Catherine glanced at her wrist-watch. The bus stop was just beyond the gate. She had five minutes. She said,
“I should think you would have gone up the back way.”
Her voice was quite smooth and even. All the same she didn’t think Mrs. Fallow had come out of her way to tell her whether Mrs. Mayhew had taken a beaten-up egg in her tea.
Mrs. Fallow’s thin, dark face twitched with impatience. She wanted to get on with her story, not be kept pottering about.
“So I did,” she said. “And when I got up there, well, it was as much as I could do to remember what I’d come for. Such a to-do! It seems the Chief Constable come back in the afternoon, and the lady with him that’s visiting Mrs. Voycey, and they go into the study. And a piece after that Inspector Drake comes along, and the photographer chap and two more, and there’s photographs taken and plaster casts. But that Miss Silver, she’d gone by then. She’d been in the way, and I expect the Chief Constable packed her off.”
Catherine was drawing on her gloves, smoothing them carefully over the fingers.
“And what were they photographing and taking casts of?”
Mrs. Fallow came up close and said in a flesh-creeping tone,
“Footprints.”
“Footprints?” said Catherine. She stepped back.
Mrs. Fallow followed her.
“Footprints,” she said. “Right there by the study window under the lilac bushes. Seems someone must have been standing there Wednesday night about the time Mr. Lessiter was killed. And they’ve got everything photographed and measured, so they’ll be able to tell who it was. And thank heaven they can’t put it on Miss Rietta, for they say the footprints was small, and that’s something no one couldn’t say about her. Nice shaped feet she’s got, but small they’re not, and you can’t get from it. So that’s one for Miss Rietta, and one for Cyril Mayhew too. We all know he’s a bit of a weed, but fours in lady’s shoes he doesn’t take and never could. And I needn’t really have bothered about the eggs. Mrs. Mayhew’s like a different creature-that cheered up you wouldn’t know her, and had a kipper for breakfast and three pieces of toast and marmalade. So I thought I’d come along this way and give you the news if you were anywhere about. Only I mustn’t stop-Miss Rietta’s counting on me.”
They walked out between the pillars. Catherine got into the bus.
CHAPTER 36
But of course, my dear, you must see him in the drawing-room. Bessie shall light the fire before breakfast.”
“It is very good of you, Cecilia.”
It really was, because Cecilia Voycey was dying of curiosity, and finding it very hard to bear in mind that you didn’t- you simply didn’t-ask questions about other people’s private affairs. Moral maxims are notoriously hard to live up to. The effort brought quite a deep flush to her face. But when the Chief Constable’s car drew up she merely repeated for the third time that she wouldn’t dream of intruding, and fell back upon the dining-room, where she recalled that Maud had always been provokingly discreet even at school.
In the drawing-room Miss Silver recounted her interview with Catherine Welby and the confidences of Allan Grover. March didn’t exactly pooh-pooh the latter, but he permitted himself to observe that what the solicitor’s clerk said was not evidence. With which Miss Silver agreed, adding with a mild cough that she had been impressed by his sincerity, and that she did not wish to expose herself to the reproach of having withheld information from the police.
The Chief Constable was in notably better spirits than he had been the day before. He laughed and said,
“A thing you would never do!”
If his tone was light, hers in return was serious.
“Very seldom, and only for very good reasons, Randal. And now there is something I would like to suggest to you. It may have been done already, but if not-”
“What is it?”
“It is the matter of the telephone calls on Wednesday night.”
“Calls?”
“Yes. We know that Mrs. Welby had a ten minutes’ call to Miss Cray between eight-twenty and eight-thirty-”
“It was Catherine Welby who called up?”
“Yes. Miss Cray refuses to say what they were talking about. When I suggested that it was a matter of business she said, ‘You might call it that,’ and when I asked her if it was connected with Mr. Lessiter she just said, ‘Oh!’ in an extremely startled manner. Mrs. Welby was angry and, I think, shaken when I referred to the call. When I spoke of the missing memorandum she had, I am convinced, a moment of acute fear. Putting all the small things together which I have observed or gathered from local talk, I feel quite sure that Mrs. Welby found herself placed in a very awkward position by Mr. Lessiter’s return. Mrs. Lessiter furnished the Gate House for her. More things have been added from time to time, some of them of considerable value. Mrs. Welby had given everyone to understand that these things were gifts. Then Mr. Lessiter returns. It would not be unnatural that he should ask for some proof that his mother had given Mrs. Welby so many valuable presents. There is evidence that he was searching the house for a paper which I believe to have been the memorandum mentioned in his conversation with Miss Cray. Mrs. Fallow who works at Melling House told Mrs. Voycey’s housekeeper that he was ‘pretty well turning the house upside down’ for a paper Mrs. Lessiter had left for him. We know that paper was found, because Miss Cray saw it on his table. But it cannot be found now. I do not think you can escape the inference that this memorandum would implicate someone who took steps to remove it. I do not go so far as to assert that this person was the murderer, but it certainly presents itself as a possibility. In my opinion the memorandum implicated Mrs. Welby. I think it contained proof that the contents of the Gate House were not given, but merely lent. If, as I am convinced, she had sold some of them-”
“My dear Miss Silver!”
She inclined her head.
“I am convinced of it. Her income is extremely small, her clothes are extremely expensive. She is, and has been, very much alarmed. She did not anticipate Mr. Lessiter’s return.”
“With all respect for your convictions-”
She gave him her charming smile.
“You may consider if you like that I am putting a hypothetical case, but it is what I believe to have happened. Mr. Lessiter finds the memorandum at, let us say, somewhere between half past seven and eight o’clock on Wednesday evening. He rings Mrs. Welby up, and makes her realize that she has put herself on the wrong side of the law. When he has rung off she calls Miss Cray. I can deduce those two telephone conversations. We know that one of them did in fact occur. What we need is evidence that the other also did take place, and evidence as to what was said on both occasions. Has the girl on duty at the telephone exchange been approached?”
“I should think not-Drake would have mentioned it. There has been nothing until now to suggest that the call Rietta Cray received on Wednesday night had anything to do with the murder.”
“Then, Randal, will you see that the girl is questioned, and at once. We should know what telephone calls were sent out from Melling House that evening, and whether she overheard what was said. And whether she overheard any part of the conversation between Mrs. Welby and Miss Cray.”
“They are not supposed to listen.”
Miss Silver coughed.
“We all do a great many things which we are not supposed to do. There has been some local interest about Mr. Lessiter’s affairs. I hope we may discover that Gladys Luker was sufficiently curious to listen in.”
“You know who was on duty at the exchange?”
“Oh, yes-she is Mrs. Grover’s niece. A very nice girl. She has not repeated anything, but Mrs. Voycey’s housekeeper, who is friendly with her aunt, seems to think that Gladys has something on her mind.”