The Affair of the Mutilated Mink (33 page)

Wilkins drained his glass.

Lord Burford said, 'Well, that's all fascinating, Wilkins. But how did he do it, and when? How did he manage to convince you and Allgood that he was innocent?'

'He never convinced me, your lordship. I was careful never to say I thought him innocent - only, for example, that I believed him when he claimed that things weren't as they seemed, and that when he entered Miss Lorenzo's room a few minutes before he was found standing by the body, she was already dead. Actually, I was quite certain of his guilt within two minutes of the start of my first conversation with him.'

'Two minutes?' Rex exclaimed. 'You mean he gave himself away somehow?'

'Not in the sense you mean, sir.'

'But then how?'

Wilkins leant back in his chair. 'It's like this. I'm a simple sort of fellow. When I hear that a man's been found standing over a body with the murder weapon in his hand, my overwhelming instinct is that he's guilty. In fact, in the dozens of murder cases I've investigated, and the hundreds I've read about, I've never heard of one in which a person found in such a situation was innocent. Therefore I arrived here with a strong predisposition that Carter was the murderer. Of course, it was just possible that he'd been framed. But to be framed for a crime in such a way, a person would have to be very stupid or naive. Two minutes' conversation with him, however, showed me that he was neither, and I was then certain that he'd been found in that incriminating position only because he'd
wanted
to be. Great Scott, nobody planning a frame-up would arrange such a haphazard one as this one was supposed to be. A dozen things could have gone wrong. How could it be known that when Carter or anybody else came along the corridor and found the pistol on the floor that they'd be alone, that somebody else wouldn't be in the corridor at the same time? What certainty could there be that he'd actually pick up the gun and obligingly step into Miss Lorenzo's room, and t hen allow himself to be pushed in the back, without seeing the pusher? No, it's the stuff of mystery stories, not real life. And Carter, I found out, was a great fan of whodunits.

'Having come to this conclusion, I saw the case as fairly straightforward: my only job was to nail him. I doubted it would be possible to get cast-iron proof, so what I had to do was provide strong circumstantial evidence - firstly by showing how he could have done it and secondly by discovering a motive. That was why I perhaps seemed half-hearted in questioning the other guests. I knew none of them was guilty, just as I knew that the other strange incidents were either camouflage or completely irrelevant. They could be looked into eventually, if necessary, but they weren't of the first importance.'

Hugh asked, 'But if you were so sure of Carter's guilt, why did you want Scotland Yard called in?'

'It was really a question of my Chief Constable, sir. Now he's a first-rate man, an officer and a gentleman. But to tell you the truth, he's not exactly very imaginative. I didn't think he'd believe for a moment in a man having framed himself. I didn't have the nerve to put it to him until I was able to make out a very good case for it. I needed time to do two things: first, to look into Carter's background and circumstances, and to a lesser extent into Miss Lorenzo's, to try and find some link between them; second, to work out just how Carter had done it. The delay caused by the calling in of the Yard gave me just the breathing space I needed. I was confident Mr Allgood would see the case in the same light as I did and play along with me. But,' Wilkins looked sad, 'he didn't, and I had to go my own way. At first my main worry that he might actually arrest Carter straightaway, which was the last thing I wanted. Fortunately, however, he came to the quite erroneous conclusion that Carter was innocent.'

'Why would it have been so bad if he had arrested Carter?' Lord Burford asked.

'Because we'd have had to release him again. I was sure that he had a trick up his sleeve. Evidence was about to turn up which was seemingly going to prove he was innocent. I'd expected, from the fact that the mink was missing, that this evidence might involve the coat. And I was right, though Carter also had two other pieces of back-up evidence, just to be on the safe side.'

The Earl stood up and started to replenish glasses.

'Well, no doubt I'm dense, but I don't see why he had to go to the trouble of framing himself at all. Why not just bump her off and have done with it?'

Ann said, 'I think I have a glimmering. Was it that by being the first one to be suspected, albeit for false reasons, he could be the first one to be cleared?'

