Chapter 17
By the time Mrs. Hammett delivered Daisy to the Anstruthers’, the girls had already changed into frocks for lunch. They were sitting in the garden with Baskin, who was pointing out different kinds of seagulls as they swooped over the ruffled waters of the inlet.
“I thought they were just gulls, Mummy, but they’re all different. Look, that one’s a … a tern, isn’t it, Mr. Baskin?”
“A common tern,” he confirmed.
“One good tern deserves another,” said Deva, sending herself and Belinda into fits of giggles.
Without mentioning that she had taken advantage of his kindness to do some sleuthing, Daisy thanked Baskin most sincerely for having kept her charges amused all morning.
“We learnt lots of stuff, too, didn’t we, Bel?”
Baskin grinned. “I can’t help it,” he said to Daisy.
“Did you say thank you, girls?”
“Of course, Mummy. We said thank you most frightfully much. It was ripping!”
Ravenous, Daisy went on into the house for a wash and brush up. Baskin went with her. As they entered through the back door, out of hearing of the girls, he said, “Can you tell me, Mrs. Fletcher, are the police going to object if I go off hiking this afternoon? I rather
gather I’m on their list of suspects. I should have made more effort to hide my interest in Enderby.”
“As long as you don’t leave the district, they can’t object. But would you please write a note to Alec saying you’ll be back, because if I tell him, he’ll say I’m interfering.”
“Oh, will he!” Baskin said with a laugh. “I wouldn’t want to subject you to such an accusation.”
“He will anyway,” she sighed. “I’ve found out something I simply have to tell him.”
“I suppose it was you who told him about the questions I’d been asking. Oh, I don’t blame you! I know it looks fishy. I just wondered if it might have been Mrs. Anstruther doing her bit to divert attention from her husband.”
“No, it was me.”
“I.”
“I beg your … ? Oh, grammar! I should think being married to a teacher must be even more exasperating than being married to a policeman! It was I. But don’t worry, I’ve found another two suspects to add to the list. I don’t suppose you’d like to tell me why … ?”
“No,” he said firmly. “There’s no reason now why anyone should ever know. I’ll see you at lunch.”
Daisy went slowly upstairs, thinking. Donald Baskin certainly didn’t behave like someone who had just committed murder, nor like someone who feared arrest for a murder he didn’t commit.
He freely admitted that the death of Enderby had resolved a serious difficulty for him, yet refused to explain the difficulty.
Innocence? Or guilt combined with overconfidence?
Approaching the parish hall after a hurried lunch, Daisy hoped Alec would be there. If she was faced with the misleadingly mellow Inspector Mallow, should she give him her information or just leave a message for Alec?
She closed her umbrella and pushed open the door. Inside was even gloomier than outside. As she peered at two indistinguishable
figures seated at a table with their backs to what little light came through the high, rain-spotted windows, one of the men got up and came towards her.
Bald, lean, stooped: “Good afternoon, Mrs. Fletcher,” said Mallow in his smooth, mild voice. “The chief inspector is on the telephone to London. We are rather busy.” He didn’t say aloud but his manner clearly conveyed, “You’re interrupting important business, little woman.”
“You’ll be even busier,” said Daisy, “when I’ve told Alec what I’ve found out.” She marched past Mallow to the table.
“Hold on a minute,” said Alec into the telephone and covered the mouthpiece with his hand. “Great Scott, Daisy—”
“I’ve important information for you, darling.”
“What?”
“Two new suspects.”
He sighed. “Right-oh. Half a tick.” He returned to his conversation.
Sitting down, Daisy managed with difficulty not to give Mallow a smugly triumphant look. As with the shock he had given Cecily Anstruther, he was only doing his job. It was his manner she objected to, now that she had seen through the sympathetic pose.
Alec finished on the ’phone and hung up the receiver. “Who?” he asked, turning to a fresh page in his notebook.
“The first is just a possibility: Tom Stebbins.”
“We know about him. He’s disappeared.”
“He looks like our man,” put in Mallow.
“Disappeared? When?”
“He wasn’t at his job when I went to talk to him this morning.”
“Bolted,” said Mallow.
“No he hasn’t. Not this morning, anyway. He was driving Mrs. Hammett. He’s the most appalling driver. I don’t think their car will ever recover.”
“How do you know?”
“You should have heard the gear-box! Oh, she stopped to give me
a lift when I was walking home. It was lunchtime when she dropped me off, just about three quarters of an hour ago, so he hadn’t skedaddled at that point. The person who’s disappeared is the farmer’s daughter.”
