‘Well, what did you say?’
‘Oh, that I had been responsible for organising the party and had written to everybody who was on the walk. I said that I had ended up at Fort William and that everybody who was there had climbed Ben Nevis except for you and Miss Camden. He rather pressed me as to why Perth had not come to the party and tried to tempt me into admitting that Perth and Carbridge had fallen out on The Way, but, of course, I wasn’t having any of that, any more than I was telling him about Crianlarich. I knew about that punch-up, you know.’
‘Do you mean they had fallen out — Perth and Carbridge?’
‘In a manner of speaking, yes. That’s one reason why our poly gang spent three days chipping away at the hills where you and Miss Camden found us. You see, we had already had a bit of a barney with him and Todd when we spent so much time on the island of Inchcailloch when they wanted to press on regardless and we wanted to study the geology of the island.’
‘Couldn’t they have gone on without you?’
‘Both had taken a fancy to Patsy, I think. The girl wasn’t terribly interested, although perhaps a bit pleased just at first, the two men being a good deal older than Freddie and myself and, of course, employed, whereas we were only students. That meant they had a lot more money and, we gathered, assured positions with their firms.’
‘You mean that Carbridge and Todd had fallen out?’
‘Oh, I wouldn’t go so far as that.’
‘What, then?’
‘Perhaps Patsy wasn’t the only girl Carbridge had his eye on.’
I could not pretend that I did not know what he was hinting, but I said angrily, ‘What the hell are you getting at?’
‘Nothing, nothing — except that your Hera is a remarkably beautiful woman.’
‘And engaged to be married to me, as I pointed out pretty forcibly to Carbridge at Crianlarich when he showed signs of muscling in. Yes, and to Todd, too.’
‘Very sorry, Melrose. Didn’t mean to rile you. More in the way of a warning, if you see what I mean.’
‘Put your warnings where the monkey —’
‘All right, all right.’ He got up from his chair. ‘Thanks for the drinks. See you at the inquest, I expect.’
When he had gone I went to the hall of residence. Bull let me in. I tackled him as soon as I got inside the door.
‘Why didn’t you tell me you recognised the dead man?’ I asked.
‘Recognise him? But I never, sir.’
‘You let him in, and his murderer, too, on the afternoon of the party.’
‘That I never did. If they got in, they got in sub rosa, sir. I hadn’t never seen that corpse before in my life.’
‘But how did he get in if you didn’t let him in?’
‘There’s the basement entrance. That only gets locked and bolted at night.’
‘Oh? Why is that?’
‘I leaves it open during the daylight hours so I don’t have to keep getting up on me pins to let in students as wants to work during the vaycaytions. Same in term-time. They comes and they goes. I got plenty of jobs to do without keep going along to answer the front-door bell. That’s for visitors, not students. Them as come to the party was visitors, so, of course, I let ’em in if Mr Trickett was busy with the other guests, but I never let in that dead man. I’ve got a good memory for faces. Have to have, in my job. Why, I can remember students from ten years back, never mind about the lecturers.’
‘The dead man had been invited to the party.’
‘Well, he never come in by no front door, sir.’
When I got back to the flat, Bingley was waiting in the hall. We went up the stairs and I asked, rather belligerently, I think, whether there was any more that I could do for him.
‘Just one small point, Mr Melrose,’ he answered. ‘What was your reaction when you first met Mr Carbridge at the Glasgow youth hostel?’
‘I’ve told you. I thought him pushy and boring.’
‘You would not care to add anything more?’
‘There’s nothing more to add. I thought the chap was a headache, that’s all.’
‘And you had no reason to revise this opinion later in the tour?’
‘No. You must please believe what I’ve said before. Miss Camden and I did not travel in company with the others. It was only by chance that we met them in Glasgow and at the other youth hostels. They proposed to walk the whole length of the West Highland Way from Milngavie to Fort William. We had no such ambition. We picked up the trail at Drymen and, instead of keeping strictly to the route, we left out Kinlochleven and Lundavra, cut across to Ballachulish — having thumbed a lift — and were taken to Fort William from there. I’ve told you all this. Why do you keep harping on it?’
‘Because, Mr Melrose, you did meet up with the others at Rowardennan, Crianlarich and Fort William.’
‘Only because we all used the youth hostels, as I’ve already explained. There was no pre-arrangement to meet. Miss Camden and I were booked in mostly at hotels, but, of course, the hostels are much cheaper, so we used the only ones there are along The Way, those at Rowardennan and Crianlarich and, of course, the one at Fort William, as you say.’
‘I am told by Mr Todd that you and Miss Camden left Fort William in somewhat of a hurry. Was that because you found that Mr Carbridge was there?’
‘Well, partly, I suppose, but mostly because Miss Camden had found our trip more exhausting than she had expected. We had intended to ascend Ben Nevis — I won’t say climb it, because we only thought of getting to the top by the easiest route, which, as I am sure you know, is from the river up to a farm and then on a pony track to the top — but I decided that the exertion would be too much for Miss Camden. There was not much point in staying in Fort William under the circumstances, so we left as soon as we could.’
‘Did you, at any time, have an altercation of any kind with Mr Carbridge?’
‘Certainly not. I had nothing against him except that he was a bore.’ (I certainly was not going to talk about Crianlarich to a policeman.)
‘Was Miss Camden of the same opinion?’
‘I should think everybody was, but you had better ask her, hadn’t you? You’re bad as young Trickett,’ I said ill-advisedly. He stiffened, as I have seen a pointer do when it scents game.
‘Ah,’ he said, with a quiet satisfaction which alarmed me. ‘Young Trickett, eh? Well, I think that is all for the present, Mr Melrose.’
I was more than thankful to be rid of him. I was terrified that I might let out our real reason for leaving Fort William. He had been so nearly right when he asked me whether we had left because Carbridge was there, and his penetrating question — although I do not think he had anything to go on when he asked it — of whether I had ever had any sort of a row with Carbridge had shaken me badly. I wondered what else Todd had told him, apart from recounting my hasty departure from Fort William. After all, Todd had been present when I had assaulted Carbridge at Crianlarich and had himself been fairly roundly ticked off by me as well. I did not imagine he loved me very much.
9: Bull Before the Beaks
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How I detest that detective-inspector!’ said Hera, when she and Sandy were having drinks at my flat and talking things over. ‘Do you know he as good as told me that I had had an affair with Carbridge on the tour? How dare he?’
‘He wanted me to admit that I knew about it and that I got shirty with the man,’ I said. ‘He’s a menace with his rotten, crawling suggestions. He’s got it in for me all right.’
‘It’s not as though you can help falling over dead bodies wherever you go,’ she said thoughtfully.
‘Look, the subject isn’t funny!’ I retorted.
‘I didn’t mean it to be but it is rather unnerving when you repeat your effects.’