Leaning back in his chair, March looked at her with a half-quizzical admiration.
“And now we come to Mr. Holderness. You know, I really would like to know how you got there.”
“In the simplest manner in the world.” She paused to measure the pale blue cuff, and finding it long enough, began to cast off. “The whole thing really turns on those gold figures. They were not taken by accident, but for a definite purpose. I believed that purpose to be two-fold. The value of the figures entered into it, and the question of making the whole affair appear to be the result of a burglary. I had to consider who would have the necessary special knowledge about the figures. I had already discarded Miss Cray, Mr. Carr Robertson, and Mrs. Welby. The latter might have taken them so far as any moral scruples were concerned, but she was already under suspicion owing to her previous misappropriations, and I was sure she was much too clear-headed to have added to her danger by so compromising a theft.”
“Did you never consider the Mayhews? They could hardly have helped knowing all about the figures.”
“I think they probably took them for granted. When a thing has always been there, you do not think about it. I was naturally struck by Mrs. Mayhew’s extreme distress and prostration, but this was explained by her anxiety on account of her son. As soon as this was relieved, she made a remarkable recovery. As regards Mr. Mayhew, I found that he enjoyed the respect of everyone in Melling. I think in a village it would be very difficult for him to bear the kind of character he bears without deserving it. Also, on comparison of the time of his arrival by bus from Lenton with the time of Mr. Carr Robertson’s visit, it did not seem possible that he could have committed the murder. Mr. Robertson must have reached Melling House about ten-thirty. Mr. Lessiter was dead and the raincoat heavily stained. Mr. Mayhew, I believe, came out from Lenton on the last bus, which does not arrive until eleven. I had, therefore, to consider who else would be likely to know about the figures. It was at this point that the name of Mr. Holderness presented itself.”
“But my dear Miss Silver-”
She gave him a look faintly tinged with reproof.
“I did not say that I suspected him. His name presented itself as that of a person who must surely have known the value of the figures.”
“They were entered in the inventory and for probate merely as four gilt figures.”
She coughed.
“I found that a suspicious circumstance. It was common knowledge that Mrs. Lessiter was on very confidential terms with her solicitor, and according to Miss Cray she was both proud of the figures, which were a legacy from her side of the family, and fond of talking about them to her intimates. I thought it impossible that Mr. Holderness should not have known their history.”
March said drily, “He evidently did.”
“I was sure of it. The next thing that attracted my attention was Mr. Holderness’s advice to Mr. Carr Robertson, who had consulted him professionally. He advised him to make a full statement to the police.”
“Very correct.”
With some half dozen stitches left on her last needle, Miss Silver paused in her task of casting off.
“My dear Randal, it is no part of a solicitor’s duty to advise a course which must lead to the immediate arrest of his client, at so early a stage and with an inquest pending. The reason why Mr. Carr Robertson was not arrested was, I imagine, the emergence at that time of a new suspect in Cyril Mayhew. But my attention had been once more directed to Mr. Holderness. I found myself wondering why he should have given his client such dangerous advice.”
“You are very acute.”
“We now come to the matter of the telephone conversations as reported by Gladys Luker. I was extremely anxious for this information. Miss Cray was protecting Mrs. Welby and would give me no help, but I had rather more than a suspicion that Gladys would be able to do so. Her aunt is a friend of Mrs. Voycey’s housekeeper, and I had learned from Mrs. Crook that the girl seemed to have something on her mind. When you let me see a copy of her statement I was struck by the recurrence of Mr. Holderness’s name. Consider those two calls and their implications. Mr. Lessiter has been looking for a memorandum left by his mother. He has, by all accounts, turned the house upside down to find it. When he finds it, what is the first thing he does? He asks Gladys Luker for Mr. Holderness’s private number. She only catches the first words he said, but they are quite illuminating. He says, ‘Good-evening, Mr. Holderness. I’ve found my mother’s memorandum.’ A little later, when he is ringing up Mrs. Welby, he says the same thing, ‘Well, Catherine, I’ve found the memorandum.’ After which he goes on to tax her with misappropriation of his property, and after stating his intention to prosecute he says, ‘I’ve an old score to settle, and I always settle my scores. I’ve just been ringing old Holderness up.’ Randal, those words made me think very seriously indeed. They would pass an indication that he had consulted his solicitor about Mrs. Welby’s fault, but I rather doubted if he would have rung Mr. Holderness up at that hour, and at his private address, if he had not had some more particular reason. In the light of those two telephone conversations, both beginning in the same way, and the remark about paying off old scores-not an old score, you will observe-I began to consider whether the memorandum referred to might not contain something which would embarrass Mr. Holderness as well as Mrs. Welby. Mrs. Lessiter’s circumstances would have made a fraudulent manipulation of funds comparatively easy. She was not businesslike. She trusted her solicitor, and treated him as an intimate friend. Her son had been absent for so many years that no one expected him to return, or to take any great interest in his mother’s dispositions.”
She cast off the last stitch, pulled the wool through the loop, drew it tight, and transfixed the pale blue ball with the needles she had been using.
“Well, Randal, there you have what was in my mind. When it came to Mrs. Welby’s death, I found myself unable to believe that she had committed suicide. I felt sure that she had not murdered James Lessiter, but I also felt sure that she knew a good deal about the crime. Those footprints under the lilacs were hers. I paid her a visit after their discovery, and she was very much alarmed. My impression with regard to Mr. Holderness’s connection with the affair was naturally deepened when, after her death, I found Mrs. Welby had hastened in to Lenton by an early bus on Saturday morning and gone straight to his office.”
“And how in the world did you know that?”
She answered very composedly,
“Gladys Luker was off duty and went out on the same bus. She had been made very unhappy by Allan Grover’s infatuation for Mrs. Welby, and she followed her to see whether it was her intention to visit the office in which he was employed.”
He made a mock gesture of despair.
“How can a poor policeman compete? You can take the village lid off and see how the wheels are going round. Gladys and Allan are people to you. You know their relations to the ninth or tenth degree, where I don’t even know that they exist.”
She gave him a deprecating smile.
“You are falling into Frank Abbott’s trick of exaggeration. I am only trying to convey to you how very small and slight were my grounds for suspicion when I decided to ask Allan Grover if he would come and see me. I could not have anticipated what he had to disclose, but it was village talk that he haunted the neighbourhood of the Gate House, and I thought it just possible that he might have seen or heard something of interest either on the Wednesday or the Saturday night.”