‘I am doubting,’ Alec said. ‘It’s what we’re taking to be the confession.’
‘You too? That’s been niggling at Constable Reid and me.’
‘Bright boy,’ Alec said.
‘But what else could she mean by saying “five”?’ I countered.
‘No, it’s not what she said, it’s when she said it.’ I sat up and snapped my fingers at him. ‘She looked at the corpse three days later and said it then.’
‘Of course,’ I said sinking back again. ‘She should have said it when the woman was plummeting down the cliff face, or just after she’d tipped her out of the boat, or held her under.’
‘Exactly. It was too late by miles by the time it came to the cable station. On the other hand, if it was said for your benefit, then the whole thing is so stagey I don’t believe it can actually be true. Why would a murderer say such a thing at such a moment? Was she the theatrical sort, when you knew her before?’
I smiled in spite of the dreadful conversation. Was little Fleur Lipscott theatrical? Not in the way Alec meant it. There was nothing insincere or calculated in the extravagance with which she lived. One always got the impression, on the contrary, that she would go on in just the same way in an empty room in an empty house, or indeed if washed up all alone on a desert island. I watched her once that summer, from under the walnut tree where we had tea almost every afternoon. She had been painting, dressed in a calico smock and a black beret (stuffed with the rats to stop it slipping over her ears), and she was about to leave her easel and palette on the lawn while she went in to change. I watched her dab two unused brushes into the paint and then thread them through the thumbhole of her palette along with the one she had really been using. I watched her reposition the palette on the grass, walking around to view the composition and replace it twice before she was happy. She even dragged the easel round a bit – away from the view – until it was framed against a yellow rose which scrambled over a pergola. Then she quickly added some blobs of yellow to her picture, walked round the whole thing again, nodded firmly and pelted off to the garden door and the nursery stairs, turning twice on the way to look at the pretty arrangement she had left behind her.
‘No,’ I said to Alec. ‘Not the least bit attention-seeking. Quite the most self-possessed little girl you could imagine.’
‘And once she was a big girl?’
‘Well, she was very silly and shocking,’ I said. ‘And I suppose she did play to the gallery. But in a very sort of full-blown way. For one thing she was still as lavishly fond of her family as ever. Not at all like those hard-faced little flappers who always made such a great point of being cold. Catch them coming to kiss their married sisters at a party! No, Fleur Lipscott, even at her silliest, was never furtive or calculated. If she seemed to be speaking to herself then she was, and if she whispered “Five” to herself then she meant it.’
‘Which makes no sense at all,’ Alec said.
‘Not much,’ I agreed. ‘But I like things not to make sense, Alec dear, as you know. For then there is something to catch hold of and straighten out about them.’ We smoked in silence for a while, each hoping to catch hold of a loose end immediately, each failing to do so.
‘Right,’ I said, at length. ‘First things first, I have to ring Pearl or Aurora and tell them the unwelcome news that Fleur is gone.’
‘Perhaps she’ll have been in touch already,’ said Alec. ‘Perhaps she’s on her way home to them.’
‘We can hope. Now come with me and help me find a telephone. I only pray that there’s not just one on a table in the entrance hall. This conversation is going to be ticklish enough without eavesdroppers.’
We were in luck: finding an instrument I had not noticed in the staffroom, I sat down beside it and dialled for the exchange. While we were waiting, though, I changed my mind and held the earpiece out to Alec.
‘You talk to Pearl,’ I said. ‘She knows about you and I’d like to get your impression of her. Also, she won’t be so airy-fairy with you. We might actually learn something.’
But about that I was wrong, quite wrong. Alec started off the call in businesslike fashion, introducing himself and asking Pearl if she was alone, since he had some upsetting news and she should prepare herself to receive it. A wail came out of the ear trumpet and Alec flinched before trying again.
‘Not so bad as all that, Mrs Tennant,’ he said hurriedly, ‘but I’m afraid I have to tell you that Miss Lipscott has gone away. She has left St Columba’s, clearly not meaning to return. Now, I take it you have had no word from her?’ There was a pause. ‘And would you know if Mrs Forrester had heard from your sister?’ Another pause. ‘In that case, Mrs Tennant, I hope you’ll oblige me by answering a few quest-’ Here Pearl obviously cut him off again and during this pause, he blushed. ‘Osborne, yes,’ he said. ‘Dorset. No, in Perthshire these days.’ Then he blushed even harder, turning quite purple and making his freckles appear yellow. ‘She is indeed. Yes, we do. I most certainly am- Mrs Tennant, if I can just- A splendid chap. Most helpful to me in the matter of the farm. Mrs Tennant’ – his voice rose – ‘can I start by asking you this: as far as you know, has your sister ever committed any cri-’ I could hear Pearl squawking into the telephone from where I sat across the room (I had chosen a fireside chair as one does even when the grate is empty). ‘No I don’t mean the high-spirits of youth, my dear Mrs Te- Yes, indeed, I’ve snatched many a police helmet on treasure hunt nights myself, but that’s not what-’ Alec shook his head at me in dumb disbelief. It was his first exposure to a Lipscott outpouring and I took it that Dismay was just as profuse as Delight. ‘She hinted – no, she more than hinted – that she might have killed some-’ This time Alec tucked the earpiece into the crook of his neck and refilled his pipe while Pearl’s voice squeaked on and on. ‘Well, yes, we did wonder. Hm? Dandy and me. Yes, she is. Yes, I’m sure she would.’ I was signalling madly but he ignored me.
‘Hello, Pearl darling,’ I said, taking over and watching Alec go to flop in a chair.
‘Dandy, honestly!’ said Pearl down the line. She sounded tearful. ‘I asked you to take care of her and I told you to be gentle with her and it sounds absolutely as though you’ve trampled in in hobnailed boots like some beastly policeman.’
‘No need, dear,’ I said. ‘There is a real beastly policeman with perfectly good hobnailed boots of his own. And I should think he’ll be in touch very soon to ask you just what we’re asking you. There’s been a murder.’
‘Oh, nonsense!’ said Pearl, rather surprisingly.
‘Or a death anyway,’ I said.
‘See? Don’t make such a melodrama, Dandy, you’re hardly helping.’
‘I had to go and look at the corpse, Pearl. It was melodramatic enough without anyone making it so. And Fleur as good as confessed that she-’ Pearl interrupted again.
‘Nonsense,’ she said. ‘Dandy, if I had thought for a moment you’d take this line… You know Fleur. She’s a darling, an angel, a cherub on a white clou-’
‘She was,’ I said, interrupting back. ‘She’s changed. I would like to know what changed her.’
‘I can’t listen to this,’ said Pearl. ‘From you of all people.’ I heard an ominous fumbling sound.
‘Don’t you dare hang up!’ I said and before I knew it Alec had taken the instrument back out of my hand.
‘Mrs Tennant,’ he said. ‘I’m well aware that Mrs Gilver is an old friend of your family but she is also a professional detective of the utmost integrity and moral scrupulousness. She cannot – we neither of us can – condone any-’ His voice was getting louder and lower and Pearl’s voice was getting higher and faster and they went on in this fashion for another good minute and then very abruptly Alec hung up the telephone.