They looked at each other in silent jubilation.
‘Here, dump this beastly tray outside, somewhere,’ Pollard said, ‘and we may get a few minutes’ peace. If they try to winkle you out, I’ll start talking about the Assistant Commissioner, who I know so well, like an outraged upper-class suspect. You’ve rung his office, I take it?’
‘Yes, sir,’ Toye replied, having got rid of the tray. ‘I’m to go up this afternoon with a full report. He’ll be ringing you personally, his secretary said. And I’ve passed all the information on to Inspector Cook.’
As he spoke, he pulled up a chair and they settled down in the effortless intimacy built up over years of working together.
‘Let’s face it,’ Pollard said. ‘We missed out all along the line. Preconceived assumptions, I suppose. I got it all sorted out while I was hanging around in the X-ray department last night. Going right back to the start, I remember spotting the cat ladder when we went round the yard after we arrived, but it didn’t really register. One’s mind was on the boiler house door.’
‘Not the sort of thing you’d give any weight to,’ Toye insisted loyally.
‘All the same, it was part of the set-up. Well, we then had Habgood’s statement that the cat Nox landed on his chest, accompanied by the row of the electric beater at about five to seven on Wednesday evening. Last Sunday we had a clear hint that the animal is allergic to that sort of noise. Remember how he came out from under the sofa in the library when Mrs H. switched off the Hoover?’
Toye nodded, too absorbed for speech.
‘Right. Now, obviously Nox was in the library when Brown came back there on Wednesday evening. Either he got shut in by mistake at closing time or slipped in from the yard, both Escott and Brown having left the door open for a quick exit. Cats are nosy creatures. Can’t you picture Nox, invisible in the dark, stalking Brown as she crawled around and finally went up to the gallery? The circle of light from her torch must have fascinated him, and he would have taken up an observation post on the spiral staircase. Then she starts to come down. Her arms are full of books and she finds it difficult to focus her torch properly. Quite suddenly, Ernie lets the latch of the main door drop, and she thinks someone is coming in. She panics, takes a hasty step in the dark, and treads on Nox. He is terrified and trips her up just as he did me last night, only she isn’t quick enough to grab and rail and save herself. Nox gives the screech reported by Ernie, then belts for the yard and his ladder to home and friends. But when he fetches up in the flat, he’s greeted by the electric beater going full blast. It’s more than he can take, and he rushes to his master for protection.’
‘But he’d got to get into the boiler house through that fake door,’ Toye objected.
‘This is it. We didn’t give that door enough attention, either. I did examine it, being keen on old buildings, but as with the cat ladder, the important point about it didn’t register. It’s only painted wood, fastened by a small unobtrusive catch on the library side, which Escott would have undone when he put away the stacking chairs. There was a very small risk that someone would notice this on Wednesday, but his luck held. Things were a bit at sixes and sevens the next day, with Habgood out of action. But when the door into the yard was open, the draught would make the fake door swing to and fro. Not much, but enough for a frantic cat to claw its way out.’
‘Ernie’s door, shutting “quiet like”?’
‘Just that. By the way, what have you done with Nox?’
Toye, temporarily lost in admiration, roused himself. ‘I delivered him back to the Athenaeum. Mr and Mrs Habgood are in a proper taking. They say he’ll have to go, after what’s happened. They can’t risk any more accidents on the spiral staircase. Put to sleep if they can’t find a good home for him. They asked me to tell you, since you’d made a point of it.’
‘All fixed,’ Pollard replied, cautiously shifting his position and eyeing the door, outside which a group discussion was building up. ‘Tell them my wife and I will cherish him for the rest of his nine lives, if they’d like us to take him on. The kids are animal mad. I can —’
The door was purposefully opened. A nurse entered, carrying a basket of fruit.
‘I’m sorry, Superintendent Pollard, but Sister says Mr Wilkinson-Croft will be along any time now — this has just come for you.’
‘All right, Nurse. Inspector Toye, you’d better clear out for the moment. Come back as soon as possible and we’ll finish that report for the Assistant Commissioner. I shall want you here for the rest of the morning, of course.’ He winked outrageously at Toye behind the nurse’s back.
‘Here, this is right up your street,’ he added, as she went out again, leaving the door open.
Together they read the label attached to the basket of fruit. It conveyed the joint wishes of Evelyn M. Escott and James R. F. Westlake, for a speedy recovery.
A slow smile lit up Toye’s face. ‘I reckon he’s spoken,’ he said.
*****
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ALSO IN THE POLLARD & TOYE INVESTIGATIONS SERIES
DEATH OF AN OLD GIRL
THE AFFACOMBE AFFAIR
ALIBI FOR A CORPSE
DEATH ON DOOMSDAY
CYANIDE WITH COMPLIMENTS
NO VACATION FROM MURDER
BURIED IN THE PAST
UNHAPPY RETURNS
SUDDENLY WHILE GARDENING
CHANGE FOR THE WORSE
NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CASE
TROUBLED WATERS
THE WHEEL TURNS
LIGHT THROUGH GLASS
WHO GOES HOME?
THE GLADE MANOR MURDERS
Published by Sapere Books.
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United Kingdom
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Copyright © Elizabeth Lemarchand, 1976
The Estate of Elizabeth Lemarchand has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events, other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales are purely coincidental.
eBook ISBN: 9781912786961
Step in the Dark Page 18