“I’ll go over and see him this afternoon. I’m trying the cream Minnie makes. If my colour would only keep like it is now, I wouldn’t need to put any on, but the bother is I can’t trust it. I’d better be on the safe side, don’t you think?”
Julia went and stood by the near window, looking out. She said,
“I expect so.” And then, quickly, “Ellie, what possessed you to say that about Lois? Miss Silver heard you.”
“I don’t care if she did. It’s true.”
Julia’s dark brows had met. She said,
“Ellie, you’ve got to be careful-we all have. Those policemen don’t think Lois committed suicide-they think she was murdered.”
“Don’t!”
“I must. We’ve got to be careful of everything we say or do. What you said just now could very easily be twisted.”
Ellie’s colour had gone out like a candle in the wind.
“You mean they could think I did it?”
Julia turned round. She had no colour to lose.
“I mean you’ve got to be careful not to give them anything to think about. If you put it into their heads that Lois was in your way, and that you’re glad she isn’t there any longer- well, it isn’t going to be so good, is it?”
Ellie went on rubbing cream into her face mechanically. She said,
“That’s nonsense.” Her shoulder jerked.
Julia walked over to her, and took her by the arm.
“Use your head, Ellie! Think! You and Minnie and Jimmy were in the drawing-room when she took that coffee. You can’t afford to start the police thinking about you.”
Ellie pulled away.
“It wasn’t the police-it was Miss Silver.”
“It’s all the same thing.” Julia’s voice had a discouraged sound. Now she had made Ellie think her unkind. She didn’t want to frighten her, she only wanted her to be careful. It was like having to pick your way among eggshells. She wondered if she had said enough. She didn’t see her way to saying any more. She thought she had better go downstairs again and see whether the police had finished with Manny.
Ellie was wiping the cream off her face. She didn’t turn round or look up.
Julia went out of the room with the feeling that she might just as well have held her tongue.
CHAPTER 29
Miss Silver, having fetched a fresh ball of grey wool from her bedroom, proceeded downstairs with it. She had left her knitting-bag on a table in the hall, and it was while she was slipping the wool into it and hanging the bag on her arm that the door of the study opened and Mrs. Maniple came out. The dignity of her bearing was unimpaired. She crossed the hall and made her way down the long passage which led off it to the kitchen wing.
As soon as she was out of sight Miss Silver entered the study. The Chief Inspector, who was on his feet, was saying, “Well, you’d better go and get her, and Miss Silver too. I don’t want-” He broke off at the sound of the closing door. “Well, there!” he said, “How did you know you were wanted? I was just sending Frank for you.”
Miss Silver smiled agreeably.
“For me-and also, I think, for someone else. May I enquire who else was to be summoned?”
He said briefly, “Miss Mercer. I was going to ask her about those fingerprints, and as she looks as if it wouldn’t be any trouble to her to faint, I thought I’d have you handy.”
A shade of distance tinged Miss Silver’s manner. She did not regard herself as something to be kept handy, nor did she expect to be so regarded. Frank Abbott, gathering up his papers, suppressed a smile.
Miss Maud Silver reached the chair which she had occupied before, altered its angle slightly, and sat down. As she disposed the knitting-bag on her lap and drew out Derek’s half-finished stocking, she observed,
“I am always pleased to do anything I can to assist you, Chief Inspector.” She made a slight but impressive pause and continued. “I would, however, ask you to defer Miss Mercer for the moment. I have just overheard a conversation between Gladys Marsh and the young girl Polly Pell. When I have repeated it to you, you will, I think, agree that it would be as well to question Gladys without delay.”
Lamb gave a snort of disapproval.
“What’s she been saying?”
“I will tell you. I was in the pantry, with the door ajar into the kitchen. I heard Gladys boasting that she was going to be a witness, and that if it came to a trial she would have her photograph in all the papers. She regretted that as she was already married she would not be able to avail herself of the many offers of marriage which she anticipated. She had, however, the effrontery to indicate that the difficulty might be surmounted.”
Frank Abbott looked over his shoulder to say,
“We shall certainly want you here as a chaperon if we’re going to interview Gladys-shan’t we, Chief?”
There was an impudent gleam in his eye which drew a frown from his superior officer. Lamb said gloomily,
“I suppose that wasn’t all, or you wouldn’t be wanting us to see her.”
Miss Silver was knitting with great rapidity.
“It was by no means all,” she said. “After boasting that she would be one of the chief witnesses in a big murder trial, she went on to use these words, ‘There’s more than that I could say if I choose, but I’m not saying it yet-I’m keeping it back to make a splash with.’ Polly asked her what she meant. In reply Gladys said that she could put the rope round somebody’s neck if she chose, and she was going to choose all right. She added, ‘There’s someone in this house that’s going to swing for what they done, and it’s me that’s going to put the rope round their neck, and get my photo in all the papers and have everyone talking about me.’ ”
The Chief Inspector pursed up his lips as if he were about to whistle.
“She said that?”
“Word for word.”
“Then we’ll have her in and find out what she meant by it. It mightn’t be very much, you know, if she was boasting like you say. No, there mightn’t be very much to it, but we’ll have her in. Where did you say she was-in the kitchen?”
Miss Silver coughed.
“She was there. But Mrs. Maniple having returned, I think it probable that Gladys will now be somewhere else.”
Wherever she was, it did not take Frank Abbott long to locate her. She could be heard giggling before he opened the door and ushered her into the room, where she looked impudently at Miss Silver, rolled her eyes at the Chief Inspector, and tripped round the table to sink gracefully upon the chair which had been placed for her. Seated, she crossed her legs, bringing a brief skirt several inches above the knee. The blue eyes rolled in Frank’s direction, glanced coyly down at the expanse of silk stocking, and then swam back to his extremely unresponsive profile.
Lamb, reflecting that someone had missed the chance of spanking her when young, thumped the table with a formidable hand, and rapped out,
“Please pay attention, Mrs. Marsh! Sergeant Abbott isn’t here to look at you-he’s here to take down what you say, so I’ll be obliged if you’ll give your mind to it.”
He received a languishing gaze and a giggle.
“You haven’t asked me anything yet-have you?”
“You needn’t trouble about that-I’m going to. Now, Mrs. Marsh, you’ll be so kind as to give me your whole attention. About a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes ago you were in the kitchen talking to Polly Pell-”
Gladys pouted her scarlet lips.
“That’s right-we were having an elevens. Anything wrong about it?”
She didn’t get any answer to that. Lamb looked at her as stolidly as if she had been a rag doll. He said,
“Your conversation was overheard.”
Gladys raised her plucked eyebrows and said in a genteel voice,
“Reelly? I don’t know how people can lower themselves to listen at doors-do you? It isn’t what I’d call naice myself.”
This was too much for Lamb. His eyes bolted perceptibly, and his voice rasped as he said,