The Affair of the Mutilated Mink (22 page)

'I see. And that must mean I have, too.' He gazed coolly at Allgood. 'Is that right? Am I cleared, also?'

Allgood said, 'You're Quartus, correct?'

Hugh bowed his head.

'Let me see. You were downstairs, in full sight of the Earl and Countess when Signorina Lorenzo went up to her room. You left the house almost immediately, drove four miles, found Lady Geraldine and Carter, and brought her back with you, arriving here at about one-fifty. Is that right?'

'Hundred per cent.'

'Then, yes, Quartus, you're in the clear.'

Hugh nodded casually. 'Good.'

'That's wonderful!' Gerry said excitedly. 'Thank heavens Paul ran out of petrol!' She took Hugh's arm. 'Come on, we're going to tell the others.'

He shook his head. 'You go on. I want to talk to the law.'

'OK.' She and Paul left the room.

'I've been wanting to speak to one of you all day,' Hugh said, 'but thought I'd better wait until I was sent for. However, if I wait any longer it won't be worth bothering at all.'

'To do what?' Allgood asked a little coldly.

'To report a stolen motor-bike.'

Chapter Seventeen

'A motorcycle?' Allgood looked annoyed. 'I am hardly the person and this is hardly the time to—'

'No? All right, I'll go and report it to the village bobby. Only as it was taken Friday night, shortly before the murder, I thought you might be interested.'

'Stolen from here?' Allgood was suddenly alert.

'Yes.' Hugh explained the circumstances.

'And the thief left the sidecar?' Allgood frowned. 'What an extraordinary thing. But I can't see any possible connection with the murder.'

Hugh said, 'The talk at first was of the motive being robbery and the fur coat being thrown out of the window to an accomplice. Although I see the coat's been found' - he nodded towards the piano, on which Allgood had put it down - 'it occurred to me that that might have been the original plan and they took my bike as a getaway vehicle.'

Allgood looked dubious. 'Well, it's a possibility, I suppose. Anyway, thank you for telling us.'

'I want it back, so put out an all-points bulletin, or whatever you call it, won't you? It's a jolly good machine.'

'That'll come under my jurisdiction, sir,' Wilkins said. 'I'll see to it.'

'Thanks.' Hugh went out.

Allgood sat silently thinking for a minute or so, until there came a knock at the door. It was Paul again.

Allgood said, 'Ah, Carter, how was Lady Geraldine's announcement received?'

'Oh, reasonably well. Everybody was very nice to me. The Earl apologised first, and then all the others - even though I'm far from certain they're all convinced. Particularly as it gradually sank in that if I'm innocent, they now understand they're all suspects. And when Gerry told them what you said about probing into their private affairs if the case wasn't solved by Monday, the atmosphere became a little strained.'

'Excellent! That should make all the innocent ones very eager to cooperate.'

'Lady Burford, of course, backed up by cousin Cecily, now maintains that the murder must have been committed by some passing tramp, who is now miles away. I think we're all going to pretend to go along with that, for the sake of normality. To admit openly that one of your companions is a murderer would make the situation intolerable. Why I came back, though, was to talk about silencers. Gerry told her father what you said. I offered to bring his reply. He has a dozen or more of the things. Seems he used to fit them to every pistol possible, so he could fire them without disturbing people too much. But since he's had that little shooting range put up, and the room is properly soundproofed, he's never bothered. They're all kept with the ammunition, and he couldn't possibly say if one is missing.'

Allgood nodded. 'I see. Well, it doesn't really matter. We know the shot was fired. Why it wasn't heard isn't vitally important.'

'Right. I'll tell him.' Paul started to turn away but hesitated.

Allgood eyed him keenly. 'There's something else, isn't there?'

Paul smiled. 'How did you know?'

'Why should
you
have brought the message about the silencers? It was a pretext. You wanted to see me again, and I would guess without Lady Geraldine being present.'

'Doesn't anybody ever fool you?'

'Not for long. Well, what is it?'

'It's a bit awkward, actually. But you said you wanted to be I old of any unusual incidents.'

'You've remembered something?'

'I never really forgot it, but my own troubles sort of drove it from my mind. I'm not at all sure it's relevant.'

