I
Dayas Hall had certainly suffered during the war years. Couch grass grew enthusiastically over what had once been an asparagus bed, as evidenced by a few waving tufts of asparagus foliage.
Grounsel, bindweed and other garden pests showed every sign of vigorous growth.
A portion of the kitchen garden bore evidence of having been reduced to discipline and here Craddock found a sour-looking old man leaning pensively on a spade.
“It’s Mrs. ’Aymes you want? I couldn’t say where you’d find ’er. ’As ’er own ideas, she ’as, about what she’ll do. Not one to take advice. I could show her—show ’er willing—but what’s the good, won’t listen these young ladies won’t! Think they know everything because they’ve put on breeches and gone for a ride on a tractor. But it’s gardening that’s needed here. And that isn’t learned in a day. Gardening, that’s what this place needs.”
“It looks as though it does,” said Craddock.
The old man chose to take this remark as an aspersion.
“Now look here, mister, what do you suppose I can do with a place this size? Three men and a boy, that’s what it used to ’ave. And that’s what it wants. There’s not many men could put in the work on it that I do. ’Ere sometimes I am till eight o’clock at night. Eight o’clock.”
“What do you work by? An oil lamp?”
“Naterally I don’t mean this time o’ year. Naterally. Summer evenings I’m talking about.”
“Oh,” said Craddock. “I’d better go and look for Mrs. Haymes.”
The rustic displayed some interest.
“What are you wanting ’er for? Police, aren’t you? She been in trouble, or is it the do there was up to Little Paddocks? Masked men bursting in and holding up a roomful of people with a revolver. An’ that sort of thing wouldn’t ’ave ’appened afore the war. Deserters, that’s what it is. Desperate men roaming the countryside. Why don’t the military round ’em up?”
“I’ve no idea,” said Craddock. “I suppose this hold-up caused a lot of talk?”
“That it did. What’s us coming to? That’s what Ned Barker said. Comes of going to the pictures so much, he said. But Tom Riley he says it comes of letting these furriners run about loose. And depend on it, he says, that girl as cooks up there for Miss Blacklock and ’as such a nasty temper—she’s in it, he said. She’s a communist or worse, he says, and we don’t like that sort ’ere. And Marlene, who’s behind the bar, you understand, she will ’ave it that there must be something very valuable up at Miss Blacklock’s. Not that you’d think it, she says, for I’m sure Miss Blacklock goes about as plain as plain, except for them great rows of false pearls she wears. And then she says—Supposin’ as them pearls is real, and Florrie (what’s old Bellamy’s daughter) she says, ‘Nonsense,’ she says—‘noovo ar—that’s what they are—costume jewellery,’ she says. Costume jewellery—that’s a fine way of labelling a string of false pearls. Roman pearls, the gentry used to call ’em once—and Parisian diamonds—my wife was a lady’s maid and I know. But what does it all mean—just glass! I suppose it’s ‘costume jewellery’ that young Miss Simmons wears—gold ivy leaves and dogs and such like. ’Tisn’t often you see a real bit of gold nowadays—even wedding rings they make of this grey plattinghum stuff. Shabby, I call it—for all that it costs the earth.”
Old Ashe paused for breath and then continued:
“‘Miss Blacklock don’t keep much money in the ’ouse, that I do know,’ says Jim ’Uggins, speaking up. ’E should know, for it’s ’is wife as goes up and does for ’em at Little Paddocks, and she’s a woman as knows most of what’s going on. Nosey, if you take me.”
“Did he say what Mrs. Huggins’ view was?”
“That Mitzi’s mixed up in it, that’s what she thinks. Awful temper she ’as, and the airs she gives ’erself! Called Mrs. ’Uggins a working woman to ’er face the other morning.”
Craddock stood a moment, checking over in his orderly mind the substance of the old gardener’s remarks. It gave him a good cross-section of rural opinion in Chipping Cleghorn, but he didn’t think there was anything to help him in his task. He turned away and the old man called after him grudgingly:
“Maybe you’d find her in the apple orchard. She’s younger than I am for getting the apples down.”
And sure enough in the apple orchard Craddock found Phillipa Haymes. His first view was a pair of nice legs encased in breeches sliding easily down the trunk of a tree. Then Phillipa, her face flushed, her fair hair ruffled by the branches, stood looking at him in a startled fashion.