'That's it, Miss. You see, if we - the police - had arrived here and found a murdered woman and no leads to the identity of the killer, we would immediately have started checking up on all the guests, searching for a possible motive. We'd have looked into their backgrounds, sought a previous connection with Miss Lorenzo, investigated their financial situation, and so on. And it was vital to Carter that he not be put through such a probe. Firstly, although he'd made himself out to be well off, we'd have discovered that he was up to his ears in debt and was seriously overdrawn, which the bank had been pressing him about. It's true he did inherit quite a substantial sum from his grandfather, but he got through that years ago. We'd have immediately become suspicious, inquired into any sources of income he'd had, and who knows what we'd have turned up? He'd have been a major suspect, his movements would have been gone into minutely, and eventually - though it would have taken some time — we'd probably have discovered he was in northern Italy at the time Laura's cousin died.

'At all costs, he had to avoid that. He had to convince the police he was innocent. And the only way he could do that was to make it appear certain he'd been framed. Thereafter, everybody else in the house would be under suspicion and would have their backgrounds investigated - except, obviously, the victim of the frame-up.'

Lord Burford nodded slowly. 'I see . . . I think.'

Hugh said, 'Now, what I want to know most of all is how he did it. I thought he had an alibi for the time of the murder. Did Laura really die just after she entered her room, after all?'

'Yes, sir.'

Hugh banged the arm of his chair. 'But, Wilkins, he was out with Gerry then, four miles from here. I saw him.'

Wilkins gave a smile of deep satisfaction. 'There are two things which everybody overlooked: the geography of this area; and the fact that Carter was an Olympic three thousand meters steeplechaser.' He looked round. 'The point at which he supposedly ran out of petrol is indeed about four miles from here by road. In a straight line it's no more than a mile away.'

It was Rex's face which was the first to clear. 'For crying out loud, you mean he
ran it
?'

Wilkins beamed at him. 'Precisely, sir.'

Hugh said, 'Ye gods! So simple. But the petrol . . .'

'He had a full can in back of the car, sir. Of course, he didn't actually run out at that point, but he no doubt arranged things so that the tank was very low.'

'So Turner didn't siphon fuel from Carter's car into my motor-bike, after all?'

'No, sir, from his own car. Anyway, Carter walked back sixty yards towards the village, then climbed a gate into a field, left the can of fuel under a hedge, slipped into a pair of running shoes, and started off. There's a straight run of about three quarters of a mile across flat fields to the wall surrounding the park. He had a key to that door in the wall — I found it on a marked tab in his pocket - and then it was just another quarter mile to the house. He arrived just before the rest of the party got home. With a powerful flashlight it would have taken him no more than six or seven minutes all told. He scaled the drainpipe - remember he was a skilled climber — which took perhaps another minute. The lady arrived almost immediately. He shot her, stripped off her coat, and cut the fur partly away round the bullet hole - only being very careful, apparently, to mess up the job and leave some blood on the coat. Then he cut out the other holes and burnt the pieces. That was the trap he set for us.'

'Which Allgood fell into,' said Rex.

'Well, it was a very clever trick, sir; but I'm afraid when I said as much, Mr Allgood thought I was referring to him.'

'Next, Carter found the letter, which Lady Geraldine had, as she casually revealed to us, told him she'd seen Laura writing. He took her gun—'

'That was
her
pistol?' the Earl asked.

'Almost certainly, my lord. We found her prints, not on the gun itself - Carter wiped it - but on the cartridge clip. Where was I? Ah, yes. Carter went out of the window and down the drainpipe again, carrying the coat. He took a few seconds to make sure the coat was in a position where it would be covered with snow, then it was back to the car, stopping only to pick up the can of petrol and change into his ordinary shoes again. He could have done it all comfortably in twenty-five minutes, even if, as is a possibility, it was he who put the phone out of order, too. It wouldn't have taken him more than a couple of minutes to shin up a telegraph pole and pull down a wire; however, that might have been a lucky coincidence.'

Ann said, 'But what a chance he took! He could have fallen, broken his ankle on his way back, anything.'

