‘Can you give me any proof that you spent last night in a tent in Dame Beatrice’s paddock? I don’t doubt whatever that you did spend the night in the vicinity of the Stone House, but we have to ask these routine questions when there is anything suspicious about a death.’
‘Suspicious? You mean Professor Veryan’s death wasn’t an accident?’
‘We have to bear all possibilities in mind, sir, and we think it highly suspicious that he met his death when the tower was empty, with you two gentlemen away, so that nobody would have heard him cry out when he fell.’
‘What about the girls in the caravan? Didn’t they hear anything?’
‘If you mean Dr Lochlure and her two students, they say they were not there. They also say that they would have taken no action even if they had heard anything. They would have supposed it would only have been a drunken villager or some other tipsy person. In any case, the tower is some way off from where the caravan was parked, and ladies have good reason, unfortunately, in these days, to stay safely within four walls after dark, especially in lonely neighbourhoods. Well, that’s all for the present, gentlemen.’
‘Except for deciding where we’re going to sleep tonight,’ said Tom to Bonamy, as they went back to Bonamy’s car. This point was settled by Tynant at dinner that evening.
‘Veryan’s room is locked up for the time being,’ he said, ‘and anyway I don’t suppose you would care, either of you, to occupy it. The hotel can give you a two-bed room in a cottage which they use as an annexe when the hotel is full. I think you had better accept. As what has happened is no fault of yours, I am prepared to pay for your lodging.’
‘No need, sir,’ said Tom. ‘We have a tent and we’ve got our sleeping-bags.’
‘They won’t allow you at the foot of the castle mound. There isn’t anywhere else where you could pitch a tent and they certainly won’t allow you to sleep in the keep, even if you wanted to do so.’
‘Look here, sir,’ said Bonamy, ‘they don’t really suspect foul play, do they?’
‘They are treating the circumstances with reservations, let us say.’
‘But why? I’ve climbed that newel stair and it would be easy enough to fall from the top in the dark if you weren’t careful. At one place there is less than a foot of the parapet left standing.’
‘I have not been up there myself, but Edward Saltergate made that very observation. All the same, poor Veryan had been up there almost every evening since we’ve been here. He should not have been in any danger on territory he must have known so well. Mind you, anybody can overbalance. The police think he was sitting on the wall and tipped over backwards.’
‘I suppose there will have to be an inquest, sir? Shall we all be asked to attend it?’
‘Well, Saltergate and I have been told to see that none of our party leaves until it is over.’
‘What do you think happened, sir? That policeman—’
‘The Detective-Superintendent.’
‘Oh, is he? He let it out that they thought it very peculiar that the accident happened while everybody was away. What was everyone else doing?’
‘Well, the rest of us spent the weekend in various ways. In other words, we all thought your idea was a good one and that it wouldn’t hurt if the rest of us relaxed a little. I’m afraid the work was beginning to pall. It’s all hard slog and, up to the present, nothing much to show for it.’
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Tom. ‘If it weren’t for the ditch and the trench, neither of which can be disguised, the castle would now look a lot tidier than it did when we first came. Gosh! My deltoids and hamstrings! My once limber knees and delicately tended hands! I shall never be the same man again.’
‘Oh, well, any alteration must be an improvement,’ said Bonamy. ‘Don’t you think so, sir?’
‘Why – I’ve often wondered – why did you two fellows come here in the first place?’ asked Tynant.
‘We wanted a cheap holiday and to do a bit of reading for our finals and stooge about the neighbourhood and live the simple life. We got caught up in the works when you and Mr Saltergate came along and wanted volunteers, that’s all.’
‘I see. Well, look, here’s the key to the cottage. It’s on the left as you leave the village square. You can’t mistake it. It’s got an outside stone staircase up to the bedrooms, and that’s the way you get in, because there is no door at street level.’
‘These quaint old Spanish customs!’ said Tom, when they had climbed the outside stair and let themselves in. ‘I noted that you teetered on the edge of telling Tynant about our well. I’m glad you didn’t.’
‘You don’t still have hopes of finding the treasure, do you? So why are you glad I didn’t say anything? I was inclined to, as you surmise, but I decided he might think me rather young for my age if I started waffling about buried treasure.’
‘Well, that was probably good thinking. Why am I glad you didn’t say anything? I’ll tell you. Against all the odds, I’ve got a feeling that we are destined to find that hoard.’
‘God bless you for an innocent, wide-eyed boy!’
‘There is no such thing as an innocent boy and boys are only wide-eyed at the sight of lavish, luxurious food. You know, it’s pretty decent of Tynant to have fixed us up in this bijou residence. I can’t help wondering, though, why the police want to keep us all on the spot, but, because they so obviously do want to, I wonder whether we ought to come clean about Virginia and Sarah.’
‘Good heavens, no!’ said Bonamy, horrified. ‘If there’s going to be a stink – and it looks that way – we can’t involve two innocent young girls. They couldn’t possibly know anything about Veryan’s death. Keep your fingers crossed and your trap shut. If Veryan hadn’t been an eminent man, there would have been none of this fussation about what must have been a perfectly simple accident.’
‘It’s funny it happened just when it did, though. That’s what is bothering the gendarmes,’ said Tom.
‘Yes, and that brings me to something else. What on earth made you mention the girls in the caravan to that rozzer? A good thing he thought you meant Fiona and Priscilla. Nobody must know that Virginia and Sarah slept there while Veryan was flinging himself off that tower.’
‘Suicide, do you think?’
‘I am not thinking anything at all.’
‘I wish I felt sorrier about his death.’
‘We all will, later on. We’re all suffering from shock at present.’
7
Alibis
« ^ »
After breakfast Bonamy telephoned the Stone House.
‘Don’t bother about coming to the castle at present,’ he said. ‘Work is suspended and everything is haywire.’
‘Oh? Has somebody found the treasure?’ asked Laura, who took the call.
‘Lord, no, nothing like that. There has been an accident and Veryan is dead.’
‘Hold on. I’ll get Dame B.’
‘So what has happened to cause Professor Veryan’s death?’ Dame Beatrice enquired.
‘He fell from the top of the keep and busted his head and his spine. The police are here and none of us knows whether we’re coming or going.’
‘Are you and Tom free to come here and tell us all about it? When did it happen?’
‘The night Tom and I slept in your paddock. Tynant is worried. The police are as busy as a colony of ants. He says he thinks they have a suspicion that something other than an accident was the cause of Veryan’s death.’
‘I think, in that case, you certainly had better come here at once. If the police are difficult about it, refer them to me, and I will pull my rank, as Laura would put it.’
‘Does that mean it’s serious?’