“Make a good Rosalind,” Craddock thought automatically, for Detective-Inspector Craddock was a Shakespeare enthusiast and had played the part of the melancholy Jaques with great success in a performance of As You Like It for the Police Orphanage.
A moment later he amended his views. Phillipa Haymes was too wooden for Rosalind, her fairness and her impassivity were intensely English, but English of the twentieth rather than of the sixteenth century. Well-bred, unemotional English, without a spark of mischief.
“Good morning, Mrs. Haymes. I’m sorry if I startled you. I’m Detective-Inspector Craddock of the Middleshire Police. I wanted to have a word with you.”
“About last night?”
“Yes.”
“Will it take long? Shall we—?”
She looked about her rather doubtfully.
Craddock indicated a fallen tree trunk.
“Rather informal,” he said pleasantly, “but I don’t want to interrupt your work longer than necessary.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s just for the record. You came in from work at what time last night?”
“At about half past five. I’d stayed about twenty minutes later in order to finish some watering in the greenhouse.”
“You came in by which door?”
“The side door. One cuts across by the ducks and the hen-house from the drive. It saves you going round, and besides it avoids dirtying up the front porch. I’m in rather a mucky state sometimes.”
“You always come in that way?”
“Yes.”
“The door was unlocked?”
“Yes. During the summer it’s usually wide open. This time of the year it’s shut but not locked. We all go out and in a good deal that way. I locked it when I came in.”
“Do you always do that?”
“I’ve been doing it for the last week. You see, it gets dark at six. Miss Blacklocks goes out to shut up the ducks and the hens sometimes in the evening, but she very often goes out through the kitchen door.”
“And you are quite sure you did lock the side door this time?”
“I really am quite sure about that.”
“Quite so, Mrs. Haymes. And what did you do when you came in?”
“Kicked off my muddy footwear and went upstairs and had a bath and changed. Then I came down and found that a kind of party was in progress. I hadn’t known anything about this funny advertisement until then.”
“Now please describe just what occurred when the hold-up happened.”
“Well, the lights went out suddenly—”
“Where were you?”
“By the mantelpiece. I was searching for my lighter which I thought I had put down there. The lights went out—and everybody giggled. Then the door was flung open and this man shone a torch on us and flourished a revolver and told us to put our hands up.”
“Which you proceeded to do?”
“Well, I didn’t actually. I thought it was just fun, and I was tired and I didn’t think I needed really to put them up.”
“In fact, you were bored by the whole thing?”
“I was, rather. And then the revolver went off. The shots sounded deafening and I was really frightened. The torch went whirling round and dropped and went out, and then Mitzi started screaming. It was just like a pig being killed.”
“Did you find the torch very dazzling?”
“No, not particularly. It was quite a strong one, though. It lit up Miss Bunner for a moment and she looked quite like a turnip ghost—you know, all white and staring with her mouth open and her eyes starting out of her head.”
“The man moved the torch?”
“Oh, yes, he played it all round the room.”
“As though he were looking for someone?”
“Not particularly, I should say.”
“And after that, Mrs. Haymes?”
Phillipa Haymes frowned.
“Oh, it was all a terrible muddle and confusion. Edmund Swettenham and Patrick Simmons switched on their lighters and they went out into the hall and we followed, and someone opened the dining room door—the lights hadn’t fused there—and Edmund Swettenham gave Mitzi a terrific slap on the cheek and brought her out of her screaming fit, and after that it wasn’t so bad.”
“You saw the body of the dead man?”
“Yes.”
“Was he known to you? Had you ever seen him before?”
“Never.”
“Have you any opinion as to whether his death was accidental, or do you think he shot himself deliberately?”
“I haven’t the faintest idea.”
“You didn’t see him when he came to the house previously?”
“No. I believe it was in the middle of the morning and I shouldn’t have been there. I’m out all day.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Haymes. One thing more. You haven’t any valuable jewellery? Rings, bracelets, anything of that kind?”
Phillipa shook her head.
“My engagement ring—a couple of brooches.”
“And as far as you know, there was nothing of particular value in the house?”
“No. I mean there is some quite nice silver—but nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Haymes.”
II
As Craddock retraced his steps through the kitchen garden he came face to face with a large red-faced lady, carefully corseted.
“Good morning,” she said belligerently. “What do you want here?”
“Mrs. Lucas? I am Detective-Inspector Craddock.”
“Oh, that’s who you are? I beg your pardon. I don’t like strangers forcing their way into my garden wasting the gardeners’ time. But I quite understand you have to do your duty.”
