“That was a very queer letter, sir,” said Inspector Boyce.
“Damned queer. Damned treasonable, if you ask me. Home Office report on sabotage missing, Lady Colesborough confessing she took it under instructions from a blackmailer who calls himself Mr. Zero, and her husband, who she thought was going to kill her if he found out, writing, ‘Neither Zero nor the agent is under the least suspicion.’ This means Francis Colesborough was in on that business, and lord knows what we shall find when we open his safe. ‘Neither Zero nor the agent-’ Now suppose Francis Colesborough was Zero-the agent very probably his wife. They were staying at Wellings when the paper was missed. She’s a pretty, silly woman. Suppose her husband put her on to getting the paper for him. Well, say she did it-what was she doing last night? She says-where’s that statement of hers?” He plucked it angrily from the desk and leaned back again. “Yes, here we are. She says:
“ ‘I went into the yew walk to meet a man who called himself Mr. Zero. I have never seen him, and I do not know his real name. He said my husband was keeping some of his letters, and he induced me to take them out of the safe in our London house and bring them down to Cole Lester. He said they were his property and would have his name on them. I found a packet which was marked “Zero.” It was this packet which I took into the yew walk. I did not take any pistol with me. I have fired a pistol, but I do not possess one. I am not a good shot. There is a window in the yew hedge. When I reached this window Mr. Zero was there, but on the other side of the hedge and behind it so that I did not see him. He asked me whether I had the letters, and when I replied in the affirmative he told me to hand them over quickly. I heard my husband coming on the outside of the hedge to the left of the window. Mr. Zero was on the right. They were both outside the hedge, and I was inside. My husband called out. He said angry things, and used language which I would rather not repeat. I don’t remember whether Mr. Zero said anything then. They began to fight. I had a torch. I saw a pistol in my husband’s hand. I think Mr. Zero got it away from him. They were fighting just outside the window, and I was very frightened. I heard Mr. Zero say, “Now what about it?” and, “Take that!” There was a shot. I don’t know what happened to the letters. I don’t know what happened to Mr. Zero. I thought I was going to faint. I thought my husband was dead. I picked up the pistol-’ ”
Sylvia and the official mind had obviously collaborated. The result enraged Colonel Anstruther. He repeated the last sentence angrily.
“She says, ‘I picked up the pistol.’ What does she mean? What’s the good of letting her make a statement like this? How could she pick it up if it was the other side of the hedge?”
Inspector Boyce gave a slight cough.
“She says it wasn’t, sir.”
“Wasn’t what?”
“Wasn’t on the other side of the hedge, sir.”
Colonel Anstruther glared.
“Does she or doesn’t she state that she was on the inside of the hedge and the two men on the outside?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And that one of them had the pistol and the other got it from him?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then how the devil could she pick it up inside the hedge?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
“Then why didn’t you ask her? If she says a thing like that she’s got to explain it, hasn’t she?”
Inspector Boyce stiffened and reverted to the extreme official manner.
“I did not omit to put that point to Lady Colesborough. She replied that she had no recollection of what occurred between the firing of the shot and the picking up of the pistol. If you will refer to the statement, sir-”
Colonel Anstruther referred to it with dislike. A most unsatisfactory document. He read in an annoyed voice:
“‘There was a shot. I don’t know what happened to the letters. I don’t know what happened to Mr. Zero. I thought I was going to faint. I thought my husband was dead. I picked up the pistol-’ ”
“Well, what about it? The pistol was outside, and she is inside, and she says she picked it up. What’s the thickness of the hedge? I suppose you’ve measured it?”
“Six foot thick mostly, sir, but this window affair is cut in and there’s not more than a four-foot thickness there.”
“What’s the size of the window?”
“Three foot high and six foot wide, sir. There’s a seat inside, put facing it to get the view, if you understand. And there’s this window, with a four-foot sill and the hedge jutting out beyond it on either side for a couple of feet. She says they were fighting just outside, but unless the man who had the pistol threw it in through the window after he had fired I don’t see how it got the same side of the hedge as Lady Colesborough, or how she picked it up.”
Colonel Anstruther looked up sharply.
“Is there any proof that there were two men on the other side of the hedge? Anything to substantiate Lady Colesborough’s story of a fight?”
Inspector Boyce coughed.
“Dr. Hammond says the pistol must have been at least a yard away from Sir Francis when the shot was fired. There aren’t any footprints. It has been dry all day and the grass isn’t marked. There’s nothing to show whether there was a fight. There might have been someone there besides Sir Francis, or there mightn’t. It all rests on Lady Colesborough’s evidence. She says this man who calls himself Zero was there, and she says he fired the shot, but there isn’t anyone else that saw him, and we can’t find anyone that heard or saw a car.”
Colonel Anstruther said “Tcha!” and added, “What did you expect to find? People in Colebrook don’t sit up at night counting cars, do they? I don’t suppose anyone heard Mr. Somers’ car either, did they?”
“Well, no, sir, they didn’t.”
“Well then, what’s the good of telling me nobody heard a car? That don’t mean there wasn’t a car to hear-does it?”
“No, sir. You asked if there was any evidence.”
Colonel Anstruther made an explosive sound.
“And there isn’t any! I take it there’s no doubt that the weapon used was Colesborough’s own pistol, because if there was another-”
“No doubt at all, sir. Sir Francis kept this pistol in a drawer on his writing-table-we found the drawer pulled out. He’d got a licence and all quite regular. Sturrock the butler says there were a pair of them, but we haven’t been able to find the other. It may be up at the London house.”
Colonel Anstruther went back to the statement with a snort. He read aloud:
“‘I picked up the pistol. I heard someone coming down the yew walk. It was my cousin, Miss Hardwicke. She came up to the seat. She had a torch. She came round the seat to look out of the window. I dropped the pistol and ran to the right along the hedge. There is a way out into the rose garden there. I went that way because I heard someone coming down the main walk and I was frightened. I ran to the house and rang the alarm bell in the hall. It rings in the servants’ wing. I told them my husband has been shot. After that I fainted.’ ”
“This walk business,” said Inspector Boyce-“I don’t know if you’ve got it clear, sir. It’s like a tunnel with the yews meeting overhead. There’s a long straight piece with the rose garden on either side of it, say fifty yards, with a seat and a window at the end, and a cross-piece, say twenty yards, on either side, with an exit at both ends. Lady Colesborough went in down the main walk and came out on the right-hand side. Miss Hardwicke came in by the main walk and out the same way. Mr. Somers came in by the main walk. It was him running in that Lady Colesborough heard. And he says he went out by the exit on the left-hand side and round outside the hedge to make sure of Sir Francis being dead, but he didn’t touch him. Then, he says, he came back to Miss Hardwicke and they both returned by the main walk to the house, meeting the butler on the way. Mr. Somers then telephoned the police. You’ve got their statements there.”