“Yes-I don’t know-I sent the money-I don’t remember the date-it was about six months ago-in the spring-”
“And how much money did you send?”
“Fifty pounds.”
“And you heard no more for a time?”
“No-not till the other day-last week.”
She told them about writing the letter and posting it.
Then Lamb said,
“How did you know that Miss Roland had your letter?”
It was no use-she had to answer them.
“I saw it-in her bag.”
“Will you explain that a little, Mrs. Underwood.”
Another long breath.
“It was on Monday evening-when we were playing bridge at the Willards’. She opened her bag to get a cigarette, and I saw my letter.”
“You recognised it-like that?”
“I wasn’t sure. I thought it was my letter-I wasn’t sure.”
“Then you went to see Miss Roland with the idea of finding out whether she had your letter?”
“Yes. But I didn’t see her-I changed my mind.”
“Why?”
Mrs. Underwood pulled herself together. She hadn’t told about finding the torn-off corner of the letter on her bedroom floor, and this small circumstance helped her back to self-control. It was as if she had managed to keep her feet for a moment, and the fact that she had done so steadied her. She said,
“Because I wasn’t sure. Coming up in the lift, I thought I was, but when I got out on the landing I wasn’t any more, and I thought how awkward it would be if I went in and said a thing like that and then it wasn’t my letter after all. That’s when I began to go downstairs, and when I got a bit of the way down it came over me that it really was my letter and that I ought to go back and ask about it. But I just couldn’t make up my mind, and that’s the truth.”
They pressed her, but she stuck to it. She had had her finger on the bell, but she hadn’t rung it. She hadn’t entered the flat. She hadn’t seen Carola Roland or spoken to her.
In the end Lamb let her go. She went back to her flat a badly frightened woman and rang up Miss Maud Silver.
A prim little cough and a kind, decided voice:
“Miss Silver speaking.”
“Oh, Miss Silver-I’m in such trouble-such dreadful trouble! I don’t know what to do. You said you’d help me-you remember-Mrs. Underwood-and I said I didn’t see how I could manage it-but now I must. It would be so dreadfully bad for Godfrey-if I got mixed up-in this case-and I could see they didn’t believe me-though I swear I was telling the truth-”
Miss Silver’s voice cut in sharply.
“What case, Mrs. Underwood?”
Mabel Underwood lowered her voice to a shaking whisper.
“She-has been-murdered. Oh, Miss Silver!”
Miss Silver said, “Who?”
“The girl I told you about-the one who had my letter-Carola Roland.”
“Dear me!”
Mrs. Underwood began to pour it all out, but was presently stopped.
“I think it is inadvisable to say any more. I will come and see you.”
CHAPTER 27
Upstairs Lamb frowned over Sergeant Abbott’s notes.
“Fishy story,” he said. “And she was frightened-badly frightened. Wonder what she was being blackmailed about. It might be that-she might be afraid of its coming out-there’s always that.”
Frank Abbott said without any expression at all,
“The letter was in the bag where she said she had seen it. If she killed Carola Roland to get it back, why did she leave it there?”
Lamb nodded. Frank was sharp-there was a time when he had thought he was going to be too sharp-but he was shaping well-a good boy, if a little inclined to think a step ahead of his superiors. Wind in the head-that’s what he had to watch out against-wind in the head, and being too clever. He’d seen a lot of good men spoilt that way-up with the rocket and down with the stick. When necessary, he did not hesitate to point the moral. At the moment he was too busy.
“Oh, I don’t think she did it. But there’s no denying that she’d motive and opportunity-not a great deal of either, but some. To my mind Major Armitage is the more likely of the two.”
“She was alive fifty minutes after Armitage left. Of course he may have come back.”
“ Bell saw a man going away from the house at eight-thirty. Those were a man’s prints on the larger of the two glasses-the one with the whisky and soda in it. She had a man here some time before she was killed, and it may have been the man Bell saw going away-it probably was. Someone else may have seen him come in or go out. He may have been the murderer, and he may have been Major Armitage-he’s engaged to Miss Underwood. Carola Roland was trying to blackmail him, and it looks as though she had been blackmailing Mrs. Underwood. That brings the Underwood family right into the case, doesn’t it?”
Frank Abbott nodded.
“That address Mrs. Underwood gave-the one to which she sent the money, sir-I saw you noticed that.”
Lamb nodded again.
“It’s the one that was being used in the Mayfair blackmail case. Accommodation address of course. We only got Smithson, worse luck, and I’ll eat my hat if he was alone on the job. He hadn’t the education for it, or the brains. No, to my mind the principal got away and left him to take the rap. Let me see- that would be about six months ago, which corresponds very nicely with the date when Mrs. Underwood sent her fifty pounds. Of course two separate blackmailers may have been using the same address, but I’d want good jury-proof evidence to make me believe it. Now I wonder whether Miss Roland was the principal who slipped through our fingers. Looks as if she might have been.”
Frank Abbott looked over his Chief Inspector’s head.
“In which case a good many people may have had a motive for murdering her,” he observed.
At this point there was a knock on the door and Sergeant Curtis came in-a dark young man with horn-rimmed spectacles and an air of polite efficiency. He had seen everyone in the flats he had been sent to cover, and proceeded to detail the results.
“Flat No. 1, sir:-Mrs. Meredith-very old lady-deaf-partially helpless. Companion, Miss Crane. Maid, Ellen Packer. Both middle-aged. They say none of them went out all day, except Miss Crane to the pillarbox at the corner. She puts this at between 8:30 and 8:45. Says she saw no one except Miss Garside, tenant of No. 4, who was coming up from the basement. Did not speak to her.
“Flat No. 2:-Mrs. and Miss Lemming. Mrs. Lemming out with friends until just after 7:00. Miss Lemming out until about 6:20, when she returned to flat, but left it again at 6:35 to pay a short call on Miss Underwood in No. 3.
“Flat No. 3:-Covered by Sergeant Abbott.
“Flat No. 4:-Miss Garside. I could get no reply on my first visit, but returned after covering 5 and 6. Miss Garside had then come in. Said she had been out shopping. I thought this strange, as she appeared to be having breakfast. Said she had not been out all the previous day and could shed no light on Miss Roland’s movements or those of anybody else. When I mentioned Miss Crane having seen her come up from the basement between 8:30 and 8:45 p.m. she said, ‘Oh, that? I didn’t see Miss Crane or anyone else. I went down to tell Bell that there was a faulty washer on one of my taps.’
“Flat No. 5:-Mr. Drake. He waited in to see me, and has now gone to business. Says he was out as usual all day yesterday. Returned about 9:15. Says he met no one.
“Flat No. 6:-Mr. and Mrs. Willard. Some disturbance going on there-possibly a quarrel. Mr. Willard left flat at a little after 7:00. p.m. and did not return until about 9:30 this morning. Says he went to see his brother at Ealing and stayed the night. Agitated-signs of tears. Mrs. Willard-face puffed with crying- eyes red. Looked as if she had been up all night. Crumpled handkerchief in corner of sofa. Says she didn’t leave flat and saw no one. Considerable evidence of strain.”