“Quite so.”
“May I ask if we are to expect a repetition of that outrage last night at Miss Blacklock’s? Is it a gang?”
“We are satisfied, Mrs. Lucas, that it was not the work of a gang.”
“There are far too many robberies nowadays. The police are getting slack.” Craddock did not reply. “I suppose you’ve been talking to Phillipa Haymes?”
“I wanted her account as an eyewitness.”
“You couldn’t have waited until one o’clock, I suppose? After all, it would be fairer to question her in her time, rather than in mine. …”
“I’m anxious to get back to headquarters.”
“Not that one expects consideration nowadays. Or a decent day’s work. On duty late, half an hour’s pottering. A break for elevenses at ten o’clock. No work done at all the moment the rain starts. When you want the lawn mown there’s always something wrong with the mower. And off duty five or ten minutes before the proper time.”
“I understood from Mrs. Haymes that she left here at twenty minutes past five yesterday instead of five o’clock.”
“Oh, I dare say she did. Give her her due, Mrs. Haymes is quite keen on her work, though there have been days when I have come out here and not been able to find her anywhere. She is a lady by birth, of course, and one feels it’s one’s duty to do something for these poor young war widows. Not that it isn’t very inconvenient. Those long school holidays and the arrangement is that she has extra time off then. I told her that there are really excellent camps nowadays where children can be sent and where they have a delightful time and enjoy it far more than wandering about with their parents. They need practically not come home at all in the summer holidays.”
“But Mrs. Haymes didn’t take kindly to that idea?”
“She’s as obstinate as a mule, that girl. Just the time of year when I want the tennis court mowed and marked nearly every day. Old Ashe gets the lines crooked. But my convenience is never considered!”
“I presume Mrs. Haymes takes a smaller salary than is usual?”
“Naturally. What else could she expect?”
“Nothing, I’m sure,” said Craddock. “Good morning, Mrs. Lucas.”
III
“It was dreadful,” said Mrs. Swettenham happily. “Quite—quite—dreadful, and what I say is that they ought to be far more careful what advertisements they accept at the Gazette office. At the time, when I read it, I thought it was very odd. I said so, didn’t I, Edmund?”
“Do you remember just what you were doing when the lights went out, Mrs. Swettenham?” asked the Inspector.
“How that reminds me of my old Nannie! Where was Moses when the light went out? The answer, of course, was ‘In the Dark.’ Just like us yesterday evening. All standing about and wondering what was going to happen. And then, you know, the thrill when it suddenly went pitch black. And the door opening—just a dim figure standing there with a revolver and that blinding light and a menacing voice saying ‘Your money or your life!’ Oh, I’ve never enjoyed anything so much. And then a minute later, of course, it was all dreadful. Real bullets, just whistling past our ears! It must have been just like the Commandos in the war.”
“Whereabouts were you standing or sitting at the time, Mrs. Swettenham?”
“Now let me see, where was I? Who was I talking to, Edmund?”
“I really haven’t the least idea, Mother.”
“Was it Miss Hinchcliffe I was asking about giving the hens cod liver oil in the cold weather? Or was it Mrs. Harmon—no, she’d only just arrived. I think I was just saying to Colonel Easterbrook that I thought it was really very dangerous to have an atom research station in England. It ought to be on some lonely island in case the radio activity gets loose.”
“You don’t remember if you were sitting or standing?”
“Does it really matter, Inspector? I was somewhere over by the window or near the mantelpiece, because I know I was quite near the clock when it struck. Such a thrilling moment! Waiting to see if anything might be going to happen.”
“You describe the light from the torch as blinding. Was it turned full on to you?”
“It was right in my eyes. I couldn’t see a thing.”
“Did the man hold it still, or did he move it about, from person to person?”
“Oh, I don’t really know. Which did he do, Edmund?”
“It moved rather slowly over us all, so as to see what we were all doing, I suppose, in case we should try and rush him.”
“And where exactly in the room were you, Mr. Swettenham?”
“I’d been talking to Julia Simmons. We were both standing up in the middle of the room—the long room.”
“Was everyone in that room, or was there anyone in the far room?”
“Phillipa Haymes had moved in there, I think. She was over by that far mantelpiece. I think she was looking for something.”
“Have you any idea as to whether the third shot was suicide or an accident?”
“I’ve no idea at all. The man seemed to swerve round very suddenly and then crumple up and fall—but it was all very confused. You must realise that you couldn’t really see anything. And then that refugee girl started yelling the place down.”
