At my job," said Hannasyde, "one learns not to bank on anything."
He turned, for the door had opened, and Helen had come into the room. She looked tired, and rather strained, but greeted him quite calmly. "Good-afternoon. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. I was lying down."
"I'm sorry to be obliged to disturb you, Mrs. North," he replied, "but there are one or two points in your evidence which I want to go over with you again."
She moved to a chair by the fireplace. "Please sit down. I can't tell you anything more than I have, but, of course, I'll answer any questions you want to ask me."
He took a seat beside a table near her, and laid on it his notebook. "I am going to be perfectly frank with you, Mrs. North, for I think it will save a great deal of time and misunderstanding if you know what facts are in my possession. Now, the first thing I am going to tell you is that I have proof that a certain man, who need not concern you much, since it is in the highest degree unlikely that you have ever heard of him, visited Ernest Fletcher at some time during the evening on which he was murdered."
Her eyes were fixed upon his face with an expression in them of painful anxiety, but she merely said in a low voice: "No doubt he was the man I saw. Go on, please."
He opened his notebook. "I am going to read to you, Mrs. North, the sequence of events, between the hours of 9.35 and 10.05, according to your own evidence, and to that of the Constable who discovered F'letcher's body. If I have got any of the times wrong, you must stop me. To begin with, at 9.35 you arrived at the side entrance of Greystones. You noticed a short, stout man come out of the gate, just before you reached it, and walk away towards Vale Avenue."
She was clasping the arms of her chair rather tensely, but when he paused, and looked inquiringly at her, she replied with composure. "Yes, that is correct."
"You entered the garden of Greystones, walked up the path, and found Ernest F'letcher alone in his study."
"Yes."
"At 9.45, after a short dispute with Fletcher, you left the study, by the way you had entered, unattended, and were about to go home, when you heard footsteps approaching up the path. You then concealed yourself behind a bush a few feet from the path."
"Yes. I've already told you all this."
"Just a moment, please. You were able to see that this new visitor was a man of medium height and build, wearing a light Homburg hat, and carrying no stick in his hand; but you were not able to recognise him."
She saidd nervously: "I thought he seemed to be quite an ordinary-looking person, but I only caught a glimpse of him, and the light had practically gone. I couldn't swear to anything about him."
"We won't go into that at present. This man entered the study through the window, closing it behind him, and remained there until approximately 9.58. At 9.58, he came out of the study, followed by Fletcher, who escorted him in a leisurely fashion to the gate. As soon as both men were out of sight round the bend in the path, you went back into the study to search in the desk for your IOUs. You heard Fletcher returning to the house, and you escaped from the study before he reached it, passing through the door into the hall. While you were in the hall, the tall-case clock there struck the hour of 10. 00. But I must tell you, Mrs. North, that the clock was a minute slower than the one in the study, so that the time was actually one minute past ten."
"I don't see -'
"I think you will, for I am coming now to the evidence of the Constable. At 10.02 he observed, from the point where Maple Grove runs into Vale Avenue, a man coming out of the side gate of Greystones, and making off towards the Arden Road. Thinking the circumstance suspicious, he made his way down Maple Grove, entered the garden of Greystones by the side gate, and walked up the path to the study window. There he discovered the body of Ernest Fletcher, lying across the desk, with his head smashed. The time then, Mrs. North, was 10.05 p.m."
She faltered: "I don't think I understand."
"If you think it over, I feel sure you will," he suggested. "If your evidence is true, Fletcher was alive at one minute past ten."
"Yes," she said hesitantly. "Yes, of course he must have been."
"Yet at 10.02 the Constable saw an unknown man coming out of the garden-gate; and by 10.05 Fletcher was dead, and there was no trace to be found of his murderer."
"You mean it couldn't have happened?"
"Consider it for yourself, Mrs. North. If you say that the man you saw left at 9.58, who was the man the Constable saw?"
"How can I possibly tell?"
"Can you suggest any reason to account for his presence in the garden?"
"No, of course I can't. Unless he murdered Ernie."
"In considerably less than a minute?"
She stared at him uncomprehendingly. "I suppose not. I don't know. Are you - are you accusing me of having murdered Ernie Fletcher?"
"No, Mrs. North. But I am suggesting that you have falsified your evidence."
"It's not true! I did see Ernie taking that man to the gate! If there was another man in the garden, I knew nothing of it. You've no right to say I falsified my evidence! Why should I?"
"If, Mrs. North, you did, in point of fact, recognise the man who entered the garden, that in itself might constitute a very good reason for falsifying your evidence."
Sally's hand descended on her sister's shoulder, and gripped it. "Quiet. You're not obliged to answer."
"But I didn't! What I told you was true! I know nothing about the second man, and since I heard Ernie whistling just before I went into the hall I presume he was alive at a minute past ten. You want me to say he didn't see that man out, but you won't succeed! He did!"
"That's enough," said Sally. She looked across at Hannasyde. "My sister is entitled to see her solicitor before she answers any questions, I think. Well, she isn't going to say any more now. You've heard her evidence: if you can't make it fit with your constable's evidence, that's your look out, not hers."
She spoke with considerable pugnacity, but Hannasyde replied without any apparent loss of temper: "Certainly she may consult her solicitor before answering me. I think she would be wise to. But perhaps she will be good enough to tell me where I may find Mr. John North?"
"I don't know!" Helen said sharply. "He didn't tell me where he was going. All I can tell you is that he isn't coming back to dinner, and may be late home."
"Thank you," said Hannasyde, rising to his feet. "Then I won't detain you any longer, Mrs. North."
Helen stretched her hand towards the bell, but Sally said curtly: "I'll see him out," and strode to the door and opened it.
When she returned to the library she found her sister pacing up and down, a twisted handkerchief being jerked between her hands. She looked at her under frowning brows, and inquired: "So now what?"
"What am I going to do?"
"Search me. Do you feel inclined to tell me the truth?"
"What I have already said is the truth, and nothing will make me go back on it!" Helen said, holding Sally's eyes with her own.
There was a slight pause. "All right," Sally said. "I don't know that I blame you."
Chapter Ten
Joining his superior outside the gate, Sergeant Hemingway said: "Nothing much to be made of it my end. Did you shake the fair Helen?"
"No. She's sticking to it that her story's true. She's bound to, of course. I didn't expect her to go back on it. What I did want to do - and what I rather fancy I succeeded in doing - was to frighten her. Did you get anything out of the servants?"
"Precious little. The butler saw young Neville walking off down the drive at about 12.30 that night, which makes it look as though what he told me was true. Otherwise, I wasted my time. Old-fashioned sort of servants: been employed there several years, seem to be fond of both master and mistress, and aren't talking. Come to think of it, it's a pity there aren't more like them - though not from our point of view. Did you get the impression Mrs. North was working in cahoots with her husband, or what?"