"I wouldn't be too sure of that, miss," said the Inspector darkly. "If there was some sort of a quarrel over the dog, foreign gentlemen not treating dumb animals the way we do, and Mr. Carter took exception to it, as well he might, it may have a very important bearing on the case, for we all know that foreigners are hasty-tempered, and take offence where none's intended. Mind you, I don't say.."
"The man's mad!" exclaimed Ermyntrude, her tears arrested by astonishment. "Whoever said there was a quarrell about the dog? The idea!"
"You misunderstood what Mrs. Carter meant," said Mary. "Our guest is a Prince, and unfortunately my cousin's spaniel's called Prince. It was just that my cousin felt that it might be a little awkward." She saw a look of bewilderment on the Inspector's face, and added desperately: "On account of them both answering to the same name, I mean."
Hugh gripped his underlip between his teeth, and gazed rigidly at the opposite wall.
The Inspector was obviously shaken. He stared very hard at Mary, and said severely: "I'm bound to say, it doesn't make sense to me, miss."
"No. No, it was very silly and trivial. I told you it had no bearing on the case."
The Inspector turned back to Ermyntrude. "This Prince, madam, is a friend of yours, I take it?"
"Well, of course he is!" replied Ermyntrude. "He's a very dear friend of mine!"
"I should like to see him, if you please," said the Inspector, feeling that he was nearing the centre of the labyrinth at last.
"You can't see him; he's gone out to tea with Dr Chester. Besides, what's the use of your seeing him? You don't suppose he killed my husband, do you?"
"I don't suppose anything, madam," said the Inspector stiffly. "But it's my duty to interrogate everyone staying in this house. If he's out, I'll wait for him to come back; and in the meantime I wish to ask Miss Fanshawe a few questions."
"Don't you think you're going to drag my girl into this!" said Ermyntrude, a dangerous gleam in her eyes. "I'll put up with a good deal, but I won't put up with that! My Vicky's an innocent child, just on the threshold of life, and if you imagine I'm going to stand by while you rub the bloom off her, you'll very soon find out where you get off, and so I warn you!"
The Inspector turned a dull red. "There's no call for you to talk like that, madam. I'm sure I don't want to rub any bloom off anybody! But I've got my duty to do, and I'm bound to tell you that I can't have you trying to obstruct me the way you're trying to!"
A voice from above made him look quickly up the staircase. "Oh, darling Ermyntrude, I do think that's so dear and quaint of you!" said Vicky. "Only I simply haven't got any bloom left after what's happened, and anyway you can see what a nice man he probably is in his off time." She bestowed one of her more angelic smiles upon the Inspector, and said confidingly: "I dare say you've got daughters of your own?"
The Inspector was not unnaturally put off his balance by the sudden and enchanting vision of a fragile beauty, ethereally fair in a frock of unrelieved black, and said that he was not a family man.
"Oh, aren't you? I quite thought you must be," said Vicky.. "Do you want to talk to me? Shall I come down?"
"If you please, miss."
Ermyntrude, whose wrath had given way to the fondest maternal admiration, watched her daughter float downstairs in a drift of black chiffon, and said involuntarily: "Oh, Vicky, I am glad you've changed out of those trousers! Somehow they didn't seem right to me."
"Oh no, they were utterly anomalous!" agreed Vicky. Her gaze fell upon Hugh. "I can't imagine why you've come back. I think you're frightfully uncalled-for."
"You ought to be grateful to me for swelling your audience," replied Hugh.
"I must have people in sympathy with me," said Vicky. "All great artistes are like that."
"What's that got to do with it?" inquired Hugh unkindly.
The Inspector interrupted this exchange without ceremony. "You are Miss Victoria Fanshawe?" he said.
"Yes, didn't you know? Only not Victoria, if you don't mind, because I practically never feel like that."
"My information," pursued the Inspector relentlessly, "is that at the time of your stepfather's death you were walking by the stream with your dog. Is that correct?"
"Yes, and I definitely heard the shot, only I quite thought it was someone potting rabbits."
"Did you see anyone amongst the bushes, miss?"
"No, but I don't think I could have. They're awfully thick by the stream. Besides, I didn't look, and as a matter of fact I wasn't paying any attention at all, until I heard Mr. White's voice, and Janet White sobbing. That's what made me go down to the bridge."
"And this dog of yours, miss: he didn't bark, or anything, as though he knew there was a stranger prowling about?"
Vicky shook her head. "No, he didn't, which makes it look rather as though it wasn't a stranger, now I come to think of it. Unless, of course, he kept jolly still, and Roy didn't get wind of him."
Ermyntrude said uneasily: "But, lovey, it can't have been other than a stranger. Not anyone belonging to us, I mean, and it isn't to be supposed any of our friends would go and do a thing like that."
"No, I worked it all out while I was changing," said Vicky. "I think Percy must have done it."
"Vicky, we don't want to go into that!" said Ermyntrude hurriedly. "It'll be all over the country once anyone gets wind of it! Now, you hold your tongue, sweetie, like a good girl!"
"Oh, darling, did you want me not to mention Percy? I'm so sorry, but I haven't myself got any compunction, because he said he was the declared enemy of all our class, so that it seems awfully likely he did it."
"I must request you, miss, to give me a plain answer!" said the Inspector, regarding her with such an alert expression on his face that Mary's heart sank. "Who is this person you refer to as Percy?"
"Well, he's a Communist," said Vicky. "He's Percy Baker, and he works at Gregg's, in Burntside."
"What makes you suppose he might have had something to do with Mr. Carter's death? Had he got a grudge against him?"
"Yes, but it's a very sordid story," said Vicky softly. "You wouldn't like to hear it from an innocent girl's lips."
"I don't mind whose lips - look here, miss, are you trying to make game of me? Because, if so '
"Oh no, no, no!" faltered Vicky, looking the picture of scared virginity.
Ermyntrude arose majestically from the couch. "Is nothing sacred to you?" she demanded of the Inspector. "Won't you be satisfied until you've crucified me?"
"No, I won't - I mean, there's no question of me doing anything of the sort!" said the exasperated Inspector. "What I want, and what I'm going to have, is the truth! And I warn you, madam, you're doing yourself no good by carrying on in this unnatural way!"
"Don't think that you can bully me!" begged Ermyntrude. "I may look to you like a defenceless woman, but you'll find your mistake if you try me too far!"
"Oh, Aunt Ermy, do, do control yourself!" said Mary wearily. "Percy Baker, Inspector, is the brother of a girl whom my cousin, I'm sorry to say, had got into trouble. But as all he wanted from my cousin was money, I can't see why he should have killedd him."
"No, that's what I thought at first," agreed Vicky, "but I must say he did seem to me to be frightfully undecided about his racket, when I saw him. I wouldn't wonder at all if he suddenly made up his mind to go all out for revenge, because he rather approves of massacring people, and thinks the French Revolution was a pretty good act, "specially while the Terror Lasted."
"The girl's name and address?" said the Inspector, holding his pencil poised above his notebook.
"Well, we're not, as a matter of fact, on calling-terms," said Vicky. "She works at the Regal Cinema, in Fritton."
"That's right: brandish my shame over the whole countryside!" said Ermyntrude, tottering back to the couch. "Pillory me as much as you like!"