“I understand it was you who unlocked the dining room door and let her out?”
“Yes.”
“The door was definitely locked on the outside?”
Edmund looked at him curiously.
“Certainly it was. Why, you don’t imagine—?”
“I just like to get my facts quite clear. Thank you, Mr. Swettenham.”
IV
Inspector Craddock was forced to spend quite a long time with Colonel and Mrs. Easterbrook. He had to listen to a long disquisition on the psychological aspect of the case.
“The psychological approach—that’s the only thing nowadays,” the Colonel told him. “You’ve got to understand your criminal. Now the whole setup here is quite plain to a man who’s had the wide experience that I have. Why does this fellow put that advert in? Psychology. He wants to advertise himself—to focus attention on himself. He’s been passed over, perhaps despised as a foreigner by the other employees at the Spa Hotel. A girl has turned him down, perhaps. He wants to rivet her attention on him. Who is the idol of the cinema nowadays—the gangster—the tough guy? Very well, he will be a tough guy. Robbery with violence. A mask? A revolver? But he wants an audience—he must have an audience. So he arranges for an audience. And then, at the supreme moment, his part runs away with him—he’s more than a burglar. He’s a killer. He shoots—blindly—”
Inspector Craddock caught gladly at a word:
“You say ‘blindly,’ Colonel Easterbrook. You didn’t think that he was firing deliberately at one particular object—at Miss Blacklock, that is to say?”
“No, no. He just loosed off, as I say, blindly. And that’s what brought him to himself. The bullet hit someone—actually it was only a graze, but he didn’t know that. He comes to himself with a bang. All this—this make-believe he’s been indulging in—is real. He’s shot at someone—perhaps killed someone … It’s all up with him. And so in blind panic he turns the revolver on himself.”
Colonel Easterbrook paused, cleared his throat appreciatively and said in a satisfied voice, “Plain as a pikestaff, that’s what it is, plain as a pikestaff.”
“It really is wonderful,” said Mrs. Easterbrook, “the way you know exactly what happened, Archie.”
Her voice was warm with admiration.
Inspector Craddock thought it was wonderful, too, but he was not quite so warmly appreciative.
“Exactly where were you in the room, Colonel Easterbrook, when the actual shooting business took place?”
“I was standing with my wife—near a centre table with some flowers on it.”
“I caught hold of your arm, didn’t I, Archie, when it happened? I was simply scared to death. I just had to hold on to you.”
“Poor little kitten,” said the Colonel playfully.
V
The Inspector ran Miss Hinchcliffe to earth by a pigsty.
“Nice creatures, pigs,” said Miss Hinchcliffe, scratching a wrinkled pink back. “Coming on well, isn’t he? Good bacon round about Christmas time. Well, what do you want to see me about? I told your people last night I hadn’t the least idea who the man was. Never seen him anywhere in the neighbourhood snooping about or anything of that sort. Our Mrs. Mopp says he came from one of the big hotels in Medenham Wells. Why didn’t he hold up someone there if he wanted to? Get a much better haul.”
That was undeniable—Craddock proceeded with his inquiries.
“Where were you exactly when the incident took place?”
“Incident! Reminds me of my A.R.P. days. Saw some incidents then, I can tell you. Where was I when the shooting started? That what you want to know?”
“Yes.”
“Leaning up against the mantelpiece hoping to God someone would offer me a drink soon,” replied Miss Hinchcliffe promptly.
“Do you think that the shots were fired blindly, or aimed carefully at one particular person?”
“You mean aimed at Letty Blacklock? How the devil should I know? Damned hard to sort out what your impressions really were or what really happened after it’s all over. All I know is the lights went out, and that torch went whirling round dazzling us all, and then the shots were fired and I thought to myself, ‘If that damned young fool Patrick Simmons is playing his jokes with a loaded revolver somebody will get hurt.’”
“You thought it was Patrick Simmons?”
“Well, it seemed likely. Edmund Swettenham is intellectual and writes books and doesn’t care for horseplay, and old Colonel Easterbrook wouldn’t think that sort of thing funny. But Patrick’s a wild boy. However, I apologize to him for the idea.”
“Did your friend think it might be Patrick Simmons?”
“Murgatroyd? You’d better talk to her yourself. Not that you’ll get any sense out of her. She’s down the orchard. I’ll yell for her if you like.”
