Chapter Nine #2
“Don’t be beastly, darling. She can’t help her teeth, and I suspect her manner, which I’ll admit is rather grating, is a product of years of marriage to a wet fish like Godfrey.
I think she was quite keen on coming to live at Brockdene.
In its way, it’s a step up for a country solicitor’s daughter. ”
“All right, but that doesn’t exactly provide Tremayne with a motive for doing away with Calloway.
As far as motive is concerned, Victor Norville seems the best bet, but how ever hard I try I can’t see him, however angry, stabbing an unarmed man in the back.
He’ll have to go to the top of my list, though. ”
“What about opportunity?” Daisy pondered. “Anyone could have followed Calloway up to the chapel unseen, and as we all went to bed about eleven, no one is likely to have an alibi for midnight. Except Godfrey and Dora, and it doesn’t count when it’s husband and wife, does it?”
“It’s not quite that simple,” Alec said, “but naturally a wife’s evidence in favour of her husband doesn’t usually bear a great deal of weight.
As you say,” he added gloomily, “anyone else could have gone to the chapel unnoticed, and no one can be expected to produce an alibi for the middle of the night.”
“You don’t think it was a passing tramp, I take it, who hoped Calloway had money on him?”
“Not a chance.”
“Why not, darling? Were his pockets full of money untouched?”
“I didn’t check. The weapon rules out a tramp or that other popular canard, an escaped lunatic.”
“You never told me what he was stabbed with. I suppose it was one of those dire weapons hanging in the Hall.”
“I’m not sure you really want to know, love.”
“It wasn’t one of those? What was it, Alec? Of course I want to know!”
“I’m pretty sure it was the seaman’s knife Bel and Derek found.”
“Not really? Gosh, how frightful! Don’t, for heaven’s sake, let them find out.”
“Do you know what they did with it after they showed it to us?”
“Derek said they showed it to Godfrey Norville. He wasn’t very interested, but he told them to leave it on the hall table— the East Wing entrance hall—so they did.”
Alec groaned. “The hall table. Anyone could have picked it up.”
“Absolutely anyone at all,” Daisy agreed. “And the chances are no one would have noticed it was missing, unlike the historic stuff in the Hall, so it could have been taken any time.”
“Oh, for a butler with an all-seeing eye. Oh, for a parlour maid who listens at doors and a lady’s maid who knows all her mistress’s secrets. It’s an odd household and no mistake. I’m not at all sure where to start unravelling it.”
“If the knife isn’t still lying there on the table, hadn’t you better make sure the children didn’t take it? If they put it somewhere else, it might be possible to work out who could have retrieved it from wherever it was, if you see what I mean.”
“I’d rather keep them out of things altogether, though they’ll have to know Calloway’s dead. I’m sorry young Jemima was there when Tilton announced that it was murder.”
“She wasn’t upset. I’d swear I saw a gleam in her eye. She hated him. Oh, darling, you don’t think…?”
“Jemima? Great Scott!” Alec looked at her in horror. “I’m afraid it can’t be ruled out,” he said soberly. “She’s at an unsettled age. Adolescents do commit murder. Why did she hate him?”
“I suppose for the same reasons nobody else much liked him, topped by the wigging he gave her over the ghost business. He really was frightfully fierce about it, and at her age, feelings do tend to swing to extremes. Though once or twice I have wondered whether she’s slightly unbalanced.
I didn’t tell you how she sneaked after me when I went to look at the chapel in the woods, before you came. ”
“You don’t think she was just playing a childish game? Like Belinda and Derek stalking buffalo?”
“Yes, of course, very likely,” Daisy said, relieved.
“All the same,” said Alec, “she’s going to have to go on my list, with the rest of her family.”
“It does seem to be a family affair. I can’t see how the servants could have got involved.
And you know, darling, I rather think there is a Westmoor son, a Lord Norville, who’s the earl’s heir.