“What? Wait. Mallow, see if the Hammetts are on the telephone and if so ring up and ask if Stebbins is there. And if so, cancel the alert. Say there may be another coming up. Go on, Daisy—the farmer’s daughter? Who is she? What do you mean, she’s disappeared?”
Daisy related the story Mrs. Hammett had told her. “And now she’s afraid Coleman might have killed his daughter as well as Enderby.”
“Great Scott! Why didn’t she come straight to us?”
“She promised her cousin—Mrs. Coleman—she wouldn’t tell the police till tomorrow. That’s why she told me. They’re still hoping Olive will come home of her own accord, and if your men start poking around, Coleman’s liable to go for his wife, I gather. Then you might end up with three bodies.”
“We may have to bring him in and hold him for questioning,” Alec said grimly. “Have you a description of the daughter?”
“No. I was afraid to ask in case Mrs. Hammett had second thoughts about telling me everything and clammed up.”
“Never mind, we’ll get it out of the parents. With any luck, they’ll have a photo. Thanks, Daisy. Don’t worry, we’ll do our best to protect Mrs. Coleman and we’ll find Olive, alive or dead.”
As Daisy left the parish hall, an umbrella with a girl’s face beneath it appeared above the hedge surrounding the garden next door. “Hullo,” she said.
Surprised, Daisy responded, “Hullo?”
“I suppose you’ve been talking to the police?”
Having just come out of police headquarters, Daisy couldn’t credibly deny it, even if she had wanted to. “Yes, I have.”
“Would you mind awfully if I asked you a question?” The head disappeared, then bobbed up again.
“Not at all, though I can’t promise to answer.”
“I say, would you mind awfully waiting just a sec while I run round by the gate? I’m standing on tiptoes, you see.” Once more she vanished and reappeared. “And I can’t keep it up for long.”
“I’ll wait.” Daisy strolled down the street to meet her, reaching the gate in the hedge just in time to see the sign on it, THE VICARAGE, before the girl opened it.
“Hullo! I’m Julia Bellamy. My father’s the vicar.
He’d be livid if he knew I’d accosted you like that.
I’m awfully sorry and all that, but you’re the first person I’ve seen coming out who looked like someone I could talk to.
I’d invite you to come and sit in the garden, only it’s raining and Mother would be bound to see us and she’d start asking questions. ”
“Who could blame her? But as it happens, I’m quite respectable. I’m Mrs. Fletcher. My husband’s in charge of the investigation.”
“That divine chief inspector? He’s frightfully nice, isn’t he? Oh goody, you’ll be able to tell me everything. Are you going somewhere? May I walk with you?”
“Certainly. I’m going up to the post office for postcards and a library book, if you want to come along. Alec doesn’t tell me by any means everything, though, and I can’t necessarily pass on what I know.”
“There’s only two things, really, though of course I’m dying of curiosity, like everyone else.
Is it all right if Popsy comes too?” Miss Bellamy added as a large black dog arrived panting at her heels.
“She’s very friendly. Popsy, say ‘How do you do?’ She’s awfully clever, too. She was the one who found the earring.”
“The earring?” Daisy enquired as they set off towards the village centre.
“Oh, you don’t know! That’s one of the things I particularly wanted to ask you about, because it was Popsy who found it and I picked it up and I had to have my fingerprints taken, for elimination.
They didn’t take Andrew’s—he was mad as fire.
I just wondered if they’d found any other fingerprints on it.
Besides mine, I mean. And whether it’s an important clue. Andrew’s sure it must be.”
“Andrew?”
“Andrew Vernon. He’s Dr. Vernon’s nephew. He’s been coming here every summer for ages and he’s a particular friend of mine.”
“Oh yes, Alec mentioned him. A medical student, isn’t he?”
“That’s right. Only he’s frightfully interested in solving crimes, too.
Medical jurisprudence, he calls it. He’s gone to watch the autopsy, would you believe it?
He’s positively gloating over this murder and mad keen on helping Mr. Fletcher.
He found the splinters in Enderby’s neck that prove he was murdered, you know. ”
“No, I didn’t know, and he really shouldn’t have told you.”
“Oh, he made me swear ‘cross my heart and hope to die’ I wouldn’t breathe a word.
The chief inspector’s your husband, so it doesn’t count.
Besides, Andrew said it would come out at the inquest. If he hadn’t found them, the doctor doing the autopsy would have, anyway.
Andrew noticed some more splinters on the cliff path and some mysterious marks in a sandy spot, but they didn’t seem to mean much, which is why he was so pleased to find something this morning. ”
“But it was you—your dog, at least—who found the earring which may or may not be significant. Where was it?”