'Never mind.'

Paul collected his thoughts. 'Yesterday morning I discovered I'd lost my fountain pen.'

* * *

'And that's all I heard,' Paul concluded. 'Suddenly the voice just faded and there was silence. I waited for a couple of minutes, then opened the panel and stepped into the room. There was nobody there.'

Allgood shook his head. 'Remarkable.'

Wilkins said, 'Mr Carter, could you explain why you didn't tell us, or anybody else, any of this before?'

Paul wriggled uncomfortably. 'Well, dash it all, it was a bit tricky. I'd been eavesdropping. Quite unintentionally and all that, but it seemed hardly the done thing to take advantage of the situation.'

Allgood nodded sympathetically. 'Yes, one can understand that. But surely you couldn't have just ignored the matter altogether. You obviously had some sort of obligation to the family.'

'Of course. I didn't know what to do. I mentioned to Gerry that I'd heard something very odd, but not what it was. She advised me to wait. Then, as you can imagine, the murder put it out of my mind. When I did start to think about it again, I couldn't decide if it had anything to do with the murder.'

'Well, you can rely on me to look into it fully, Carter. Please don't say anything about the matter to anybody from now on.'

'Right. It's a weight off my mind.'

At that moment they heard the faint sound of the dinner gong. Paul said, 'I must go. An event unique in the annals of Alderley is about to take place: we're not dressing for dinner. Whether Merryweather will ever recover I don't know.' He went out.

'What do you make of that, sir?' Wilkins said.

'Well, assuming he's telling the truth, and I'm sure he is—'

'Yes, I agree, sir.'

Allgood frowned. '
If
I may finish, Chief Inspector.'

'Sorry, sir.'

'And if he heard and understood correctly, it opens up an entirely new aspect of the case. His allowing himself to be overheard by Carter like that suggests to me that our friend may be a little careless. After all, everyone knew of the existence of the passage, it seems. What's more, we know that the murderer can be careless, too. So it might be worthwhile having a search of his room.'

'Now, sir?'

'Yes, while everyone's in the dining-room. Wait here.'

He left the room. Wilkins thankfully lowered himself into the nearest chair and lit a cigarette.

It was ten minutes before Allgood reappeared. There was a gleam of triumph in his eyes. He opened his pocket book and extracted a piece of paper about four inches square. 'No incriminating documents, or anything of that kind - all been burnt, without doubt. But this escaped. It was down behind the coal scuttle.'

He held the piece of paper out for Wilkins to get a closer look. It was charred all round the edges and covered with writing in ink. Wilkins read this and nodded slowly.

'Suggestive, isn't it?' Allgood said.

'Yes, sir, but ambiguous.'

'Of course; there are only, what, forty words altogether?'

'Do you know whose writing it is, sir?'

'It'll have to be checked by an expert, of course. But there's no real doubt in my mind that it's Laura Lorenzo's. It means that that letter she was writing wasn't intended for her agent, after all. And it provides us with a real motive at last.'

'So do you intend to make an arrest now?'

'Good heavens, no. It's far from certain yet. There are lots of loose ends. I'm going to keep this in reserve, produce it at an opportune moment.' He put the piece of paper away again.

'Should be a most interesting moment, sir.' He coughed. 'Is that everything for tonight?'

'Want to knock off?'

'Well, it has been a long day.'

'That's all right. You toddle off home to your beans-on-toast and cocoa. See you in the morning.'

'Actually, sir, I was going to ask if you'll need me tomorrow.'

'Need you? No, of course I won't
need
you. If you've got another case in hand you have to deal with, by all means do so.'

'It's not that, sir. Matter of fact, it's my day off.'

Allgood looked as if he couldn't believe his cars. 'Day off? You're not serious.'

'Yes, sir. And as you said you don't actually need me, I thought I'd get my feet up for a bit - take it easy, you know.'

'Ye gods!' Allgood looked up at the ceiling in despair. 'You'd actually stay home, taking it easy when you could be here, assisting me in a murder inquiry?'

'Well, I don't get all that many days off, sir.'

'But what about what you called the privilege of assisting me - all you were going to learn?'