Miss Hinchcliffe raised her stentorian voice in a powerful bellow:
“Hi-youp, Murgatroyd….”
“Coming …” floated back a thin cry.
“Hurry up—Polieece,” bellowed Miss Hinchcliffe.
Miss Murgatroyd arrived at a brisk trot very much out of breath. Her skirt was down at the hem and her hair was escaping from an inadequate hair net. Her round, good-natured face beamed.
“Is it Scotland Yard?” she asked breathlessly. “I’d no idea. Or I wouldn’t have left the house.”
“We haven’t called in Scotland Yard yet, Miss Murgatroyd. I’m Inspector Craddock from Milchester.”
“Well, that’s very nice, I’m sure,” said Miss Murgatroyd vaguely. “Have you found any clues?”
“Where were you at the time of the crime, that’s what he wants to know, Murgatroyd?” said Miss Hinchcliffe. She winked at Craddock.
“Oh, dear,” gasped Miss Murgatroyd. “Of course. I ought to have been prepared. Alibis, of course. Now, let me see, I was just with everybody else.”
“You weren’t with me,” said Miss Hinchcliffe.
“Oh, dear, Hinch, wasn’t I? No, of course, I’d been admiring the chrysanthemums. Very poor specimens, really. And then it all happened—only I didn’t really know it had happened—I mean I didn’t know that anything like that had happened. I didn’t imagine for a moment that it was a real revolver—and all so awkward in the dark, and that dreadful screaming. I got it all wrong, you know. I thought she was being murdered—I mean the refugee girl. I thought she was having her throat cut across the hall somewhere. I didn’t know it was him—I mean, I didn’t even know there was a man. It was really just a voice, you know, saying, ‘Put them up, please.’”
“‘Stick ’em up!’” Miss Hinchcliffe corrected. “And no suggestion of ‘please’ about it.”
“It’s so terrible to think that until that girl started screaming I was actually enjoying myself. Only being in the dark was very awkward and I got a knock on my corn. Agony, it was. Is there anything more you want to know, Inspector?”
“No,” said Inspector Craddock, eyeing Miss Murgatroyd speculatively. “I don’t really think there is.”
Her friend gave a short bark of laughter.
“He’s got you taped, Murgatroyd.”
“I’m sure, Hinch,” said Miss Murgatroyd, “that I’m only too willing to say anything I can.”
“He doesn’t want that,” said Miss Hinchcliffe.
She looked at the Inspector. “If you’re doing this geographically I suppose you’ll go to the Vicarage next. You might get something there. Mrs. Harmon looks as vague as they make them—but I sometimes think she’s got brains. Anyway, she’s got something.”
As they watched the Inspector and Sergeant Fletcher stalk away, Amy Murgatroyd said breathlessly:
“Oh, Hinch, was I very awful? I do get so flustered!”
“Not at all,” Miss Hinchcliffe smiled. “On the whole, I should say you did very well.”
VI
Inspector Craddock looked round the big shabby room with a sense of pleasure. It reminded him a little of his own Cumberland home. Faded chintz, big shabby chairs, flowers and books strewn about, and a spaniel in a basket. Mrs. Harmon, too, with her distraught air, and her general disarray and her eager face he found sympathetic.
But she said at once, frankly, “I shan’t be any help to you. Because I shut my eyes. I hate being dazzled. And then there were shots and I screwed them up tighter than ever. And I did wish, oh, I did wish, that it had been a quiet murder. I don’t like bangs.”
“So you didn’t see anything.” The Inspector smiled at her. “But you heard—?”
“Oh, my goodness, yes, there was plenty to hear. Doors opening and shutting, and people saying silly things and gasping and old Mitzi screaming like a steam engine—and poor Bunny squealing like a trapped rabbit. And everyone pushing and falling over everyone else. However, when there really didn’t seem to be any more bangs coming, I opened my eyes. Everyone was out in the hall then, with candles. And then the lights came on and suddenly it was all as usual—I don’t mean really as usual, but we were ourselves again, not just—people in the dark. People in the dark are quite different, aren’t they?”
“I think I know what you mean, Mrs. Harmon.”
Mrs. Harmon smiled at him.
“And there he was,” she said. “A rather weaselly-looking foreigner—all pink and surprised-looking—lying there dead—with a revolver beside him. It didn’t—oh, it didn’t seem to make sense, somehow.”
It did not make sense to the Inspector, either.
The whole business worried him.
Seven. Among those present