He wasn’t at school with Gervaise, but I seem to remember he came to stay at Fairacres one summer, because of the distant cousinship.
Nothing could affect his position as heir, so it wouldn’t matter to him if he’d somehow found out about Calloway. ”
“But you’re not absolutely certain, are you?
I’ll ask first about the heir,” Alec decided.
“If nothing else, it may disarm my suspects to find out they’re not the only ones.
Doesn’t this right branch lead to the house?
I’m going to have to go on back to the chapel to tell that young constable what’s going on. ”
“I’d better get back to the children.” Daisy had never realized quite what a responsibility children could be in a household not provided with a nanny and nursemaids as her own childhood had been.
“Check whether the knife has gone, will you? But for heaven’s sake, don’t start asking questions. If the doctor from Saltash has turned up but hasn’t inspected the body yet, send him … No, say I request his presence at the chapel, before it gets dark.”
“Yes, Chief. I’ll send someone with a lantern anyway.”
“Yes, do, please. I’m pretty sure Calloway’s lantern burnt out and needs refilling.”
The sun was sinking behind the house as she turned up the right-hand fork in the path. The few small puffs of cloud were tinted with pink. Another fine day on the morrow, Daisy hoped. Bel and Derek would be able to play outside and keep out of the way of the interrogation of suspects.
Who had murdered Calloway? Entering the house, Daisy thought that perhaps, instead of going with Alec, she should have stayed to observe people as the fact of the murder sank in.
The shock of her mother’s divulgence of Alec’s profession had superseded the shock of Sergeant Tilton’s announcement, muddying the waters of their reactions.
She checked the hall table. The knife was gone.
She went to the library. Jemima lay on her stomach on the hearthrug, reading the Boys’ Own Annual which was one of Derek’s Christmas presents.
Captain Norville and Miles were playing chess with the exquisite ivory Chinese set the captain had given his nephew.
Felicity lounged nearby, apparently in the terminal stages of boredom.
She looked up and sat up as Daisy entered.
Jemima obstinately kept her head down. The men started to stand.
Daisy waved them back to their seats. “Alec’s been put in charge,” she said. “He’s gone back to the chapel. Has a doctor from Saltash turned up?”
All three shook their heads. “Not that I know,” said Felicity. “Have you been deputized, like in a Wild West novel?”
“Not exactly. Alec’s sergeant and a detective constable will be turning up in the morning. I said I’d have someone take a lantern to the chapel. Should I ask Mrs. Pardon to send someone?”
“No, I’ll go,” said Miles, rising again.
The captain shook his head, lumbering to his feet.
“You’ve done your bit, my boy,” he said.
Daisy saw that Miles was rather pale, his shoulders hunched as if his missing arm pained him.
Or his conscience? Was he too eager to return to the scene of the crime?
Was his Uncle Victor too eager? “I’ll go, Mrs. Fletcher.
I’ve already left my footprints all over the place. ” He went out.
“Is Mr. Fletcher sleuthing for footprints?” Felicity asked, with an unconvincing attempt at casualness. “He’ll find mine all over the place, too. I quite often walk up that way.”
Jemima raised her head from the book at last. “That’s because the chapel’s where you meet your lover,” she said spitefully.
Felicity jumped up. “You filthy little sneak!” she cried, advancing on her sister. “I’ll show you what happens to spies!”
Jemima abandoned Derek’s annual and scampered for the door, dodging Felicity. She squealed as Felicity reached out and yanked on a hank of her hair, but escaped further retribution, at least for the present, and disappeared.
“Have you really been meeting a man secretly?” Miles asked, his face grave. “At the chapel?”
“Oh, don’t ask me questions. What business is it of yours? We haven’t done anything immoral.” The stress on the last word was contemptuous.
“Well, I am your brother,” Miles responded mildly. “But whether I ask questions is irrelevant at the moment. You can be quite sure Mr. Fletcher is going to.”