'Not too great a risk, considering the stakes he was playing for, miss. He was, of course, familiar with the estate from his rambles on his previous visit, and no doubt he planned the route carefully and examined it for obstacles and hidden pitfalls during his supposed training run that afternoon. And in fact, everything went perfectly for him until he got back to his car and found you there, Mr Quartus. That must have been quite a nasty shock.'

'Why?' Hugh asked.

'Firstly, I'm pretty sure he had you marked out as the fall guy, as they say in America. Now, though, you had an alibi. Secondly, you might have realised that the point at which you found them was only a mile from here.'

'Oh, there wasn't much likelihood of that. I'm not at a familiar with the area, and I just kept my eyes on the road one way and on Carter's taillight on the way back.'

Wilkins nodded. 'It must have been a great relief to him, and an added bonus, when you confirmed his car had been stranded four miles away. But before that, the real emergency arose when you hurt your hand and suggested Lady Geraldine drive home.'

Hugh frowned. 'I don't understand.'

'Well, sir, his scheme depended on Lady Geraldine not knowing exactly where they had stopped. If she did, she would be much more likely than you to realise how close she actually was to home, and later that Carter's alibi wasn't valid. So long as she remained slumped in her seat and didn't look out of the windows much he was safe. But if she drove home, it obviously wouldn't be very many minutes before she got her bearings. So he had to think quickly to stop that.'

Hugh gave a gasp. 'You mean he deliberately socked her on the jaw? He wasn't aiming for me?'

'That's my guess, sir.'

There was silence for several seconds before Rex and the Earl both started to ask a question together. Rex gestured to Lord Burford to proceed, and he said, 'I was only going to ask you when he took my gun.'

'Some time early on Friday evening, my lord, probably when you were dressing to go out. It would have been easy enough to slip unseen into the study first, to get the key. And he could be virtually certain you wouldn't be going into the gun room again that evening before you went out. Mr Ransom?'

'After we got home that night, how could Carter have been sure Laura would go straight upstairs, that she wouldn't have some refreshments first, say? Working on such a tight schedule, that could have botched his plan.'

'She must have made a prior arrangement to go straight up, sir.'

'An arrangement with Carter?'

'Yes. Perhaps she'd challenged him earlier and he'd claimed to have a full explanation for what had happened in Italy and begged to be allowed to give it to her before she took any further steps. She might have told him to come to her room immediately they got home that night - remember she had to leave here the following morning. That's only a guess, but I think it's indicated by her obvious wish to contact her agent that night before she went upstairs; and by the fact, as I discovered when I phoned the gentleman myself, that she gave a false reason to her ladyship for wanting to make the call and told a lie about his keeping late hours. So that call was for a private reason, and was obviously important. She wanted somebody, not a stranger but somebody she knew and trusted, to have the facts as to why she was really here.'

'As a sort of insurance, a lever to use against Carter?' Rex said.

'That's right, sir. She'd started to write a letter to her agent earlier, but had left it too late to catch the post. So instead, at the last moment, she tried to telephone him. But she was unsuccessful. She had no choice but to go up to her room all the same. Carter was waiting for her, and shot her.'

The Earl said, 'No wonder he was in such a hurry to get upstairs when he got back, knowing the body was up there all the time.'

'Yes, my lord. He just took a minute or two for a quick drink with you, which no doubt he badly needed. Then he had to go up and put Miss Lorenzo's gun in the secret passage, making sure you didn't see him when you went up. After that, he hurried to his own room, took his coat off, came out again, and then probably heard the voices of Lady Geraldine and Mr Ransom in the main corridor. That must have been a last minute stroke of luck for him - provided a plausible reason for his supposedly having gone to the far end of the corridor and found the gun on the floor.'

'Why put the gun in the passage?' Hugh asked.

'He must have wanted to be sure it would be found - though not by him. From what Leather tells me, Lady Geraldine's account of its being found makes it pretty clear Carter led her on to look there. That gun, you see, was one of the other things that were apparently to prove his innocence. We were to believe it had been used to fire the alarm shot. One bullet had gone from it - no doubt he fired it in the air when he was a good way from the house on his return to the car - and, of course, as Carter hadn't had a chance to conceal it in the passage
after
the shot was heard, this would back up his story that the alarm shot had been fired by a second person.'