Chapter Twenty-Four #2
“Oh no’m. That Mr. Boyle’s asking Lily questions, and Mr. Barker said I was to come.
” She scurried off again with Alec’s note, but some time passed before Boyle appeared.
While they waited, Alec asked Daisy what she had really been going to say when she’d stopped herself after comparing Lord Rydal’s pursuit of Julia with Howell’s lack of interest. She should have known he wouldn’t miss her hesitation.
She managed to fob him off with the fish story, which made him laugh, but she knew the reprieve was temporary.
Boyle arrived before he could press her. “Sorry to have kept you waiting. The girl only just gave me your note. She didn’t want to interrupt. What’s up?”
“The lady of the house has accused her brother-in-law of blowing up the grotto.”
“Wonderful!” the inspector said acidly. “I can’t possibly get a warrant at this time on a Saturday evening.”
“Not so fast. Wait till you’ve heard what she said. Daisy?”
Daisy read her notes aloud. She had written them recently enough to be able to decipher them without difficulty. Mrs. Howell’s ranting didn’t sound quite as mad in her own prosaic voice, but it was still pretty mad.
“Well now,” Boyle said doubtfully, “that’s not good enough for a warrant, agreed, but Mr. Pritchard’s going to have to account for himself. What was he doing trotting off through the gardens towards the grotto at that time in the morning?”
“I think it’s pure fabrication,” said Daisy. “He told me he had a few things to do in here before he gave me a tour of the house, and I bet he was right here the whole time.”
“Why should Mrs. Howell fabricate a story to incriminate her brother-in-law?”
“You’ll have to explain, Daisy.”
“But it’s all speculation, darling. With a bit of hearsay mixed in, I shouldn’t be surprised.”
In spite of his naturally inexpressive features, Boyle’s look spoke louder than words. “If you recall, Mrs. Fletcher, I told you I want to hear everything.”
So Daisy repeated the arguments she had already given to Alec.
“Sounds reasonable,” Boyle conceded. “All the same, sir, we’ll have to ask him about it.”
“Of course. I didn’t mean to suggest otherwise. However, I don’t consider it urgent. But it’s your case,” Alec apologised.
“Maybe we’d better change that, put it on a formal footing. In the morning I’ll ring up my super and ask him to put it to the Chief Constable—”
“Great Scott, no! The more informal we can keep it, the happier I’ll be. You may have to remind me now and then, though, Inspector, that I have no standing whatsoever in this case. I am merely a consultant.”
“Well, sir, if you insist. For the present at least. Suppose I was to want to consult you right this minute. What’d you say’s the most urgent item on the agenda?”
“First, did you get anywhere with the servants? I’m sorry I interrupted you, but it seemed to me that, being in charge, you’d have had every right to be annoyed if I hadn’t let you know immediately about Mrs. Howell’s claim.”
“Even though you don’t think it’s important.
I would’ve been. I found out what we wanted to know.
The parlourmaid, Lily Inskip, she overheard Lord Rydal and Lady Ottaline last evening, arranging a rendyvoo.
She was in the drawing room, seeing everything was put straight after Mrs. Howell went up to change for dinner, when those two came in from the grotto. That right, Mrs. Fletcher?”
“Yes, most of us went to the grotto after tea. Lady Beaufort hadn’t seen it yet.
Lady Ottaline said she was getting cold and Pritchard suggested Lord Rydal should escort her back to the house.
He didn’t want to but Julia made some remark about being ungallant so he went.
We were all glad to see the back of both of them. ”
Boyle nodded. “Miss Inskip, she says they looked like they’d been arguing.
They didn’t see her at first. As Lady Ottaline stepped in through the French window, she turned and said to him, ‘The grotto, at two tomorrow, if you know what’s good for you.
No one will be there then.’ His lordship muttered something the maid didn’t hear.
Then they saw her and shut up. Then—and this is the most interesting bit, to my mind—Sir Desmond came in.
Miss Inskip had left the door to the hall open to make it easier to carry out ashtrays for cleaning, so she didn’t hear him arrive and can’t say if he heard what Lady Ottaline said. ”
Alec nodded. “Sir Desmond has by far the most obvious motive.”
“But he’s a bigwig, and if he didn’t do it, we don’t want to have given him cause to bring a hornet’s nest about our ears.”
“Very true. Did you find out who else knew about the planned meeting?”
“Miss Inskip went straight off to have a good gossip with the housekeeper and the cook, and one way or another all the indoor servants got to hear about it. The visitors’ servants, too.
Miss Willett told Lady Beaufort and Miss Beaufort when she went to dress them for dinner—not this afternoon, like you said, Mrs. Fletcher. ”
“I didn’t! I said Julia told us this afternoon that Willett had told her. I didn’t know when.”
“You gave me the impression—”
Alec intervened. “Who else among the household and guests was told?”
“Most of ’em,” Boyle said morosely, “one way or another. There’s not a one I can say for sure didn’t know.”
“You obviously didn’t have much difficulty getting them to talk.”
“The butler, Barker, said right off he wasn’t going to gab about anything he hadn’t seen for himself, and for a moment I thought they were all going to go bolshie on me.
But most of ’em were dying to talk, and the housekeeper said it was their duty to help the police, so after that it was plain sailing.
Barker never did come round though. Said it wasn’t his business to gossip about his employer’s household or guests.
Very high and mighty, is Barker,” he said with considerable resentment.
“A cross between Jeeves and the Admirable Crichton,” Daisy observed. “Even Rhino, though he was forever moaning about the failings of servants in general and his own in particular, never complained about Barker. You’d almost think Barker had a hold on him, like Lady Ottaline.”
Boyle stared at her, mouth open, as if struck by a coup de foudre. “What if Lord Rydal—him being a ladies’ man—what if he once seduced Barker’s daughter, or sweetheart, or even his wife? What if the butler did it?”