“And …” he prompted.
“An’ I ’elped ’er ter dress an’ do ’er ’air ….”
“How long did that take?” he asked with what she was sure was an edge of sarcasm.
“I don’ sit an’ watch the clock, Mr. Tellman. But since I were doin’ the work fer two,* longer than most.”
“You never helped the superintendent to dress?” he said with final incredulity.
“Course I didn’t! But I fetched water and brushed ’is shoes an’ ’is jacket, seein’ as ’is valet’s a useless article and were nowhere ter be seen. Then I came downstairs ter bring down the laundry an’ I passed Doll, that’s Mrs. Greville’s maid, on the stairs an’ ’ad a word wif ’er—”
“That doesn’t help,” Tellman interrupted.
“An’ about quarter ter nine I go to find Mrs. Pitt ter ask ’er about what she’d like ter wear for dinner, an’ I sees Miss Moynihan come down the front stairs and go ter the mornin’ room, an’ Mrs. McGinley in the conservatory wi’ Mr. Moynihan, standin’ much too close ter the door for the likes o’ wot they were doin’….”
Tellman pulled a face, from which his contempt was obvious.
Finn smiled as if he saw some bitter humor in that love affair.
“Go on,” Tellman said sharply. “Did you see anyone else?”
“Yeh. Mr. Doyle were leavin’ the ’all an’ goin’ ter the side door.”
“To where?”
“Ter the garden, o’ course.”
“What time?”
“I dunno. Ten minutes afore nine, mebbe?”
“You sure it was Mr. Doyle?”
“Don’ look funny at me like that! I know better than to say it were if I wasn’t sure. You jus’ remember I work in Mr. Pitt’s ’ouse, an’ I know as much about some of ’is cases as whatever you do.”
“Rubbish,” he said derisively.
“Oh, yes I do! ’cos I knows wot Mrs. Pitt does, an’ Mrs. Radley … an’ that’s more’n wot you do.”
He glared at her. “You got no business meddlin’ in police cases. Like as not you’ll do more harm than good and get yourself hurt, you stupid little girl!”
Gracie was cut to the core. She could think of no retaliation which was even remotely adequate to the insult, but she would remember it, so when the opportunity arose, she would crush him.
Tellman turned to Finn. “Mr. Hennessey, would you please tell me what you did, and anybody you saw, from seven o’clock onwards, and when you saw them. And don’t forget Mr. McGinley himself. That may help us to know how he learned about the dynamite but no one else did.”
“Yes …” Finn still looked very shaky. He had to make a considerable effort to keep his voice steady. “Like Gracie, the first thing I did was get up and shaved and dressed, then I went to Mr. McGinley’s dressing room to make sure the housemaid had lit the fire, which she had, and it was all cleaned and dusted properly. The servants here are very good.”
He did not see Tellman’s lip curl or see him take a long breath and let it out in a sigh.
“I prepared the washstand, laid out the hairbrush, nail brush, toothbrush, and fetched the ewer of hot water, laid out the dressing gown and slippers in front of the fire to warm. Then I sharpened the razor on the strop as usual, but Mr. McGinley likes to shave himself, so I just left it all ready for him.”
“What time was this?” Tellman said sourly.
“Quarter before eight,” Finn replied. “I told you.”
Tellman wrote it down. “Do you know when Mr. McGinley left his room?”
“For breakfast?”
“For anything.”
“He went down for breakfast about quarter past eight, I imagine. I don’t know because I left him just before that to clean his best boots. I needed to make more blacking.”
“Make it? Don’t you buy it, like anyone else?”
Finn’s face showed his disdain. “Bought polish has sulfuric acid in it. It rots leather. Any decent gentleman’s gentleman knows how to make it.”
“Not being a gentleman’s gentleman, I wouldn’t know,” Tellman responded.
“Twelve ounces each of ivory black and treacle, four ounces each of spermaceti oil and white wine vinegar,” Finn informed him helpfully. “Mix them thoroughly, of course.”
“Where did you do this?” Tellman was unimpressed.
“Boot room, of course.”
“You went down the men’s stairs at the back?”
“Naturally.”
“See anyone?”
“Wheeler, Mr. Doyle’s man, the buüer Dükes, and two footmen whose names I don’t know.”
“Did you go into the front of the house at all?” Tellman persisted.
“I went across the hall to fetch the newspapers to iron.”
“What?”
“I went across the hall to fetch the newspapers to iron them,” Finn repeated. “I wanted to see if there was anything in them about Mr. Parnell. I saw Mr. Doyle coming downstairs.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“Where did he go? Into the dining room?”
“No. He went in the other direction, but I don’t know where to. I went back through the baize door with the newspapers.”
“Then what?” Tellman had his pencil poised, his eyes on Finn.
Finn hesitated.
“Yer gotta tell ’im,” Gracie urged. “It’s important.”
Finn looked wretched.
Gracie longed to lean forward and touch his hands again, but she could not do it in front of Tellman.
Tellman licked the end of his pencil.
“Mr. McGinley sent for me,” Finn said shakily.
“From where? Where was he?” Tellman asked.
“What? Oh, in his room, I expect. Yes, in his room. But I met him as he was coming across the landing. He told me to go with him and to stand in the hall while he went into Mr. Radley’s study. He said someone had put dynamite there and he was going to … to make it safe.”
“I see. Thank you.” Tellman took a deep breath. “I’m sorry about Mr. McGinley. Looks like he died a hero.”
“Somebody murdered him,” Finn said between his teeth. “I hope you get the son of the devil who did it and hang him as high as Nelson’s column.”
“I expect we will.” Tellman looked at Gracie as if he wanted to say something further, but he changed his mind and went out. Gracie turned back to Finn, longing to be able to help. She could guess at the grief and shock which must be tearing at him, and soon it would be fear for himself also. With McGinley dead he would have no position. He would have to start looking for a new place, with all the difficulty, hardship and anxiety that was. She smiled at him tentatively, not to mean anything, except that she understood and she cared.
He smiled back and reached up with his hand to touch hers.
* * *
Pitt found Tellman about an hour later, standing in the havoc of the study.
“What did you learn?” he asked quietly. The door had not yet been replaced.
Tellman recounted to Pitt what Finn had told him.
“That’s more or less what we know.” Pitt nodded. “Anything else?”
“Maid came in and lit the fire just after seven this morning,” Tellman replied, consulting his notebook. “She dusted the desk and refilled the inkstand and checked there was enough paper, wax, sand, tapers, and so on. She opened the drawer down this side because that’s where they’re kept. There was nothing wrong with it then. And she’s been with the house since Lord Ashworth’s time.”
“So it was after seven this morning, and the bomb went off at about twenty-five to ten. That’s two and a half hours.”
“All the servants were either upstairs or in the servants’ hall having their own breakfast,” Tellman replied. “Or else about their duties in the laundry, the stillroom or wherever it is they do these things. I never imagined there was so much to do to keep half a dozen ladies and gentlemen turned out as they like to be, and fed, housed and entertained.” His face expressed very clearly his opinion of the morality of that.
“Could any of them have come through and put the dynamite in here?” Pitt made no comment on the number of the servants.