'I've seen you at work now, sir. I've assisted a bit. It'll give me something to talk about for the rest of my life. As to what I'd learn, well, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. I'd never be able to conduct a case like you do. I'll probably blunder on in my own way, whatever happens. Of course, Sergeant Leather will be here all day, to assist in any way you want. He wouldn't miss it for the world. But, then, he's ambitious.'

Allgood shook his head in disbelief. 'All right, you take it easy tomorrow. I'll solve your little murder for you, without your help.'

'Oh, thank you, sir. That's very kind of you. In that case I'll say good night - and good luck, sir.'

He went out. Allgood stared at the door as it closed after him. He gave a sigh. 'Pathetic,' he said to himself.

* * *

'I say, my boy, what's all this about a missing motorbike?' Lord Burford asked the question over coffee in the drawing-room later that evening.

Hugh shrugged. 'That's all there is about it, Lord Burford. My motorcycle's missing. From your stable yard.' Somewhat reluctantly he recounted the story to the room at large.

When he'd finished the Earl shook his head. 'Very odd. 'Course, we're insured against theft here, if you're not, so no need to worry from that point of view. Deuced annoying for you, all the same.'

Jemima Dove, who was sitting nearby, said, 'Er.'

The Earl glanced at her. 'Yes, my dear?'

She went a little pink. 'Well, this may sound silly, but I suppose it wouldn't be your motorcycle that's up in the picture gallery, would it, Mr Quartus?'

Everybody in the room turned to stare at Jemima, as though she were crazy. She gazed back out of big grey eyes, and her pinkness suddenly intensified.

It was Lord Burford who broke the silence. 'The picture gallery, Miss Dove? Do you - I mean, you quite, er . . . ?'

She showed the first real sign of animation since her arrival. 'Yes, of course!'

'You're saying there's a motor-bike in the picture gallery?'

'Yes, down at the end. Nearly hidden behind a sofa.'

'But how did you come to know?'

'I - I was looking round there. I wanted to stay out of everybody's way as much as possible today. People kept using the library, and it was a bit boring in my room. I'm fond of pictures, so 1 decided to have a look in the gallery. I didn't see the motorbike at first. It's not noticeable until you get quite close.'

'But you didn't say anything about it,' Hugh exclaimed.

'No. Why should I have? It was nothing to do with me.'

'But weren't you surprised to find a motor-bike in a picture gallery?'

'I thought it a little odd. But I decided there had to be some good reason for it.'

Hugh got to his feet. 'I'll go and take a look.'

Jemima jumped up, too. 'I'll come and show you.'

'Oh, there's no need.'

'I'd like to.' Her face was still very red, and it was obvious she only wanted an excuse to get out of the room. So he didn't argue and they went out together.

'Well, that's certainly my bike,' Hugh said. 'But what maniac brought it up here? And why the dickens didn't anyone else spot it?'

Almost apologetically Jemima said, 'Well, one doesn't really notice it unless one looks directly at the sofa. I didn't see it until I'd been in the room a few minutes. And I don't suppose many other people have been in here last night or today.'

'Well, better get it downstairs and back outside, I suppose.' He stepped towards the bike.

'Oh, do you think you should?' she said diffidently. 'I was wondering if this could possibly have anything to do with the murder.'

'It might have, I suppose, though I honestly can't see how. Why?'

'I was thinking perhaps - though I know nothing about these things, really — whether, if there is the possibility of a connection, the police would want to test it for fingerprints.'

He looked thoughtful. 'Hm, maybe you're right. Though I imagine most criminals know enough to use gloves these days. Still, I suppose it may be advisable not to touch it until we've spoken to the police. And it's probably better off here than anywhere.'

They turned to leave. Hugh's eye fell on a long, stout wooden plank, about fifteen feet by twelve inches, which was lying on the floor against the side wall. 'Wonder what that's doing here.'

'I wondered about that, too. I thought perhaps decorators. They put them between step ladders.'

'Possibly.' He glanced round. 'Not that it looks as if they've had decorators in here lately.'

'Perhaps they're coming soon and brought the plank in advance.'

'Perhaps.'

They walked to the door. 'Will you tell that policeman tonight?' she asked.

'No, our great detective apparently needs several hours of undisturbed meditation. Tomorrow will do.'