scream, a few seconds after half past seven.’

  ‘Thank you. Would you wait here till I have seen the others?’

  Smithers sat down again in the lounge. He noticed a constable standing just outside the open door. He picked up Vol. 6 of The Decline and Fall from where it had fallen when he heard Peter’s screams. He flicked through the pages aimlessly, then sat up straight in the chair, found his place, and began reading.

  He had read eight pages when Daisy came in.

  ‘What a dreadful thing,’ she said. ‘The inspector told me you heard him screaming, poor kid. Is he all right now? Should I go up?’

  ‘He was sound asleep when we left him and there’s a friendly-looking constable on duty just outside the room, so I don’t think we need worry,’ Smithers said.

  ‘Well, that’s a good thing. I feel a bit guilty about it all. My room’s not so far from his and I was in there, but I didn’t hear a thing. I haven’t been sleeping too well lately. I lie and worry, you know. It’s silly but I can’t help it. And when I went up to lie down after tea I dropped off and slept like a log. The inspector asked me could I prove it? I was a bit naughty, I’m afraid. I said that if it had been five years ago I would have had a witness. It made him blush. It was silly of me: I should have said ten years.’

  ‘I must admit it’s a matter of some relief to me,’ Smithers said.’ You know that it was my pillow that was used. If everyone else had appeared to have an alibi I should have b
een in an awkward position.’

  ‘It’s time this business was cleared up,’ said Daisy. ‘That’s plain nasty, whoever it was trying to pin it on a nice old thing like you.’

  Pink. Smithers blushed pink.

  Kristen came in.

  ‘We’re none of us safe in our beds now,’ she said.

  ‘Did you have an alibi, dear?’ asked Daisy. ‘Neither of us did. We were wondering whether we shouldn’t provide each other with one.’

  ‘I did sort of,’ Kristen said. ‘Only he kept pointing out that there would have been time for me to do it after Richie and I came back from our walk. I went upstairs for a bit and naturally I can’t prove I stayed where I was.’

  ‘Did your walk last long?’ said Smithers.

  ‘Now don’t you start. Old Nosey Parker went on and on about that. I told him I didn’t know. Do you think that every time I go out of this hole I look at the time? I told him it was more than an hour. Of course I know it was less, but why should I make it worse for myself?’

  ‘Three-quarters of an hour?’ Smithers asked.

  ‘I tell you I don’t know. It was about three-quarters, I suppose.’

  Next Schlemberger.

  ‘I guess that inspector’s pretty riled,’ he said. ‘That oughtn’t to have happened. The way he spoke to me I reckon he knows he slipped up. He wanted me to alibi myself every minute of the time.’

  ‘And could you?’ said Daisy.

  ‘Could I hell. Sam was in a worse mess than I thought. I was in that little office on the telephone till just a few minutes ago.’

  ‘Then you have only to get your friend to corroborate that,’ Smithers said.

  ‘That would be just fine. Only I put in so many calls to help Sam out I got all messed up. Some of them took a long time to go through, too. Your British policemen may be wonderful, but boy, your telephone system could do with a look-over. Anyhow, there it is. Parker was pretty quick to point it out to me: I could have slipped out of that office for ten or five minutes and no one any the wiser.’

  Then Fremitt.

  ‘A terrible business, a terrible business. As I see it this puts a quite different complexion on the whole affair, or at least it alters my outlook on it. Of course, Mrs Fremitt and I were never blessed with children, but I have always liked them, and now this.’

  ‘I suppose you’ve got an alibi,’ Kristen said.

  ‘An alibi? Oh, I see what you mean. Well, yes, I have got an alibi as it happens. A pure coincidence. And a most lucky thing for me. I was writing my daily letter to Mrs Fremitt meaning to catch the last post and I’m afraid I fell into a doze. I find with increasing years I am apt to drop off if I sit down for any length of time in the evenings.’

  ‘If the inspector accepted that, I wish I’d told him I’d been asleep all the time,’ said Kristen.

  ‘Oh, no, that wasn’t it at all. You see, I woke with a start, realized it must be late, just signed the last sheet as it lay in front of me, slipped it into an envelope, which luckily I had addressed before I began to write - my usual custom - and hurried down the road to the pillar box. Most luckily I arrived at the box just as the postman was clearing it. We had a little chat, about the weather, I think it was. And as it so happens the collection is taken up at 7.30. So at the time of the attack, or what I understand from the inspector to be the time, I was actually out of the hotel.’

  ‘But...’ said Daisy.

  She stopped.

  ‘You were going to say?’ Smithers said.

  ‘Oh, nothing really. Only that that must have been my friend, the chatty postman. But it seemed rather a frivolous remark. Anyhow I’m glad someone’s got an alibi.’

  ‘I tell you someone who is necessarily deprived of one,’ said Schlemberger, ‘and that’s the kid’s father. I don’t know how he feels about things but he could be pretty sore.’

  ‘Would he dare come down into the town like that?’ said Fremitt. ‘And how could he be sure of finding the boy where he did?’

  ‘He might guess he’d be sent to bed early after being out nights,’ Schlemberger said.

  ‘True, true. The thought of that was one of the things that disturbed me most while he was away. I’m sure it’s not wise to be out of doors even on a summer’s night, if you can help it. The dews are treacherous, treacherous.’

  Next Major Mortenson.

