‘Can you prove that you left the keep at approximately eleven-thirty?’
‘I think so. We had told the hotel porter that we should be back late, but before midnight, and he was there, ready to lock up, when we went in. I am sure he will remember.’
Tom came next.
‘They don’t let us communicate with the people you’ve spoken to,’ he said, ‘so I have no idea what Bonamy has said. Has he displayed gentlemanly feelings?’
‘I suppose that, as the unusual occupants were not there, you two slept in the caravan on that Sunday night.’
‘Oh, Lord! So Bonamy has let the cat out of the bag!’
‘No, he told me nothing. Foolish of him and due only, I fancy, to the misplaced sense of chivalry you have queried. Who were the two girls?’
‘If he didn’t tell you, I don’t understand how you know.’
‘Perhaps because, like Campbell of Kilmhor, I have a large experience of life, and that means of human nature. I will add another remark made by Campbell in that immortal one-act play. He said that, speaking out of his experience, he had decided that only fools and the dead never change their minds. I hope you have changed yours, Tom, and are prepared, as Laura would put it, to come clean. I want to clear you two boys out of the way.’
‘We can’t land the girls in a mess. They were great sports.’
‘A term I would hesitate to attach to Miss Priscilla and Miss Fiona, so I deduce that they are not the girls in question.’
‘These were two girls who are staying at the pub in Stint Magna where Bonamy and I take our refreshment. Students from London University on holiday while they do some reading. We paved the way with gin and conversation – the pub doesn’t run to vodka – and when we settled for this weekend off duty we collected them up, took them round and about and bedded them down in the caravan. We drove them back to the pub in time to have breakfast on the Monday morning, and then we drove over to you at the Stone House for lunch. When we got back in the afternoon the caravan and my car had been moved and we heard what had happened to Veryan.’
‘I will not be so indiscreet as to ask who bedded down with whom, but do I understand that, if it ever came to what Laura calls the crunch, your alibis could stand up to the strictest investigation?’
‘Our alibis, well, it would depend how broadminded people are. But, I say, you won’t involve the girls if you can help it, will you? I mean, it was all a bit of innocent fun and, by God! – we needed it after all that slog, and, anyway, we didn’t sleep with them.’
‘Ask Miss Broadmayne to come in, please.’
Unlike her predecessors, Fiona was defiant to the point of belligerence.
‘So why shouldn’t I?’ she demanded.
‘Why shouldn’t you do what, my dear?’
‘Take Susannah home with me for the weekend.’
‘So long as your parents did not object—’
‘They couldn’t. They weren’t there. I knew the house would be empty. It was a chance to get Susannah to myself for a bit.’
‘Is that why Miss Yateley went to London and got drunk?’
‘No. She’s now got a “thing” for Tom Hassocks but, of course, Tom and Bonamy had their own fish to fry and when they offered me Tom’s car free of charge for three days – I’ve been renting it, you know – in exchange for the caravan for three nights, I asked Susannah if she would mind if I lent them my key.’
‘Three nights? Not merely for Sunday night? But never mind. Did your weekend with Dr Lochlure come up to expectations?’
‘No, of course not. Things never do, in my experience. We found we had nothing to say to one another.’
‘I am sorry the gilt fell off the gingerbread.’
‘There was never a chance of anything else. When, near the end of term, Susannah sent for me and asked me whether I would like to join in this castle thing, she made it perfectly clear that she was choosing me only because I have big muscles and don’t snore.’
‘The former are obvious and I congratulate you on them. How did she know about the latter?’
‘Some water came through the ceiling of my room at college, so for three nights running I occupied the settee in her sitting-room.’
‘Is she well liked by the college?’
‘She’s out of place there, in a way. You stop listening to her lectures and concentrate on her looks. If she doesn’t take you that way, you write her off as a bitch and don’t bother to attend her lectures at all. She’s a frightfully dull talker.’
‘You speak for the Junior Common Room. What about the Seniors?’
‘Mixed, like us, I guess. Of course, she never lacks a lecture room full of men students. Anyway, the weekend was a disaster and I’m pretty sure the mouse was a put-up job. I mean, we never have had mice in my home. She made it an excuse to telephone Tynant. He came at once and took her away. After that, I was alone in the house and drove myself back to Castle Holdy early on Monday morning.’
‘So you still have no alibi for the time of Professor Veryan’s death.’
‘Why should I need one? If I could have broken Nicholas Tynant’s neck, that would have been a different thing. I had nothing whatever against Professor Veryan.’
‘I suppose you have discussed his death with the others?’
‘Not a lot. I don’t see that there is anything to discuss. I can’t see any reason for adjourning the inquest when it’s perfectly obvious what must have happened.’
‘Tell me about the mouse.’
‘There wasn’t one. I knew Susannah wasn’t pleased when I introduced her to an empty house. She said she had been looking forward to meeting my parents again. They had been to college and met her and I had not told her they would be away. I’m afraid I didn’t consider her at all. All I thought about was getting her to myself without Priscilla. Three is a very unmanageable number, don’t you think?’
‘Four is a more agreeable one. Did you and Priscilla never think of teaming up with Bonamy and Tom?’
‘Those baby boys? Anyway, they had picked up two girls at that pub they go to and, in any case, I don’t think we were their cup of tea any more than they were ours. No, there wasn’t any mouse. Su wanted an excuse to have Nicholas come to the house and take her away. I’m sure they spent the next nights in the same bed, although you’ll never get them to admit it. I was an awful fool. I can see now that she only came with me to my home so that she could throw dust in the Saltergates’ eyes. She meant all along to spend the weekend with Nicholas.’
‘And you spent the time alone when she had gone?’
‘Oh, yes. I got some paint and emulsion on Saturday and spent the whole of Sunday redecorating my bedroom. Rather fun, actually. Thank God there’s always something one can do.’
10
Edward, Nicholas and Susannah
« ^ »
Well!’ said Laura when, the door having closed behind Fiona, nobody else had been summoned. ‘What do we make of that lot? Their new alibis don’t seem of any more use than their old ones.’
‘Nor, perhaps, much nearer the truth, but we shall see. I will change my mind about the sequence of our visitors. I will see Edward Saltergate next.’ Laura went to the door and asked the policeman to summon him. Edward entered and was seated. Laura closed the door and went back to her chair at the smaller table.
‘Well,’ said Edward, ‘I would like to know what my wife has told you before I answer any questions.’
‘Why do you think the police are going to so much trouble to keep those who have been interviewed completely segregated from those who have not, so far, entered this room?’ asked Dame Beatrice.
‘I have no idea. It seems a totally unnecessary proceeding.’
‘A man has died mysteriously, Mr Saltergate.’