  ‘Well, I have just had the satisfaction of playing a game of vice versa with Inspector Parker. I put a few questions to him. He is in no position to defend himself after this unfortunate incident. I put him through the hoop, and it’s just as I thought: he’s in more of a fog than ever. Things are twice as complicated now.’

  ‘Perhaps you were in a better position than us to criticize, major,’ said Fremitt. ‘If I understood Miss Miller rightly, few if any of us have anything in the nature of an alibi.’

  ‘Alibi?’ said the major. ‘Never thought of that. The inspector did try to ask me a few tom-fool questions about times and where I was, but he was having too good a roasting to get anywhere much. But as I was down at the farm grooming the horses most of the evening I imagine I have got an alibi. What time did this business happen?’

  ‘Almost exactly at half past seven,’ said Smithers.

  ‘Let me see then. Yes, I suppose I’m all right. I happened to notice that one of the horses looked as if it had been ridden, bit sweaty and dust-covered. So I went back into the farmhouse to ask about it, and I checked the time with their clock. Didn’t want to be late for dinner. We agreed that it was just after twenty to eight then. And as it’s about fifteen minutes’ brisk walk across the fields to the farm and more if you go by road I think that pretty well establishes it.’

  ‘You were alone with the horses, then?’ asked Smithers.

  ‘I was. There’s nobody much about at the farm at this time of day.’

  ‘And did the people there admit to having had the horse out?’

  ‘No, they said they hadn’t. But that’s what I expected. Only mentioned it to show them I was up to their tricks. They’re looking after the animals most of the time and you’ve got to rely on them really, quis custodiet, what.’

  Smithers smiled.

  ‘I suppose the inspector asked you about the various forms of transport along the road to the farm,’ he said.

  ‘He did his best to, through the strafing,’ the major said. ‘But he got no satisfaction out of that. There’s one of his own men at the crossroads leading off to the farm. He’d have spotted me going by. So it looks as if you’ll have to let me off. Anyone else equally blessed?’

  ‘Mr Fremitt is and we don’t know about Richie,’ Kristen said.

  Soon they did.

  ‘Well, Kristen,’ he said at the door. ‘I felt it my duty to warn the inspector that you’re really quite a strong girl. I thought he might have been deceived by this wilting flower act you’ve put on since the murder.’

  ‘What do you mean “warn the inspector”?’

  Kristen put out an arm behind her looking for support. It came in contact with the back of an armchair and she sat down quickly.

  ‘Just in case he thought you hadn’t the strength to smother the boy,’ Wemyss said. ‘By the way everybody: the inspector’s compliments and we are free to take dinner now.’

  ‘Are you making out I did it?’ Kristen said.

  ‘No, but a certain discrepancy in our accounts of our behaviour came to light, and after that I thought I was duty-bound to let the inspector have every relevant fact that had come to my knowledge.’

  ‘What relevant facts?’

  ‘Simply that you are quite a strong girl really. I don’t think anything else I know about you is relevant, or not as far as I can see at present.’

  Kristen sat still without replying.

  ‘Miss Miller,’ Smithers said, ‘may I have the honour?’

  He held out his arm for her to take and began leading her from the room. The others turned to follow.

  ‘All right,’ said Kristen l
oudly, ‘so what you told the inspector and what I told him don’t agree. I suppose it never occurred to you that he might believe me and not you.’

  ‘I’d be quite happy about that,’ Wemyss said. ‘You see I told him we were only out for twenty minutes before you lost your temper over some triviality and rushed back in. You apparently said we had been out much more than an hour. If you’re right I’ve got some sort of alibi.’

  ‘Twenty minutes, that’s a damned lie,’ said Kristen.

  At the open door Schlemberger turned and looked at the two of them left in the lounge together.

  ‘I’d be interested to hear about that alibi, Mr Wemyss,’ he said. ‘I happen to have collected most of the rest, I’d like to know yours.’

  ‘I said that as far as I can remember I had wandered about around the hotel without seeing anyone in particular,’ said Wemyss.

  He joined Schlemberger.

  ‘I must say it’s most unfair of the inspector to keep us all from our food. I’m extremely hungry,’ he said.

  When the soup was being cleared Kristen came in.

  ‘I’ll just have a little salad,’ she said to the waiter.

  She sat down without a word, looking down at her plate while the waiter served her. She then picked up her knife and fork and began cutting up her salad.

  ‘It seems to be warmer than ever this evening,’ said Smithers.

  ‘It was certainly beautifully fine all day long,’ Daisy said.

  ‘I don’t trust this heat,’ said Fremitt. ‘It thins the blood and in the winter months one suffers for it.’

  Jog, jog. One more step, another.

  Kristen went on cutting up her salad. She had made it into a fine mince but worked at it as hard as at the start. She did not attempt to eat.

  They went until the end of the meal without mentioning alibis, the attack on Peter, or the murder. As they got up to go to the lounge for coffee, the head waiter came in and said:

  ‘Inspector Parker has telephoned. He would like to see you all again in about a quarter of an hour. He asks you not to go out.’

  A loud voice. With hostile overtones.

  When the coffee had been left for Daisy to pour out Major Mortenson said:

  ‘I think we should have a short discussion before we see this chap again. If you ask me, he wants a lot firmer handling. Obviously it’s doing no good keeping us all here. Anyone of us may be attacked the way the boy was. If we put that to him firmly enough he’ll have to come to some modus vivendi.’